Coming up in this edition of the newsletter...
- Key Stage 1 Borough Sports
- Uniform - black shoes and trainers reminder - with helpful links
- Waddle-on-Sea... the official preview!
- Music - additional lessons in schools
- PTA Summer Fayre
- PTA Raffle
This week saw the hottest day of 2025 so far. Monday was hot but Tuesday was even hotter! Phew… it’s nice now that the temperatures have dropped a bit. We always do everything we can in school to make the hot weather as bearable as possible and, as always, the children all did really well.
On Tuesday, we had the Key Stage 1 Borough Sports at Garons in the morning. Whilst it was hot, there was a breeze and we took along one of our gazebos for the children to sit under when they were not competing. The weather was hot but so were our performances. We sizzled on the track with lots of excellent racing and results. At the KS1 Borough Sports the children participate in relay races; space hopper, egg and spoon and sprints – both 20 metres and 70 metres. The Year 1 and 2 children who were selected did themselves proud and we came away with fifth place overall out of eleven schools. Well done Team Friars!
Tuesday saw us announce classes and teachers for September. This is always an exciting day for everyone… staff included. Yesterday everyone had a chance to visit across our Open Evening and today we had some of our first Meet the Teacher lessons. Transitions are so important and we always like to give the children a taste of their new classes before the summer break.
It’s been a lovely week but we’re certainly ready for the weekend. Do enjoy it!
See you on Monday!
Have a great weekend!
Mr. McClay, Principal
Uniform - Shoes and Trainers
At Friars, we expect the children to wear all-black shoes or trainers to school. If you are buying new shoes or trainers for September, please make sure that they are all-black. Below are some links to all-black shoes that you might find useful:
Waddle-on-Sea
This afternoon, three children were lucky enough to visit the IPECO site in Rochford for the official preview event for Waddle-on-Sea. The children were our top-three from the design competition and it was Harvey's design that was selected by the school to be recreated on the school's penguin.
We were able to see every single penguin that will be on display in Southend... the large ones created by artists and the smaller ones produced by organisations. Our penguin looked brilliant and was very much at home amongst the others!
We were not allowed to take photos of the penguins unfortunately as it's all top secret, however we did take a photo of Molly, Mya and Harvey outside!
Music
Instrument Lessons with our Southend peripatetic teacher
We have some vacancies for musical instrument tuition in September. The cost is £93 for 10 individual lessons. If you would like your child to learn an instrument, please collect a form from the office. Places will be given on a first-come, first-served basis.
Rocksteady Music Lessons
No doubt your child told you all about last week's assembly and music workshops from Rocksteady. The children have an opportunity to have Rocksteady music lessons in school come September and form a ROCK BAND!
Your child brought a letter home last week. If you're interested please sign up soon - you do not need to pay just yet.
Diary Dates
July
- Wednesday 16th - PTA Summer Fayre & Inflatables 3:30pm-5:30pm
- Thursday 17th - Reports emailed out
- Monday 21st - Year 6 Film and Pizza Afternoon
- School Discos
- Y3/4 3:15pm-4:30pm
- Y5/6 4:45pm-6:00pm
- Tuesday 22nd - PM Year 6 Water Fight
- Wednesday 23rd - Year 6 Leavers Assembly 9:15am
- Last Day of Term
Nursery
It has been so hot this week in Nursery but the children have been fantastic coping with the heat. During the week, we have taken many opportunities to talk about keeping safe in the sun and the children were great following our rules of staying in the shade and drinking plenty of water.
We also enjoyed our visit to the book fayre, this gave the children an opportunity to talk about their favourite books; we discussed front covers and guessed what we thought the books were about. I hope you have had a chance to pop round and see them yourselves. For those children leaving us this year, we had another successful visit to Reception, which the children absolutely love. They explored their new learning environment and got to spend time with their new teachers.
Letters sent home
Reception
It was lovely to see so many of you at the Open Evening celebrating your child’s work. They have all come a long way since September. This week we have been solving simple problems in maths and talking about how transport has changed over time. Throughout the week we have written about our trip to Hyde Hall. Our new tricky words have been ‘there’, ‘when’ and ‘what’.
Letters sent home
Whole School - Parent Portal - 24.06.2025
Year 1
Wow, what a scorcher of a week! Despite this hot weather the children have worked very hard. In maths, we have revisited numbers to 100, practising finding one more and one less, partitioning, ordering and counting on from different numbers. They enjoyed the game “chopper squad” on the Topmarks website; they may wish to show you this at home.
In DT, we have had such fun tasting different fruits. We then designed our own fruit kebabs. We carefully used the bridge grip to cut our fruit and followed the designs to make them, great job!
It was lovely to see so many parents at open evening, we hope enjoyed looking at your children’s work.
Today, the children had their first meet the teacher session ready for next year, a great time was had by all.
REMINDER: Please remember to send in named water bottles and a named hat each day.
Letters sent home
Year 2
We had a good week in Year 2, despite the heat at the beginning of the week! Some of our children attended KS1 borough sports on Tuesday and we were very proud to hear how confidently they represented the school in their events.
In English this week, we have been finding out about pollution. We used facts about pollution to create informational posters. The children explored the features of a persuasive letter and then wrote their own letter about pollution to the Prime Minister.
In maths, we began our new unit on position and direction. The children have been exploring different ways of describing movements and have been using vocabulary to describe turns. The children practised making and describing quarter, half, three quarter and full turns.
This week, the children found out who will be teaching them next year. On Friday, the children had the opportunity to meet their new teacher and familiarise themselves with the other children in their new class. The children are looking forward to learning about new things in Year 3!
Letters sent home
Year 3
What a hot start to the week this week!
It looks like the summer weather may finally have visited, with a tad bit of wet weather thrown in the middle.
Oh, and who can forget that we learnt who our teachers will be next year. We also spent an hour with them on Friday, so we could get to know each other and explain some of the things we will experience next year in our new year groups.
This week in English, we watched the famous David Attenborough and his film that recently aired at the cinemas about the oceans and the devastation that is being caused. Next week we will be planning and beginning to write some persuasive posters and leaflets, detailing what we could do to help our world.
In maths we finally completed our NFER assessments. We then continued with our last maths topic of the year, which is statistics.
Whilst 3B have had outdoor learning, 3A have continued with their curriculum learning in the afternoons. In PE, we were given a range of equipment and using our team building skills we made up some of our own games and will be sharing these to other groups in a few weeks' time. In science we tested a range of substances with litmus paper to find out whether the substance was acidic or alkali – we had some very interesting results!
During outdoor learning, 3B have been learning all about fire safety. Then later in the week they learnt how to light a fire with wood and a lint. The week was finished off with cooking some bread sticks and marshmallows by the campfire!
REMINDER: Please make sure your child has a hat, water and sun cream for the final few weeks of term.
Letters sent home
Whole School - Parent Portal - 24.06.2025
Year 4
Things have been hot, hot, hot in Year 4 this week but it’s not slowed down our learning! We began the week by looking at melting and boiling points in science and comparing scientific data collected using bar graphs. In geography we designed our own dream parks after our surveys we did of our local parks. This was great fun and the children came up with some amazing dream parks – if only we could really visit them! In PE we have been continuing our look at team-building games and in music we have enjoyed composing our own songs and learning to sing a fun EDM song in class.
In English, we have been writing letters linked to Harry Potter. We wrote letters of complaint from the perspective of Lucius Malfoy, complaining about his son being injured in a lesson. We used empathy to put ourselves in his shoes and wrote using as much Year 4 vocabulary and grammatical devices as possible.
We’ve also enjoyed looking at position, direction and coordinates in maths.
REMINDER: Please continue to send children in with water bottles, sun hats and suncream at this time until the end of term.
Letters sent home
Year 5
This week, the children have been very busy with Sonnet poetry writing. They wrote their sonnets within a small group and then transferred this learning into individual sonnets about Macbeth. They knew their sonnet had to have 14 lines, with each line following the pattern of 10 syllables. Within this, they then organised their stanzas around the theme of Macbeth. Ideas ranged from the witches, Dunsinane castle and Lady Macbeth. The children enjoyed performing their own work using a range of performance poetry strategies. We have a very talented bunch of performers!
In maths, we have continued building on the skill of decimals where the pupils have added and subtracted carefully looking at place value and columns. They have used this knowledge to work out decimal sequences, some of which have been quite tricky!
Thinking about number, Year 5 earlier in the week thought about how trade has changed throughout history, particularly around the Tudor period. We explored the exports and imports of a range of countries and realised many of the wonderful goods we export!
Please remember after the weekend we have a visit on Monday afternoon (7th July) to Thorpe Bay and Shoeburyness Baptist church - opposite Shoeburyness High School. We will write up our visit, but Mark, at the church, is looking forward to welcoming us to discuss initiation ceremonies, show us the Baptism pool and discuss green religion. Please look at the weather in the morning and decide if a light jacket may need to be taken, or a hat.
Letters sent home
Year 6
This week it was very hot in Year 6 but that did not stop us having a very full week. We managed to combine both learning and fundraising. On Tuesday, the hottest day of the year so far, we held our second cake sale of the year. It was great and we raised a good amount of money to go towards the cost of the end of Year 6 hoodies. We have also been planning our mini-fete which is next week.
The fun never stops...
Letters sent home
Computing
Over the course of this week and next most children will be working on their projects for our final topics.
Year 1 have gained some of the necessary skills needed to create a fun interactive quiz using Scratch Jr and we are looking forward to putting them together next week to create a ‘who lives here?’ quiz.
The Year 5 students decided on the type of chatbot questions they were going to ask and made decisions on the topic, sprites and backdrops needed. Then came the tricky part; trying to ensure the program ran the way intended. Everyone made a great start and we will continue to develop it further next week.
The Year 3 children learned how to debug this week. They identified errors within a snippet of code and then problem solved to amend and improve the programming to ensure it runs as it should. Some of them even began to work through their own maze tracing design program to create as their challenge for next week.
Next week Year 2 will continue to work with the Lego Spike and design, create and program another theme park ride.
Online Safety
iPads are a familiar fixture in many households and classrooms, offering access to educational tools, entertainment, and the internet in one sleek package; however, with great versatility comes notable risk. From accidental spending and data privacy breaches to excessive screen time, there’s plenty for parents and educators to consider before handing over the device. While Apple offers built-in safeguards such as ‘Screen Time’ and ‘Family Sharing’, these features must be correctly set up and actively managed to be effective.
Our #WakeUpWednesday guide walks you through these options and highlights some of the more surprising ways children can get around restrictions – including with Siri – while offering practical advice on how to help keep young users safe and healthy online.
PE & Sport
Please read Mr. McClay's opening to the newsletter for a report on our Key Stage 1 Borough Sports efforts. Photos will follow next week...
Dinner Menu
Week 3
Monday - Homemade Pepperoni Pizza with Baked Wedges - Margherita Pizza with Baked Wedges - Pasta with Tomato & Vegetable Sauce - Ham Salad Wrap - Cheese & Tomato Bloomer - Classic Coleslaw & Sweetcorn - Cinnamon Apple Crumble with Custard
Tuesday - Chicken Biryani with Vegetable Dhal - Vegan Aubergine & Courgette Tagine with Cous Cous - Jacket Potato with Baked Beans - Tuna & Sweetcorn Baguette - Cheese Sandwich - Broccoli & Cauliflower - Sultana & Oat Cookie
Wednesday - Slow Roast Beef & Root Vegetables with Gravy - Vegan Country Vegetable & Bean Pie - Pasta with Tomato & Vegetable Sauce - Tuna Mayonnaise Sandwich - Cheese Salad Wrap - Broccoli & Cauliflower - Fruit Jelly
Thursday - Chicken & Sweetcorn Meatballs in Tomato Sauce with Penne Pasta - Vegan Tofu Sweet & Sour Vegetables with Steamed Rice - Jacket Potato with Salmon Mayonnaise or Baked Beans - Chicken Mayonnaise Baguette - Cheese Sandwich - Cauliflower & Roasted Carrots - Orange Drizzle Cake
Friday - Fish Fingers, Chips & Ketchup - Mexican Roasted Vegetable & Bean Quesadilla - Wholewheat Pasta with Tomato & Vegetable Sauce - Ham Salad Bloomer - Cheese Sandwich - Baked Beans Peas - Chocolate & Courgette Rice Krispie Cake
Freshly Baked Bread: Pesto & Garlic or Wholemeal Bread
Celebration Assembly
The links for our Celebration Assemblies can be found below.
Attendance
No attendance shared last week so double this week!
Last week’s winners were… 2W in Key Stage 1 and 3B in Key Stage 2. This week’s winners? Starlings in Key Stage 1 and 5L in Key Stage 2. Attendance has been generally lower over the past fortnight and unfortunately only 3B, 4S and Starlings have received stickers for Spin the Wheel. Amazingly, this did lead 3B to spin again. They have had significantly more spins across the year than any other class in the school!
In today’s assemblies we announced how things now look with the Sports Day points added on to our team points totals…
There was much excitement in both halls and we first shared the team points from the past two weeks… This saw wins for Stirling in Key Stage 1 and Caernarfon in Key Stage 2.
Then… the big points…
The 60 points for Stormont saw the greens soar to 950 but remain in fourth place.
The 100 points for Windsor saw the reds jump to a mighty 1036 points, staying in third.
What would the remaining points mean for the top of the leader board? Last time Stirling and Caernarfon were level on 972 points…
Well, as Stirling achieved 80 Sports Day points and Caernarfon secured 60 it means that Stirling are our new leaders!!! Stirling now have a 16-point lead.
With Windsor winning Sports Day – are they now back in the mix?
We only have two more weeks until we find out who will have their name on the Friars Cup.
01702 294837 - office@fps.porticoacademytrust.co.uk