Watling Weekly

9th December 2024

Attendance

A great week with two classes reaching 99% attendance. We had Hedgehogs on 99.4% and Foxes on 99%. Then Woodpeckers were not far behind on 97.9%.

Hopefully we can all have a healthy and happy last two weeks of term and into the holidays.

Christmas Tree Festival

I hope that everyone who attended the Christmas Tree Festival at the Priory Church had a great time and enjoyed finding our tree.

Bullying Poster competition

Our values for November have been kindness and respect, specifically looking at Bullying. We are holding a poster competition and would like children to design a bright colourful poster that promotes awareness of an aspect of bullying. The poster should include a slogan and illustrations. If you don’t have colours at home, a black and white design is fine and we can let your child colour it in at school.

To help you with ideas for the poster, these are the key concepts that we have covered in our assemblies:

The definition of bullying is persistent unkindness directed towards a targeted person or persons.
We talked about the lasting impact it has on the person being bullied and how it makes them unhappy and scared even when they are at home. It can affect their relationships and make them less confident to be themselves.
We looked at the reasons that people bully, including thinking that the bully themself may be very unhappy, lacking confidence or feeling jealous. This isn’t to diminish the hurt they have caused, but to show that it is even more important to speak out because both children may need help.
We looked at what actions we should take to help. In every scenario, the most important thing to do is to talk to a trusted adult.
Bullies rely on people staying silent and keeping that control over the person they are bullying. When we speak out, we take back that control. If we know someone is being bullied, we must also speak out, but we can also make a big difference by showing them kindness, support and friendship.

We will judge the winners after the Christmas break and so the closing date is Friday 10th January. We will then use some of the designs as posters around the school.

Christmas Kindness

Once again, we are asking children to think about others at this time of year and to complete a kind act for someone. This could be a family member, a friend, a neighbour or even the whole community. All that we ask is that the act should not be a part of their normal routine and that it takes some effort on their part to show the person that they care.

The kind act in and of itself is worth doing because we enjoy that feeling of doing something for others. But to encourage children to also bring back their present card, we will put all of the completed ones into a raffle to win a prize.

Children will come home with a present card and on the back, the kind act can be written. Don't forget to include the child's full name.

Break The Rules Day!

Next Friday, 13th December, is our Break the Rules Day. Children are able to break 'some' and I must stress that it is some of our rules, which can be seen on the poster. It costs 50p to break each one or pay £3 to break them all.

It promises to be an exciting day because in the afternoon, we are travelling to The Grove Theatre for the Pantomime.

Panto arrangements: Yr 1 - 4

It is really important that you are aware of all of the arrangements for the day, especially the pick-up routine. All of these can be found in the letter below.

Panto arrangement letter 2024.pdf

Christmas Nativity Plays

We are not far away from Early Years and KS1 nativity plays. Parents and carers in the relevant classes should have received a Parentmail with details of our ticket arrangements. We are allocating two tickets per child per performance. We won't be producing an actual ticket but will tick names off against the list of children who are performing. We have set up payment items in Parentmail to make a donation towards the licenses, cost of the scripts and costumes etc.

Early Years Nativity - Grasshoppers and Butterflies

KS1 Nativity - Foxes and Hedgehogs

Christmas Dinner and Jumper Day - Wednesday 18th December

On Wednesday 18th December we will be raising money for Save the Children by Wearing our Christmas Jumpers that day and donating towards the charity. It is not the charities chosen day but we have aligned it with our Christmas Dinner day to make it extra festive.

Just Giving page link: https://christmas.savethechildren.org.uk/fundraising/CJD240010669