Thursday 19th October

After a very busy half-term, a short break is finally upon Forthcoming Diary Dates us! Thank you very much for all your support this half- Friday 20th October term - everyone has worked exceedingly hard and, as  Non-Pupil Day - school closed for staff training always seems to be the case, time has flashed by! Monday 23rd October - Friday 27th October (inc.) Attached with this newsletter is the new menu which Jo,  Half Term our Catering Manager, has devised. We will run the menu Monday 30th October for a full cycle (three weeks) and then undertake a parent and pupil survey to gauge how well the new meals have  Children return to school been received. We will then adapt the menu accordingly,  Year 3 and Year 5 Assessment Week provided that we are able to stay within the guidelines.  Lunch Menu - Week 1 (New Menu) Have a lovely half-term break and enjoy the lie-ins and  Friends’ Association Meeting at 8pm in the hopefully the mild weather will continue. Meeting Room Thursday 2nd November Assessment Week  Year 4 Inter-House Gala, Mayflower High Well done to all the children in Years 4 and 6 who School, 7.30pm admirably rose to the challenge of the various tests they  Year 6 Inter-House Gala, Mayflower High faced this week. We were very proud of their positivity and School, 8.15pm commitment. Thank you to the year group leaders and teachers for all the time spent planning the complex Friday 3rd November timetables and to all the teaching assistants who  Flu Immunisations supported individual children. Thank you also to the other teachers in the school who released their own teaching Midday Assistant assistants as required. A very successful week all round. We are still looking to recruit additional Midday Assistants to join our lunchtime team on various days of the week. Parents to Lunch If you are interested in this vacancy, please contact Mrs We had two ‘Parents to Lunch’ events this week - 4C on Byfield, in the School Office for further details. Thank you. Monday and 4P on Wednesday. Once again, everyone seemed to have a lovely time and thoroughly enjoyed their Christmas Bazaar - Year Group Colour Competition lunch. Thank you very much to our catering team, our Don’t forget to start bringing in items for the Year Group MDAs and Mrs Risley who all played a part in ensuring Colour Competition from after half-term: both children, parents and grandparents had a Year 3 - Red delightful lunch. Year 4 - Green Year 5 - Silver Year 6 - Gold The year group that raises the most money will earn themselves a non-uniform day as a reward!

Bag2School Event - Friday 10th November Just a reminder about the Friends’ Association Bag2School collection on Friday 10th November. Why not have a good sort out during half-term? Any of the following are acceptable: clothes, bags, belts, shoes and soft toys. Please note that they no longer collect towels, bedding, curtains or school uniform with logos. Please leave bags under the wooden shelter at the front of the school from Lost Property Wednesday 8th November. Thank you. During half-term, please can you check all items of uniform are named so we can reunite them with your Parent Governor Vacancies child! We are unable to store un-named items. Thank you. Just a reminder that, after half-term, we will begin the formal process of seeking nominations for the two vacancies we have Homework Diaries (Year /5/6) for parent governors. The final date for nominations is Monday Reading Records (Year 3/4) 20th November. If you are interested in finding out more about the role, please catch me at the gate or drop me an email Please can we remind you to sign these each week as they (head@buttsbury-jun.essex.sch.uk). I can then arrange for one are a valuable way for home and school to communicate. of our existing parent governors to contact you as they are Thank you. probably best placed to tell you about the role. Thank you.

‘Maximum Effort for Maximum Achievement’ Girls’ Netball CVL Tournament - Round 1 On Wednesday morning our Year 6 girls took part in a rather wet and windy 1st round of the CVL Netball tournament held at Billericay High School. Two teams entered the competition and all the girls played some fantastic netball. We saw some excellent defending and teamwork both on and off the court. Both teams played against local schools such as Quilters, Stock ‘Well Done’ to all the children who were and Downham. We are very pleased to announce that Burgundy Buttsbury finished in 2nd place and Blue Buttsbury finished in awarded MERIT certificates this week. 4th place. A big thank you to Mrs Coughlan, Mrs Hoare, Mrs Cameron Hunter Carolina Steven Olufawo for attending the event and supporting our girls with transport and also to Miss Taylor, our netball coach. Sofia Tomlinson Baxter Poulter Zachary Liggins Ooviya Logantahan Ollie Carter Oliver Chandra Archie Cushing Emma Tribe Archie Anson Olivia Cooke Aidan Steward Ben Bowden Laila Walton Max Baker Chloe Birch Izaak Brough Emma Harrington Lucy Harbrow Charlotte Aris Frankie Anson Heidi Webb Oliver Driscoll Megan Jobbins Laura Simpson Sophie Thomas Leo Sunderland Lotty Smith Jamie Jones Max Hussey Kieran Bradley County Finals here we come! Freya Bushell Mary Hogarth Yesterday saw the Year 6 Boys Football team play in the Harry McGee Harry Thompson William de Ferrers School Sport Partnership Final at the Hayden Fitch Nicholas Kostic William de Ferrers Leisure Centre. Having qualified with Downham, the two Billericay teams were joined by Trinity Isabella Barke Travis Lapsky St Mary’s Primary School and Woodville Primary Emily Hagland School (winners of the South Woodham Ferrers partner- ship) and Wickford Junior School and Grange Primary School (winners of the Wickford partnership). Despite the weather and poor light, Buttsbury’s boys won three matches and drew two matches to remain undefeated this season. They finished in first place and now progress This week’s ‘Writers of the Week’ are: through to the County Finals. Congratulations to the team Louis Burridge Lola Johnston Leila Cable for representing Buttsbury so well. A big thank you to all Rory Pierce Ben Nash Alexander Lee the family members who transported the boys to the venue Lani Coughlan Oliver Sargood and cheered them onto victory! Thank you also to Ms Well done to our writing super stars! Marshall, our team manager/coach! A great start to the sporting season! Assembly Theme - It’s Good to be Me! We were joined on Monday by Ruth and Sue from the Cloakroom Award Schools’ Ministry Team who introduced this week’s theme Each week the children in Year 6 judge the cloakrooms in in a very innovative way which involved a life-size card- the lower school and the upper school and select a board Mr Potato Head. The overall message was that we are winning class in each section for the ‘Tidiest Cloakroom’ all different but special in our unique, individual way. It award. Each time a class wins, a blue star with their class was lovely to welcome Ruth and Sue to Buttsbury for their name on it, is put up on the display in the hall. At the end first visit of the academic year. of every half-term, the stars are totalled up, with each star On Wednesday, Oscar Nugent and Olivia Evans (House representing five minutes additional break. I am pleased to Captains for Jaguars) led our assembly alongside some announce the results of the first half of the Autumn Term. other members of their house. This was the first assembly to The following classes have all earned 5 minutes extra be led by House Captains this year and they set the bar very break: high. Their assembly included a short play as well as an 4C, 4T, 4P, 5S and 6R interactive presentation. The whole school was mesmerised Well done to the following classes who earned 10 minutes throughout! Well done to Oscar, Olivia and the children extra break: who assisted, and to Miss Ferguson for her guidance. 3Ma, 3D, 5M, 6U and 6F

This half-term’s attendance figure is: 98.4%! This year’s provisional attendance target is 97.7%. A special ‘Well Done’ to Class 4P who had the highest attendance this half-term - 99.6%! Congratulations! Out of School Success GET SET Awards  Well done to Cem Musabak (5S) who plays for Congratulations to Emily Geary, Rory Pierce and Billericay Bees Under 10 rugby team and was Ollie Carter who all received their BRONZE GET awarded ‘Player of the Week’ trophy during the SET award today. weekend!  Congratulations to Lennon Hartman and Teddy Design A PE Lesson - Healthy Schools’ Week Hoffman (both in 6R) who successfully made it through three rounds of trials to be I am delighted to announce the winners of this selected for the District Football Team! competition: Year 3 - Panthers, Year 4 - Jaguars, Year 5 - Leopards and Year 6 - Jaguars. The overall winning lesson was: Leopards, 5T. Inter-House Cross Country All the winning lessons have been taught to the Throughout the week the children have had a great time competing children! Well done to our winning Houses and in their houses in the Inter-House cross country competition. Each congratulations to everyone who took part - the year group went out at a different time during the week and ran laps standard was very high so judging was very tough. of the field to compete for top place. There was lots of cheering and the runners all really tried their best. The scores have been counted and verified and the winners were: Shakespeare Day Year 3 – Joint 1st place were Lions, Jaguars and Panthers Last Friday, Year 6 had a visit from the Young Year 4 – Panthers Shakespeare Company who performed a production Year 5 – Lions of Macbeth. The visit was to support the children’s Year 6 – Lions literacy unit of ‘Stories from our Literary Heritage’. Making the overall winners the Lions! Well done to all that took part As well as being in the audience, the children were as there was maximum effort for maximum achievement! actively included in many of the scenes as actors, from eating at a royal banquet to becoming soldiers in a battle upon the eerie heath! The children thoroughly enjoyed the performance and have written some excellent stories based on typical Shakespearean themes.

Pupil Voice Event - Friday 13th October On Friday afternoon, Archie Walker (Chair) and Owen Andrews (Vice Chair) of the Core 5, represented our school at the Student Voice Cluster Meeting which was held at Downham C of E Primary School. They had an extremely productive afternoon, interacting with other schools and meeting other members of the Student Voice. Several schools from around the area came together to discuss and formulate a list of '50 things to do before you leave Primary School'. They were also asked to think about a local community idea that could be run by our school. The boys set an outstanding example, confidently speaking and sharing their fantastic ideas with others. Well done Archie and Owen! We look forward to pursuing your ideas and Top Table you feeding back to the school in due course! This week, the children chosen by the Midday Assistants to join me at the ‘Top Table’ were: Marcus Slater Afternoon Tea Isabelle Hoffman The final event for this half-term was afternoon tea for the children who are Freya Agate Number 10 in the registers. (Photo to follow in the next newsletter). 112 Grace Vasiliou children have taken part in Afternoon Tea this term which is an amazing Alexander Lee number and I know the children thoroughly enjoy this event, waiting with Well done for being selected! great anticipation to see if their number will be pulled out!

School Discos Thank you very much to everyone who helped at the school discos on Friday. The discos were the first events organised by our new committee This week’s winning house: and I was amazed, not only by the number of children who attended, but Jaguars also by the huge number of volunteers. Hopefully we can keep up this level This half-term’s winning house: of support throughout the year. The children had a brilliant time - as you will probably have noticed by how sweaty and warm they all were when Jaguars you collected them. Well done to Laura, Claire, Ruth and Andrea in their The children in Leopards will have 20 new roles! Overall, £1,249 was raised which is going to be used to purchase minutes extra lunch break on Friday a defibrillator for the school. 3rd November as a reward. Cookery Lesson On Wednesday, 6F were treated to a cookery lesson with Mrs Head, the school cook. They learnt about the importance of having a balanced diet and also to look out for the traffic light system on food packaging. The children followed Mrs Head’s instructions and created a delicious ‘fruity yoghurt cup’ from ingredients including mixed berries, natural yoghurt and oats. They looked and tasted delicious!

Poppies These will be taken around the classes daily after half-term so children can purchase pop- pies. We also have a limited number of wrist- bands and poppy key rings which the children may like. The minimum donation for a wristband or key ring is £1. The suggested donation for a poppy is at least 20p. Thank you, in advance, for supporting this year’s Poppy Appeal.