Friars Weekly Newsletter friday 28th JUNE 2024

Coming up in this edition of the newsletter...

• Sports Day and Picnic
• Open Evening on Wednesday - including the Portico Art & DT Festival
• Supersports at Garons
• Staff Leavers
• PTA raffle

A really fantastic week at Friars with so much happening… thank goodness it is almost the weekend 😊.

It seems, at the moment, that a week does not go past without a huge Friars event and this week was no different with Wednesday’s Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 Sports Day and Picnic. The weather was lovely, sunny and warm and the children were raring to go. Across the morning we saw the Year 1 and Year 2 children participating before the afternoon saw Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 in action. Of course, in between we had the small matter of 360 children and their parents, carers and other relatives coming together to have lunch on the field. Wow! These events take a great deal of organising and plenty of running around so a huge thank you to all of our staff for making it a great day. We hope that you all enjoyed it! A super well done to our yellow and blue teams (Caernarfon and Stirling) in Key Stage 1 and the red team (Windsor) in Key Stage 2 for coming out victorious.

Also this week we had two Reception starter meetings for parents and carers, a Year 2 educational visit to Call of the Wild and a Year 6 cake sale to finish the week. Although summer 2 is always busy, it also offers lots of fun. The problem is that the weeks go so quickly and before you know it the school year is over…

Next week, on Tuesday we will be telling everyone about class arrangements for next year. The children will be told about these in class and parents and carers will receive a letter. On Wednesday, we have our Open Evening where the school will be open from 3:30pm to 5:30pm for you to visit. You will be able to walk around the school with your child – visit their current and soon-to-be new classrooms, talk to teachers and see their books from the year. Also on Wednesday, we will have the Portico Art & DT Festival set up in our Key Stage 1 hall, so please try to find the time to visit this and enjoy work from all five schools in our Trust. If you would prefer things to be a little quieter, I would recommend coming along later in the session and not when the doors open. We are open until 5:30pm so there’s no rush to join us.

Have a great week and see you all on Monday. Only three weeks left ☹

Mr. McClay, Principal

Staff Leavers

It is with great sadness that we need to share that we have some of our much valued staff members leaving us this summer. Firstly, Mrs. Esdaile will be leaving us on Thursday 11th July. After twelve years of being at Friars as an LSA, it goes without saying that Mrs. Esdaile will be missed. Mrs. Esdaile will be working at a school closer to home and her children.

We will also be saying goodbye to a few others at the end of the term. Next is our lovely Ms. Taylor-Brown. Ms. Taylor-Brown has officially been at the school for eleven years but did do some work at Friars before then too. Ms. Taylor-Brown has been an integral part of our school leadership team but leaves us to do some great work for the local authority in their Early Years team. We expect to continue to work with Ms. Taylor-Brown in her new role.

Someone who has worked at Friars even longer is also leaving... that being Mrs. Dyer. Twenty years ago Mrs. Dyer came to Friars but the time has come for her to fly the family nest. Mrs. Dyer is off to teach at Thorpe Hall come September. Again, Mrs. Dyer will be missed very much.

Finally, Mrs. Gladdy and Mrs. Glyde have been with us in 2024 as Midday Assistants and will be saying goodbye. Although they have not been with us for too long, we are very grateful for all of their hard work and wish them well.

Good luck and please continue to be friends of the school.

Supersports at Garons

Following on from the Key Stage 2 Borough Sports a couple of weeks ago, this week it was Supersports. Supersports sees all of the children who finished in the top three at Borough Sports come together for another competition. Congratulations to everyone who took part as you did yourselves proud. A special mention to Cooper in Year 4 who finished third in the ball throw and therefore walked away with a bronze medal!

PE Shorts

Please can we ask that the children do not wear very short shorts to school on their PE days. Thank you.

Design a Card

A parent asked if we could share the link below. At the moment, the stationery shop Ryman are offering to print children's 'Thank you Teacher' cards free of charge. You can find the template by following the link:

Design a Card

Nursery

With the hot weather this week in nursery, the children have been enjoying water play in the nursery garden, keeping themselves cool in the shade. Thank you for providing sun-hats and water bottles.

We have also made beach pictures and investigated how sand behaves when wet and dry. It was an opportunity to discuss sand safety and seeing how easily tunnels and holes can collapse.

Our Nursery children who are joining reception in September enjoyed a visit to their new class during the week.

REMINDER: Our next beach trip is next Tuesday AFTERNOON (2nd July). This will include a mud walk, so children can bring their wellies.

A ParentPay will be sent out Monday with details if you would like to meet us there at 1pm. Pick up is 2.30pm.

Reception

What a glorious week in Reception! We have really made the most of the weather and our garden, exploring sand, water and their properties. The sunny weather inspired us to talk about sun safety and the importance of shade, hydration and protection.

We began our new Power of Reading book; The Naughty Bus which inspired some incredible drawings of buses, models of buses, map making and map reading.

REMINDER: There will be no PE next week.

Year 1

What a fabulous Sports Day we had! We are so pleased that you could join us for this important event and see your children competing and having fun. In English this week, we have focused on instructions; reading and following them as well as writing some to create a recipe for an alien! We have spoken about time in maths and sequencing events as well as the days of the weeks and months of the year. In our DT lesson we practised cutting and chopping skills in preparation for making our fruit salads next week.

Year 2

What a fantastic week in Year 2! Fun-filled Sports Day and family picnic, accompanied by glorious weather and then a fabulous trip to Call of the Wild. I think we will need a restful weekend to recover.

The children gave their best in the team races and encouraged each other with lots of cheering and clapping. During our school trip, members of the public commented upon their good manners and the zookeeper couldn’t believe the level of knowledge the children shared about food chains, predators and prey. Well done to all year 2 children – you have certainly made use very proud this week.

In other work, we have designed our wraps after our taste test last week. The children also identified how their design was very healthy. We are really looking forward to making them.

Year 3

This week in English we have started to look at explanation texts. We first had a look at some explanation texts to see what features are included in them. Later in the week we planned our own explanation texts surrounding how to grow a dragon. Next week we will write them up.

In maths we have finished of our NFER testing and have been collating data and displaying them in pictograms and bar charts. We also needed to read the information given to us in pictograms and bar charts.

In geography we have continued to look at Italy and the culture there, we then compared that to the culture we have on the UK.

In science we wrote a conclusion to the investigation we did last week on which substance was bets at cleaning coins.

Lastly, what a fun afternoon Wednesday was! We worked really hard as a team to score as many points as we could at Sports Day. Well done to everyone!

Year 4

Wasn’t it lovely to finally have some summer weather but boy, it was a little too warm on Wednesday for our picnic and our Sports Day. It was lovely to see all the children decked out in their team colours and they all coped very well with taking part in all the activities. It was also great to see so many of you there, supporting.

We completed all the maths NfER tests this week, and it was lovely to see all the progress that the children have made since September.

In English we focused on informal letter writing. This is quite different to formal letter writing. The children had to identify the features, the differences between the two and then write a letter to the children in Year 3, explaining to them what it is like to be in Year 4. The letters were very interesting to read!

Following on from our walk to Shoebury Park to conduct our geographical survey, we collated our results this week, putting some on them into charts in order to be able to see clearly what amenities are available at the park at a glance.

What with learning numbers from 30 to 61 in French, talking about who we are in PHSE, embedding our knowledge of religious buildings in RE and beginning to decorate our rooms in D&T, it’s been another super busy week….

REMINDER: 4S have outdoor learning next week. The children are allowed to wear jeans/joggers or shorts but must be wearing their Friars tops. Remember that there are nettles in the environmental garden, so consider this when deciding what to wear. Please also ensure that they are wearing sun screen and insect repellent and if children suffer from hayfever, please prepare them for this before they come to school. The children will still have PE on Tuesday but will not have additional PE on Friday.

Year 5

We must start by mentioning Sports Day on Wednesday afternoon. What lovely weather we had! It was great to see so many parents/carers at the picnic and supporting Year 5 and others during the events. A big well done to all of the children for their fantastic efforts. Such excellent team work on display!

This week, we blocked out our afternoons to dedicate our time to DT. The children planned and designed their very own Tudor houses and then worked in small groups to bring their plans to life! The children worked co-operatively and safely together to produce great results. They had to measure, saw, cut, hot glue gun and paint their way to success. This week long project lended itself nicely to English lessons also, whereby the children wrote concise and informative instructions on the process of constructing a Tudor house. They included all of the necessary features such as imperative verbs and bullet points.

In maths, we concluded our learning on decimal numbers (which is also what their homework is based on this week) and began a block on negative numbers.

Year 6

An excellent week in Year 6 with lots happening... This included a visit from Shoebury High School where staff from there spoke to the children about transition. They commented on how polite and well mannered the children were!

We finished the week with our cake sale. By lunchtime, over £200 of cakes had already been sold... and by the end of the day... £350... incredible! Thank you so much to everyone who baked, bought and donated cakes. Yummy!

Computing

Year 1 have been further developing their work on Scratch by creating on-screen races. They learnt how to add a speed block to their coding and raced objects on the screen when the flag was clicked.

Year 2 practised their typing skills and did a superb job with Mrs. Halls for 2S and Mrs. Turner for 2B.

Year 3 have been using the pen down block on the Scratch pen extensions to draw lines on the screen. They had to write a code to make the pencil go up, down, left and right, not forgetting to recalibrate the pencil so the drawing was from the tip.

Year 4 did some online safety work this week, considering what are good online relationships. They looked at strategies for staying safe online and how to show respect to others.

Year 5 (5A) continued their work on scratch using “If... then .... else” statements to set conditions that can be true or false.

Year 6 have also been busy with online safety work this week, looking at self-image and identity. They evaluated online content relating to gender, race, religion, disability, culture and other groups, and in groups explained why it is important to challenge and reject inappropriate representations online.

Online Safety

We are providing this guide to inform you about a gaming scene. Whilst this is inappropriate for any pupil at our school we feel that you need to be aware of the what the game involves and why it is inappropriate for primary age pupils. This guide dives into the risks of Palworld, offering expert tips on how to safeguard children.

Releasing in January 2024, Palworld took the gaming scene by storm, selling over five million copies in just three days. A new take on the survival genre – blending mechanics similar to games like Minecraft with the ability to catch and fight alongside creatures reminiscent of Pokémon – it saw plenty of coverage from games journalists and influencers alike.

However, despite its lower age rating and popularity with young gamers, Palworld has been criticised for its reliance on shock humour – touching on topics including animal abuse and sweatshop labour – and as a game featuring online multiplayer, one can expect certain safety concerns to arise..

Outdoor Learning

Next week 4S will be having their Outdoor Learning on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Please send them dressed and comfortable for outdoor learning whatever the weather.

Singing Assemblies

KS2 with Ms. Taylor-Brown

No singing assembly this week as we were busy at Sports Day!

PTA

On Monday the children will be coming home with a raffle book for our upcoming Big PTA Summer Raffle. The raffle will be drawn at 4pm at our School Summer Fayre on Friday 12th July.

The raffle book consists of 5 tickets and are priced at £1 each (full book will cost £5 in total)

Prizes include -

• £100 Cash - Kindly donated by Hunt Roche, The Shoeburyness Estate Agent.
• 4 Tickets to see Madagascar the musical - thanks to The Cliffs Pavilion
• £50 Ocado Gift Voucher - thanks to Ocado
• Over 35 prizes to be won.

See poster below for more information.

All raffle stubs (if sold), money and any unwanted tickets must be returned to the class teacher or school office no later than Thursday 11th July.

If you would like to purchase more tickets, they are available from the School Office and during the fayre on Friday 12th July.

Thank you for your support and Good Luck.