Friars Weekly Newsletter friday 13th June 2025

Coming up in this edition of the newsletter...

• SEESMA Junior Music Festival
• Science Week
• Year 3/4 and Year 5/6 Discos at the end of the term
• Travelling Book Fair Competition
• Key Stage 2 Borough Sports

What a fun week… starting with the Junior Music Festival and finishing with our Thriftwood campers returning, it has been non-stop!

On Monday night, more than 20 members of our choir descended upon the Cliffs Pavilion. After a fantastic performance at the Palace Theatre earlier in the year, we knew we could expect more of the same… and we were not disappointed. On the Monday afternoon, the children travelled by coach to rehearse, before they then returned to the theatre for the evening. It was a lovely event and there were many proud parents as you would expect. Thank you so much to Mrs. Bemister who has coached the children brilliantly. Mrs. Bemister was there at the Cliffs to lead the choir with mine and Miss Johnson’s support. For the evening, Mrs. Shuttleworth and Mrs. Vermeuluen came along to cheer! A great team effort all round!

On Tuesday, the Key Stage 2 Borough Sports took place at Garons. The team selected did a great job with so many excellent personal achievements. Please see the PE and Sports section for further mention of Borough Sports.

Wednesday saw fifty Year 5 children board a coach to the Thriftwood Scout Campsite near Brentwood. Across the two nights and three days, the children participated in many exciting activities including archery, rock climbing and rafting. The weather was really kind and everyone had a fantastic time. A huge thank you to all of the staff who attended, especially those who slept under canvas! I bet all of our Thriftwood campers are looking forward to a night in their own beds tonight!

Next week, we have our Key Stage 1 and 2 Sports Day and Picnic on Wednesday as well as the Year 2 educational visit to Call of the Wild on Thursday. Exciting times!

Have a lovely weekend.

Mr. McClay, Principal

Science Week

This week the children have been taking part in our annual science week. This year our theme was ‘CHANGE and ADAPT’ and the children have taken part in various activities during the week. These have included individual class investigations and also a Buddy Class investigation in which children from KS1 and KS2 classes work together to carry out a science activity.

Home Activity - Cross Cross Curricular Science and Art Competition.

The children have been challenged to create their own animal which is adapted for a particular habitat such as jungle, desert, forest, ocean etc. The animal should be labelled, describing how it is adapted for its habitat. There will be prizes for the best pieces of work in each year group. Competition entries must be handed into class teachers by Monday 16th June. Please ensure your child’s name and class are clearly written on their entry.

Winners will be announced during the Assembly on Friday 20th June.

School Discos

We are pleased to share a few more details about the school discos on Monday 21st July.

There will be a Year 3/4 disco 3:15pm-4:30pm (children will change and stay in school) and a Year 5/6 disco 4:45pm-6:00pm (children will go home and return). The PTA are organising everything including a DJ and it should be a great evening. Tickets will likely cost £3.50 each with more information to follow very soon... watch this space... Key Stage 1 children - we will be hosting discos every year so do not worry - there'll be lots of dancing for you in the years ahead.

Travelling Book Fair Competition

We are excited to announce that from Monday 30th June – Friday 4th July, we will have our very own Travelling Books book fair and we are giving away vouchers! 5 children have the chance of winning a £5 voucher to go towards a book of their choice.

All entries need to be handed in to the class teacher by Monday 23rd June and the winners of the £5 book vouchers will be announced during our celebration assembly.

EYFS/KS1 - Children need to design a book cover for a story of their choice. They can adapt a book cover from a known story or they can create a book cover for their own story. Book covers need to be bright and inviting and make the reader want to pick the book up. Happy designing!

KS2 - Children need to create a book cover and blurb for a story of their choice. They can use a previously read story or they can let their imaginations run wild and come up with their own their own design. Book covers need to be bright and inviting and blurbs need to be informative but not give too much of the story away. Try to use a ‘show, don’t tell’ approach when writing your blurb. Happy creating!

If your child would like to take part in this competition, please tell them to speak to their class teacher who can provide them with a design template.

Nursery

After a wet weekend the children in Nursery were excited to find lots of worms, snails and even a toad in our garden. After a long look at them and lots of discussion about where they might live, Mrs Buxton gently put the toad back in the nature area and to her surprise there were several other ones. From this, the children started singing ‘5 Little Speckled Frogs’ and were jumping off the tyres pretending to be frogs and toads. Alongside this, the children have helped tidy up the flowerbeds and pick another harvest of strawberries, which of course they enjoyed eating at snack time.

Reception

It has been a fabulous week in Reception! We have read our new book – The Naughty Bus, making predictions about the story and discussing the events. The children enjoyed singing 'The Wheels On The Bus' and learning about buses. There have been lots of arts and craft activities related to buses this week. Our maths sessions have focused on identifying and making repeating patterns, where the children have had the opportunity to create their own patterns. Our phonics sessions have continued to focus on irregular word endings including mp (for champ) lk (for milk) and nt (for hunt) with the tricky words being ‘some’ + ‘come’.

Our trip to Hyde Hall is on Wednesday 25th June.

Thank you to everyone who has paid.

Please note that there will be no hot lunches available and if you would like your child to have a school packed lunch this must be ordered by Monday.

Year 1

Wow, what a wonderful week we have had in Year 1. In English, the children have been learning about adverbs and have written sentences demonstrating their use. All children have completed their phonics screening check and we are incredibly proud of them all.

Maths has seen the children using positional and directional language. We have used the mouse robots and have moved around following given directions using language such as: forwards, backward, left, right, quarter turn full turn etc. Good job Year 1!

Wednesday afternoon was an art extravaganza. The children continued to work on their skills building towards their Tingatinga final piece. Have a lovely weekend.

REMINDER: Next week, Monday and Wednesday Wrens will be having their outdoor learning sessions with Mr Brady and Thursday and Friday Starlings will be having their outdoor learning sessions.

Sports Day is next Wednesday morning along with the picnic. Please can your child wear a t shirt that matches their team points colour.

Letters sent home

Year 1 - 6 - Sports Day Information - 06.06.2025

Year 2

This week, we read the story ‘The Koala who Could’ in English. The children wrote some amazing book reviews of the story at the beginning of the week and by the end they had retold the story in their own words. The children came up with some amazing adjectives and used some interesting expanded noun phrases to add detailed descriptions to their writing.

In maths, we have been practising addition, subtraction, multiplication and division questions using different methods. The children then independently completed maths questions to show their teacher how much they have learnt across the year.

In PE this week, we have been practising for sports Day. The children had fun trying out different activities and the excitement for sports day next week is definitely high across Year 2! We are looking forward to the real thing next Wednesday!

REMINDER: Please ensure that you have read the letter which was sent home with your child on Wednesday. The letter details what your child will need to take with them on the trip to the zoo and when they need to arrive at school.

Letters sent home

Year 1 - 6 - Sports Day Information - 06.06.2025

Year 3

We have had a great week this week.

In English, we finished our stories and have been phenomenal authors. We have used some great language and various phrases to make our stories really interesting to read.

We have learnt all about angles this week. Thinking about what makes an angle, whether they are a right angle and if they are obtuse or acute.

In the afternoons, we have completed some PSHE and RE and started to look at mosaics, as in a few weeks time we will be creating our very own mosaics to bring home.

In geography we have continued to learn about Italy, where it is and what seas surround it, over the next few weeks we will looking into the culture, foods and people of Italy.

It is definitely going to be a busy few weeks, as we ramp up to the end of Year 3!

REMINDER: We have sports day on Wednesday 18th June. The picnic will be held first, followed by the sports afternoon.

Make sure your child has a packed lunch for the day of the picnic.

Letters sent home this week

Year 1 - 6 - Sports Day Information - 06.06.2025

Year 4

A great week full of fun and interesting learning for Year 4 this week! Here’s a little look at what we’ve been up to…

In English, we have spent the week revising punctuation and grammar ready for tests next week! This has included refreshing our skills using apostrophes, prefixes and suffixes, determiners, main and subordinate clauses and even looking at different word types! Phew! It was a very busy week but we hope the children are feeling confident for next week.

In maths, we have started to learn about shape, identifying different shapes and recognising their various properties. As well as looking at different types of polygons we have also learnt about different types of angles including acute, obtuse and right angles.

The afternoons have been very busy with all sorts of interesting lessons including planning a safe route to get to Shoebury Park for fieldwork next week and looking at electrical appliances in DT. Mr Smith would like to thank all the children who were able to bring something in for the lesson and would like to remind the children to try and bring in a shoebox for our next project in DT!

Letters sent home

Year 1 - 6 - Sports Day Information - 06.06.2025

Year 5

A fantastic week for Year 5 with Thriftwood for the vast majority of children and 'stay behind' activities for those who didn't camp. All of the children seem to have really enjoyed themselves across the days and their behaviour has been great.

Well done to all of the adults who spent the two nights and three days at Thriftwood. You all made sure that the children got the most out of the experience - and many of you did this on very little sleep!

Have a very restful weekend everyone. Come back fully charged on Monday!

Letters sent home

Year 1 - 6 - Sports Day Information - 06.06.2025

Year 6

This week in science, Year 6 have studied human evolution and the adaptations that have occurred over millions of years.

As part of our geography and history work, we have begun research on the River Thames and what changes have taken place over time. The children have found out many interesting facts, mainly that its source does not start in London but instead runs through London.

Our writing focus this week has been based around our layered reading book 'Holes'. We have written as Stanley, who is the main character. The children have completed informal letters, diary entries and newspaper reports.

Practical maths has taken place this week, based on creating packaging for cakes. The children have created nets of cuboids and then scaled them up and produced them from card.

Letters sent home

Year 1 - 6 - Sports Day Information - 06.06.2025

Computing

Year 5 started the week with developing their knowledge and understanding of selection by using the ‘if…. Then…. Else’ structure. This meant children needed to use an infinite block to check a condition and decide how each sprite needs to be programmed.

In Year 1, children were given the following challenges; to add a sprite and a new background, to use an event block to start a program, include a motion block as well as using the purple ‘looks’ blocks where the sprite changes in appearance. Children really enjoyed the freedom to choose different backgrounds and characters this week.

Year 4 continued their learning on loops in Scratch and learned that there are two types of loops: infinite loops and count-controlled loops. They applied their learning by getting their sprite (dinosaurs) to dance and keep moving!

Year 6 learnt more about the types of cells that can be formatted on Excel, then used the four operations ( + - * / ) to perform calculations of how much it will cost to get to various tourist attractions around the country. Some children used Google Maps to calculate distances then applied the petrol cost to the distance.

During our Year 2 lessons this week, children had the opportunity to use different tools on Scratch Jr. including the editing function. Children were asked to add and remove sprites and parts of the backgrounds including the ability to program the candles to light and relight.

Online Safety

The remarkable growth of generative AI tools like ChatGPT has opened up exciting new opportunities for young learners. Used wisely, AI can be a powerful ally in boosting creativity, learning and problem-solving skills. However, without proper guidance, young people may stumble into challenges including inaccurate information, data security risks, and a growing reliance on AI over their own critical thinking.

From setting clear usage boundaries to teaching digital hygiene and promoting independent thought, this guide offers parents and educators practical advice on the safe, positive use of AI. With the right understanding and guidance, you can ensure that generative AI becomes a positive influence, rather than a potential pitfall in young people’s digital lives.