Great Waltham C of E (VC) Primary School Parent Portal - Newsletter

Friday 27th May 22- Summer Term Issue 3

Headteacher Message

We reach half term, concluding with a very busy week. Each day has seen an event, Super Stars, Community Worship, Schools Gotta Dance, tennis, netball, IOW meeting, FOGWS disco, CVHS transition and today the Jubilee Celebrations.

It has been great to spend time with the children during these events. Thanks to the staff and volunteers for their efforts in a very long week.

In the past two weeks I have visited Flitch Green Academy, my new place of work from September, to meet new EYFS parents and here we have seen the successful recruitment of a new headteacher for September. So, I am now consciously completing tasks and thinking that is the last time I will do that here! Only 31 school days left this year quite incredibly.

The 14 Y5 children who danced at the Schools Gotta Dance Show at the Civic Theatre on Tuesday deserve huge credit. They have made memories for life and will always be able to say, 'I have danced on stage in front of a full audience!' Mrs Elmes, myself and all the parents were very proud of them on Tuesday.

Your children will be coming home with 3 items today:

The Queens Platinum Jubilee commemorative coin. They were kindly donated to all of the children from the Great Waltham Parish council.
A free commemorative book about Queen Elizabeth that celebrates the achievements of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth over the last 70 years. This has been supplied to all primary school children from the Department for Education.
Essex Year of Reading - Library card & book mark. Please see separate attached letter from Essex County Council.

We hope families can enjoy the local celebrations for the Queen's Jubilee next week - lots on offer in the local community.

It was great to see all the Red, White and Blue today. The Victoria Sponge was lovely too - thanks to the kitchen team.

Remember, we have two NPDs after the half-term holiday. School returns on Wednesday 8 June.

I hope you all have a great break, safe travels if that applies and fingers crossed for good weather.

Take care,

Mr Burden

Platinum Award Winners

Congratulations to our Platinum Award Winners for this term!

Class
Australia	Aran R & James A
Antarctica	Edward W & Ronnie W
Africa	Jennae FO & Zayn A
Europe	Sadie D & Reuben P
Asia	Josh A & Nabeeha A
North America	Alice B & Christine B

Curriculum

Class Australia delivered a splendid assembly last Friday - entertaining us with songs, actions, phonics, artwork and the simple fact that they are 4 and 5 years old! They are nearing the end of their special journey at school - the first year. They explored food technology this week making some Fruit Salad.

Thanks to families for supporting Community Worship on Tuesday. Our theme was 'Responsibility' and it was good to have Revd. Dawn talk to the children.

Well done to the FOGWS team for running two discos on Wednesday - Mr Parish was the DJ and performed the role admirably, especially in day light hours!

Children continue to enjoy their topics. Y2 children have made some super leaflets about Southend-on-Sea as part of their topic work.

KS2 are exploring the Vikings - each pupil using the internet to research an area of interest.

Y4 children practised their times table tests with a dummy run on the computers this week - they have the official Time Tables check later in June.

School Games

So many events to report on:

Bowls - well done to x8 Y6 pupils (see photo) for a 3^rd and 1^st place finish in their teams of 4. They were well deserving of their bronze and gold medals.

Rounders - our Y5/6 team came 3^rd at a tournament at Great Baddow, They had a great time, all hit the ball well and with better fielding may have come 2^nd on the day.

Y4 Super Stars - all Y4 children enjoyed participating in a variety of running, jumping, throwing and coordination activities at CSAC on Monday. We came 4^th, so well done to all the children and special mention to Moses for a 2^nd place in the boys' points total and Florence for coming 3^rd for the girls - great effort.

Y2 swimming lessons have started - thanks for supporting this. Being so far from a pool makes the logistics hard but this is a statutory lesson across primary schools and an obvious vital life skill.

Schools Gotta Dance - WOW! To see the children dance so well, work as a team, smile and perform in front of a packed theatre was so special. Well done all of you.

Tennis - 8 children from KS2 played some doubles matches against Mildmay School on Wednesday - they played well and enjoyed the opportunity to test their skills.

Netball - members of the netball club attended a training and game event at Parkwood School - a good opportunity to test their team skills.

Notices

Do you like gardening?!

On Wednesday 1st June (during half term), we have volunteers from Tesco Great Notley, coming along to the school to help with the clearance of our wildlife area.

There is much to do! Are you free to come along and help? Feel free to bring friends or family too. We are unable to supervise children so this will be an adult event.

We will be here between 9.30am - 2.00pm, come along anytime with your gardening tools!

Free Netball Taster Session for Years 3 & 4

Thursday 16^th June 3.15 p.m. – 4.15 p.m.

Advance notice - when some of my current Netball Club members are away enjoying their residential trip in June, I will be running a free Netball Taster Session, for boys and girls from Years 3 or 4. If your child would like to have a go at this fun sport, please make a note of the date and look out for the booking form after Half Term. The hour long session will include a warm up; passing, footwork and shooting skills; fun small-sided games; and a cool down. We will be following the principles of the England Netball Bee Netball Programme which gives children a great introduction to the sport.

Wendy Wilkinson, UKCC Level 2 Netball Coach

School Lottery - Thank you to all of our lottery supporters! We sold 73 lottery tickets again last week. Can you help us reach our target of 100 tickets?

You could win a local prize or even the main £25,000 pot! Also, currently up for grabs is a B&Q Gift Card.

Tickets can be purchased here - School Lottery - Please do let family members and friends know that they too can purchase Lottery tickets and help support the school. Each ticket costs £1 and 40p of this comes directly to the school.

National Online Safety

What Parents Need to Know about Cross-Platform Sharing of Inappropriate Content

A free online safety guide on cross-platform sharing of inappropriate content.

Creepy characters like Slender Man or Huggy Wuggy. Dangerous online challenges. Songs or videos that aren’t suitable for youngsters. When things like these begin trending online, it can be difficult to prevent children accidently stumbling across them – especially if they use a range of platforms, like online games, social media, streaming sites or messaging apps. A trend can originate in one online space and rapidly spread to other platforms or via chat apps. The frightening Huggy Wuggy character, for instance, first emerged as part of a game on Steam; now there are parody songs on TikTok, videos on YouTube and more than 45,000 results for #huggywuggy on Instagram.

In the guide, you'll find tips on a number of potential risks such as accidental exposure, inappropriate language and unsuitable videos.

Click here to enlarge the guide - Guide to - Cross-Platform Sharing

What Parents Need to Know about Discord

A free online safety guide on Discord.

Discord is a free app which allows users to communicate in real time via text, video or voice chat. Available on desktop and mobile devices, it was originally designed to help gamers cooperate – but has evolved into a more general networking platform for a range of online communities, discussing topics like TV series, music, Web3 and more. Discord is organised around closed groups, referred to as ‘servers’. To join a server, users must be invited or provided with a unique link. It’s a space for users to interact with friends, meet others with shared interests and collaborate in private online — but it’s also a place where young people can be exposed to risks if the right precautions aren’t taken.

In the guide, you'll find tips on a number of potential risks such as cyberbullying, predators and inappropriate content.

Click here to enlarge the guide - Guide to - Discord