‘Maximum Effort for

Maximum Achievement’

Friday 26th January 2018

Diary Dates for Next Week School Dinners - Week 2

Monday 29th January

Healthy Tuck Shop starts today

E-safety workshop for parents, 1.15pm - 3.00pm (Small Hall)

Wednesday 31st January

Swimming Gala (pm) - Billericay School

Year 5/6 Tag Rugby Partnership Final - after school - William De Ferrers School

Thursday 1st February

Year 5 Anglo-Saxon themed day/workshops

Another busy week draws to a close and we already find ourselves with just two weeks left of this half-term! Mrs Lavelle popped into school last week with baby

Harry. She is very much enjoying spending time at home with her son, so much so, that she has decided not to

return to her position at Buttsbury. Naturally, this is sad news for Buttsbury as we will definitely miss such a key member of our team but I am sure, for Mrs Lavelle and

Harry, it’s good news! The process of recruiting a new Deputy Headteacher has

already begun and we hope to make a successful appointment before the end of term.

Consent Forms Please could we ask you to complete online consent forms as soon as possible after you receive them and definitely by the deadline. Once all the responses are in, teachers need to

complete the risk assessment for the event and organise logistics, such as transport and medication. This is a time

consuming process and one which needs to be accurate and not rushed - hence the need for prompt completion of forms. Prompt return will also save Miss Whitfield from having to

spend so much time chasing responses. Thank you, in advance, for your assistance.

Communication with School If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to drop me

an email as I am fairly confident that I could quickly put your mind at rest, answer any queries or explain the rationale behind decisions.

This is far preferable to putting a message on Facebook as you know the response will have come directly from the school. As I am

sure you are aware, social media can lead to a variety of well-meaning responses being shared, which are not always

accurate. My email address is: head@buttsbury-jun.essex.sch.uk. Thank you.

School Disco Last Friday night, we once again held our very popular

school discos. As always, the children and even some of the teachers threw themselves into the spirit of the evening

with lots of fun dancing and singing and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. We would like to thank the

members of the Friends’ Association, parents and staff who gave up their Friday evening and helped to support

the event! The total raised was £1165.83 which is a fabulous amount of money!

Assemblies Miss Carroll led our Monday morning assembly which introduced the theme for this week - Global Awareness. Miss Carroll and the children explored this by thinking about pollution and how we can help, using the motto:

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. On Wednesday the children were treated to a very diverse assembly covering global warming and fencing! It started

off with a very professional contribution from the Leopards’ House Captains, Evangeline Pierce and Teddy

Hoffman. They explained about the key gases involved in global warming (carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous

oxide) and things that we could do to reduce these gases being created, for example, recycling and not wasting

water. Mrs Coughtrey, along with the rest of the school, was very impressed with their Powerpoint, organisation

and entire presentation. Well done to Teddy and Evangeline for all their hard work and thank you to Miss

Featherstone for assisting them. Phil, from Little Musketeers, had a hard act to follow but held the children’s attention with some brilliant fencing

teaching and his four helpers demonstrated the skills

exceptionally well. From coordination skills to a fencing duel at the end, the whole school was mesmerised.

Twitter Don’t forget that our new website has a Twitter feed to keep

you updated on all happenings at Buttsbury. Our Twitter account, if you’d like to follow us, is: @ButtsburyJunior

‘Well Done’ to all the children who were awarded MERIT certificates this week.

Olivia Huggett Elsa Ward Alexander Borg Jake Barrett Gulsu Bekem Jessica Ramsden Callum Brown Olivia Evans Oliver Gill Katie Stimpson Samuel Jerreat Harvey Barker Eloise Lock Ava Wilkins Isabel Cheesman Jamie Comitti Aisha Sarfraz Andew Dmitriev Daisy Spencer Jamie Weddell Isabelle Lee Joseph Pierce Yahia Asfour Holly Nethercoat Gracie Comitti Charlie Nicel Abby Nicklin Benedict Walker Oscar Nugent Mar Torres-Gonzalez Abbey Prior Lukas Tyler

Basketball News On Friday 19th January, the Year 6 Basketball Team took part in the County Finals at Harlow Leisurezone. It was a long and tiring day of games, with the team

playing 3 games in the morning tournament and a further 4 games in the afternoon!

After finishing third in their morning group, the team narrowly missed out on a spot in the final 8, finishing the competition in ninth place overall. It was a fantastic day and all of the children

demonstrated great sportsmanship. Huge congratulations to the team for finishing ninth out

of all of the Essex schools and a further commendation for their wonderful attitude

throughout the day. Thank you to Mrs Baker and Mr Batchelor for

helping with transport and cheering on the team throughout the day and to Miss Carroll, our team

manager/coach!

This week’s ‘Writers of the Week’ are: Elena Harris Samuel Cregg-Lock Olivia Harris Aidan Sterry Fatima Ahmed Lara McKenzie

Lennon Hartman Faith Holcombe Well done to our writing super stars!

This week’s attendance figure is: 96.8%! Oh no! This year’s attendance target is 97.7%.

A special ‘Well Done’ to Class 4T who had 100% attendance this week! Congratulations!

This week’s ‘Mathematicians of the Week’ are: Jack Sawyer Faith Bower Ruby Phillips Sophie Hill Lara McKenzie Erin Blake

Callum Brown Evie Carvell Amy Howlett

Well done to our magical mathematicians!

Prime Time Basketball League The week kicked off with the Year 4 team playing against St. Peter’s (South Weald). It was a tough game, with the

points being 6-6 at the end, but the victory was awarded to Buttsbury on quarters! Well done Year 4!

Our Year 3 team played on Tuesday, in their first-ever game in the Prime Time league. It was a great game which saw us beat Shenfield St. Mary’s 10-6. Great work Year 3!

Our Year 6 team played on Wednesday against a mixed team of players from other schools, called The All Stars.

Again, Buttsbury played extremely well and won the match overall. Well done Year 6!

Our Year 5 team were also in action on Wednesday, against Hutton All Saints. The team worked really well

together but sadly did not manage to win today. Excellent effort from Year 5 though.

Thursday saw our two girls’ teams playing. The Year 5/6 team was against St. Thomas’ and put up a great fight but

sadly lost 2-1. Our Year 4/5 team played a very experienced Year 6 team from St. Mary’s. They rallied

round and fought hard but sadly the older, more experienced players were just a little bit too tough for

them! Well done to both our girls’ teams for their outstanding effort and commitment.

Well done to all our players this week and thank you to Miss Carroll, Miss Unite, Miss Donnelly, Mr Tweedie

and Ms Marshall for accompanying the teams. Thank you also to Miss Whitfield who organised all the logistics required for 60 children to compete in just one week!

Out of School Success

Well done to Charlotte Aris (5M) who recently passed her LAMDA certificate performance award in Acting Entry Level in a duo with Distinction!

Congratulations to Freya Agate (3Ma) who also recently passed her dram exam - achieving Distinction in her very first LAMDA exam which included reciting two very lengthy poems.

Well done to Alexa Mann (6F) and Evangeline Pierce (6A) who represented Basildon & Phoenix Swimming Club in the medley relay at last weekend’s county championships and won the Gold

medal!

Congratulations to Bethan Armsden (3D) who received a swimming certificate on Monday evening and has moved up a class to Killerwhales!

Well done to Oliver Chandra (3M) who recently completed his 10th Billericay 5K Parkrun on Saturday with a personal best time of 24mins and 16 seconds!

Congratulations to Abbey Prior (6U) who was presented with her 4th award from Mayflower Archers for scoring above the required threshold at 20 yards.

This week’s winning house: Jaguars

Rainbow Awards Well done to the following children who all

received their VIOLET award today: Lucy Clarke, Millie Coffill, Jasmine Briggs,

Lara McKenzie, Angus Noble, Luke Andrews, Ollie Alsemgeest, Emma Tribe,

Ryan Strain, Lola Johnston, Archie Cushing, Harrsion Dempsie, Eadie Hatchard, Anna

Seeney, Ethan Lee, Elizabeth Salvatore, Lana Bailey, Jessica Ramsden, Pijus Pranevicius,

Isabelle Hoffman, Lucy Wiltshire, Max Williams, Jaime Obery, Eloise Lock, Jessica

Agg, Emma Hughes, Phoebe Thompson, Amy Baker, Toby Lashmar, Jamie Comitti, Aisha Sarfraz, Fatima Ahmed, Anya Mistry,

Megan Mecham, Edward Taylor, Naomi Clements, Ellen Hood, Isabelle Lee, Holly

Nethercoat, Philippa Warhurst, Sophie Farrow, AJ Belcher, Cem Musabak, Mae Saunders, Archie Anson, Rebecca Brown,

Leila Cable, Hana Ahmad, Emma Harrington, Harry Jones, Ella Patten, Rory Pierce, Shane

Preston, Max Pounder, Elsie Crooks, Evangeline Pierce, Olivia Evans, Lewie Tear,

Alex Lodge, Isla Joyce and Chloe Lauder.

We also had our first two INDIGO winners this week - Amelia Rogers and Olivia Cooke.

Well done!

Top Table This week, the children chosen by the Midday Assistants to join me at the ‘Top Table’ were:

Hermione Poulter Hezar Musabak

Zion Savage Emily Simmons Tyler Mitchell

Well done for being selected!

This week’s Top Table winners!

Afternoon Tea Once again, the children really enjoyed coming along to ‘afternoon tea’ and enthusiastically tucked into the chocolate biscuits, cakes and squash. They

were equally excited to talk about their favourite pieces of work this year and shared their art, history, maths and literacy with great confidence.

Clockwise from top left: Charlotte Aris Freya Agate

Bethan Armsden Oliver Chandra

Alexa (L) & Evangeline (R) Abbey Prior

Parking Issues You might have spotted our local PCSO, Caroline, around and about this week. She is going to try and directly assist with the parking issues whilst

in the area and indirectly by contacting owners of cars that are parked illegally e.g. on the yellow lines or hatching or blocking the pavements. Please park sensibly and safely to avoid Caroline having to contact you!

Healthy Tuck Shop Just to let you know that next week our

Healthy Tuck Shop will be open at morning break. This proved very popular last term and

so a selection of fruit and veg will again be available for the children to buy at 30 pence

each. Monday is for Years 3 and 4 Tuesday is for Years 5 and 6

Wednesday is for Year 3 and 4 Thursday is for Years 5 and 6 Friday is for all year groups.

Drumming Demonstration/Workshop The school hall was literally alive with excitement on Tuesday when the children were entertained on the drums by Ben Staplehurst, one of our

former pupils. They enjoyed listening to Ben play and also finding out more about the various parts of a drum kit. Mitchell and Jenna had a very special

treat - trying the drums out for themselves!

Parents to Lunch On Wednesday, the parents of children in 6R joined us for lunch, It was a very successful occasion and the parents enjoyed tasting our

lovely lunches as well as sharing the lively atmosphere of a school lunch hour! Thank you to our Catering Team, Midday Assistants and

Mrs Risley for facilitating the event.

11+ exam 2018 for entry to secondary school in September 2019

If you are interested in your child sitting the 11+ exam in September 2018, please find some key dates below:

11+ registration opens - 5th June 2018 11+ registration closes - 20th July 2018

11+ exam - Saturday 22nd September 2018 For further information, please visit the CSSE website -

www.csse.org.uk

Brentwood School - Taster Day for Year 5 Pupils If you are considering an independent education for your child at secondary school then you may wish your son/daughter to attend the Taster Day which is on Saturday

12th May, from 9.30am - 1.00pm. Booking forms are available from our School Office. Thank you.

Rhyming Dictionaries Earlier this year, some children in Year 5 had mentioned that they would like more rhyming dictionaries in class to support their work in poetry. Our wonderful Friends’ Association agreed to purchase these for each class and

this week, they arrived in school. The children are already enjoying exploring new

vocabulary. Thank you to our Friends’ Association and also to all the parents who

have supported events in school so far this year.

Dance in a Day Yesterday, a group of talented dancers from Years 5 and 6 took part in a ‘Dance in a Day’ workshop. The

children worked throughout the day to create a musical-theatre themed dance which they later performed to

Years 5 and 6 as well as their parents. Although the day was intense, it was tremendous fun. A huge thank you

goes to Louise Hunt from DOT productions for running the day with such enthusiasm and also to the Teaching

Assistants who assisted with supervision.