Coming up in this edition of the newsletter...
- World Book Day mentions and photographs!
What a great week – brought to life by our World Book Day celebrations. It has been so wonderful to see the children and adults all dressed up across yesterday and today and the wonderful World Book Day door decorating that has taken place. Please see the photographs through the newsletter to see these fantastic efforts… We have our Learning Consultation evenings on Wednesday 20th and Thursday 21st March. Not only will this give you a chance to talk with your child’s class teacher(s) but it will also be an opportunity to see how we have transformed our school!
Have a good weekend everyone!
Mr. McClay, Principal
Diary Dates
March
- Monday 11th - Friday 15th - Yr 6 Practice SATs Week
- Thursday 14th - Nursery Stay and Play
- 2G Swimming
- Friday 15th - Robins - Stay & Play
- Tuesday 19th - School Nurse meeting Parents
- Wednesday 20th - Learning Conversations
- YMCA Songwriting for Yr 3/4
- Thursday 21st - 2G Swimming
- Learning Conversations
- Friday 22nd - KS1 Girls' Football
- Monday 25th - Nursery Maths Stay and Play
- Thursday 28th - 2G Swimming
- Rhythm Connection Drumming
- Friday 29th - GOOD FRIDAY
April
- Monday 1st - EASTER MONDAY
- Tuesday 2nd - Friday 12th - EASTER BREAK
- Wednesday 17th - Tri Golf
- Thursday 18th - 2G Swimming
- Monday 22nd - Thursday 25th - Yr 6 Mock SATs Week
- Tuesday 23rd - Y6 Isle of Wight meeting 3:15pm KS2 Hall
- Wednesday 24th - Reception Height, Weight, Vision & Hearing check
- KS1 TAG Rugby
- Thursday 25th - Last Swimming for 2G
- Tuesday 30th - Y5 Thriftwood Meeting 3:15pm KS2 Hall
May
- Wednesday 1st - Yr 1 Education Visit to Wat Tyler Country Park
- Monday 6th - BANK HOLIDAY MONDAY
- Monday 13th - Thursday 16th - KS2 SATs Week
- Friday 17th - National Numeracy Day
- KS1 Quad Kids Athletics
- Monday 20th - Friday 24th - Yr 6 Isle of Wight Residential
- Wednesday 22nd - Nursery Sports Day
- Thursday 23rd - Reception Sports Day
- Friday 24th - Yr 5/6 Emerging Rounders
- Monday 27th - BANK HOLIDAY MONDAY
- Tuesday 28th - Friday 31st - May Half Term
June
- Monday 3rd - INSET Day
- Tuesday 4th - Friday 7th - Science Week
- Wednesday 5th - Drumming Workshop
- Thursday 6th - Reception Education Visit to Hyde Hall
- Monday 10th - Friday 14th - Phonic Screening Week
- Monday 10th - PTA Father's Day Sale (during school day) - Children can bring into school £1.50 per gift
- Junior Music Festival
- Tuesday 11th - PTA - Father's Day Sale (after school - KS1 and KS2 Gates)
- KS2 Borough Sports
- Wednesday 12th - Friday 14th - Yr 5 Thriftwood Residential
- Monday 17th - Yr 3 Education Visit to Colchester Castle
- Thursday 20th - Clean Air Day
- Friday 21st - World Music Day
- KS1 3 Tees Cricket
- Wednesday 26th - KS1 Sports Day and Picnic
- KS2 Picnic and Sports Day
- Friday 28th - KS1 Borough Sports
July
- Wednesday 3rd - Friday 5th - Art and D&T Festival at Friars
- Wednesday 3rd - Parents Open Evening
- Thursday 4th - KS1 & KS2 Mini Games
- Friday 5th - Yr 6-7 Transition Day
- Friday 12th - PTA Summer Fayre
- Friday 19th - Last Day of Term
- Monday 22nd - INSET DAY
REMAINING 2023/24 INSET DAYS
- Friday 16th February 2024
- Monday 3rd June 2024
- Monday 22nd July 2024
Nursery
It has been a very busy week in nursery. The children have loved being exposed to so many different stories. They have enjoyed listening to them, reenacting them, and drawing pictures. It was wonderful having so many children talking about their favourite books, which they had brought in from home. We also enjoyed dressing up on Thursday, a big thank you to everyone who took part. Every child had their photo taken, which will be used to make a 'mini-me'. The children love these and use them to play with in nursery.
Letters sent home via ParentPay this week
Reception
What an exciting week! We have enjoyed reading many different stories (especially the teacher’s favourites) to the children. We talked about how a story can give you advice and/or change your emotions. We identified the main characters, settings and how stories traditionally begin with each book and some of us used this to inspire our own story writing. Thank you to everyone who took part in our dress-up day on Thursday. There were so many wonderful costumes that became a great talking point sparked imagination and creative role plays and bonding conversations.
REMINDER: Stay and Play is coming up next Thursday (14th) for Owls and Friday (15th) for Robins. You are welcome to come and join in playing with your child.
Letters sent home via ParentPay this week
Year 1
What fabulous costumes the children had for World Book Day – thank you for the time and effort you put into these. Throughout the week, the children have written a postcard from Funni, the main character in our story, describing what she has been up to. The children have followed instructions to make their own flower and used these to decorate our classroom door – it looks amazing. Our maths lessons have focused on using numbers up to 50, estimating and breaking two digit numbers into tens and ones. In science, the children have learnt about how their eyes work and seen how their pupils dilate.
Letters sent home via ParentPay this week
Year 2
Wow! What a week! Year 2 have been very busy creating our World Book Day door display using our favourite book this term ‘Into the Forest’. The children created pictures of fairytale characters to hide within the display for other children to find. In maths, we have started to investigate length using centimetres and metres. The children have enjoyed measuring objects with rulers. In science the children have compared adult to baby animals and identified the offspring that look completely different to their adult. Great fun was had by all on World Book Day when we all dressed up as characters on Thursday.
REMINDER: 2S have outdoor learning next week on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. They will have their normal PE lesson on Thursday.
Letters sent home via ParentPay this week
Year 3
What fun we have had for World Book Day this week, with some wonderful costumes and our classroom door competition. The Year 3 corridor is looking amazing; all the children have worked so hard making dragon fruit, leaves, pictures, writing and lots more! Year 3 even received a letter and video from Andy Shepherd, the author of ‘The Boy Who Grew Dragons’!
Year 3 have been continuing their learning on fractions in Maths this week, as well practising our times tables as much as possible!
In English, we have been learning about inverted commas and using these to write a conversation between characters in a story.
Science has been all about sun safety this week, before we move on to reflective materials and shadows over the coming weeks.
REMINDER: Don’t forget that PE starts next week so Year 3 will need to be wearing PE kits on Mondays and Thursdays please.
Thank you for continuing to learn the weekly spellings with your child. Keep practising those times tables as often as possible too!
Letters sent home via ParentPay this week
Year 4
What a great week it’s been. As it was World Book Day, we started off the week writing a letter from the main character in our layered reading book, Michael, to his nan, detailing his adventures whilst sailing around the world with his parents. We also decorated a water bottle template with stickers that we created, having been inspired by one of our layered reading books (How to Train Your Dragon or Kensuke’s Kingdom) or our class reading book (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.) Every classroom decorated their classroom door based on a book, and our door was covered in the children’s drawings of dragons, as we attempted to re-create the cave on the ‘Island of Berk,’ where several thousand dragons hibernate during the colder months. It was also lovely that the children made an effort to dress up for Friday, as we were a little busy on Thursday.
Thursday was a brilliant day, going up to London and visiting the Imperial War Museum. A separate write up for this will follow shortly.
We didn’t ignore the other subjects just because it’s book week – in D&T we are continuing to design and begin to make our ‘Make-Do-And-Mend-Owls,’ and in maths, we have kicked off learning about fractions. Just how do we manage to fit it all in!
REMINDER: Don’t forget that the extra PE lessons begin next week so Year 4 will need to be wearing PE kits and no jewellery on Tuesday and Friday please.
Letters sent home via ParentPay this week
Year 5
What a wonderful week that included World Book Day. Year 5 started the week by writing a pen pal letter from the perspective of Ravi (the main character in our layered reading book-The Boy Who Met a Whale). Then on Thursday, they designed stickers – suitable for a water bottle - based on the text. In other English lessons, the students learnt about the negative impact of ‘dirty’ palm oil so that they can write a persuasive letter on the topic next week.
In maths, we completed our learning on decimals and percentages. The children have worked really hard with this topic and achieved some great results.
Monday afternoon, the children enjoyed starting to learn the Fresh Prince of Bel Air in music. In RE, the children looked at what makes a good leader and were asked to rank the qualities based on importance. In History, the students looked at the differences between the Black Death and the Great Plague and put a variety of other historical events in chronological order.
Letters sent home via ParentPay this week
Year 6
Our week has involved lots of work connected with World Book Day. We have had the opportunity to dress up and the children put in a great deal of effort and enjoyed seeing all the different costumes. We turned our Year 6 base into Camp Green Lake. Holes appeared overnight along with some unfriendly looking lizards!
We have used the subject of lizards in our writing as we have created non-chronological reports based upon The Tonga Lizard.
In maths we have been looking at rounding decimals, understanding the place value of decimals and solving addition and subtraction decimal problems.
Letters sent home via ParentPay this week
Computing
Year 1 this week have been starting their early typing skills and have created a poster about a missing teddy. They were careful to use the space bar in between each word.
Year 2 have been looking at how music can be used, connecting images and sound then exploring pitch.
Year 3 have explored why templates are good in publishing, as they begin to create their magazine.
Year 4 are beginning to explore digital images and changes that can be made to a digital photograph.
Year 5 are starting the unit on making movies and have considered filming techniques such as camera angles.
Year 6 are developing their own webpage about the school and learn all about copyright.
Online Safety
PE and Sport
The football match on Monday was sadly cancelled due to the other school having insufficient staff to be able to attend. We are finishing the week though with lots of football! Every girl from Years 1 to 6 had the opportunity to play football this afternoon and after school there was a girl's match!
Outdoor Learning
This week, 5A enjoyed the company of Mr. Brady for their outdoor learning sessions. They completed work on orienteering and map reading. They also learnt a little about first aid and the recovery position. What a fantastic time they had and all of Year 5 look forward to their next chance to complete outdoor learning.
REMINDERS: Next week it is Year 2’s turn to get outside. Next week it will be 2S and 2G the following week- please make sure children come to school dressed for whatever the weather on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
Singing Assemblies
KS2 with Ms Taylor-Brown
This week, I introduced our new musicians of month to the children. Here’s a clue - and not it’s not the Muppets! The children loved this video!
We then learned some key facts about Queen! We had a great time singing and clapping along to “We will rock you!”
We left to Radio Gaga - and I asked the children to guess which famous singer was inspired to choose her stage name from this song? Of course – it was Lady Gaga!
Dinner Menu
Week 2
Monday - Pork Sausage with Mashed Potato & Gravy - Vegan Sausage with Mashed Potato & Gravy - Pasta & Tomato Sauce - Cheese Sandwich - Ham Salad Wrap - Sweetcorn & Baked Beans - Chocolate Rice Krispie Cake
Tuesday - Chicken & Sweetcorn Pasta - Vegan Sweet & Sour Vegetables with Steamed Rice - Baked Jacket with Grated Cheese - Egg Mayonnaise Sandwich - Cheese Salad Wrap - Carrots & Broccoli - Mandarin Jelly
Wednesday - Honey Roast gammon with Roast Potatoes & Gravy - Sweet chilli Stir-fry mushroom & Vegetable Noodles - Wholewheat Pasta & Tomato Sauce - Cheese & Tomato Bloomer - Ham Sandwich - Seasonal Greens & Peas - Vanilla Ice Cream
Thursday - Beef Keema with Turmeric Rice - Vegan Layered Vegetable & Sweet Potato Bake - Baked Jacket with Baked Beans or Salmon Mayonnaise - Cheese Sandwich - Chicken Mayonnaise Baguette - Carrots & Sweetcorn - Apple Flapjack
Friday - Breaded Fish Fingers with Chips & Ketchup - Vegan Fajita Wrap with Chips & Ketchup - Pasta & Tomato Sauce - Egg Mayonnaise Sandwich - Ham Salad Baguette - Peas & Baked Beans - Lemon Drizzle Sponge
Freshly Baked Bread - Garlic & Herb or Wholemeal Bread
OPAL Update
Another great OPAL week and this week I hand over to the wonderful Kyran from Yr5 for some sandpit news!
Over to you Kyran!
Dear Parents and Carers, today I’d like to tell you about our new sandpit!
The sandpit is used by all of your children to enjoy and is for everyone in KS1 and 2. The kids have to follow certain rules so that the sandpit can be safe and loved.
On Tuesday 5th March due to the rain people could not sit down due to the rain or else they would get wet. So instead of sitting in the sand, they sat on crates. This process will continue for every time it rains and the sand is wet.
Now, here are my sandpit rules - please help your children to remember these...
No flicking sand or it might go on someone or out of the sandpit
When it is tidy up time do not run away- you have to help.
If you dig a hole make sure you fill it back up at tidy-up time
When you are asked to get out you must.
If you go to the sandpit and its too busy come back later.
You must treat others with respect.
If the sand is really wet- sit on a crate.
I hope your child/children are having a lovely time. Any questions please ask us.
From Kyran. Year 5 Play Ranger.
PTA
A busy couple of weeks for us! After a great uniform and World Book Day Sale last week - this week we held our annual Mother's Day Sale. Thank you everyone for your support. We sold over 500 gifts!
Following the success of our uniform sales we are now low on uniform! Please send in any uniform in the sizes from ages 2-9 years old you no longer require. Our donation bill is ready to receive your kind donations!
We are especially looking for t-shirts, jumpers and cardigans!
Thank you!
Also don’t forget with the Easter holidays around the corner- we are your one stop shop for Advenure Island wristbands!
Celebration Assembly
The links for our Celebration Assemblies can be found below.
In Key Stage 1 the red team, Windsor, took first place. In Key Stage 2 it was a tie between the Blues, Stirling, and the Greens, Stormont. That means our leaders, Caernarfon, were the only team not to have a first-place finish. What does that mean…? Well it means the gaps have closed!!! Look at those scores now… Only 33 points between fourth and first and a teeny 11 points between second and first. Anyone could win the Friars Cup in 2024!
Community
Not so much a community event from me - but I am looking to arrange a careers event over the summer for our children to learn about different jobs and careers. If you would like to come and tell the children about your job or if you work for a company who might like to help out or have any connections through family and friends - please let me know! Drop me a line on etaylorbrown@fps.porticoacademytrust.co.uk
Music on Sea ensembles are a great way for students to learn to play an instrument as part of a group:
Harp Group - 4.15pm - 5.15pm Tuesday at the Southend Adult Community College. For Harp players of all abilities.
Primary Rock - 3.30pm - 5.00pm Fridays at Edwards Hall Primary School. For students in years 3 to 6 wishing to play as part of a band. Keyboard, guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, drums, singers.
Southend Academy of Music - 10.00am - 12.00noon Saturdays at Porters Grange Primary School. For those aged 7+, beginners welcome. There is a junior orchestra, drumming/percussion group, keyboard group and guitar group.
01702 294837 - office@fps.porticoacademytrust.co.uk