‘Maximum Effort for

Maximum Achievement’

Thursday 29th March 2018

Forthcoming Diary Dates Friday 30th March - Friday 13th April (inc)

School closed for Easter Tuesday 3rd April

Year 6 Easter Revision Class, 9.00am - 3.00pm Monday 16th April

Children return to school for the Summer Term

Lunch Menu - Week 1 (New Menu) Tuesday 17th April

Friends’ Association Meeting at 8pm in the Meeting Room

Wednesday 18th April

Non-Uniform Day for Year 4 - their reward for raising the most money in the Easter raffle

Friday 20th April

Sponsored Skip for Great Ormond Street Hospital

School Discos - Year 3/4: 5.45pm - 7.15pm, Year 5/6: 7.30pm - 9.00pm

Monday 23rd April

St. George’s Day - themed lunch

4P and 4T visit to Hanningfield Reservoir

Easter is finally here! This term will be memorable for me for many reasons, but probably the most resounding one, is the snow! This winter, we have had four separate bouts of snow, two fell during the weekend, thankfully, but two

arrived during the week and seemed to be with us for days! I am hoping that, after so much snow, we won’t see

it again for another five years, at least! It has been a very busy, but successful term and I know

that the staff are looking forward to the break as much as the children! On behalf of the staff, children and governors,

I would like to wish you all a lovely, peaceful Easter holiday! Let’s hope the weather is kind to us and provides

ample opportunity to enjoy the break fully!

Monday 23rd April - St. George’s Day Commemorations To commemorate our patron saint there will be a special

themed lunch for the children to enjoy and in addition, if your child is a member of a uniformed organisation, e.g. brownies, cubs, guides, scouts, brigade, boys’ brigade, then they may

wear their organisation's uniform instead of their school uniform, if they wish. Please note that this is not a

non-uniform day; all other children should wear their school uniform (unless they are in 4P or 4T, of course, as they are

on a class visit). Thank you.

100% Attendance This term we had an astounding 224 children with 100%

attendance! A magnificent number! Well done to all these children who managed to dodge the bugs and viruses this term

- they have been presented with special certificates! Keeping to the theme of attendance, please can I urge you not to book holidays in term time as they almost certainly cannot be authorised. Please refer to the School’s Attendance Policy

(on the website) for further details. Thank you.

New Menu The Spring menu has been circulated via Parentmail. We have tried, as far as possible, to incorporate the views of

both children and parents alike and hopefully the new menu is to everyone’s liking! We have also introduced some new recipes for the children to try so please do encourage them to broaden their taste buds. We will run it for a complete

three-week cycle and then ask both parents and children to complete a short questionnaire and make amendments

following this, if required. Thank you.

Bag2School Event - Tuesday 1st May Just a reminder about the Friends’ Association Bag2School collection on Tuesday 1st May. Why not have a good clear

out during the Easter holidays? Any of the following are acceptable: clothes, bags, belts, shoes and soft toys. Please note that they no longer collect towels, school

uniform with logos, bedding or curtains. Please leave bags under the wooden shelter at the front of the school from

Friday 27th April. Thank you.

Cloakroom Award - Spring Term 2 This half-term the following classes all earned 5 minutes extra break for keeping their cloakroom

tidy: 3D, 3Ma, 4C, 5M, 6R and 6F

Special congratulations go to 3R and 6U who earned 10 minutes extra break during this half term!

Ball Wall In perfect timing for Creative Arts week, the painting of our Ball Wall has finally begun! The project is being led by professional artist, Matt Mackman, who has created a design which incorporates many of our children’s ideas.

Every child in the school will have the chance to paint part of the design which makes it even more special. If your

child has not had a chance yet, due to the two postponements, new dates will be shared after Easter.

Our Ball Wall project is underway and starting to take

shape!

This year’s attendance figure (so far) is: 97.3%! This year’s attendance target is 97.7%.

A special ‘Well Done’ to Class 4C who have the highest attendance this year so far - 98.4%! Congratulations!

Easter Raffle and Competition The hall was literally alive with excitement yesterday morning

when we drew the tickets for our first-ever Easter raffle. As well as the main prizes, we also had 61 Easter eggs and a basket full of cream eggs as prizes which had all been donated by members of staff. I would like to thank the staff for rising to (and exceeding)

the challenge I set for them of managing to collect 60 eggs! To add to the fun and competitive nature of the raffle, the year

group which raised the most money also earned themselves a non-uniform day on Wednesday 20th April. The results are as follows:

Year 3 - £98.90 Year 4 - £134.15 Year 5 - £131.30 Year 6 - £91.50

So, congratulations to Year 4 on earning their non-uniform day and thank you to all the children who helped sell tickets.

As well as the raffles, we also announced the winner of the ‘Guess the number of mini-eggs in the jar’ competition. Altogether there were 247 mini-eggs and the competition was won by Freya Clark.

The competition raised £120.50 which means that, overall, our Easter fun has raised £576.35 for the Friends’ Association!

Thank you for supporting our events! .

Film Night Thank you very much to everyone who helped at the Film

Night on Friday. It was another very successful event which was enjoyed by the children and adults alike! We raised £595 which is another fabulous amount of money

which will be used towards the replacement of the remaining computers in the ICT suite.

Enhanced Healthy Schools’ Award On Tuesday, Archie Walker (School Council Chair)

and Owen Andrews (School Council Vice-Chair) went with Mrs Coughtrey to Waltham Abbey Town Hall to receive our Enhanced Healthy Schools’ Award on behalf of the school. Mrs Coughtrey and the boys

said it was a very prestigious event which they really enjoyed attending. Well done to everyone who played a part in helping us to gain such an important award.

Year 3 Visit to Norsey Woods This morning, the children in Year 3 went on an outing to

Norsey Woods as part of the Creative Arts week with a link to their History topic on the Stone Age. Rumour had it that a Sabre

Tooth Tiger had been spotted in the woods... Having learnt about how the Stone Age people made weapons and hunted for food, Year 3 were up for the challenge of finding and

catching the beast. The children used natural materials collected in the woods to make their weapons. Unfortunately the Sabre Tooth Tiger had managed to sneak away this time and we managed to

bring all the children and adults back unharmed! Everyone had a fantastic time and Year 3 would like to say a big thank you to all

of the adults who helped out.

Creative Arts Week This week, Buttsbury has enjoyed a jam-packed Creative

Arts Week! We kick started the week with a re-enactment of the Titanic, tap dancing and life drawing in assembly.

Year 3 have participated in a Stone Age week where they

have produced some cave paintings, worked on pot making, completed a Sabre Tooth Tiger hunt and even

made their very own fossils. Year 4’s theme for the week

was The Jungle Book and they have created animal prints, jungle masks and animal dances! I wonder if Mowgli made

an appearance? Wallace and Grommit’s Cracking

Contraptions was the theme of the week for Year 5. This enabled them to develop their robotic dance moves, steam-punk art and computer animation skills. Moving further up

the school, Year 6 had the vast theme of New Zealand. Pupils have enjoyed learning to perform the Haka (ask

them to show you their Haka faces if you dare). They have

also made Maori jewellery, tribal masks and their own Maori inspired art work. We look forward to seeing

everyone’s efforts up on display around school very soon. A very fun and creative week to end this half-term with

which was thoroughly enjoyed by all!

Messages for the School Office

If you have an urgent message for the School Office, e.g. regarding

collection arrangements for your child, please can you phone the School Office

rather than send an email as we can’t guarantee that an

email sent late afternoon will be read before the end of the school day. Thank you.

Out of School Success

Well done to Jack Warren-Gunn (4P) who recently achieved his Purple Belt at Yushikai karate.

Congratulations to Archie Henson (4P) who passed his karate grading on Sunday and was also awarded his Purple Belt.

Well done to Ashton Bowerman (6U) and Sonny Bowerman (4C) who recently passed their Green Belt in karate!

Congratulations to Harry Showell (3M) who achieved his Green Belt in his Wing Chun Kung Fu grading.

Well done to Jamie Cooper (4P) who passed his Red Belt in karate this week.

Congratulations to Sophie Thomas (3Ma) who achieved her Yushikai karate Orange Stripe Belt at her recent grading.

Well done to Thomas Overton (3Ma) who has been progressing well in swimming and is now a Swordfish!

Congratulations to Faith Bower (6A) who represented Essex in the recent indoor athletics regional finals at UEA, Norwich on Saturday 24th March. Faith’s Under 11 category did

exceptionally well and scooped the Silver Medal!

This week’s winning house: Jaguars

The winning house for this half-term is: Leopards

They will enjoy 20 minutes extra lunch break on

Friday 20th April.

Rainbow Awards Well done to the following children who all

received their VIOLET award this week: Abigail Povey, Ruby Rumsey, Alfie

Woolmer, Kai Smith, Oliver McCreery, Harvey Heathfield, Oliver Coughtrey, Callum Pearce, Isabella Rowley, Abigail Crawford,

Luke Furness, Kieran Bradley, Tommy Hudd, Nicole Rogers, Ben Wenham, Jacob

Pickworth, Alexa Mann, Eloise Bishop, Shay Coughlan, Tyler Mitchell, Elsa Ward, Chloe

Healy, William Clements, Jake Barrett, Lucas Popescu, Nicholas Kostic, Esther Davies,

Heidi Webb, George Goodwin, Ellie Lovell, Hermione Poulter, Zara Ellis, Jack Watson

and Daisy Lewi. _____________________________________

Congratulations also to this week’s INDIGO

award winners: Amy Baker, Albert Longlade, Grace Barker, Yahia Asfour, Ruby Toll, Ana Sutton, Gene

Sullivan, Ebony Riches, James Walton, Emily Joshi, Tiffany Bullen, Ashton Thomas, Penny

Knight, Freya Agate, Max Hussey, Grace Marsh, George McCreery, Alfie Mills, Arlo Kittridge, Freya Liggins, Eadie Hatchard,

Elizabeth Salvatore, Anna Seeney, Ethan Lee, Frankie Anson, Travis Lapsky, Ethan Ferris, Isabella Barke, Ooviya Loganathan, Elliot Stephens, Caela McMorris, Elouise Butler-Russell, Sophie Rendell, Tilly Cranshaw,

Annie Jerreat, William Rowley, Ollie Carter, Lenny Batchelor, Bethan Armsden, Harry

Alsemgeest, Sam Havis, Max Langshaw and Harriet Borg.

_____________________________________

A very special ‘Well Done’ to the following children who received their BLUE award this

week: Jack Sawyer, Katie Warden, Jack Warren-Gunn, Millie Coffill, Jasmine Briggs, Isla

Joyce, Torsten Greenan, Adam Havis, Emily Harvey, Rebecca Brown, Hannah Ahmad, Tianah Chapman, Alex Lee, Juliet Vinton-

Smith, Honey Phillips, Gemma Lague, Archie Cushing, Ollie Alsemgeest, Archie

Austin and Harry Weston. _____________________________________

An even bigger ‘Well Done’ to this year’s

third GREEN award winner: Harry Hawkins

Year 3/4 Choir Earlier this afternoon the Year 3/4 choir performed their concert ‘Snow White and

the Seven Dwarfs’ to their parents and relatives. The children had worked exceptionally hard throughout the term, practising and preparing for the concert, with all but the final few rehearsals being held during their lunch break. The children sang, acted and danced with great confidence, truly captivating the audience. I would like to congratulate the children on their high-quality performance - I was immensely proud of

them. I would like to thank Mrs Backhouse for her assistance with the choir; Emily Hagland and Abby Nickin (both in 6R) for choreographing and teaching the dancing; Mrs

Dean and the Art Club for making the props and the parents for providing the children’s entrancing costumes. It was a great team effort. Thank you also for your

generous donations for the collection after the concert which will be used to purchase resources and music for our two school choirs. What a lovely way to end the term!

Clockwise from Top Left:

Jack, Archie, Ashton, Sonny, Harry, Faith, Thomas, Sophie and

Jamie.

Life Expo Some exciting afternoons have been had by Year 5 and

6 as they visited the Baptist Church on Perry Street this week. They were treated to a high-tech exhibition learning about the life and death of Jesus. Venturing

into coloured pods the children used wireless headphones and tablets to explore facts and answer questions. The children really enjoyed the session,

especially the juice and biscuits before the fun, final quiz. Thank you very much to the Schools Ministry

Team Billericay for organising the event.

Cross Country Partnership Finals On Wednesday afternoon, some of our Year 3, 4 and 6 girls and boys took part in a rather wet and windy cross

country partnership final at William De Ferrers School. All of the children that competed showed excellent

determination (even right at the end) and as normal gave fantastic encouragement towards each other. We had lots of individual runners finish in the top 10 which is fantastic.

We will now await the overall results to see which teams and individuals are through to County Finals.

A big thank you to Miss Taylor, Mrs Dean and Mr Nation for attending the event and supporting all the children.

Also, all of the parents who assisted with transport and as always for also being brilliant spectators – thank you.