Friars Weekly Newsletter friday 20th June 2025

Coming up in this edition of the newsletter...

• KS1 and KS2 Sports Day and Picnic
• Year 5 Educational Visit to Thriftwood

A lovely week at Friars with the big Key Stage 1 and 2 Sports Day and Picnic on Wednesday. What a day it was! It was lovely to see more than 350 children and their parents, carers and family members come together to celebrate the children’s sporting achievements and to have fun in the sun. We were lucky once again with the weather.

Across the morning, it was the Year 1 and 2 children who took centre stage. The contest was close with Sterling coming out on top. In the afternoon, it was the turn of Years 3, 4, 5 and 6. It was very competitive within each class and across the house teams… Winning for Key Stage was… Windsor!

Thank you to everyone who attended, supported and cheered!

Elsewhere in the week we had visits taking place with Year 2 at Call of the Wild and Year 4 at Shoebury Park. All of the children had a superb time at both venues and were, as usual, a credit to the school with their behaviour.

The warmer weather continues over the weekend and into next week. Please be reassured that we do everything we can to keep the building and children as cool as possible. We always ensure that our windows and doors are open for ventilation and we are very fortunate to have plenty of shade within our school grounds. Please do remember to send children in wearing sun cream and with a hat where necessary.

Enjoy the weekend and see you on Monday.

Mr. McClay, Principal

School Discos

A reminder that we have school discos for Key Stage 2 on Monday 21st July.

There will be a Year 3/4 disco 3:15pm-4:30pm (children will change and stay in school) and a Year 5/6 disco 4:45pm-6:00pm (children will go home and return). The PTA are organising everything including a DJ and it should be a great evening. More information will follow next week!

Travelling Book Fair Competition

We are excited to announce that from Monday 30th June – Friday 4th July, we will have our very own Travelling Books book fair and we are giving away vouchers! 5 children have the chance of winning a £5 voucher to go towards a book of their choice.

All entries need to be handed in to the class teacher by Monday 23rd June and the winners of the £5 book vouchers will be announced during our celebration assembly.

EYFS/KS1 - Children need to design a book cover for a story of their choice. They can adapt a book cover from a known story or they can create a book cover for their own story. Book covers need to be bright and inviting and make the reader want to pick the book up. Happy designing!

KS2 - Children need to create a book cover and blurb for a story of their choice. They can use a previously read story or they can let their imaginations run wild and come up with their own their own design. Book covers need to be bright and inviting and blurbs need to be informative but not give too much of the story away. Try to use a ‘show, don’t tell’ approach when writing your blurb. Happy creating!

If your child would like to take part in this competition, please tell them to speak to their class teacher who can provide them with a design template.

Nursery

What a very hot week it has been! But of course, this does not stop our Nursery children and has provided new opportunities to explore and investigate. Our biggest challenge was to find the best place for shade. The children helped us by looking at the shadows on the ground and tearing up pieces of material to create shaded areas. They loved this because it gave them lots of little tent-like areas to play in.

We have also encouraged a lot of water play, making boats move around a track or down the guttering, making potions with coloured water and moving water from different levels down the water wall.

We have noticed that many young children muddle personal pronouns so in group time we have been focusing on these, for example, ‘his shoes’, ‘they are her pencils’, ‘it is his coat’ etc.

REMINDER: Please ensure all children have a named water bottle, we are trying to encourage children to drink a lot more water during these hot days.

Reception

We have continued reading The Naughty Bus this week and talking about journeys. The children have drawn their own journeys as a simple map as well as making a line map for their journey to school. As part of our learning, we have looked at Google Earth to understand how things look different from above. The children were excited about this and wanted to see their own houses. Unfortunately, we were not able to look at everyone’s house on Google Earth, so maybe this is something that you coudl do at home.

Our maths sessions have focused on positional language – next to, in front, behind...there have been lots of opportunities to use this language in our small world area, our garden and in group work.

REMINDER: It is our trip to Hyde Hall next week. The weather looks warm. Please apply sun cream to your child before school if needed as well as providing a cap or hat.

Year 1

What a fantastic week we have had in Year 1. Our sports day was a huge success, the children ran, jumped, balanced and threw so well. They cheered each other on beautifully and celebrated each other's successes. It was such a joy to be out there with them, and we hope you enjoyed the day too.

In maths, we have begun to look at numbers between 50 and 100. They have counted and then ordered numbers. Then we moved on to identifying the number of tens and ones in each 2-digit number and by the end of the week we were looking at their position on a number line or in a 100 square. Well done Year 1.

In English, we have continued our work on The Storm Whale. The children planned their own versions last week and this week we have begun to write them.

Art has been an enjoyable lesson this week. The children in Starlings completed their Edward Tingatinga inspired work an have brought them home to show you. We think they did a fantastic job and hope you like them. Wrens will be completing theirs soon, watch this space!

REMINDER: Please ensure all children have a named water bottle, we are trying to encourage children to drink a lot more water during these hot days.

Year 2

It has been a very exciting week in Year 2. On Wednesday, we had a very successful sports day and the children really enjoyed the opportunity to compete alongside their peers. The children tried their best in the events and displayed impressive sportsmanship when cheering on their teams. Thank you to the adults came to support us on sports day!

On Thursday, we visited the Call of the Wild Zoo and saw lots of different animals. We were able to apply our knowledge, that we have been learning in science, about how and why animals are suited to their habitats.

In maths, we began our new topic of statistics. The children created their own tally chart of items they found in the playground. We also started learning how to draw and read data from pictograms.

In English, we read a variety of diary entries across the week and then we wrote a diary entry from the point of view of Kevin - the koala in our class book.

Year 3

What a hot, but very successful week we have had!

Firstly, sports day was a massive hit, like it is every year. It was so nice to see all the children's parents come and support their children and cheer them on. The picnic is always a pleasure and to see everyone relaxing in the sun was fab.

The rest of the week has been just as busy.

In English we have been writing our own explanation texts based on ‘How to grow a Dragon Fruit Tree’. We did some research and then sorted the information under the correct subheadings.

During maths, we have continued our topic of shape. We looked at various lines such as parallel and perpendicular and then we reminded ourselves about 2D and 3D shapes and their properties.

In the afternoons, we have been designing a mosaic ready to create one in the coming weeks, we have looked more in-depth at Italy and plotted the River Po, alongside some major cities.

Letters sent home this week

Year 4

We have had another very busy week in Year 4!

The children have worked incredibly hard across the week with their tests in English and have achieved some fantastic scores as a result! We have also carried on learning about the story of the Firework Maker’s Daughter in layered reading, building up to the finale of the story and the amazing new year’s firework display!

In maths, we have learnt all about polygons including triangles and quadrilaterals and we can now list the features of different types of 2D shapes! The children also really enjoyed using mirrors to help recognise lines of symmetry in shapes and patterns.

The afternoons have been full of great learning opportunities including taking a trip to Shoebury Park to complete a fieldwork survey! We looked carefully at what facilities the park has and what activities are available for both children and adults. The children enjoyed thinking about how the park could be improved and what they might include in their own perfect park!

Well done for a great week Year 4 😊

Year 5

This week has seen the children back after a fantastic week last week and have jumped into this week's learning with the same enthusiasm and energy. The excitement of Sports Day was enjoyed by all the children regardless of who won. Sporting spirit won the day for Year 5.

During maths, the children this week have been consolidating and going over all their previous learning from graphs to fractions as well as a return to basics to ensure their core skills were razor sharp. In the afternoons, the children began to look at trade. What it was and how it has changed over time starting with the Tudors then the Victorian era and into the modern era. In PSHE, an important discussion into how healthy and unhealthy relationships can impact us as well as how we can deal with these situations.

Year 6

We have had an exciting week in Year 6. Writing has continued to be our focus, we have enjoyed using some videos in order to prompt descriptive writing containing speech. In science we have begun to look at the beauty of nature. We have been around our grounds looking for nature’s Wow features!

We have been working on transition, preparing the children for their future schools and we have been working on ideas as part of our assembly.

Computing

A very exciting week for Year 2 as they used the Lego Spike for the first time to create a ‘fast lane’ for an amusement park. Children worked in small groups and the excitement and enthusiasm was amazing to see. They needed to work together to construct the Lego first, before connecting the hub to the iPad before selecting the correct blocks to enable the sensor to determine a colour and the lights changed colour as a result. We are very excited to continue our learning next week.

The Year 1 children used Scratch Jr. to select a background and sprite and needed to program their character to move to another place on the screen using the movement blocks. This week, with a focus on changing the values to allow for more efficient programming.

Year 4 continued with their learning on loops, and typed out their name on Scratch which they could then code to make the letters spin, change colour, get bigger and smaller, move around etc. It went on forever!

Year 6 further enhanced their Excel knowledge by looking at stock takes in real life scenarios to work out how much profit a shop has made. They used their knowledge of formulas to do this efficiently.

Online Safety

YouTube Kids promises a safe, child-centric experience with colourful visuals, age-filtered content, and robust parental controls. Designed to appeal to younger viewers, the app has grown rapidly, being used by tens of millions of children worldwide. But is it as safe as it seems?

Despite YouTube Kids’ safeguards, reports have highlighted worrying issues, such as inappropriate content slipping through filters, subtle advertising, and the use of manipulative design to keep children engaged. Our guide explores how to navigate these pitfalls, offering practical advice for making sure children get the most from the platform – without the risks.