Coming up in this edition of the newsletter..
- Y4 Visit to the Imperial War Museum
- SECAT Admissions Consultation
- Pupil Achievements - Pippa
It’s been a busy week… phew! We have had lots going on in and out of school this week with lots of great learning and other events too… Yesterday, Year 4 had a fabulous day at the Imperial War Museum. The IWM is always a fantastic trip and I was personally disappointed that I couldn’t make it – as I have attended the past two years. The museum helped to further bring alive all of the children’s learning about World War II and it was certainly worth the coach journey to London and back. Thank you to all of the staff involved especially as it is a visit where we arrive back later to school. Today there was a boy’s Year 3/4 football team competing over at Len Forge in a Southend tournament. A full write-up of this competition will be in next week’s newsletter. Let’s hope they had fun! Finally from me, please make sure that you have not missed the letter I sent earlier today regarding SECAT’s admissions consultation. It is really important that everyone looks at the consultation and, if you do not agree with it, that you respond. Thank you and have a good weekend. See you on Monday. Mr. Chris McClay, Principal
Year 6 will be holding a cake sale on Thursday 29th January
We would appreciate any donations from Wednesday, 28th January. Cakes are to be brought up to Year 6 middle base. If you’re sending in homemade cakes in tins or containers please label them clearly so that they can be returned. Please be aware we are a nut free school. It will be helpful, if your children wish to purchase cakes, for them to have change. Cakes will be available throughout the day. Prices will be 20p-50p per cake.
Pupil Achievements - Pippa
Pippa in 5AW came into school this week with her own electric guitar and amp! Pippa plays with the Rocksteady group in school and Sam the Rocksteady leader has been very impressed with her efforts. Pippa has even inspired some other children to bring their instruments in to Rocksteady sessions. Pippa showed the class two songs. One was 'Happy Birthday' and the other was 'Smoke on the Water' by Deep Purple. She played without any music - just from memory. Pippa had never played the guitar before until she started Rocksteady back in September. Well done Pippa!
Uniform - September 2026
From September 2026, we will be asking the children to only wear purple short-sleeved polo shirts and not white. The vast majority of children in the school do wear purple already. It continues to be fine to wear white across the spring and summer terms this academic year. Thank you.
Diary Dates
January
- Monday 19th - Friday 23rd - Year 6 Bikeability Mon-Thurs / Year 4 Bikeability Fri
- Wednesday 21st Y5/6 Sportshall Athletics
- Friday 30th - Year 5/6 Hockey
February
- Monday 9th - Friday 13th - Children's Mental Health Week
- Tuesday 10th - Safer Internet Day
- Friday 13th - Year 5 Assembly to Parents @ 9:15am
- KS1 Football
- Monday 16th - Friday 20th - Half Term
- Monday 23rd - INSET Day
Nursery
We would like to start with a huge welcome to all the new children who have started in Nursery this week. After the successful 'Stay and Play' sessions last week, the children have come in and settled happily, enjoying a range of new challenges. With this in mind, this week has been all about reinforcing rules and routines within our learning environment. A big well done to our older children who have been great rule models to the younger children. With the mixed bag of weather this week we have had to be creative with our out door time. However, it has given us another opportunity to explore freezing water where the children used vocabulary to describe what it felt like to touch and to see it melting in their hands. We have also experienced a lot of rain. Children used buckets to catch the rain and compared which filled up the quickest.
REMINDER: Lots of children are coming in without water bottles. We do not have enough spare bottles to go round. Please ensure your child has their own bottle, filled with water, that can be brought to school daily.
Letter sent home this week
Reception
This week we have continued looking at the story 'Blue Penguin'. We have ordered the story, learning about chronological order, written captions for pictures from the story and discussed how Blue Penguin feels at the beginning and the end of the story. It has given the children the opportunity to thank about how our actions affect other people’s feelings and the deep impact that can have, both positive and negative. The great British weather has enhanced our learning about Antarctica, providing more ice and frost! We’ve seen how it melts and freezes and described how it looks, feels and even smells, growing our vocabularies. In phonics we have added more digraphs to our repertoire (ee, oo (as in book and as in moon) and ar). In maths we have looked at 1 more and 1 less. We have learned what add and take away mean and have introduced the number line and know for more we go forwards and for less we go backwards.
Letters sent home this week
Year 1
In maths, we have continued to work on numbers to 20 thinking about what is more and less than a given number. We have also completed number lines that had numbers missing. ‘Claude in the City’ is the text we have been enjoying this half term. We have pretended to be Claude and sent his owners, Mr. and Mrs. Shinyshoes, a postcard to tell them of his adventures. In science, we have considered the weather in each season and packed a suitcase to go on a sunny holiday! In PSHE we have considered many different activities we can do instead of using a screen to promote a balanced lifestyle on and off screens.
Letter sent home this week
Year 2
This week in English our focus has been the author, Anthony Browne. We have read his amazing book ‘The Tunnel’ and used expanded noun phrases to both write descriptions of the main characters and retell the story using a clear beginning, middle and ending. The children were fascinated as they discovered fairy story characters hidden within the pictures. During maths lessons, we have found different ways of making the same amount of money and compared amounts using the greater and less than symbols. We have started our new DT project – Vehicles by investigating how they move using wheels and axles. We are looking forward to designing and building our own cars later in the term.
REMINDER: Please remember to listen to your child read at home. This can either be a book from the Reading Eggs library or school reading book. Please record comments in your child’s Reading Record.
Letters sent home this week
Year 3
In English, the children have been rewriting the story Leon and the Place Between. They have been focusing carefully on describing settings and characters, using powerful adjectives and imaginative details to bring their writing to life. The children have shown great creativity and enthusiasm in their work. In maths, we have been learning different methods to divide a two-digit number by a one-digit number. The children have explored sharing, grouping, and written strategies, building their confidence and understanding through lots of practical examples. In art, we on have been studying the artist Margaret Godfrey, who is famous for her beautiful watercolour and collage artwork. The children enjoyed exploring her style and techniques and will soon begin to experiment with similar ideas in their own artwork!
Letters sent home this week
Year 4
What a busy Week 2 we have had in Year 4! It has been wonderful to see the children settled back into routines and approaching their learning with such enthusiasm. This week, 4A took part in outdoor learning, where they developed their forestry skills. The children thoroughly enjoyed working outdoors and learning practical skills, showing great teamwork and enthusiasm. Meanwhile, 4L have been busy engaging in their classroom lessons across the curriculum. English lessons continued to focus on diary writing, with the children working hard to include fronted adverbials and polishing up their research skills to add greater detail and accuracy to their writing. Maths lessons focused on division, where the children were introduced to the bus stop method. They approached this new strategy with confidence and determination. A highlight of the week was our school trip on Thursday to the Imperial War Museum, which was a great success. The children loved every minute of the visit and were fantastic ambassadors for the school throughout the day. Thank you to all the children for their hard work and enthusiasm this week. REMINDER: Friday 23rd January, will be the first session for those children signed up for Bikeability sessions. Please continue practising times tables and weekly spellings and please keep reading regularly at home.
Letters sent home this week
Year 5
Another busy week in Year 5. In maths, the children have been working hard with their multiplication skills and problem solving. We have just moved on to a range of division methods. Many children are showing more confidence with the 'bus stop' method. Keep up the hard work. We have had the pleasure of reading some very detailed biographies about David Attenborough. The children have remembered the skills of this text type well and have enjoyed learning more information about him. We have started to think about our year group assembly coming up towards the end of this half term. The children will start to bring back lines to rehearse at home as well as some songs. Ukulele practice has been great to hear again this week with the songs focused around South Africa. Last week we were in London. The children used 3 chords this week. What a great Ukulele group they are becoming! The children are enjoying the next stage in our shared layered reading book: 'The Boy who met a Whale'. They have enjoyed sharing figurative language this week. Year 5 enjoyed taste testing different flavours of soup this week. This will help inform their choices of the soup they are going to make in the next few weeks.
Letters sent home this week
Year 6
This week in Year 6, we have continued our learning with fractions. The children can now multiply and divide fractions as well as calculate fractions of an amount. In English, we have learnt about Rosa Parks and the bus boycott. The children wrote informative newspaper articles and included imagined eye-witness statements. Following our Mayan hook day last week, the children investigated the ancient Mayan civilisation further in history. They researched who they were, where they lived, what their homes were like and how they farmed. We have begun to learn handball skills in PE. The children tried the skill of dribbling the ball and passing to a fellow team- mate.
REMINDER: If your child has signed up for Bikeability, please remind them to bring their bike and helmet with them on Monday if you they are not planning to borrow. Children - please wheel your bikes through the KS2 gate onto the playground and leave them on the grass areas outside the Year 6 classrooms. Ensure you have suitable clothing for outdoor weather as whatever the conditions are, the children are participating for 2 hour sessions at a time. 6B will have the morning session and 6S will have the afternoon session.
Letters sent home this week
Computing
This week in computing, children from Years 1, 2, and 3 have commenced their exploration of new computing topics for this term. Beginning the week, Year 2 children were reintroduced to Scratch Jr, where they were tasked with navigating the programming environment to add a sprite and utilise movement blocks to facilitate the sprite’s movement in various directions. It was imperative to underscore the importance of following instructions precisely to enhance accuracy. Consequently, the children were required to grasp some directional language, including left and right, forwards and backwards, and we began to examine turns. Year 3 was introduced to Scratch on the desktops this week, a more advanced programming environment featuring additional functionalities compared to Scratch Jr, which they had previously encountered. The children thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to experiment with different sprites, backdrops, and programming blocks to animate the sprites in diverse manners. In the next session, we will delve into music, employing musical instruments to create a composition using Scratch. This week, Year 1 received their computer logins and passwords. After a term of learning to identify the various keys on the keyboard, they were challenged to log in independently. Subsequently, we utilised Microsoft Word to continue practising our typing skills, focusing on locating letters on the keyboard and understanding the use of the caps lock. It would be beneficial if you could encourage your child to practise their typing skills at home to enhance their familiarity with the keyboard.
Sports & PE
On Friday, our Year 3 and 4 Boys football team attended their tournament at Len Forge. They had a full day of games and thoroughly enjoyed competing against other schools from the borough.
New dates have now been confirmed as:
- Year 5/6 Sportshall Athletics - Wednesday 21st January
- Year 3/4 Sportshall Athletics - Tuesday 10th March
Online Safety
Digital devices are woven into everyday life for children and young people, but balancing the benefits with potential risks can feel challenging. This #WakeUpWednesday guide explores how screen use can influence sleep, emotional regulation, physical health and online experiences, offering clear context around why concerns about wellbeing are growing. Written with schools and families in mind, the guide shares practical, realistic advice for setting boundaries, encouraging open conversations and building digital literacy. With insights from an experienced mental health professional, it supports adults to help children develop healthier, more mindful relationships with technology.
Dinner Menu
Week 3
Monday
- Grilled Cumberland Sausage with Mashed Potatoes & Gravy
- Vegan Sausage with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
- Pasta with Tomato & Basil Sauce
- Steamed Peas & Carrots
- Cheese Sandwich
- Ham Salad Wrap
- Marble Sponge with Custard
Tuesday
- Homemade BBQ Chicken Pizza with Spiced Baked Wedges
- Homemade Margherits Pizza with Spiced Baked Wedges
- Baked Jacket Potato with Baked Beans
- Sweetcorn & Coleslaw
- Tuna & Sweetcorn Baguette
- Cheese Sandwich
- Carrot Cake
Wednesday
- Herby Roast Chicken with Gravy
- Roasted Vegetable & Lentil Loaf with Gravy
- Baked Jacket Potato with Baked Beans
- Roast Potatoes, Carrots & Seasonal Greens
- Tuna Mayo Sandwich
- Cheese Salad Wrap
- Chocolate & Sweet Potato Brownie
Thursday
- Traditional Beef Lasagne with Garlic Bread
- Vegan Bean Bolognaise with Pasta & Garlic Bread
- Wholemeal Pasta with Tomato & Basil Sauce
- Steamed Peas & Carrots
- Chicken Mayonnaise Baguette
- Cheese Sandwich
- Oaty & Sultana Cookie
Friday
- Fish Fingers, Chips & Ketchup
- Vegetable Burger with Chips & ketchup
- Pasta with Squash & Tomato Sauce
- Baked Beans and Peas
- Ham Salad Baguette
- Cheese Sandwich
- Fruit Jelly
Also Available Every Day Fresh fruit, Yoghurt and Jelly
Celebration Assembly
The links for our Celebration Assemblies can be found below.
No change this week as our leaders Caernarfon remain out in front. Stormont won in KS1 and Caernarfon won in KS2 which meant they cancelled each other out. Still though, only 5 points separate the two teams. Windsor and Stirling need to switch gear and start to accelerate to the front before our greens and yellows are out of sight in the race for the Friars Cup.
Community
Credits:
Created with images by Fabio Principe - "A diary open with instruments for writing. Pencil, eraser and notebook on white background. Close up of a wooden pen orange and black, an eraser green and a booklet black. " • Maryna - "Young girl uses smartphone in dark. Unaware of online dangers lurking in the background. Cyberbullying, cyberstalking, online predators. Child safety concept illustration." • miss irine - "Various dishes served in modern school canteen. Food catering assortment includes fresh salads, cooked meat, carrot noodles, roasted potatoes. Selection, self-service, prepared fast tasty eatery." • fatima - "Vibrant "Let's Celebrate!" message with colorful burst design for festive occasions"