Dear Parents/Carers

Happy Friday, everybody! We hope you all had a lovely, restful Easter break. How quickly the year has gone and amazingly we find ourselves at the start of the Summer Term!

REMINDERS

Bikeability

This will be taking place next week (25th - 28th April) and reminders have been sent out to parents of Year 6 children who are taking part. Your child will need to make sure their bike is in safe working order before the course starts. Girls may bring leggings to change into and all children should wear appropriate shoes e.g. no slip on style pumps.

Year 6 SATs meeting

This will be taking place in the school hall at 3:30pm on Wednesday 27th April. The purpose of the meeting is to inform parents/carers about arrangements for the week and to have an opportunity to look at a sample of SATs questions.

Homework for Year 6 is to continue with the revision set before the Easter holidays. Homework for Year 5 has been posted on the classroom pages.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Sharman, Mrs Devlin & Mrs Witherall

Happy Easter

 Dear Parents/Carers

We would like to wish you and your families a very happy Easter.

We hope you have all enjoyed the break and we are very much looking forward to welcoming the children back to school on Tuesday.

Just a couple of quick reminders:

Year 6 Hoodies

Thank you to those of you who have ordered a hoody for your child.  Please be reminded that the shop will close on Friday 22nd April.  Orders cannot be placed after this date.  Please make sure that you order the correct size.  Miss Sharman will check sizes once the shop has closed and will contact you if there are any problems.

Topaz Bikeability

Parents of Year 6 children in Topaz class will receive a text next week about dates for Bikeability.  

Dates are 25th-28th April.  Your child will need to make sure their bike is in safe working order before the course starts.  Girls may bring leggings to change into and all children should wear appropriate shoes e.g. no slip on style pumps.

SATs

Year 6 SATs week will commence on 9th May.  More details will be available next week.  Please make sure that your child does not have any appointments in school time during that week.

Once again, have a lovely Easter weekend.  Enjoy the sunshine.

Miss Sharman, Mrs Devlin and Mrs Witherall

 Dear Parents/Carers

Happy Friday, everybody! We hope you have all had a lovely week and are ready for a well-earned break for Easter! The Easter Bunny made a visit this afternoon and left the children with a special gift…

The children in Year 6 have been working hard to prepare for their SATs and have brought home a pack of facts and activities to continue to prepare for both English and Maths. There are page numbers to be completed for year 5 on Google Classroom.

Blue & Yellow Day

We all looked great today and raised much needed money for the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. We focused on how many children in Ukraine are not having their Rights met, including their right to a home (Article 27), their right to be safe from harm (Article 19), and their right to an education (Article 28).

Thank you to Mrs Gittings, who has raised over £300 thanks to her beautiful ribbons. 

Easter Activities in Essex

Please see below a message from Nicola Sparks, our Healthy Schools Engagement officer:

Easter Holiday Activities

 

ActivAte Holiday Clubs

Essex are pleased to be working in partnership with Active Essex to deliver over 100 Essex ActivAte

holiday clubs across Essex – supporting the physical and mental wellbeing of school aged youngsters!

We have once again extended the offer to provide spaces for those from low-income working families, alongside those who are eligible for benefits based on free school meals.

Find clubs near you and book here: www.activeessex.org/children-young-people/essex-activate/

 

 Library Activities

There are lots of events and activities taking place in libraries during the Easter holidays.  I would be grateful if you could share the information below with your colleagues, networks and the families you support:

Children’s Author Events – 8 children’s author events with 3 children’s authors are taking

place across the county. Full details and booking information is on our

website: https://libraries.essex.gov.uk/news/easter-holiday-author-events-for-children/

 

Big Easter Book Hunt – find golden tickets hidden in library books between 2 and 23 April

to be entered into a prize draw to win a Lenovo Tab M7: Full details on our

website: https://libraries.essex.gov.uk/news/big-easter-book-hunt/

 

Circus at the Library – several libraries are running circus-themed events across the

Easter holidays.  Additionally, Chelmsford Library will be running a circus skills workshop

(booking required and for which there is a charge):

Full details on our website: https://libraries.essex.gov.uk/news/circus-at-the-library/

 

Essex Libraries Photo project – we are looking for families to send us photos of them

reading in their favourite places in order to create colourful customer galleries in local

libraries. Full details of how to submit photos can be found on our

website: https://libraries.essex.gov.uk/news/essex-library-service-photo-project/

 

Story of the Month – to celebrate the Essex Year of Reading we are launching a virtual

story of the month. The video we share will be accompanied by activity ideas. The March

story is up on our website now: https://libraries.essex.gov.uk/news/story-of-the-month-march/

 

Bringing Stories to Life – we are hosting some storysack workshops in conjunction with

ACL: Full details and booking information is on our events

listing: https://libraries.essex.gov.uk/events/?&EventName=bringing&page=1

 

Other events and activities – there will also be other family events and activities

taking place at numerous libraries and full details can be found on our events listing

which is searchable by library and by audience: https://libraries.essex.gov.uk/events/

Have a great break!

We hope you have an ‘egg-citing’ Easter holiday.

Please note our emails will not be monitored until Tuesday 19th April when the children return to school.

Take care

Miss Sharman, Mrs Devlin and Mrs Witherall.

25.03.22

Dear Parent/Carer

Happy, sunny Friday everyone!  What a lovely week it has been!

This week in Year 5 and 6, the children have been taking part in assessments.  They have worked hard to show us how much progress they are making.  

As always when we complete assessments, there will not be homework this week.

Today, the children have made cards for a certain special day on Sunday and attended a sale to buy a lovely gift or two.  Thank you to the PTA for organising the sale.

Thank you to all of the Year 6 parents who attended the Isle of Wight meeting on Wednesday.  If you were unable to attend, your child should have brought home a copy of the Powerpoint slides we used.  If you have any questions regarding the trip, please email the school office or year5_6@downhallprimary.com 

Drop In Session - Wednesday 30th March

After school this Wednesday, we are excited to announce that there will be a drop-in session between 3:15-4:00pm! This will be an opportunity for you all to come into class  and to look at some of their work. We will send all the children out to you as usual on this day and once all the children are with their adults, you can come to the classroom. There will be sufficient time for you to visit more than one class if you have more than one child in school. We are very much looking forward to seeing you all on Wednesday!

Fundraising For Ukraine - Friday 1st April

Just a reminder that on Friday 1st April, the children will be able to wear blue and yellow clothes (non-school uniform) to school to help raise money for the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine - suggested donation of £1.

In class, we will be discussing how, many Ukranian children have become displaced through no fault of their own and how the conflict affects their right to be safe from harm, the right to a home and the right to go to school. 

Have a lovely weekend.  Enjoy the sunny weather while it lasts.

Miss Sharman, Mrs Devlin and Mrs Witherall

 

Dear Parents/Carers

We've come to the end of another busy week and it was great to finish the week having fun  celebrating Red Nose Day.

We had a lovely day wearing our noses in support of Comic Relief. In the morning, the children took part in the "Make You Smile Dance Challenge" and then showed their skills in the "Nose and Spoon Race!" Demand for noses was so great that our noses SOLD OUT! Thanks so much for all your generous donations towards this worthy cause. The total amount raised will be published in due course in the newsletter. 

Fundraising For Ukraine - Friday 1st April

On Friday 1st April, the children will be able to wear blue and yellow clothes (non-school uniform) to school to help raise money for the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine - suggested donation of £1.

We will be continuing to discuss the situation with the children as the crisis has been the dominant story in Newsround. We are very much focusing on the Rights of the Child and how the invasion has meant that children are not getting their right to be safe from harm, the right to a home and the right to go to school. The children are very much used to looking at events and situations by relating these to our rights, but if you have any concerns please let us know beforehand.

Year 5 and 6 homework

Homework has been posted on your child's Google Classroom page.  Please ask them to check.

Play Leaders

Congratulations to the Year 6 children who successfully applied for the role of Play Leaders. We are certain they will do a good job.

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Sharman, Mrs Devlin and Mrs Witherall

11.03.22

 

Dear Parents/Carers

This week in Year 5 and 6 we have been writing poems about water.  The children have produced some lovely work.  Watch this space for some examples next week.........

In project, we have been making Viking long boats.  They were a little fiddly to stick together, but the children percevered and rose to the challenge.

PTA FUNDRAISING FOR COMIC RELIEF

Noses will be on sale in school during the week commencing 15th March for £1.50. They will be sold during school hours in the same way that the Poppy Appeal items are.

The PTA will also be running a tuck shop in the playground after school on Friday, so please bring your pennies at collection for an after-school treat. Please be aware that due to Natasha’s Law, a parent/guardian will need to be present when making a purchase at the tuck shop. All packaging will be displayed so that parents can check ingredients.

Fundraising For Ukraine

As a staff we are very aware of the continuing, terrible situation and humanitarian crisis that is unfolding in Ukraine. In last week's newsletter there was information and helpful websites that support discussing this issue with your child should you wish to do so or if they are asking questions.

We will be meeting as a staff, next week, to plan for a fundraising event in support of the DEC campaign to help the people of Ukraine. We were mindful, however, that this event did not get muddled in with an already planned charity event in support of Red Nose Day. We will send details of this separate fundraising event in due course.

Year 5 and 6 homework

Homework has been posted on your child's Goggle Classroom page.  Please ask them to check.

Play Leaders

Thank you to the Year 6 children who have given in their application forms to become Play Leaders.  Miss Sharman will be looking at them this weekend and will let children know whether their application has been successful next week.  

Have a lovely weekend

Miss Sharman, Mrs Devlin and Mrs Witherall

 Dear Parents and Carers

This week the children thoroughly enjoyed World Book Day. It was great to see them in their costumes and also to see how carefully they had thought about the props they brought in to use to give clues to their favourite stories. In the afternoon, the children had great fun creating their own games based around books e.g Bookopoly, their version of Monopoly.

Homework pages for this week have been uploaded to Google Classroom. Please make sure your child checks which pages they need to complete and remind them to hand their Maths homework to their Maths teachers, not to their class teacher. 

Polite Reminder

If you have not yet returned the Isle of Wight form, attached to the recent letter about the meeting on Wednesday 23rd March at 3:30pm, could you return it as soon as possible please.

We hope you have a lovely weekend.

Miss Sharman, Mrs Devlin and Mrs Witherall.