Newsletters

Summer 1 - Week 5

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Dear parents and carers,

School visits

It has been an incredibly busy week in school with children out and about all over the place!  As a reward for their hard work with SATS and as part of our Sports Premium provision, Year Six enjoyed a fantastic trip to Thriftwood Scout Camp in Brentwood.  The day was spent under the forest's canopy trying out a range of new sports including buggy racing, kayaking and axe throwing.  Who knows? Maybe someone who does not overly enjoy the traditional sports on offer in primary schools has found a new hobby to persue.

Some of Year Six have, over the past year, been part of our Brilliant Club where they have worked with a PhD tutor to write a university style thesis on, 'What is fairness?'  They have written around a thousand words each, along with having to draft and redraft their efforts.  This week they graduated at Royal Holloway University.  It was an absolute pleasure to be present and to hear the amazing schools they have developed from critical thinking to essay structure.  All good skills for the future.  Perhaps even more enjoyable to the pupils was our Pizza Hut buffet lunch reward afterwards.  This is also part of our 11 engaging experiences - eating in a restaurant.

Finally, as part of their Romans topic, Year Four have today enjoyed a visit to Colchester Castle.  Not only is this magnificent building as impressive on the outside as it is in, it is also set in a beautiful partk.  Most importantly the pupils have certainly improved their understanding of the Romans.

You can read more information about all of these trips below.

SIAMS inspection

Hopefully you received a letter from me earlier in the week celebrating the 'excellent' outcome during our recent SIAMS inspection.  Once again I could not be more proud of the school community as this is a significant achievement and endorsement of all we do and offer at William Ford.  If you have not yet seen the report, please click here: https://tinyurl.com/ye265wbz, check out our website or scan the QR code above. 

Mental health week

Finally, yesterday we supported Mental Health awareness week by dressing in bright colours. Pupils enjoyed a fun lunch complete with creating their own dessert in our ice cream parlour.

 

I pray you all have a wonderful weekend.

  

Mr. David Huntingford

Headteacher

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Romans 13:1-2

All of you must obey the government rulers. No one rules unless God has given him the power to rule. And no one rules now without that power from God. 2 So if anyone is against the government, he is really against what God has commanded. And so he brings punishment on himself.

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This week we celebrated Mental Health by dressing down and having a special lunch. 

It is so important that we talk to our children about how we can keep our minds and body's healthy. If you need any support with your child's mental health, please come and speak to me. Alternatively, visit this website for support and advice: 

https://www.youngminds.org.uk/parent/

  • We only have one more space on the CPAS residential for year 5 pupils.
  • Please contact the school office if you would like to secure this space.
  • only £79 pp
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Year Three

Azraq 3M

Year Four

Avani 4D

Year Five

Ewaen 5N

Year Six

Joshua 6I

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This week 'Hetty Feather' by Jacqueline Wilson has been recommended. This book is set in the Victorian times and is about Hetty, who spent some of her childhood in a children's home before being looked after by a foster family. I love the mystery of this book when Hetty begins to find her mother.

Favor 5N

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Colchester Castle - Year 4 trip
8:00am – 4:00pm
19
May
Bikeability Session y5/y6
All Day
From 24 May until 25 May
24
May
Lilly Jo Mental Health Workshops
All Day
25
May
CPAS Residential Y5
8:00am – 8:30am
From 23 Jun until 25 Jun
23
June
Cooking in the Curriculum Y6
1:30pm – 3:00pm
28
June
Y6 Leavers Disco
4:30pm – 6:00pm
06
July
Ford fest
2:00pm – 4:30pm
11
July
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19 May 2023
Colchester Castle - Year 4 trip
Great, educational day out at Colchester Castle! 
Read more
19 May 2023
Thriftwood Adventure!
This week Khemani writes about the exciting year 6 trip to Thriftwood.
Read more
17 May 2023
Thriftwood Year 6 Adventure trip
A fantastic time had by all Y6 pupils and staff at Thriftwood adventure centre! A day of fun, filled with kayaking, Cresta run, pedal cars and axe throwing!
Read more
16 May 2023
University graduation for Year Six Brilliant Club
Year Six Brilliant Club visit Royal Holloway University and then rewarded with a trip to Pizza Hut!
Read more
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Year Three

Another busy week in Year Three. In maths, the children have been practising telling the time on analogue clocks. They have worked really hard at telling the time to the nearest minute past the hour. Keep practising Year Three! In English the children have continued their work on the book Here Come Hercules. They have been thinking about the main character's emotions in preparation for recounting events.

RE has seen the children thinking about the parable of the Good Samaritan, particularly considering what is meant by loving your neighbour as yourself. We have started a new unit in geography thinking about the coast. The children have been thinking about what they already know and what they would like to know. They have begun to think about how the coast varies from place to place. Music has seen the pupils continuing listening to ballads from which they have been creating storyboards for Space Oddity.

 

Year 4 

Year Four have had an exciting end to the week by travelling to Colchester Castle as part of their study of the Romans in their history lessons.   Everyone was amazed at the sight of the 2000-year-old castle.  The children spent a couple of hours exploring all it had to offer including examining the various artefacts, playing the interactive games and even competing against each other to build a Roman villa and a Celtic roundhouse.  Next week, the children will be completing a piece of persuasive writing based on their visit.  Elsewhere in the curriculum, the children have continued to work hard and learn lots.  In maths, the children are linking their recent work on fractions to decimals to two decimal places.  In science, the children have started researching information on animals of their choice and their carnivore, herbivore and omnivore diets.  In R.E. the children have discussed the importance of forgiveness to Christians, and how God forgave Adam and Eve by sending Jesus to earth to pay for everyone’s sins. 

Year Five

As we approach the end of Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' next week, we have been looking at features of play scripts and the use of stage directions. This has enabled us to write some play scripts of our own. In Maths, we have been drawing and measuring angles using protractors, using our previous knowledge of right angles, straight lines and angles at a point to assist us.

We have been food taste testing and comparing foods as part of our food and healthy eating in D&T. This has linked with our Science work where we have been exploring how we could keep drinks warm at a music festival by investigating the thermal properties of different materials. This involved both planning an investigation and collecting results to find out whether our initial predictions were correct. The children are now all very accomplished at reading thermometers!

Year Six

The week started of great  with axe throwing, kayaking and pedal car riding, the children thoroughly enjoyed being active at Thriftwood Scout camp.In English this week, the children have worked extremely hard to edit a range of pieces. The have redrafted an amazing newspaper report, written a persuasive letter to Mr Huntingford asking for the trip to Thrift wood to become an annual trip and redrafted their workhouse descriptions. In Music, the children have enjoyed analysing and comparing music from WW2. In PSHE, the children learnt about how to deal with grief and how to get ready for their transition into year 7; by looking at timetables and discussing how best to get to each class. In PE, the children have been working hard and getting sweaty in their hit classes; some of the children have even managed to do 150-star jumps, 60 burpees, 50 push-ups and 80 sit-ups.

 

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Each week, staff select three children from each class who have shown effort and commitment to upholding an aspect of our school vision, shown at the bottom of the page. Congratulations to this week’s ‘stars of the week’ for their tremendous endeavours!

 

Working diligently

 

Acting generously

 

Promoting peace

Year Three

3M

Name: Adesewa

For: excellent history work and organisational skills.

 

Name: Will

For: generously looking after his friends.

 

Name: Palash

For: working peacefully and calmly.

3N

Name: Sanjel

For: working hard this week in maths lessons.

Name: Cherie

For: being generous with her time when helping her peers.

Name: Iustin

For: being calm and ready to learn at all times.

3P

Name: Zayn

For: being more focused in class and working more diligently in all areas of the curriculum.

Name: Jamie

For: being generous with his contributions in whole class discussions.

Name: Delia

For: promoting peace around the school and for always being ready to learn.
 

Working diligently

 

Acting generously

 

Promoting peace

Year Four

4B

Name: Dara

For: putting his hand up to answer questions in class.

 

Name: Ajwa

For: helping another child with their reading comprehension work.

 

Name: Alexandre

For: excellent classroom and playground behaviour towards his peers.

4D

Name: Khalid

For: excellent research work in science  

Name: Milana

For: giving up her time to help others

Name: Belita

For: being calm and ready to learn at all times

4W

Name: Andrea

For: for working diligently this week and remaining focused in all lessons.

Name: Emmanuel 

For: acting generously and being helpful around the classroom

Name: Lillie

For: living at peace and having a positive impact within the classroom
 

Working diligently

 

Acting generously

 

Promoting peace

Year Five

5A

Name: Julian

For: displaying great listening skills in History

 

Name: Joanna

For: always sharing her equipment

 

Name: Awesome

For: working well independently.

5H

Name:  Siyam

For:  increased concentration in lessons this week.

Name:  Kaiona

For: always being considerate towards others.

Name: Evie

For: always demonstrating great listening skills towards others when they are speaking

5N

Name: Isaiah

For: his dedication and genuine enthusiasm towards his learning.

Name: Mikel

For: his polite, caring and considerate nature.

Name: Layla

For: being an example of humility and grace when working with others.
 

Working diligently

 

Acting generously

 

Promoting peace

Year Six

6I

Name: Robert

For: Always working hard in every lesson, It's great to see your love of knowledge.

 

Name: Nezar

For: Working well with others.

 

Name: Skyla

For: Being at peace and always being kind.

6P

Name: Malvina

For: Working really hard to improve her writing and producing a great newspaper report.

Name: Maddie

For: offering support to her peers, helping them with their writing.

Name: Rayan

For: being a calm and peaceful member of the class.

6T

Name: Evie-Grace

For: showing great perseverance during her writing this week. 

Name: Jessica H

For: always offering to help and give support to others. 

Name: Emmanuel

For: remaining focused and on task during his learning this week. 
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