Friday 1st March 2019

Welcome back to school. I hope that you had a lovely Diary Dates for Next Week half-term break and enjoyed the wonderful weather and a School Dinners - Week 2 slower pace of life - for a few days at least! Tuesday 5th March Next week, I will be accompanying the Year 4 children on  Year 3 Open Door event at 2.15pm their residential visit to Windmill Hill! I am really  Year 6 Netball Club cancelled looking forward to the opportunity of spending time with Wednesday 6th March the children in a more relaxed environment. In my absence, Mr Graves will be responsible for the  Year 4 residential visit to Windmill Hill day-to-day management of the school, supported by the Friday 8th March Senior Leadership Team.  Year 4 return from Windmill Hill (expected time Have a super weekend! of arrival is between 3.30pm and 4.00pm)

Parents’ Evening Year 3 ‘Open Door’ Afternoon It was lovely to see so many parents at our meetings on If you have a child in Year 3, you are very warmly invited Wednesday and Thursday. I hope that you found the to join them in their classroom on Tuesday 5th March from meeting helpful and that the report was informative. 2.15pm - 3.00pm. You will have a chance to experience life If you have any questions at all, relating to Parents’ inside a Year 3 classroom and get a flavour of some of their Evening or progress measures, please don’t hesitate to recent activities - you may even have the opportunity to join contact me. Don’t forget that we have our Maths ‘Drop-In’ in! As this is an informal, experiential afternoon, children’s meetings on Monday 11th March too. Thank you. books won’t ordinarily be available but there will be lots of work on the display boards for you to enjoy. Please could Date Reminder we ask that you don’t bring pre-school children along as the The Year 3/4 Choir Production is on Thursday 4th April at classrooms will be very full. Please could you come in 2.00pm. This year we will be performing ‘Cinderella’ through the front gate and then via the back door, near the based on Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes. Small Hall. Thank you and we hope you can join us! Staffing Update Sadly Mrs Hampton will be leaving at the end of Year 4 Assembly - Thursday 14th March the Spring Term to take up the position of Phase Leader at Unfortunately Year 4’s assembly clashes with Special Time Runwell Primary School. We wish her continued success for Class 6 at Buttsbury Infant School. As it’s really important in her exciting new role. If you would like to contribute that parents are able to attend both events, the Year 4 towards a leaving gift for Mrs Hampton, you can do so via assembly will start at the slightly later time of 9.40am. your Parentpay account - ‘Mrs Hampton’s Leaving Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience this may Collection’. Please could we have any contributions before cause. 29th March. To minimise disruption and ensure continuity for the children, 6H will be taught by Mr Graves when Mrs Hampton leaves at Easter.

Keeping Children Safe Online As you may have seen in the media recently, there are a number of alarming stories about children's online safety relating to a range of apps, games and crazes, such as the Momo Challenge. Keeping up with these and their potential risks can be a real challenge. If you would like some advice as to what some of these games and apps entail, and how you can support your child in using the internet safely, then please visit these websites: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/parents-ultimate-guides ‘Parents to Lunch’ https://nationalonlinesafety.com/resources/platform-guides/ We were joined at lunch time on Wednesday by parents of We have also recently updated the e-safety advice which can children in Class 6C who had been invited along to be found on the school website. sample our delicious school lunches. The parents We are proactive in keeping children safe online at school; we thoroughly enjoyed their lunch and also the opportunity to use specialist filtering for schools to ensure that children experience a lunch break at school! Thank you to the cannot access inappropriate content and we teach regular Catering Staff and our Midday Assistants for being so e-safety lessons where we educate children about potential online risks and how to respond to uncomfortable or flexible and accommodating and to Mrs Risley for challenging situations. organising the financial aspects of the event.

‘Maximum Effort for Maximum Achievement’ Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 Cross Country Competition On Thursday 14th February, our Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 girls and boys took part in the Billericay family cross-country competition at Mayflower High School. All of the children worked hard despite it being quite warm and unusual weather for February. The children showed fantastic teamwork towards one another when running which was lovely to see and they all ran with great determination and commitment. We are ‘Well Done’ to all the children who were very pleased to announce that overall the teams that are awarded MERIT certificates this week. through to the next round are the Year 3 Boys, Year 3 Girls, Year 4 Girls, Year 4 Boys, Year 5 Boys, Year 5 Girls and the Jack Watson Evie Plummer Year 6 Boys. In addition, we had many individual runners finish Emma Tribe Ashton Thomas in the top 3, which is fantastic and they were as follows: Eliza Hobden, Amy Tear, Erin Kelly. Ollie Carter, Roxy Hartman, Lola Johnston AJ Belcher Austin Kelly, William Clements, Toby Lashmar, Kesia Crees, Eadie Hatchard, Harriet Rowe-Goody and Lucy Sherwood. Charlie Garlick James Bailey A big thank you to Mrs Mason, Mrs Alderman and Mr Nation Maisie Rowling Izaak Brough for attending the event and supporting all the children. Lucy Harbrow Laura Bailey Maya Tseayo Hezar Musabak Megan Langshaw Ethan Ferris Elouise Butler-Russell Scarlet Nugent Annie Jerreat Max Baker Heidi Webb Henry Gilbert Baxter Poulter James Walton

This week’s ‘Writers of the Week’ are: Oliver Chandra Oliver Wiles George Hampton Sienna Coffill Tilly Cranshaw Ellie Lovell Abigail Crawford Well done to our writing super stars!

This week’s ‘Mathematicians of the Week’ are: Megan Jobbins Adam Bubb Harry McGee Freya Bushell Buddy Blewitt Ollie Alsemgeest Maya Tseayo Louis Burridge Sofia Tomlinson Afternoon Tea Sixteen very excited children made their way to the Well done to our magical mathematicians! staffroom yesterday to enjoy the delights of Afternoon Tea, minus the tea of course! The children once again spoke very confidently about their favourite pieces of work.

This week’s ‘Readers of the Week’ are: Tilly Walsh Austin Madle Libby Evans This week’s winning house: Penny Knight Thomas Overton Juliet Wenborn Jacob Pierce Isla Joyce Leopards Well done to our enthusiastic readers! Top Table 3PR Results This week, the children chosen Well done to everyone who managed to collect tokens this by the Midday Assistants to sit at the ‘Top Table’ were: week for walking in the 3PR zone! Ryan Strain The results this week are: Harry Vail 1st - 5T - 31 tokens Kesia Crees 2nd - 6R, 3P and 4M - 29 tokens Cameron Hunter Henry Gilbert 3rd - 5M - 28 tokens Well done for being selected!

This week’s attendance figure is: 98%! Yippee! This year’s attendance target is 97.6%. A special ‘Well Done’ to Classes 3D, 5S, 6A, 6C & 6H who all had 100% attendance this week! Congratulations! Out of School Success  Well done to Amy Norman (5S) who took part in the All Rainbow Awards Stars dance competition during half-term and came 3rd in her tap solo and was placed 1st and 3rd in her group dances. Congratulations to this week’s INDIGO  Congratulations to Saxon Minto (5T) and Kesia Crees (5S) who award recipients: have both been selected to attend the Talent County Swimming Camp following their recent performances at the Ben Bowden, Declan Reilly, Harry McGee Essex County Swimming Champs. and Kuzey Musabak.

Well done to our BLUE award winners:

Emma Shelley, Mae Saunders, Alex Le Carpentier, Elliot Stephens, Kobe Keily, Owen Anderson, Charlie Garlick, Sophie Thomas, Leo Sunderland, Max Baker, Milo Gould, William Rowley and Jake Barrett.

Congratulations to our GREEN award Year 4 PE – College Activities recipients: On Wednesday afternoon, 4M and 4U had a very exciting afternoon with Mr Brass and his Sports Science college Benjamin Anderson, Harry Hawkins, Laila students who had planned an outdoor session with several Walton, Libby Wright, Scarlet Nugent, exciting activities. The children took part in lots of different Emelia Dear, Grace Vasiliou, Lila Eve, Ellie activities, such as team building exercises, mathematical Lovell, Carys Foulser and Thomas Cavanagh. exercises and communication exercises. The children really enjoyed this different approach to a PE lesson and look Well done to our YELLOW award forward to the next session. winners:

Russell Salvatore, Logan Ellis, Connor Gutteridge, Shezan Mushabe, and Ruby Rumsey.

Congratulations to our ORANGE award recipients:

Connor Boyce and Shayan Agha,

Well done to this week’s RED award winners who are now working on the Midday Assistant Vacancy BRONZE POT OF GOLD which requires We are looking to recruit a Midday Assistant to join our lunchtime them to go ‘above and beyond’ to earn a team on Thursdays and Fridays. Hours are 12.00pm - 1.20pm. sticker! If you are interested in this vacancy, please contact Mrs Byfield, in the School Office, for further information. Mia Garnett, Aidan Dunbar, Leon Dearlove and Harry Dackombe. London Lions Basketball Award Well done to Lani Coughlan (6C) who has been selected as our first recipient of the London Lions Basketball Award. Lani has been the organiser and driving force behind getting all the new books in the library stamped and sorted. Miss Carroll has had feedback from a few teachers about how polite and sensible she has been in doing so. Lani has also been getting some of the Year 3s and 4s involved in helping and has been a real superstar! Well done to Lani - we hope you and your family enjoy your family pass to a London Lions basketball game!

Well-Being Week During our Well-Being week in November, children were invited to enter a competition, organised by and Brentwood NHS to design a bunting flag to promote healthy eating and fitness. I am delighted to share the news that Ella Bogen (6C) was selected as ‘Best of School’ and received a lovely trophy in assembly this morning. We also received a super ’lift the flap’ book about healthy lifestyles which will go into our school library. Well done to Ella and to everyone who entered.

50 Things To Do Before Leaving Primary School Well done to: Felicity Chiappe, Jessica Bowie, Jack Simnett, Holly Breathwick, Amber Harbrow, Tilly Cranshaw, Darcey Wallis, Alex Gilbert, Alex Lee, Lotty Smith and Harry Dackombe who have all completed 10 things at home! Congratulations to Albert Longlade who has completed 20 things at home! Some World Book Week photos

This week, the children have been enjoying our own Book Week. Each class has taken part in a range of different activities, from sharing different stories and creating their own; making monsters for the Gruffalo, creating origami bookmarks and designing comic strips.

On Wednesday, the whole school took part in D.E.A.R (Drop Everything And Read). At different points of the day, the bell rang and everyone, quite literally, had to drop everything and read- including the adults! The children loved reading throughout the day and teachers were greeted with groans when the children were asked to put their books down again!

Thursday morning saw the return of one of our favourite activities: Reading Buddies. Classes from upper and lower school paired up to share a story. This year, the classes in Year 3 and 4 chose a book and enjoyed the upper school children reading to them.

Of course, any Book Week would not be complete with being able to dress up as favourite book characters. Everyone from Harry Potter to Percy Jackson, from Where’s Wally to Little Red Riding Hood arrived for school on Friday morning. The children’s outfits were once again fantastic.

A big thank you to all the teachers and staff across the school who have embraced reading week, with a particular thank you to Miss Carroll who organised the whole week. The week has definitely promoted a love of reading for all of the children and staff!