Friars Weekly Newsletter

Coming up in this edition of the newsletter...

• A message from the Secretary of State for Education
• A full Reception for September 2026
• Achievement outside of school... Freddie
• All the news about our first week of the summer term

Summer is here… well at least the summer term that is! Sometimes we return to a week full of events but this week has been a little quieter. A special mention does go to Year 1 and Wrens class who started their swimming sessions at Garons. It went really well and everyone seemed to have fun! Swimming is an important part of the curriculum and we do hope that all of our children can swim competently by the time they leave for secondary. Of course, this means working in partnership with parents so that the children have opportunities to swim in and outside of school. A reminder that in the autumn term of 2026-27, we will have the pop-up swimming pool back on the school playground! Thank you to everyone who attended the meeting on Tuesday about the Year 6 residential trip to the Peak District. It will be another fantastic visit full of amazing memories. Year 5 parents… please pencil in Monday 24th to Friday 28th May 2027 into your diaries as that’s when we are booked to go next year! On Wednesday of next week it is Earth Day! The theme is Our Power, Our Planet and lots of classes will be taking part in a BBC Live lesson. The school’s Eco Committee decided that they wanted everyone to take part… a very good decision! Something to celebrate Last term, we were delighted to receive a message from Bridget Phillipson who is the current Secretary of State for Education…

Isn’t that amazing? We felt very proud to receive this recognition – I hope you are too 😊 Reception – September 2026 Primary School Offer Day was yesterday. Parents around the country found out the primary schools for their children. We are pleased to share that such is the confidence in our school that we will be full in September. This is despite falling pupil numbers in Southend and other schools having spaces. Sadly, we do have a waiting list. Whilst this again reinforces just how popular we are, it is always a shame when parents do not get the school they want for their children. We wish these children and parents well for the future. Have a great weekend, Mr. Chris McClay, Principal

KS1 and KS2 Sports Day and Picnic

A reminder that our big family sporting and picnic event is at the end of this half-term… Thursday 21st May. This is the last day of term. More information will come to you next week!

Summer Events 2026

We love seeing the Friars Family come together at our summer events...

Achievement Outside of School

Congratulations to Freddie who, over the holiday, was awarded his brown belt in his karate grading. Superb job Freddie!

Nursery

Welcome back everyone, including the sunshine. We started our week with the sun shining so we made the most of the beautiful garden looking for signs of spring. The sky was blue, birds were singing and the trees are covered with blossom and new buds. From this, some children have enjoyed creating their own springtime artwork, drawing, painting and collaging pictures of blossom.  We have also opened up our mud kitchen and the children have all enjoyed this. They have busied themselves pretending to make dinner for their friends. We added some flower petals and leaves for different textures. 

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - National Online Safety Platform - 16.04.2026

Reception

Back once again like the renegade masters we are, and thrilled to see the subtle changes in our garden over Easter. Blossom is on the trees and the daffodils have disappeared. We’ve also noticed an abundance of ladybirds and spent the beginning of the week without coats on, enjoying the warmer weather. This all helps with our new focus on growing and gardens. We read ‘Errol’s Garden’ on Monday that inspired us to grow plants, design gardens and think about flowers. With great excitement we had our first official PE lessons this week. On Monday Robins had a dance lesson with Miss Mel from Amanda Restell Dance Academy and on Tuesday it was Owls' turn to have their lesson with Miss Rebecca. We loved moving with attitude, posing and following a routine to the Zootopia 2 track “Zoo”. On Thursday we enjoyed our athletics lesson with Mrs Hill and Mr Burnham. We began focused learning on key gross motor skills such as throwing, skipping, hopping, jumping in preparation for Sports day later in the year. Sharing has been our focus in maths. We have taken numbers, blocks, toys, fingers etc to 10 and shared them between 2, 3 or 4. It’s an incredibly tricky concept for us in Reception but we have been practising all week and are beginning to get the hang of it. Maybe we can show you at home as we share with our siblings...!

REMINDER: Come to school in PE kit on the following days:   Owls: Tuesday & Thursday   Robins: Monday & Thursday

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Breakfast Club - 16.04.2026
• Whole School - National Online Safety Platform - 16.04.2026

Year 1

What a lovely first week back we have had! In maths, we have taken our first steps towards multiplication by working on counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. If you are able to practise these skills with them at home it will really help them as they begin to associate skip counting with multiplying.  In English we have worked on comprehension skills. We have also written poems about Spring.  Starlings have been busy working in class whilst Wrens enjoyed their outdoor learning sessions. We have thought about various objects in science and considered what would be a good material to make it from and justified our reasons.  In PSHE, we thought about beach safety. This is so important given our proximity to the beach. The children were able to identify different dangers on a large picture and could give examples as to what would make it safer. In music, we enjoyed making our own shaker instruments, looking at how to change the sound it makes by adding or taking away some of the pasta inside. The whole of Year 1 really enjoyed their first dance session with their dance teacher Miss Mel. She was very impressed with them and is already looking forward to next week. 

REMINDER: Starlings PE  Monday – Dance Friday – Sport   Wrens PE Monday – Dance Wednesday - Swimming

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Breakfast Club - 16.04.2026
• Whole School - National Online Safety Platform - 16.04.2026

Year 2

We hope that you enjoyed your Easter break. We were very excited to welcome the children back for the summer term. We have started to learn about our world and the different habitats and animals which live within it.  We began our journey by exploring in the coldest place of all – Antarctica! The children researched very interesting facts which we are sure they will share with you at home! They have written their own information texts about the features of Antarctica using the present tense. In geography, the children used atlases to help them locate and name the five oceans of the world. We had a very interesting discussion about the difference between a sea and an ocean. In maths, we have introduced the children to our new topic of ‘fractions’ and they have explored ‘equal’ and ‘unequal’ parts and found half of objects and numbers.

REMINDER: Year 2’s dance lessons will take place on Tuesday each week. PE will continue to be taught each Monday.   Please ensure the children wear their PE kits on Monday and Tuesday each week and that earrings are removed on these days.   Please name all items of your child’s uniform, which will ensure lost items can be returned promptly to your child.

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Breakfast Club - 16.04.2026
• Whole School - National Online Safety Platform - 16.04.2026

Year 3

In English, the children began exploring our exciting new class book 'The Boy Who Grew Dragons'. They have really enjoyed making predictions, sharing their first thoughts about the characters, and building their understanding of the story. We are looking forward to seeing their imagination grow as we continue reading together! In maths, we started a new topic on volume and capacity. The children practised comparing different amounts and began learning how to measure liquids using appropriate units. They showed great enthusiasm when working with practical examples. In science, we introduced our new topic on plants. The children learned about what plants need to grow, including water, light, air, and nutrients. They asked thoughtful questions and are excited to continue investigating how plants develop over time.

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Breakfast Club - 16.04.2026
• Whole School - National Online Safety Platform - 16.04.2026
• Year 3 - RSE Information - 14.04.2026

Year 4

A great start back after two weeks off! We have kicked off our English with playscripts and we are looking at Macbeth. The children had great fun acting out one of the opening scenes which depicted the witches on the heath. We saw great use of stage directions, tone, volume and some last minute props made by the children. We will use this fantastic playscript to develop our writing further. Within maths we have been looking at shape focusing on use of degrees and a range of different angles. The children have thought carefully about problem solving comparing angles. Their use of vocabulary around clockwise, anticlockwise, acute, obtuse, right angle, reflex has been great justifying their thinking further.  We have begun looking at our new topic of the Ancient Greeks. The children were excited to find out a range of facts in our first lesson. We used the timeline down our school corridor to place the Greeks with other learning we have explored through our history teaching. The Olympics particularly grabbed the interest of many, with the Parthenon and Gods and Goddesses being popular too! Year 5 had some great fun with a dance teacher on Monday afternoon where they learnt a routine involving scooping, jumping and moving in a range of directions. The teacher was pleased with how quickly we all picked it up. We look forward to adding to this next week.

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Breakfast Club - 16.04.2026
• Whole School - National Online Safety Platform - 16.04.2026

Year 5

A great start back after two weeks off! We have kicked off our English with playscripts and we are looking at Macbeth. The children had great fun acting out one of the opening scenes which depicted the witches on the heath. We saw great use of stage directions, tone, volume and some last minute props made by the children. We will use this fantastic playscript to develop our writing further.  Within maths we have been looking at shape focusing on use of degrees and a range of different angles. The children have thought carefully about problem solving comparing angles. Their use of vocabulary around clockwise, anticlockwise, acute, obtuse, right angle, reflex has been great justifying their thinking further.  We have begun looking at our new topic of the Ancient Greeks. The children were excited to find out a range of facts in our first lesson. We used the timeline down our school corridor to place the Greeks with other learning we have explored through our history teaching. The Olympics particularly grabbed the interest of many, with the Parthenon and Gods and Goddesses being popular too!  Year 5 had some great fun with a dance teacher Monday afternoon where they learnt a routine involving scooping, jumping and moving in a range of directions. The teacher was pleased with how quickly we all picked it up. We look forward to adding to this next week.

Year 6

On Monday, Year 6 thoroughly enjoyed their first session of dance from a specialist dance teacher. All of the children took part with great enthusiasm. In English, we watched the fun animation  ‘Partly Cloudy.’ The children then wrote a description of the setting which included similes, metaphors and personification. They then imagined themselves as the character Peck who is a poor stork attacked every time he makes a delivery. Writing his diary entry, they explained his troubles using emotive language. Finally, they wrote a letter of complaint to the employer suggesting a solution to the problems he encounters. In maths, we have focused on percentages including finding percentages of amounts. In addition, we have completed extra revision in the afternoons looking at volume and co-ordinates.

Letters sent home this week

• Year 6 - Residential Letter - 17.04.2026
• Whole School - Breakfast Club - 16.04.2026
• Whole School - National Online Safety Platform - 16.04.2026

Computing

  This week marked a bustling return to school following the Easter holidays, with Year 2, Year 1, and Year 3 engaging in exciting computing activities.   In Year 2, students had the opportunity to work with our programmable LEGO (LEGO Spike) for the first time. It was delightful to observe the children collaborating in small groups to construct a boat and develop a programme to facilitate its movement into the water. Once their builds were complete, they programmed the boats using various programming blocks, resulting in a highly engaging first lesson back.   Year 3 students revisited Scratch, this time focusing on the creation of a more complex maze-style game. They were provided with a backdrop and tasked with programming their sprite to navigate in four different directions while avoiding the black lines, thereby enhancing their problem-solving skills.   Meanwhile, Year 1 children concentrated on their typing abilities using the J2E application. They crafted sentences about their Easter holiday experiences, applying their phonics knowledge and honing their keyboard skills to produce well-structured sentences on a digital platform.   Additionally, the Computing Club was vibrant this Thursday, with participants from all year groups exploring diverse activities such as painting, creating PowerPoint presentations, programming in Scratch, composing music, and even engaging with TTRockstars.  

Sports & PE

A wonderful start to the summer term has seen all classes taking their first dance lessons in PE. These have all been very energetic and the enthusiasm has been flowing. It was great to see the children so engaged in their lessons.  In addition to dance there has been a selection of summer sports taking place with athletics, rounders and cricket skills being developed.

REMINDER: Please check the days for PE as these may have changed due to the school dance lessons.

Online Safety

Image-altering filters are now embedded in everyday online interactions, from playful effects to more subtle appearance-enhancing tools. This guide examines how these features can influence perceptions of beauty and reality, particularly for children and young people navigating social media. It highlights how filtered content can quietly shape expectations and online behaviours. Focusing on risks such as low self-esteem, social pressure and hidden advertising, the guide also addresses more serious concerns like sexualised edits and blurred boundaries between real and altered images. It provides supportive, practical advice to help parents and educators build media literacy, encourage confidence and promote healthier relationships with online content.

PTA

A busy summer term awaits with lots of PTA events. Thank you in advance for your support.