‘Maximum Effort for

Maximum Achievement’

Friday 8th December 2017

Diary Dates for Next Week School Dinners - Week 1

Monday 11th December

Year 5 Dress Rehearsal to Years 3, 4 and 6 Tuesday 12th December

Year 3 Amazing Advent Workshop at Christ Church

Year 5 Performance of ‘Squeak’ at 2.00pm Wednesday 13th December

Year 4 Amazing Advent Workshop at Christ Church

3D ‘Parents to Lunch’ event at 12.00pm

Year 5 Performance of ‘Squeak’ at 7.00pm Thursday 14th December

Year 3/4 Christmas Lunch (NB Year 5/6 need to bring a packed lunch today please).

Friday 15th December

Year 5/6 Christmas Lunch (NB Year 3/4 need to bring a packed lunch today please).

There has been a definite ‘buzz’ about the building this week as the children (and staff) truly get into the

Christmas spirit! The Year 3 play was fantastic and the Year 5 children have been busy practising for their

performances next week. We also enjoyed a wonderful visit to the pantomime this week and still have Christ-

mas lunch and Carol Services to look forward to!

Year 5 Non-Uniform Day - Monday 18th December Just a reminder that, as their reward for raising the most

money on their Silver Stall at the Christmas Bazaar, Year 5 have a non-uniform day on Monday 18th December.

Christmas Carol Services - Tuesday 19th December Please do come along and join us at Christ Church next

Tuesday for our Christmas Carol Services; a chance to take a moment away from the hustle and bustle of Christmas and spend some time with us, in a more peaceful environment. Year 3/4 at 9.30am and Year 5/6 at 10.45am. What better way to prepare for Christmas? Please could we politely

request that early birds don’t save more than one seat for a family member. The coffee shop will also be open!

Please also be aware that there is no parking available at Christ Church during the Carol Services due to a regular, weekly group already using the car park. Please park

in the surrounding streets. Thank you.

Just a reminder that entry to the Year 5 play is strictly by PROGRAMME ONLY. This is to ensure that we comply

with fire regulations. Please also note that, in order to safeguard all the children in Year 5, no photographs can be

taken during the production and no filming is permitted either. Thank you, in advance, for your cooperation.

Buttsbury’s Super Stars! I’m sure you will agree that the Year 3 play was

absolutely amazing. I was bowled over by the high-quality of the performance and also by how confident the children

were. Their singing, dancing and acting were perfect - they literally mesmerised the audience! My thanks go to EVERYONE who helped make the play so successful.

The high standards we saw were the result of great team-work - children and staff alike! Thank you also to the Year 3 parents for helping the children to learn their

words and for the lovely costumes. I would also like to offer a special vote of thanks to Miss Miller who was the

show’s producer. Thank you for coming along to share the children's talents and thank you for your generous

donations towards Little Havens Children’s Hospice!

Lost Property Just a reminder to check lost property before the end of

term as all unclaimed items will be recycled during the Christmas break. Please could I ask you to spend a few

moments during the Christmas holidays checking that all items of clothing are labelled. Thank you.

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

Harriet Borg Millie Brown Emma Shelley Emma Henry PJ Fulker Mae Saunders Austin Madle Adam Havis Alex Le Carpentier Amelia Rogers James Bailey Tommy Hudd Lani Coughlan Ben Simpson Oliver Baker George Beckett Harry Dyer Oliver Gladman Charlotte Aris Harry Gilbert Isabella Howlett Ollie Stroud Alex Carter Oliver Sargood Emelia Dear Freya Agate Sienna Coffill Arlo Kittridge Eva Poloni Eleanor Chaplin Olivia Gladwin Luke Furness Torsten Greenan Elena Humphreys Isla Joyce Jack Buick Hermione Poulter Cece Ross Laura Simpson Ria Mittal

Benedict Guthrie-Bliunkell

Dodgeball News This week, the Year 5/6 Dodgeball team

competed in the second round of the County tournament at William de Ferrers School. Having won the local round, we were now

competing against the top two teams from Wickford and Woodham. The team won their first match against Brightside, however they

then lost their second in a hard fought contest, against eventual winners Elmwood. Their third, fourth and fifth matches were

won more easily than in their first two contests. The Buttsbury children, put the

disappointment of losing their second game behind them by displaying greater teamwork and temerity in the following fixtures, which yielded a number of important – if not risky –

catches. This was a very close tournament, with the top 3 teams being separated by

children on court. We ended up with the silver medal and unfortunately cannot progress to the county final. The children participated in

this event with enthusiasm and respect in victory, defeat and the disappointment of

missing out on the next round. Well done to all our players and thank you to Mr Mynard, our

coach and to Mr Tweedie, our manager, and to the parents who helped with transport.

Jim Smith Football Cup On Thursday, the Year 6 Boys’ Football Team put the disappointment of last week’s County finals behind them, to play the next round of

the Essex Schools FA Jim Smith 7-a-side Trophy against Grove Wood Primary. Despite the wet conditions, the boys got off to a good

start leading 3-0 at half time. This was followed by an equally strong second half, with

the final score 7-1 to Buttsbury. Congratulations to the boys and thank you to our many supporters who braved the weather and muddy conditions to cheer us on and to Ms

Marshall, our team manager.

This week’s ‘Writers of the Week’ are: Evie Plummer Hayden Williams Sam Bowden Hana Ahmad Farrah Keniry Hezar Musabak

Henry Gilbert Lenny Batchelor Well done to our writing super stars!

This week’s attendance figure is: 96.8%! This year’s provisional attendance target is 97.7%.

A special ‘Well Done’ to Class 4C who had the highest attendance this week - 99.4%! Congratulations!

Bikeability Well done to the following children who all recently passed

their Bikeability Award and thank you to Gary and Ken, their instructors.

Caitlin Randall Kieran Sterry Taitum Barnes Emily Hagland Abby Nicklin Teddy Hoffman Alfie Aldous Freya Liggins Evangeline Pierce Maggie Warden Kei Teluij Lennon Hartman

Menu Change TUESDAY 12TH DECEMBER 2017

Due to the Christmas lunches next week, there will be a menu change for Tuesday 12th December:

Fishfingers or Cheese & Potato Pasty Chips

Baked beans or Sweetcorn Angel Delight

Change of menu for Tuesday 2nd January 2018 Roast chicken instead of turkey, ice cream for dessert

Film Night The children had a fabulous time on Friday evening and were

completely captivated by the film ‘Despicable Me 3’ - clearly an excellent choice! Thank you very much to the parents and staff who helped with the evening, ensuring it flowed very smoothly

and well done to all the children whose behaviour was exemplary. We raised £708.18 which is a fabulous amount of money.

Holidays in Term Time Please could we remind you that we are unable to authorise

leave of absence in term time unless exceptional circumstances apply. Please check the school’s website for

the full policy. Thank you for your support. Just a reminder that we return to school on Tuesday

2nd January - it’s very early in the year so don’t forget to set the alarm!

Afternoon Tea The ‘Buttsbury Hotel’ was closed for Afternoon Tea yesterday due to the Year 3 play. It will be open for business as usual next week though!

Out of School Success

Well done to Toby Munro (3R) who has moved up a level in his swimming class and is now a Lionfish.

Congratulations to Carolina Steven (5C) who recently passed her Grade 1 piano exam with distinction!

Well done to Gemma Lague (3M) who recently passed her Grade 1 modern dance exam with Merit.

Congratulations to Annie Jerreat (3D) who has been frightened of swimming since she was small but recently overcame her fear and swam entirely on her own!

Well done to Samuel Cregg-Lock (6A) who was the runner up in the 9-13 age group category in the Ramsey Healthcare UK ’Design a Christmas Card’ competition.

This week’s winning house: Lions!

GET SET Awards Congratulations to the following children who

received their BRONZE GET SET award this week.

Emma Tribe Evie Plummer

Alex Le Carpentier Hayden Williams

Adam Havis Amelia Rogers Charlotte Aris Harry Gilbert Hana Ahmad Ollie Stroud

Oliver Sargood

Emelia Dear Jacob Kavanagh Eleanor Chaplin Hezar Musabak Henry Gilbert Torsten Greenan Elena Humphreys Isla Joyce Laura Simpson Lenny Batchelor

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

Oliver Sargood Max Langshaw Jasmine Briggs Frankie Anson Ollie Carter

Well done for being selected!

This week’s Top Table winners!

Visit to the Pantomime On Tuesday the whole school excitedly set off to see Aladdin at the

Towngate Theatre, Basildon. The children had a brilliant time and thoroughly enjoyed joining in with all the pantomime humour and fun. As

ever, their behaviour was superlative and they were excellent ambassadors for our school. As you can imagine, a visit like this for 496 children and 50 staff takes a lot of organisation. I would like to thank Mrs Risley for her assistance with this. I would also like to thank the Senior Leadership Team for their support and also all the staff who accompanied the children this morning. It was a great success with

everyone having a brilliant time!

Additional Questionnaire regarding School Desserts

Thank you for taking the time to respond to our questionnaire regarding school desserts. We had

an excellent response, with 185 parents responding in total. 109 parents are happy with the

current provision and would not like to see any changes; 39 parents are happy with the

current provision but would like to see more fruit/yoghurt only days and 18 parents are not happy

with the current provision. As only 10% of respondents are currently unhappy with the

choices on offer, we don’t plan to make changes at present as we do always offer yoghurt and fruit

each day anyway. It might also be helpful to note that cake is only served twice a week as a dessert. However, we will bear the feedback in mind when we draw up the Summer menu, which tends to be

’lighter’ on the dessert anyway.

Christmas Market – Sunday 3rd December 2017 Last Sunday, the RotaKids, along with several members of staff,

assisted Billericay Rotary Club with the selling of their Grand Draw raffle tickets. The children had a great time and particularly enjoyed using the microphone to help entice the public! They did

such an amazing job that the tickets were a sell out! Billericay Rotary Club were very impressed with the children’s maturity and

look forward to working alongside them in the future! We would like to thank all of the children who came to help out

on Sunday, they were all fantastic role models for Buttsbury Junior School and should be extremely proud of themselves!

A big thank you also to Miss Carroll, Miss Pretty, Miss Roe, Mrs Sherwood, Ms Marshall, Mrs Andrews, Mrs Hampton and Mrs Robinson for giving up their Sunday afternoon to help supervise

the children on the stall. Well done Buttsbury!

‘He’s behind you!’

‘Oh no he’s not!’

‘Oh yes he is!’

‘Out of School’ Success

To celebrate your child’s out of school achievements in the newsletter, please just

send an email to: head@buttsbury-jun.essex.sch.uk

Thank you.

During November, all the children at Buttsbury submitted an entry into the ‘Design the Soap Box’ competition which was being organised by Ashton Charters Estate Agents. The prize for the

competition was the chance for the winning child to have their design taken from the page and made into the soap box which will be raced by Ashton Charters, in partnership with Buttsbury Junior

School, on Monday 7th May. With such a coveted prize, as you can imagine, the stakes were very high and the standard of entry was amazing. We were extremely grateful that Ashton Charters had taken

on the task of judging the 498 entries as it cannot have been an easy task, by any stretch of the imagination. The team from Ashton Charters thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the imaginative designs

and, after a week-long deliberation, whittled it down to a final three - Scarlet Nugent (3R), Alex Lodge (6A) and Lucas Yeo-Evans (6U)

Well done to our three finalists! From there, came the challenging task of selecting just one winner. Taken by the Monopoly theme on Alex’s design, the team felt this was the one as it represented their company, jointly with Buttsbury, in a very unique manner. So, well done to Alex Lodge (6A), whose soap box design will become a reality

and he will be able to see it racing down the road in May! Well done to everyone who entered and made the judging such a difficult task and thank you to Ashton Charters for enabling us to be part of

their ‘Soap Box Journey!’ I am reliably informed that progress regarding construction of the soap box will be logged on

Facebook so keep an eye out!

Alex’s Design

‘Go Blue’ Day You may recall that, on Tuesday 14th November, we had a special ‘Go Blue’ day, organised by Eloise Bishop (6F) to help raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. There was also a ‘Design your

own T-Shirt’ competition which was won by Eloise Lock and Abby Nicklin. The prize was the opportunity to have their design printed on a T-shirt and also to go along to Crystal Print to see the design being

created. As you can see in the photo on the left, both Eloise and Abby, look fabulous in their T-shirts and also had a great time watching the

process unfold! Well done to Abby and Eloise and thank you to everyone who supported the appeal. Well done to Eloise B too!

Parking Issues Unfortunately we seem to be slipping back into bad habits! Please can I remind you to park in a sensible and courteous manner - this

week I have received complaints from residents living in Westbourne Gardens and Trafalgar Way about pavements and driveways being blocked and also from parents who are being

forced to walk in the road because the pavement is blocked. I was also sent a photo of a car parked on the corner of Tylers Avenue - totally blocking visibility for pedestrians. Please can I also remind

you that it is illegal to park on the hatching at the front of our school and on Perry Street - it has been quite embarrassing to

have to speak to parents who have pulled up on the hatching, right in front of me! Let’s not have to reintroduce ‘Name and Shame’.