‘Maximum Effort for

Maximum Achievement’

Thursday 24th October 2019

Forthcoming Diary Dates School Dinners - Week 1 - NEW MENU

Friday 25th October

School closed for joint staff training with Buttsbury Infant School

Monday 28th October - Friday 1st November (inc.) Half Term

Monday 4th November

Children return to school Tuesday 5th November

5T and 5Fr visit to Sandford Mill

Parents’ Evening - 3.30pm - 6.30pm Thursday 7th November

5F and 5M visit to Sandford Mill

Parents’ Evening - 3.30pm - 6.30pm Friday 8th November

‘Wear something in House Colours’ non-uniform day for the Xmas Bazaar

After a very busy half-term, a short break is finally upon us! Thank you very much for all your support this half-term - everyone has worked exceedingly hard and, as

always seems to be the case, time has flashed by! Attached with this newsletter is the new menu which Jo,

our Catering Manager, has devised. We will run the menu for a full cycle (three weeks) and then undertake a parent and pupil survey to gauge how well the new meals have been received. We will then adapt the menu accordingly, provided that we are able to stay within the guidelines. ——————————————————————

Have a lovely half-term break and enjoy the lie-ins!

Parents’ Evening Tuesday 5th & Thursday 7th November

Just a few reminders about next week:

The meetings are for parents only - please make your own arrangements for child care.

To help us to keep to time, the bell will ring every ten minutes. Please don’t be offended if the teacher draws the meeting to a close when the bell rings - we can always arrange an additional meeting if more time was needed.

Parking will be available on the playground from 4.30pm.

Thank you, in advance, for your help in ensuring that the evenings run smoothly.

Non-Uniform Day – Friday 8th November As in previous years we would like the children to

participate by bringing in an item that will be used on a Tombola at the Christmas Bazaar. All of your donations will be gratefully received. This year, everyone is being asked to donate any items of chocolate. This can be any

boxed sweets such as Roses, Quality Street, Heroes, selection boxes and stockings, packets and bars of

chocolate. Please can the children come in wearing their house colours – Lions (Red), Panthers (Blue), Jaguars

(Green), Leopards (Yellow) - even just one item in their house colour would be great – so please don’t rush out and

buy new clothes. There is no need to wear any uniform items.

No sprayed hair though please - save that for ‘Wacky Hair Day’ in July please. Thank you.

Outdoor PE Please be aware that outdoor PE continues all through the

winter so please can you make sure your child has a school tracksuit or failing that, a dark-coloured tracksuit. It can get

quite chilly outside! Thank you.

Christmas Bazaar - Year Group Competition Just a reminder that we will be accepting donations for the

Year Group stalls after half-term: Year 3 – Red

Year 4 – Green Year 5 – Silver Year 6 – Gold

Children are asked to bring in an item or items in the above colours for their year group tombola. These can be

Christmas decorations, gifts, toiletries, pens, notepads, picture frames, food, jewellery, sweets etc. The Year Group that raises the most money on the day will earn themselves a non-uniform day on Monday 16th December so please support the stalls by donating gifts and also by visiting them

during the bazaar too.

Poppies After half-term, poppies will be taken around the classes daily so

children can purchase one. We also have a limited number of wristbands, pin badges and poppy key rings which the children may like. The minimum donation for a pin badge, wristband or key ring is £1. The suggested donation for a poppy is at least

20p. Thank you for supporting this year’s Poppy Appeal.

Lost Property During half-term, please can you check all items of

uniform are named so we can reunite them with your child! We are unable to store un-named items. Thank you.

Staffing News Miss Francis has some exciting news to share - she is

expecting a baby in February! We would like to pass on our congratulations to Miss Francis and her partner and wish

her a smooth pregnancy! I am in the process of organising suitable maternity cover for 5Fr and Miss Francis’ maths set.

This half-term’s attendance figure is: 98.4%! This year’s provisional attendance target is 97.8%.

A special ‘Well Done’ to Class 4F who had the highest attendance this half-term - 99.4%! Congratulations!

Afternoon Tea Our final afternoon tea for this half-term was for children who

are Number 27 in the registers. 96 children have taken part in Afternoon Tea

this term which is an amazing number and I know the

children thoroughly enjoy this event, waiting with great anticipation to see if their number will be pulled out!

Cloakroom Award Each week the children in Year 6 judge the cloakrooms in

the lower school and the upper school and select a winning class in each section for the ‘Tidiest Cloakroom’ award. Each time a class wins, a blue star with their class name on it, is put up on the display in the hall. At the end of every half-term, the stars are totalled up, with each star representing five minutes additional break. I am pleased to announce the results of the first half of the Autumn Term.

The following classes have all earned 5 minutes extra break:

3Mc, 3P, 4P, 4F, 5T, 5M, 6C, 6A and 6R Well done to 5Fr who earned 10 minutes extra break And, a very special ‘Well Done’ to 3M who earned

themselves 15 minutes extra break!

3PR Results Now we have reached half-term, we have our first ‘half-term’ winners. Each of our winning classes will receive some extra

break time! 1st - 3R - 146 tokens

15 minutes extra break 2nd - 6F - 144 tokens 10 minutes extra break 3rd - 5F - 143tokens 5 minutes extra break

I wonder who will be our next winners?

This week’s winning house: Panthers

This half-term’s winning house: Leopards

The children in Leopards will have 20 minutes extra lunch break on Friday

8th November as a reward.

School Discos Thank you very much to everyone who helped at the school discos on Friday. The discos were the first events organised

this year and I was amazed, not only by the number of children who attended, but also by the huge number of

volunteers. Hopefully we can keep up this level 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 you collected them. Overall, £1,976 was raised (a record amount for a disco)!

Buddy Boot Camp On Friday, 31 Year 5 children were lucky enough to be invited to the Buddy Boot Camp, hosted by William de

Ferrers. After the deluge throughout the night, we were all a little disappointed when were weren’t greeted by pools of

thick mud. However, we had the most wonderful sun throughout the event. After an intensive group warm up, the

children (and staff) started on the obstacle course: a troublesome tyre step; pole slalom; the dreaded 50m crawl through a ’mine field’; and finally another crawl but under

cargo netting. Having completed this twice, we were greeted with body weight exercise challenges and a group tyre pull. Despite the disappointment in the lack of really gooey mud, everyone came home exhausted and joyous from the mornings exercise. We would like to thank Mr

Tweedie, Miss Moore, Mrs Hennessey, Mrs Whiting, Mrs Carter and Mrs Hussey for joining us on our lovely morning.

Schools Ministry Assembly On Wednesday, Charlotte and Sue (Schools Ministry

Billericay) joined us to lead our assembly. Keeping with the theme of well-being, they grabbed the children’s attention with a game of healthy eating Pictionary and then shared

with them the New Testament reading about Jesus’ visit to Martha and Mary in which Jesus explains the importance of taking time out - very poignant giving our theme this week. We are grateful to Charlotte and Sue for taking the time to

join us and help us promote our Well-Being week!

Year 6 Boy’s Partnership Football Final This week it was the boys turn to compete in the

Partnership Final. The boys got off to the perfect start, winning their first two games 3-0 and 2-0. Unfortunately,

the boys then lost 1-0. Three 1-1 draws then followed but a fantastic 4-0 win concluded the tournament. Overall, the

boys finished a very impressive 3rd place and should take pride in the fact that their only loss came against the overall

winners. A big ‘thank you’ to Mrs West and Mr Clements who went above and beyond to assist with transporting the

children.

Out of School Success

Well done to Caela McMorris (5M) who was selected as ‘Player of the Week’ ’ in her second set of matches for Billericay Bees U10 rugby team.

Congratulations to Esme Pearson (4P) who won the ‘Player of the Match’ award for her football team, Perry Street Girls.

Well done to Austin Fearne (3R) who ran his first ever 3Km race (Chelmsford Park Run) on Sunday in under 17 minutes and also raised over £300 for Little Havens Children’s Hospice.

Congratulations to Tilly Cranshaw (5T) who performed in a play at Her Majesty’s Theatre in the West End on Sunday. She remembered all her lines, song lyrics and dance routines and thoroughly enjoyed her West End debut.

Well done to Lucy Clarke (6C) who attended and performed at the SEEA Dance Stars 2019 awards at the Civic Hall in Grays, last Sunday as part of the Dance Troupe LLD (Live Love Dance). Her school were nominated for 5 awards and won the outstand-ing choreography category.

Rainbow Awards

Well done to this week’s VIOLET award winners:

Emily Henderson, Leon Dearlove, Erin Barnes, Max Baker, Riley Anderson, Zach Palfrey, Scarlett Valk, Poppy Dackombe,

Henry Webb and Alfie Gray.

Congratulations to this week’s INDIGO award recipients:

Jamie Comitti, Amy Norman, Advika Soni, Amelia Stephens, James Lock, Ada Halder,

Elena Harris, Thomas Cavanagh, Saxon Minto, Ethan Wiles, Zara Foulser, Beau

Cunningham, Emma Henry, Anika Gupta, Abby Caldon, Max Hussey, Rupert Duncan, Alex Carter, Thomas Overton, Jack Watson,

Isabella Barke, Maxwell Bailey, Joshua Bateman, Holly Bubb, Ava Dean, Georgina

Nunney, Ellie Lovell, Archie Austin, Daisy Lewi, Chloe Nicel, Tilly

Lashmar, Amelie Rippon Jie Long He, Joshua Harrington, Harrison Campbell, Olivia

Tappin, Ava Quincey, Jack Martin, Amaya Weeks, Jash Dalal and Jack Cook.

Well done to our BLUE award winners:

Daisy Spencer, Eloise Lock, Robyn Brass, Holly Nethercoat, Lana Webb, Florence Meade, Megan Mecham, Gene Sullivan,

Claire Senior, Finley Walker, Archie Doyle, Isabella Rebel, Lucas Young , George

Murphy, Abigail Huggett, Henry Boswell, Tommy Cripps, Mia Eggleton, Eloise Minto,

Flora Noble, Esme Pearson, Ethan Bird, Abigail Small, Molly Sutton, Sophie

Lightfoot, Isabel Challand, Florence Brooks, Sophie Bickerstaff, Megan Lee, Edith

Longlade, Zak Smith, Archie Neathercoat, Louise Pocklington, Sophie Leach, Polina

Carter, Mason Grindrod, Millie Agate, Arthur McSharry, Ruby Edwards, Isabelle

Sargent, Jessica Park, Jessica Jobbins, Mimi Tarraf, Jessica Bowie, Isabel

Henderson, William Hughes and Freya Spencer.

50 Things To Do Before Leaving Primary School Well done to:

Tom Gill, Harry Alsemgeest, Gemma Lague and Jacob Pierce who all have completed 10 things at

home! Congratulations to Jacob Pierce who has completed

20 things!

Parents to Lunch This week we were joined for lunch by the parents and grandparents of

children in 3R and 3Mc. Everyone seemed to enjoy the experience as well as the tasty food. Thank you to everyone who came along and to our Catering Team, Midday Assistants and Mrs Risley, for facilitating the

events.

Headteacher’s Awards Headteacher’s Awards are the highest accolade achievable and are awarded to children who ‘demonstrate exceptional commitment to a

cause or activity showing the child has gone above and beyond normal expectations’.

This half-term, Heateacher’s Awards have been presented to: Toby Lashmar and Albert Longlade - for giving up their own

lunchbreak each day to lead Book Clubs in the library Maisie Burcombe - for huge commitment to learning and

enthusiasm in all that she does Robyn Brass - for being an outstanding ambassador for the school

Joshua Bateman - for resilience and tenacity Well done to Toby, Albert, Maisie, Robyn and Joshua

Secondary School Applications for September 2020 A reminder for Year 6 parents

I have been asked by Essex Schools’ Admissions to remind Year 6 parents that the closing date for applications for

parents of Year 6 children (for a secondary school place in September 2020) is 31st October 2019.

Applications can be made via their website: www.essex.gov.uk/admissions

Out of School Successes To celebrate your child’s ‘Out of School Success’ in the news

letter, please email details to: head@buttsbury-jun.essex.sch.uk

The Ark Day Centre Visit School Council representatives from each year group spent

another wonderful afternoon at The Ark Day Care Centre on Monday. The Ark Day Care Centre works hard to provide

stimulating activities to reduce isolation and increase interaction with others. As always, the children visiting baked lots of

delicious cakes which were enjoyed by both the clients and staff. The children all really enjoyed chatting and completing

puzzles with the clients, as well as challenging them to games of table tennis, air hockey and basketball! Thank you to Mrs Felgate

for organising the visit and to Mrs Willis and Mrs Felton for accompanying the children.

Children’s Chosen Charity Over the past few weeks, the children have been

considering what to choose as their Charity of the Year. Each class came up with lots of ideas and the School Council then narrowed it down to a short-list of five. The Core 5 then researched the five short-

listed charities and each class voted for their choice, using the information about the charities to help

them decide. I am pleased to inform you that, after this rigorous process, this year's Charity of the Year

is Cancer Research UK.

Vehicle Related Issue - Dropping off and Picking Up Please can we remind you not to stop on yellow lines/hatching outside Buttsbury Infant School and at the end of

Mill Hill Drive. Even though dropping off only takes a few minutes, it blocks the pavement and also causes congestion in the road. If you are using a taxi firm, please can you draw this to their attention too. Thank you.,

Layer Marney Tower Yesterday Year 6 took a trip back in time... all the way back to the

Viking era. They visited Layer Marney Tower for a full day of activities and workshops based around their History topic.

During the day, the classes took part in four activities. They first learnt about Viking daily life and tried their hand at some weaving. Each class also learnt about Viking society - they were interested to

discover that although we consider the Vikings to be ruthless in their ways, they were actually a civilised and self-sufficient people.

They took part in a ‘thing’ which was each communities’ way of settling disputes and problems (don’t panic - we did bring back those children who were banished). They also learnt more about Viking journeys, resulting in them making a longship out of clay.

The final activity was about Viking weapons. After trying on some of the armoury, the classes tried their hand at archery. They took great delight in shooting their arrows at the barn house, although

some of them needed to practise their aiming! The children all had a fantastic day and would like to thank all the

parents who joined them.

Healthy Schools’ Week – Wellbeing This week has been our annual Healthy Schools’ Week and our theme has been Wellbeing. The children have had an exciting and varied array of learning activities to help them understand

what wellbeing is. In Year 3, the children have been very creative making worry dolls, mindfulness jars and mood-monster booklets. The arts have been prominent in Year 4 where

they have been applying their learning from their music lessons to create soothing melodies to meditate to and they have created Zen style art. Year 5 have been thinking about how they can support others who may be going through challenging circumstances through answering agony aunt letters and exploring how their actions can inject positivity into others’ lives. Year 6 have started to learn about the similarities and differences between physical and mental health and

how engaging in an active lifestyle has a positive impact on both. The healthy tuck shop was a big hit again. We sold out of delicious fruit and vegetable

everyday with wedges of watermelon and slices of pineapple being the favourites once again. A big thank you to everyone who took part in our #helloyellow non-uniform day on Thursday, to

raise fund to support the charity Young Minds. All of the yellow on display definitely brightened up the school and ensured that we finished the week on a high. We raised £413.45

for Young Minds which is wonderful. Alongside all of these different activities, we have also welcomed in three guests to run

different workshops. Children have been taking part in well-being sessions; learning basic first-aid skills and trying yoga which have really brought the week to life and will provide children with some life-long wellbeing strategies. We would like to thank the Friends’ Association for

their support to enable us to invite our visitors in to support our learning this week.