Coming up in this edition of the newsletter...
- Careers Week 2026
- A reminder about grapes in school
- A reminder about Red Nose Day... we still have noses that can be purchased. Get yours before they sell out...
- PTA Mother's Day Sale in the school day on Tuesday and after school on Wednesday. See the PTA Section.
What an absolutely amazing week! Careers Week 2026 has been a huuuuge success! Yes, you will find ‘huuuuge’ in the dictionary… 😊 Thank you so much to the whole Friars team for putting on such a fantastic week of learning opportunities. Every person who volunteered to visit us did a great job of talking about their jobs and exciting the children. I must admit, it has been a little disconcerting hearing sirens across the week… with visits from the police, fire service and ambulance service there has been quite a lot of noise and lots of flashing lights. You might have seen on Facebook that some members of staff were indeed arrested and put into handcuffs. I am pleased to say that all charges were quickly dropped against the likes of Mrs. Snow and Mr. Burnham. Our staff are very good fun! Thursday was World Book Day and it was lovely to see all of the costumes in our morning assembly. Everyone joined in, from children to classroom and office staff, to even visitors… one of our Careers Week guests dressed up too! We do really love reading and I saw lots of children enjoying our new Key Stage 2 library across the day. Good luck next week to those children participating in the Infant Music Festival on Monday and the Year 3/4 Sportshall Athletics event on Tuesday. Have a lovely weekend. Mr. Chris McClay, Principal
Healthy Snacks/Lunchboxes - Grapes
Just a reminder that we do ask for all grapes that come into school to be cut lengthways. Although it is commonly agreed that grapes do not need to be cut for older children, they can present a choking hazard for younger children. Please support us with this. If whole grapes do come into school, we will have to send the grapes home at the end of the day. Thank you.
Summer Events 2026
We love seeing the Friars Family come together at our summer events so we are pleased to share a number of dates for your diaries as we move into the second part of the academic year… More information about these events will follow closer to the time.
Portico Writing Competition
We are delighted to launch our Trust-wide Writing Competition, open to every child across all of our schools! This exciting celebration of creativity offers a different writing challenge for each year group, designed to inspire imagination and showcase brilliant storytelling. From creating magical friends in EYFS, to becoming superheroes in KS1, to crafting a dramatic tale for "The Storm That Changed Everything" in Year 3 & 4, and building tension in a Year 5 & 6 story that begins with a warning, there is something for everyone.
We are looking for imagination, atmosphere, emotion and creativity. Whether it’s through powerful description, ambitious vocabulary, figurative language or fantastic illustrations, we can’t wait to see our pupils’ ideas come to life. This competition is open to everyone and we strongly encourage everyone to take part. ✨ Every child who enters will receive a bookmark to celebrate their participation.
🏆 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes will be awarded in each phase. 📅 Closing date: 18th March
Red Nose Day
On Friday 20th March it is Red Nose Day. Children are invited to wear Red Nose merchandise with their school uniform - such things as wristbands, deely boppers... or a red nose of course! Red Noses are still on sale from the school office for £2.50. Cash only, limited stock available. On the day, we will have buckets at the gates in the morning for anyone who would like to make a donation to the charity.
World Book Day
Our school had a fantastic time celebrating World Book Day! Staff and children came dressed as their favourite book characters, and Mr McClay kicked off the celebrations with an assembly where pupils had great fun guessing who some of the adults were dressed as. Throughout the day, children enjoyed spontaneous Drop Everything and Read moments, as well as a special mystery reader visit at the end of the afternoon, when an adult from another part of the school surprised each class with a story. Classes also buddied up so older pupils could read with younger children, creating wonderful shared-reading moments across the school. Alongside all the excitement, pupils worked hard throughout the week on their entries for the Portico Writing Competition; now we’ll have to wait eagerly to find out if any of our budding writers are winners!
Careers Week Inspires Pupils with a World of Possibilities
Our annual Careers Week got off to a fantastic start and quickly turned into one of the most exciting and inspiring weeks of the school year! The week began with some very special visitors. Sam from the Essex Police Dog Unit arrived with his loyal police dog, Lando, who immediately became a firm favourite with the pupils. Younger children also enjoyed exploring different roles through the ever-popular Little City experience, while Year 3 learned about the fascinating job of plane refuelling when Darren visited to talk about his work at Southend Airport. As the week continued, the school was buzzing with activity. Little City welcomed more enthusiastic young explorers, while Year 4 got creative designing colourful cake decorations. Rochford Fire Service thrilled pupils with a tour of their fire engine and even demonstrated their skills with hose target practice on the field. Year 3 put their money-management skills to the test by building the best-value towers, and Year 5 travelled to Fruits of the Sea to discover how cockles are prepared. The excitement only grew as even more professionals shared their experiences with the children. Pupils had the chance to meet a dental nurse, a respiratory nurse, a probation services manager, a commercial finance manager and a C2C train driver. The police returned for more fun activities, and the highlight for many pupils was watching some of our teachers get “arrested” during the demonstration! Day four of Careers Week coincided with World Book Day, making the atmosphere around school even more electric. KS2 started the day with a burst of energy thanks to our very own “Joe Wicks”, also known as PT Harry, who had everyone jumping, stretching and moving. Later, paramedic Matt arrived in an ambulance, giving pupils a hands-on look at emergency equipment and sharing what life on the front line is really like. Throughout the day, different year groups also learned about careers in nursing and midwifery, dog boarding and care, and architecture. The final day ended the week on a high note. Year 6 explored the wide range of careers within the prison service and took part in an energetic performing arts workshop, discovering how a love of the stage can turn into a future career. Year 3 stepped into the colourful world of make-up artistry, Year 4 discovered that careers in banking involve far more than simply handling money, and Year 5 were fascinated by the world of pathology, learning how scientists investigate and solve real-life mysteries. A huge thank you to all the amazing visitors who gave up their time to inspire our pupils. Careers Week has shown our children just how many exciting opportunities are out there, and who knows what future careers may have been sparked this week!
Diary Dates
March
- Monday 9th - Infant Music Festival
- Tuesday 10th - Year 3 & 4 Sports Hall Athletics
- Wednesday 11th - Nursery Stay & Play
- Monday 16th - Starlings Books for Breakfast
- Tuesday 17th - Wrens Books for Breakfast
- Wednesday 18th - Learning Conversations
- Thursday 19th - Learning Conversations
- Friday 20th - Red Nose Day
- Tuesday 24th - RockSteady Concert
- Wednesday 25th - Nursery Stay & Play
- Friday 27th - Year 3 Assembly to Parents 9:15am KS2 Hall
- Last Day of Term
Nursery
We have had the most amazing week in Nursery. We started with Careers Week. The children enjoyed a visit to Little City where they had the opportunity to try out lots of different job roles such as mechanics, vets, police, cashiers, dentists and so many more. They also enjoyed a visit from the fire brigade and police service. They were able to sit in the engine, try on uniform and the wow factor was being allowed to spray the water hose. We also made edible flowers, bows and ladybirds to put on our own cakes during a visit with a lady who decorates cakes. We must not forget Thursday, when we all dressed up to celebrate World Book Day. We had a nursery full of different characters from our favourite children’s books, from Stick Man to the Very Hungry Caterpillar, from Princesses to Superheroes.
Letters sent home this week
Reception
We have had such a busy week in Reception with Careers Week and World Book Day. We visited Little City and had the opportunity to role play in a number of job roles such as doctors, vets, firefighters, police, mechanics and builders. We enjoyed a visit from the fire brigade and got to sit in the engine, try on hats and have a go with the hose! The police visited us on Wednesday and told us about their roles in society and ran the siren much to the delight of everyone! A dental nurse came in and told us how to keep our teeth gums healthy and why it is so important. Thursday was World Book Day and we all came in dressed up as book characters and what a selection there were! It was lovely to guess the story from which we were all from and in our focus time we drew our own fantasy characters, describing their powers, traits and giving them a name. We look forward to seeing these characters coming to life in our role play and writing in the future.
Letters sent home this week
Year 1
Wow, what a busy week we have had this week! The children had so much fun in the Little City play area on Tuesday. They were pretending to be vets, doctors, postal workers, hairdressers and more. We enjoyed our visit from a dental nurse who spoke to us about good oral hygiene. Then we had a visit from a police officer who brought in his police car! On Thursday we were treated to a visit from a dog boarder and a midwife. We also celebrated World Book Day on Thursday. The children looked amazing in their costumes. They also had guest readers to read them a story at the end of the day. In all of this excitement we have also continued with our learning in science. We were thinking about the various materials the three pigs made their houses from. The children worked in small groups to make houses out of either straw, sticks or bricks. Then the Big Bad Wolf came along (the class teacher with a hairdryer) and tried to blow the houses down!
Letters sent home this week
Year 2
What an exciting and busy week in Year 2! As part of Careers Week, we were lucky enough to have visits from a range of professionals — from emergency service workers to train drivers! These special visits gave the children lots of inspiration about their future careers, which they were able to explore during our Little City session. Little City allowed children to role-play different jobs, with the veterinary surgery and the post office being particular favourites. On Thursday, the excitement continued as we celebrated World Book Day. We planned and produced a piece of descriptive writing about superheroes while dressed in our fantastic World Book Day costumes! In maths, we began our new topic all about length and height. The children used rulers and metre sticks to measure different items around the classroom. We discussed how to ensure our measurements are accurate and what to do if we need to measure an object that is longer than the metre stick.
Letters sent home this week
Year 3
In English, we have been practising how to use inverted commas to show when a character is speaking. We learned how to place the speech marks correctly and where to put the punctuation. We had lots of fun writing our own conversations and making our characters come to life with exciting dialogue! In maths, we continued our learning about fractions. We have been finding fractions of shapes and numbers, and we are becoming much more confident at recognising halves, thirds and quarters. The children have worked really hard and shown great determination. We also had a fantastic time during Careers Week! We were very lucky to meet a plane re-fueller, a paramedic, a personal trainer and a make-up artist. The children asked thoughtful questions and loved hearing about the different jobs and career paths available to them! A big thank you to everyone who kindly gave their time to come in and speak to us – we really appreciate it!
Letters sent home this week
Year 4
We have had a busy and exciting week in Year 4. In English, the children have been writing a recount based on the theme ‘The Storm That Changed Everything’. They worked hard to organise their ideas clearly, using paragraphs and descriptive detail to bring their dramatic events to life. Maths lessons have continued to focus on fractions, including improper fractions and mixed numbers. Pupils have been building their confidence when converting between the two and deepening their understanding of how fractions relate to the whole. In science, learning focused on deforestation. Pupils explored its causes and effects, as well as discussing ways we can help to protect our planet. This week also brought a fantastic Careers Week, and the children thoroughly enjoyed meeting a range of visitors, including a nurse, paramedic, police dog handler, police officer, cake decorator, personal trainer and a representative from NatWest. The talks were engaging and inspiring, and pupils asked thoughtful questions throughout. World Book Day was another highlight. We were amazed by the wonderful variety of book characters on display! The children especially loved taking part in the ‘Drop Everything and Read’ challenge across the day. Well done to everyone for such a positive and enthusiastic week.
Letters sent home this week
Year 5
This week 5B have enjoyed their outdoor learning with Mr. Brady. The weather has been sunny for them. Like 5AW their focus has been around the use of map work. We have continued our work on decimals and percentages and have been solving problems linked to percentages in everyday life. The children have used their equivalence knowledge to help them further solve problems. Next week we will recap a range of areas in preparation for some testing. The children were very excited earlier in the week as we had some time to explore the academy writing competition. The children had to start their writing with a warning. We saw good use of paragraphs, relative clauses, conjunctions, range of punctuation, show not tell, figurative language and many more skills. We look forward to the results with their stories! We have been busy with Careers Week where we are sure you have heard about the many visitors we have had in and our informative trip to the cockle factory in Shoebury. It's definitely got children thinking about their future! On that note...some children will be told more in the next few weeks about being involved in the local music festival at the Cliffs Pavilion in June. We are fortunate that we have many members of our choir in Year 5. We are adding to that talented bunch of children by inviting more children to play in the band for the Cliffs performance. The children will be playing either the ukulele, glockenspiel or percussion instruments. More details will come out about this soon...
Letters sent home this week
Year 6
Year 6 have completed practice SATs this week. The children have all worked extremely hard and focused well. We look forward to sharing the results with them shortly. We have also enjoyed Careers Week. We have had many visitors come in: a pathologist, a fitness trainer, a performing arts teacher and a paramedic. There was an architect too who showed us how to measure up buildings and produce plans for future building projects. The week did not end with just these things. We also had an enjoyable World Book Day, with many children in costume, writing stories for our school competition and creating book reviews. All in all, we have had a thoroughly enjoyable week.
Letters sent home this week
Computing
This week in computing, Years 1, 2, and 3 have diligently continued to develop their computing skills. In Year 2, students began exploring various methods of data representation using computers. They learned the significance of collecting data responsibly, emphasising the importance of voting only once. The class conducted a survey regarding their favourite fruit and modes of transport to school. Subsequently, they inputted this data into J2Data to create a pictogram, which allowed them to engage with the data further by answering related questions. Year 1 students embarked on an introduction to programming through the use of Scratch Jr. They had the opportunity to explore this new learning environment, mastering the skills of editing a sprite (a character), adding new sprites, and altering backgrounds. In the upcoming session, they will investigate how to animate the sprite to move in various ways. Year 3 worked industriously to experiment with Scratch, culminating in the creation of their own digital piano project. This involved utilising a variety of programming blocks to produce music in innovative ways, providing a rich learning experience that integrated programming, music, and design.
Sports & PE
This week the school football team faced home matches against Sacred Heart and St George’s. The first game against Sacred Heart was well fought and very even. Both sides having good periods of play and demonstrating some very good teamwork. Unfortunately, Friars didn’t take their opportunities to score whereas Sacred Heart did. Final score was 2-0. On Thursday, it was the turn of St George's. We played really well again and this time the score was in our favour... 2-0 to Team Friars. A lovely long range goal from Chris and a free kick from Cooper secured an excellent home win.
Year 3 and 4 Sportshall Athletics team will be attending their rescheduled event on Tuesday.
Online Safety
With reading for pleasure in decline, this practical guide offers ten thoughtful ways to reignite children’s enthusiasm for books. From valuing all forms of reading to broadening access to diverse materials, it explores how adults can nurture positive reading habits both at home and in school. Digital tools, audiobooks and augmented reality are also considered as engaging ways to support today’s readers. It also highlights the power of social connection – recommending books, reading together and meeting authors – alongside the importance of modelling reading ourselves. With expert insight from literacy specialist Carl Pattison, this edition provides supportive, achievable ideas to help young people reconnect with reading and see it as a meaningful part of everyday life.
Dinner Menu
Week 1
Monday
- Beef Bolognaise with Spaghetti
- Spinach & Pesto Sauce with Spagehtti
- Baked Jacket Potato with Baked Beans
- Broccoli & Sweetcorn
- Chicken Mayonniase Baguette
- Cheese Salad Wrap
- Chocolate & Courgette Sponge
Tuesday
- Chicken & Sweetcorn Meatballs in a Tomato Sauce with Pasta
- Vegan Meatballs in a Roasted Tomato & Basil Sauce with Pasta
- Pasta with Tomato & Basil
- Steamed Peas & Cauliflower
- Ham Sandwich
- Cheese & Tomato Bloomer
- Vanilla Ice Cream
Wednesday
- BBQ Style Hunters Roast Chicken with Roast Potatoes & Gravy
- Mac N’ Cheese with Garlic Bread
- Baked Jacket Potato with Baked Beans
- Carrots & Seasonal Greens
- Tuna & Sweetcorn Baguette
- Cheese Sandwich
- Banana Flapjack
Thursday
- BBQ Pulled Pork with Toasted Tortilla
- Vegetarian Chilli Taco with Cajun Sweet Potato Wedges
- Pasta with Squash & Tomato Sauce
- Roasted Carrots & Sweetcorn
- Tuna Mayonnaise Sandwich
- Cheese Salad Wrap
- Ice Lemon Cake with Sprinkles
Friday
- Fish Fingers, Chips & Ketchup
- Baked Crispy Vegetable Fingers & Garlic Mayo Wrap with Chips
- Baked Jacket Potatoes with Baked Beans
- Baked Beans & Peas
- Ham Sandwich
- Egg Mayonnaise Baguette
Also Available Every Day
- Fresh fruit
- Yoghurt
- Jelly
Celebration Assembly
The links for our Celebration Assemblies can be found below.
Attendance
A superb week of attendance – with some of our highest figures of the year so far – peaking at 97.5% on Wednesday. It makes such a difference in the classroom when everyone is present – and no missed learning to catch up on… A number of classes achieved 97% or above… they are… Starlings, 2S, 2W, 4A and 6B! Well done to each class and, of course, they all receive Spin the Wheel stickers.
Best attendances this week belonged to 4A with 99% and 2W with 98%. Congratulations to both!
Windsor certainly seem to be on the up! Another overall win this week with a first-place finish in Key Stage 2. The gap between first and second grew again this week as Stormont took an extra 9 points more than Caernarfon. 73 points now separate first from fourth. Doesn’t sound very much, does it? As we approach the midpoint in Spring 2, the question is who will be leading when we break up for Easter?
Community
Credits:
Created with images by Fabio Principe - "A diary open with instruments for writing. Pencil, eraser and notebook on white background. Close up of a wooden pen orange and black, an eraser green and a booklet black. " • Maryna - "Young girl uses smartphone in dark. Unaware of online dangers lurking in the background. Cyberbullying, cyberstalking, online predators. Child safety concept illustration." • miss irine - "Various dishes served in modern school canteen. Food catering assortment includes fresh salads, cooked meat, carrot noodles, roasted potatoes. Selection, self-service, prepared fast tasty eatery." • fatima - "Vibrant "Let's Celebrate!" message with colorful burst design for festive occasions"