Friars Weekly Newsletter friday 5th september 2025

Coming up in this edition of the newsletter...

• A huge welcome back!
• Reception tours for the September 2026 intake
• First attendance assembly of the school year

We have had such a lovely start to this brand-new academic year. The summer holidays have been and gone and we already feel like we are in the full swing of things. Attendance has been very good this week which is great as the first week is always so important.

I must say, the children appear very settled and they have been raring to go with their learning. As usual, we have had lots of fun, exemplified by the ‘hook days’ for Years 4, 5 and 6. These special days aim to ‘hook’ the children into the excitement of their new topics. For Year 4 it is the Anglo-Saxons, Year 5 the Egyptians and Year 6 the Victorians. I must say, Mr. Leggett caught a lot of interest in the morning assembly. He looked very much the part in his Anglo-Saxon outfit… and somehow, he had grown lovely, long hair! Well done too to Miss Andrews and Mrs. Shuttleworth who were also dressed accordingly.

Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing lots of information and dates for the term so do watch this space.

Thank you for your help in making our return to school such a success. Have a super weekend.

Mr. McClay, Principal

Uniform

Thank you for sending the children back to school looking very smart. We felt so proud seeing the whole school together in our assemblies this week. If you missed the email midweek about uniform reminders, please look back…

If your child wears earrings, please not that they must be studs and must be removed for PE and sport. Sleeper earrings are now allowed.

Clubs

We are currently in the process of organising our extra-curricular club offer for the autumn term. More information about clubs will follow next week.

Reception 2026

In October and November, we will be hosting tours of the school for prospective parents who are thinking about sending their children to Friars in September 2026. If you have a child of that age, or have friends and family who do, we would be grateful if you could share the dates with them.

• Tour 1: Tuesday October 21 at 9:30am
• Tour 2: Tuesday October 21 at 1:30pm
• Tour 3: Thursday November 13 at 9:30am
• Tour 4: Thursday November 13 at 1:30pm

Tours will last approximately 45 minutes. Both parents and children are welcome to attend.

Nursery

The Nursery team have been visiting new children in their homes this week to get to know them and their families better. Thank you for making us so welcome. We are very much looking forward to having all of the children with us next week.

Reception

This week we have completed our home visits and welcomed the children into school for their first sessions. It has been great to see everyone after the summer break, and we are really looking forward to having the children stay full time...

Year 1

We are so proud of the children this week – they have settled in so well!

After getting to know the children on Tuesday and playing with a lot of new toys, we have started our morning English and maths lessons. We have been ordering numbers to 10 and recapping 2D shapes in maths and in English, we have been making silly sentences about what we did not do in the summer holidays! For example, ‘In the summer, I did not fly to the moon!’ Next week, we will be starting our daily phonics lessons.

We hope you have a lovely weekend and we will see you on Monday.

Our P.E lessons will be on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Please remember to name everything including their coats, as we already have some unclaimed items such as water bottles and jumpers/cardigans. Thank you.

Year 2

What a wonderful start to the year! Year 2 children have settled into their new classes extremely well and have shown that they are ready to learn. We have talked about our class routines and expectations which the children are following very well. In maths we have been revisiting counting, number bonds and calculations before starting our new White Rose books next week. In English we have enjoyed the story of The Cautious Caterpillar, which deals with change. We related this to moving to a new class. Within our history lesson, we started thinking about how childhood has changed since our grandparents were young. We then recorded our own questions which we would like to ask them about the past.

REMINDERS: Please label all of your child’s uniform, school bags and lunch boxes. Our PE days are Monday and Thursday. Earrings must be removed on these days please.

Year 3

We’ve had a fantastic week in Year 3, full of exciting learning and hands-on experiences across all our subjects!

This week, we’ve been diving into the magical world of The Iron Giant by Ted Hughes. The children have loved making predictions about what they think might happen in the story and using the story to help develop skills around recognising different word types.

In maths, we’ve started our unit on place value, and the children have done brilliantly. We have been learning to recognise the value of each digit in 2 and 3-digit numbers, comparing numbers, and even partitioning them in different ways. It’s been great to see the children so engaged and confident in their number work!

Finally, what better way to learn about forces than with a bit of friendly competition? The highlight of our week was a lively tug of war in the hall, where the children discovered how push and pull forces work in real life. There was lots of cheering, teamwork, and scientific thinking as we explored how force, friction, and effort all play a role.

We’re so proud of how enthusiastic and curious the children have been during their first week back at school – it’s shaping up to be a brilliant term!

Year 4

We’ve had a brilliant first week in Year 4,

full of exciting learning and hands-on experiences across all our subjects!

In maths, we’ve been exploring place value, working hard to recognise the value of each digit and building confidence with 3-digit numbers. The children have enjoyed comparing, ordering, and partitioning numbers in different ways—it’s been wonderful to see their enthusiasm shining through in their number work!

In English, we’ve been sharpening our grammar skills by focusing on different word classes. The children have worked brilliantly to identify nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, and have used this knowledge to begin creating powerful sentences of their own.

In music, we’ve had lots of fun learning a lively hoedown! The children loved clapping, stomping, and keeping in rhythm as we worked together to create an energetic performance.

Science has taken us inside the human body, as we began our work on the digestive system. We looked closely at the organs involved, such as the mouth, stomach, intestines, and liver, and discovered how they all work together to break down food and help our bodies get the nutrients they need.

The highlight of our week was our Anglo-Saxon hook day on Friday. The children stepped back in time as they created clay coins marked with runes, tried their hand at traditional weaving, and researched fascinating facts about the Anglo-Saxons. We finished the day in the environmental garden, where the children shared traditional campfire stories—it was a magical way to bring history to life!

We’re so proud of how brilliantly the children have settled into Year 4, and we can’t wait to see all the exciting learning that lies ahead this term.

Warm regards,

The Year 4 Team

REMINDER: our PE days are Monday and Wednesday.

4L will be having outdoor learning sessions next week (Tuesday to Friday). Please ensure suitable clothing is worn on these days.

Year 5

What a fantastic start to Year 5 our children have had this week! It was lovely to see them on Tuesday morning. The children settled well into their new classrooms with happy faces.

Through our maths learning the children have been recapping roman numerals and have gone onto using their place value knowledge to solve mixed problems.

Within our English this week we have seen expanded noun phrases being used confidently and have begun to explore a range of catchy ways to start a sentence. The children have enjoyed using the different setting pictures we have given them to base their descriptions on.

We began the week introducing our new topic of 'Ancient Egypt'. We explored the different continents, found where we lived and found where Egypt is on a globe, atlas and map. The children then went on to detail a range of geographical features of Egypt ranging from the River Nile to bordering countries. We are all very excited about our hook day on Friday and we will share some photos we take of the day.

We look forward to staying in contact with you!

REMINDER: A reminder our PE days are Monday and Friday.

Spellings will be sent home to practise. Please read about the new system we are using to test their spellings. (It is found on the bottom of their spellings)

The children have all been given a school reading book at their level and they will be choosing a book for pleasure to read from our school library and classroom.

Year 6

We have had a great start to the year, it was lovely to see all of the children arriving happily, looking very smart in their uniform and ready to learn.

We have completed descriptive writing in English with a focus on revising basic grammatical skills including a variety of sentence types.

We have begun working in our maths sets and have revisited and extended our knowledge of place value.

We have ended the week with a fabulous Victorian themed Hook Day which has introduced the children to our topic that we will be covering this term.

A reminder that PE begins next week, we have our sessions on a Tuesday and Thursday.

We have set children maths homework for next Thursday and they will have a times tables next Friday. The children have Week 1 spellings in their homework books to learn for a test on Monday 15th and English homework will begin next week and will be set next Friday.

Computing

I am looking forward to seeing you next week!

Next week children will have the chance to apply for a digital leader role for this year. This year there will be some additional responsibilities for the digital team and i am looking forward to seeing anyone that is interested next week.

PE

Classes have started well with sports this week, even with the sudden downpours. All classes will be getting into regular sports next week and will cover a range of ball skills, including netball, hockey, rugby and volleyball. Cross-country trials start next week and information about other sporting opportunities will follow soon.

REMINDER: Please help children to enjoy their PE sessions in school by ensuring they are dressed suitably for their lesson on PE days.

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PTA

There will be lots of exciting PTA news coming soon with all of the favourite events returning for 2025-26. If you can ever help with the PTA, please let us know...