Friars Weekly Newsletter friday 25th april 2025

• 80th Anniversary of VE Day
• Naming clothing
• Y1 Phonics Screening Check Information Sessions - now in the diary dates
• Y5 Thriftwood Residential Meeting - now in the diary dates

Coming up in this edition of the newsletter...

A four-day week has eased us into our final term of the school year. It was lovely to welcome the children back on Tuesday after what was a lovely, long Easter break. I hope everyone managed to do some nice things over the two weeks and that we are all refreshed for the summer months ahead.

The summer is an incredibly busy term with lots happening. This half-term alone sees the Year 6 SATs as well as the Year 6 residential and Southend Week, a Year 3 educational visit to Colchester Castle, a Havens non-uniform day and Nursery and Reception Sports Days and Picnics. All of this packed into the next 4 weeks! Also on the calendar are the school’s celebrations for the 80th anniversary of VE Day.

In addition to a special VE Day assembly, we will also be decorating our classroom doors with a VE Day theme. We decorated doors for World Book Day in 2024 and they all looked fantastic. I’m sure our VE Day doors will be just as incredible.

On the day too, every child in the school will be decorating cupcakes with red, white and blue icing. They will have the opportunity to do this alongside another class so we will see older and younger children coming together 😊.

Mr. McClay, Principal

Naming Clothing

It is that time of the year again where the weather is warming and children are removing their jumpers and cardigans! Please can we request that all clothing worn to school is named. The lost property pile is growing and it is incredibly difficult to return items to their owners if things are not named.

London Marathon

A huge good luck to anyone in the Friars’ Family who might be running the London Marathon this weekend. It is such an amazing occasion even to watch, never mind run. If you are heading into London to watch the event, my personal recommendation would be to head to Limehouse where you will have two opportunities to see the runners go past. It is a little bit quieter around Westferry and Limehouse than some places on the course.

One of our Year 3 parents is running the marathon for the amazing baby charity Tommy’s. If you are interested in sponsoring Natasha Allen, please follow the link below:

Sponsorship Link

Nursery

Welcome back to the summer term, and how lovely it was to have all the children return with big smiles on their faces so keen to tell us about their holiday. In Nursery this week, we have enjoyed looking after the seeds we planted before the holiday and we are very much excited to see what will happen with them next. With Mrs. Wheatley, the children had a chance to use the robot mice which they very much enjoyed. They had to program them to move forward and backwards using directional arrows. We have also welcomed a few new friends who will join us next week. As always, the children were so welcoming and wonderful advocates for the nursery, showing the new children around and telling them all the lovely things we do.

REMINDER: I am busy organising new dates for Stay and Plays; these will go out soon. Also please remember it is Nursery’s Sports Day this half-term, please check the school calendar for dates.

Reception

What a lovely first week back it has been. We have had an outdoor learning session with Mr. Brady where the children looked for ‘signs of spring’ around the garden. In class, we have spoken about Ramadan and Eid, as well as providing opportunities for the children to make silhouette Arabian style pictures, writing about how they can be kind and comparing these celebrations to other ones. Our maths sessions have continued to focus on counting and patterns of number. We have been looking at 2-digit numbers up to 20 and how to represent them in different ways.

There have been opportunities to explore sinking and floating in our water tray this week as well as investigating different methods of making boats move.

Year 1

Wow! What a great first week back after Easter.

This week, the children have had their first music lesson with Mrs. Bemister and the children had so much fun. They wiggled and jiggled and bopped away whilst beginning to learn a new song. The children thoroughly enjoyed it and they are looking forward to next week's lesson.

In English, we looked at the features of instructions. Did you know that we need to use an imperative verb when writing instructions? We learnt about the layout of instructions and we were able to work in small groups to put some mixed-up instructions back in order. At the end of the week, we applied all of our learning and produced our own set of instructions for making a kite.

In maths, we have practised counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. This is quite tricky however we did a super job and our teachers were really proud of us.

We began our new science topic this week and started looking at everyday materials. We were able to identify what materials objects were made from and had a really good try at describing their properties. We found it really interesting that the metal spoon was cold when we took it out of the basket however it warmed up a little once we had held it in our hands!

Letters sent home this week

• Year 1 - Phonics Screening Check Information - 23.04.2025

Year 2

It was so nice to welcome the children back to school on Tuesday. They have settled back into their routines well and have made a good start to their summer term. We have begun learning about fractions in our maths this week by exploring equal parts and finding fractions of shapes, using the numeric symbols to show 1/2.

In English we have researched and made notes about Antarctica. The children were amazed to discover that temperatures can reach as low as -89 degrees Celsius. We then completed our week by writing in the present tense to describe its features in clear sentences.

We have shared our thoughts about Earth Day and how we need to look after the Earth for future generations. The children certainly have a very good understanding about the need to recycle and save energy. We discussed wind energy and the children created their own windmills; we they very much enjoyed testing out! Good fun all round!

Year 3

It was great to welcome the children back to the summer term. We had some lovely weather, but the rain also decided to join us at some point!

We have started another maths topic on fractions this term and we have added and subtracted various fractions. In English we looked at describing dragons, which was pretty impressive.

In our curriculum learning we have moved onto some new topics. We are learning about the Romans in History, plants in science and we are continuing with French, music, RE and PSHE.

We have also started to think about our assembly which is coming up at the end of May. Some speaking and playing parts have been chosen, songs have started to be learnt, amongst a lot of other preparations to get ready. We hope you are as excited as we are to see what we have learnt about in Year 3.

REMINDER: We have our school trip to Colchester Castle on Tuesday.

The children need to be in school for 8:15am, as we will be leaving the school promptly at 8:30am.

Please ensure your child has lunch and spare drinks. Drinks can be juice or water, but fizzy drinks are not allowed.

Year 4

After a well-deserved holiday, the children have come back to school with a real enthusiasm for learning for the summer term!

In English, we have been learning about personification which is when an object or thing is given human-like attributes, for example saying that a tree is dancing in the wind! We used this knowledge to think about how we could personify a storm and created fantastic poetry as a result!

In maths, we have carried on our learning from spring around fractions and learnt how we can add and subtract fractions and mixed numbers.

During our afternoon lessons, we have been learning about electrical safety in science, what the difference is between a hill and a mountain in geography and carried out research on an artist called Lichtenstein ready to create our own pop art inspired pieces soon!

Well done for a great first week back Year 4!

REMINDER: Outdoor learning will commence next week for 4G. Please can the children wear appropriate clothing for Monday-Thursday. Lessons will be as normal on Friday.

4S will be the following week.

We will also be commencing our Times Tables Check practice next week, so cram in as much TTRockstars practice as you can this weekend!

Year 5

We have had a good start to the summer term this week.

We have kicked off our new topic in English by learning about Macbeth. This was handy as it was National Shakespeare Day on Wednesday. The children have really enjoyed the story so far and even had a chance to act of elements of the play script. They are looking forward to rewriting a section of it with stage directions next week.

We continued our unit statistics in maths lesson. Our focus has been on reading and interpreting a variety of tables. This can be a handy skill for life when reading time tables for example.

The children have also started their Tudor learning this week. They learnt about the history of the War of the Roses. They sorted key facts into Lancastrian or Yorkist groups.

We were very excited to start our new music topic, looking at the K Pop genre. We look forward to continuing this next week.

Thriftwood... there will be a parent meeting about Thriftwood at 3:30pm on Tuesday 6th May in the Key Stage 2 Hall. Please come to the hall after collection.

REMINDER: Our Tower of London trip is on 7th May. Children need a packed lunch and a drink. They must wear usual school uniform and comfortable shoes.

If your child is eligible for a free school lunch, please call the office by Friday 2nd May.

Year 6

We would like to say a big well done to the Year 6 students this week. They have returned to school and completed their final set of practice SATs. All of the children have worked extremely hard and put in a great deal of effort in order to achieve success.

During the afternoons this week, we have begun a new topic in Science about Evolution and Inheritance. We looked at characteristics that can be inherited and variations that may occur due to environmental factors. We began playing rounders in PE and have started to look at the work of Hokusai in art.

Letters sent home this week (via Parent Pay)

• Year 6 - Residential Final Letter - 23.04.2025
• Year 6 - SATS Information - 24.04.2025

Computing

This week in computing we all had our introductions to our new topics, exploring data and information.

In Year 1 we started by looking at how we could group different objects using labels. We explored the labels we see every day in the classroom before we explored J2data.

Year 5 started by determining what a database is; a place to store, modify and add data and information. They began by creating a number of questions relating to a database about various countries and next week we will start by answering each other's questions.

Year 3 began to think about branching databases and therefore we played the yes or no game for children to work out sensible yes/no questions to group several different objects.

Online Safety

As technology becomes increasingly embedded in young people’s lives, it’s common for them to form friendships entirely online. These connections can provide companionship and community — but they also bring potential dangers that parents and educators need to be aware of.

From online grooming and privacy breaches to exposure to upsetting content, meeting people on the internet isn’t without risk. This guide explains the possible hazards of online friendships and gives parents and educators essential advice on helping children build safe, positive relationships online.

PE & Sports

We have started the summer term with some wonderful weather which has seen our children enjoying the use of the field for their sports lessons. There are a range of skills being developed this half term; focusing Tennis, Athletics, Rounders and Cricket. Please help children to make the most of their PE lessons by ensuring they are suitably dressed for the weather and that they have their water bottles with them to ensure they stay hydrated.

New topics have all started this week as have our new after school clubs. We hope if your child is attending one of our free clubs, that they enjoyed their first sessions.

PTA

No new news this week... but watch this space. A lot happens in the summer term!