Friars Weekly Newsletter friday 28th mARCH 2025

• Visit to IndiRock
• Toys in School
• All the usual favourites

Coming up in this edition of the newsletter...

Our penultimate week of spring 2 has come to an end leaving us only one more week until the Easter break. A fun half-term is almost at its end but there’s still five days to go…

This week, some children from Years 4, 5 and 6 represented the school at a public speaking competition over at Thorpe Hall School. The competition was between Thorpe Hall, West Leigh and Friars. Thank you to Miss Baylis for preparing the children for the competition and accompanying the children on the day. The write-up for this will follow in next week's newsletter.

On Wednesday afternoon, I was very proud to welcome headteachers from across Southend to the school. Every half term, the Southend Primary Headteacher’s Association meets and this time it was our turn to host. I gave everyone a tour of the school at the end of the meeting and I think it is safe to say that everyone was impressed. We certainly had lots of lovely comments about our school.

As I said, next week is our final week of spring, with us breaking up for the holidays on the Friday. Just a reminder that we return on Tuesday 22nd April straight after the Easter weekend.

Have a great weekend and see you all on Monday.

Mr. McClay, Principal

Toys in School

Another reminder that the children must not bring in toys or games from home. As a school we are very well resourced so there is no need. Children bringing toys into school can provide unwanted distractions and of course – it risks them being lost. This includes at our Extended Schools provision after school.

We have heard that some children are bringing toys in for 'trading'... Please can you help us in discouraging this.

Nursery

As we approach the end of the second term, we are seeing more and more signs of spring showing. This week the children have explored the garden looking for new buds, they have planted some beans, peas and carrots to watch grow over the next term and drawn some beautiful daffodil pictures. We have also enjoyed the fast-improving sunshine. We have introduced a little extra water play in the garden, which of course the children have loved. They have transformed the bikes into a car wash station and made potions using small pots, tubs and bottles.

REMINDER: Please remember our Easter bonnet parades next week. 11.15am/3pm

Reception

This week the children have had lots of fun learning about the lions in Trafalgar Square, talking about people who are special to us and looking at signs of spring. There have been many great opportunities to see and discuss flowers blooming, wildlife and weather in our outdoor area throughout the week.

Our maths sessions have continued to focus on making ten as well as introducing 3d shapes.

Throughout the week we have been revising various digraphs and trigraphs from this half term’s phonics sessions. Thank you for encouraging your child to read at home.

Year 1

We have had another fantastic week in Year 1. In English we have continued to write our own versions of Jack and the Beanstalk, thinking about what Jack would have seen when he reached the top of the giant plant.

In maths, the children have continued looking at weights and measures. After finishing the section on mass, we began looking at capacity.

In Wrens class, the children continued their work in history on The Great Fire of London. This week they thought about the changes that were made to London after the fire. The children also completed their DT projects. We hope you enjoy looking at them.

Starlings have had a wonderful week in the environmental garden learning about different animals and creatures that live there. We were happy to have the sun come out to enhance our outdoor learning experience.

Wrens will have their turn in the environmental garden next week.

REMINDER: Wrens will have outdoor learning next week on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. They will need to wear their uniforms on the top half and then comfy trousers on the bottom half. On Tuesday they will be in PE kit as usual.

Year 2

This week in English, we have set sail on the Titanic! The children have used the facts they have learnt about the Titanic in order to put themselves into the role of a passenger. We explored how the passengers would have been feeling when they boarded the ship and what kind of things they would have seen, heard and smelt. The children then wrote their own diary entry explaining what they experienced when they boarded the ship. We had some very creative and interesting entries written that would transport anyone reading back to 1912.

This week in maths, we have been exploring volume and capacity. The children have been using measuring beakers to measure volumes of liquid. We have been discussing which containers have a higher volume of liquid inside and how this can look different depending on the containers shape and size.

This week in science we have been exploring the lifecycle of a plant. We learnt some new scientific vocabulary and used this to draw a diagram of the lifecycle of a plant. The children were able to relate this new learning to the observations we made about the lifecycle of the cress that we previously planted.

Year 3

As the spring half-term holidays get closer, we have been extremely busy in our learning this week.

In English, we investigated persuasive letters and what features we would find in one. The ultimate goal after our planning was to write a letter to Mr. McClay to persuade him to let us grow our own dragonfruit trees in the environmental garden – who wouldn’t want their own personal dragon, grown from a dragonfruit Tree!

In our maths learning, we have started a new topic on mass and capacity, whereby we have been reading scales, comparing mass and adding and subtracting different masses. We will continue this topic next week.

Our afternoons have been jam-packed! In science, we did an investigation on shadows and learnt they are created because sun rays travel in straight lines, so when an opaque object is in the way, that's when a shadow is created! We finished our moving posters and will evaluate them next week.

In PE we have still thoroughly enjoyed gymnastics and this week we started to learn to do cartwheels. It has been so much fun!

REMINDER: Please keep accessing Reading Eggs and TT Rockstars at home – there is a weekly competition for TT Rockstars and the children could have their picture taken with a pretty cool blow-up guitar during the Friday celebration assembly!

Year 4

A lovely penultimate week of the spring term for Year 4. We launched a new topic on persuasive advertisements this week, where we looked at the features of advertisements, ready to write our own to entice people to visit the tropical island that Kensuke and Michael were stranded on. We looked at persuasive techniques and comparatives and superlative adjectives to aid our descriptions.

In maths, we continued our fractions topic. We looked at comparing and ordering mixed numbers and also improper fractions.

In science, we followed on from our water pollution sessions to looking at water conservation and considered how we might save water throughout our own daily routines. In art, we began making our composite Lowry paintings based on our school playground. In geography we continued our topic on North Carolina and compared Raleigh (its capital) to our capital, London.

In PE, we also continued our study on handball. We can’t wait to have a match at the end of term!

REMINDER: Please remember to complete your homework to earn your gold stars 😊

Please remember to still practise TTRockstars and access Reading Eggs at home.

If you have mislaid your ‘everything’ password cards, please let your class teacher know so that we can get another printed.

Year 5

This week, Year 5 students have been diligently preparing for their assembly, which they will present to the school and parents next week. In geography, they have shifted their focus to the Congo, exploring its animals, people, and other features. Some students wrote diary entries, while others created fact files to showcase their learning. During maths lessons, the children have been studying area and perimeter. They have been using measurements of the sides of shapes to calculate the total perimeter of 2D shapes or regular polygons, and then using these dimensions to find the total area within a shape. In English, students have been enhancing their writing by adding greater detail about settings and characters, using "show, not tell" techniques to bring their stories to life.

REMINDER: It is our assembly on Friday morning next week. Please join us in the KS2 Hall for a prompt 9:15am start. See you then!

Year 6

This week, in English we have been writing newspaper reports using the Guinness World Records as a starting point. In maths, we have been learning about finding percentages.

In our DT, we have started the making of our electronic games; building circuits and creating the aesthetics for the game.

For science, we have been testing the effects of exercise on our heart rate. We spent some time finding and measuring our BPM.

For geography, we have been using 6-figure grid reference to locate places on an OS map.

Computing

Over the past few weeks the children have been creating media in a variety of ways and although we are nearing the end of this half term students are still very much excited about completing their projects.

Year 2 have really progressed in their creating music unit where they have moved from making ‘noise’ to being more selective with the notes they are using. This week we explored the use of rhythmic patterns using Chrome Music Lab. We enjoyed experimenting with the tempo and changing the instruments to see how the piece of music changed.

Wow, the progression we have seen in Year 1 with children learning how to log in to their computers is amazing. They have so much to type with their username and passwords with capital letters and numbers and yet some are even logging in in record time. The confidence of being able to open Microsoft Word and type sentences is really improving and next week we will hopefully be sharing some of our word processing skills so be sure to check the newsletter next week.

Year 5 children continued and finished recording for their video creation unit. It has astounded me how organised children have been in remembering to bring their own props in order to make their video as planned. Although, the filming did not always go to plan, we definitely had fun making them and next week, we will look to editing them. Well done Year 5!

During our desktop publishing unit the Year 3 children have worked hard to develop their designing skills and have created a number of posters/slide shows to advertise for different reasons including red nose day, Mother’s Day and Easter to name a few. This week they had the choice to create something to demonstrate their learning within the classroom, it was so great to hear all the amazing things that go on and we had a wide range of creations including posters about volcanoes, shadows, dragons and persuasive writing as well as gymnastics. Remember to log on to Showbie to check out their work. Well done Year 3.

Online Safety

Livestreaming is now a major part of children’s entertainment, evolving from gamers sharing screens into a booming industry with diverse personalities. While watching streamers can be entertaining, it comes with no small number of risks for children, such as misinformation, negative influences, and inappropriate content. With over 2.5 million viewers on Twitch – the current most popular streaming platform – at any one time, this guide highlights the potential dangers associated with watching livestreams and the importance of staying informed.

PE & Sports

With the continued improved weather, it has been great to see more outdoor sports using the space we have at Friars. Please remember to provide suitable kit on PE days so that children are taking part safely.

Music

We had a lovely Singing Assembly this week, where everyone sang really beautifully. Our choir is continuing to work hard in preparation for our next big music event - the Junior Music Festival.

Portico Photography Competition