Newsletter

No. 12: 29th November 2019

ROMAN VISITORS IN YEAR 3 Year 3 were lucky enough to have Tranio and Livia visit them this week, all the way from the forgotten Roman city

of Pompeii. They told the children all about the day that Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79AD and how they were

lucky enough to survive. Year 3 assured their visitors that their story would not be forgotten and that Pompeii

would live on in their writing. Here is a diary entry by Lola in 3LS, inspired by the chat with Tranio and Livia.

A VISITOR FROM OUTER SPACE

Over the past week, Reception have been receiving messages from an alien.

The first message said that the alien was looking for a new destination to

visit; using our investigation skills we worked out that they had spotted the

Wray Common windmill. Knowing that the alien was close to our school, we

searched for signs they had visited us. The next day, we received another

message that told us the alien had been busy in our mud kitchen and that they

had left some space objects behind. Upon examination, Reception decided

these were actually alien eggs and special moon rocks. The messages didn’t

stop there, we discovered the alien had been swinging on our playground

equipment that left them feeling quite sick. They were getting close; controls

were found inside our school and then this Monday, an incredible rocket ship

appeared. Unfortunately, the rocket ship had broken down and the alien had

to leave it here whilst they went back to their planet to collect supplies.

Then, on Thursday, the children received the final message from the alien,

thanking them for their help. The alien explained in the message that they

were now returning to their own planet. The alien was so kind and left a

parting gift for the children– some ‘Whatever Next’ books, without words,

which they have been writing in this week.

“Dear Diary I was walking through the busy crowded street to my Dad’s theatre

to watch the actors practise. Like a blast of lightning, the whole

building started to quiver. Suddenly, I ran to see if Livia was okay in the bakery. Under the ash cloud, we ran as fast as we could to the

harbour so we could hide in a boat and keep safe.”

CROCODILE EXPERT COMES TO SCHOOL Year 1 have been learning all about the Enormous Crocodile. On Monday they

were lucky enough to meet Miss Purkiss' cousin, Inga, the crocodile expert who

flew all the way from Australia! The children tested her knowledge on the Nile

crocodile, asking: Where does it come from? What does it eat and how many

teeth does it have? Inga impressed the children with her expert knowledge and

the children used this information to write fact sheets all about the Nile

crocodile. Did you know that some Nile crocodiles can live to up to 80 years old

and grow up to 6 metres in length?

“Inge was really good because she told us lots about the Nile crocodile,

especially learning how much it grows up to. I think it must have a thousand

scales!” Florrie

SPARKFISH CHRISTMAS JOURNEY

Bringing the Christmas Story Alive!

Yesterday, our Year 2 children went on a ‘Christmas Journey’ as they visited Redhill Methodist Church.

Talking animals, eating bread, singing and a craft activity were just some of the events that the children enjoyed.

It was a wonderful opportunity for the children to experience the Christmas story through story telling,

characterisation and celebration and the children were truly immersed in this memorable experience.

“I enjoyed it when we went into the stable to see where baby Jesus was born. I loved the talking puppets in the

stable: they were funny. I was surprised when the angel Gabriel appeared to tell Mary she was having baby

Jesus. We followed her to Bethlehem.” Erin

WHAT WOULD YOU DO? This half term we have been following the journey of Pria, a 9 year old girl who has been having a tricky time at her new school. She has been writing letters to Mr Murphy and our children have been replying. To start with things were going well, however, new relationships were soon tested. The children responded with suggestions of how to manage conflict between friends. Sadly, things became worse for Pria and it is clear that she is now being bullied at school and online. Here are some of the responses from the past two weeks.

“Dear Pria,

We are sorry to hear things have become more serious.

We feel this is more than falling out with friends and is in fact bullying. We think this because Annie and her friends are doing something EVERY DAY, ON PURPOSE to upset you. Friends do not do this.

Pria, we want you to know this is not your fault. There may be lots of reasons as to why Annie is bullying you. For example, she may be jealous of things that you have or the way you are because she is insecure about herself. Also, perhaps she has experienced hurt herself and is now taking it out on you.

As well as this, the school has a responsibility to support you. It sounds like Mr Jones is not upholding his duty of care towards you. We think the school needs values and PSHE lessons to teach the children about relationships and how to treat one another.

Please don’t stop going to school. Perhaps your mum could speak with the Head teacher to address this problem?

We care about you Pria. Keep us updated!

From, 4R”

“Dear Pria,

Thank you for your most recent letter. I am really sorry to hear that things have got worse, even though you tried lots of the things that work at Wray Common. It doesn’t sound like our school at all: no values, peer mediators and teachers don’t sort out problems.

One of our children thought this is now bullying as it is constantly happening and more people are getting involved. Have you thought about why Annie may be bullying you? Is she unhappy herself? Is she jealous of you? Does she even realise the impact that it is having on you?

Maybe your mum could talk to the Headteacher if Mr Jones isn’t helping. A face-to-face meeting of you and Annie with the Headteacher may help to mediate and sort out the problem.

Let me know how it goes. I hope the conflict is sorted out soon.

6C”

What does your child think about Pria’s plight?

CHOIR SING CAROLS AT ST. MATTHEW’S CHURCH CHRISTMAS FAYRE

Well done to the 32 members of our Wray Common Choir

for giving such a lovely performance of songs during the

Christmas Fayre at St. Matthew’s Church, Redhill last

Saturday. The Choir is now well tuned and ready for their

next performance—catch them at the Wray Common

Christmas Fayre next Friday, 6th December.

ATTENDANCE MATTERS At Wray Common we passionately value education,

excellent attendance and punctuality, so that the

children benefit from everything our school has to

offer. The Education (Pupil Registration) (England)

(Amendment) Regulations 2013, which came into

effect on 1st September 2013, states that head

teachers may not grant any leave of absence during

term time unless there are exceptional circumstances.

The guidance from Surrey County Council states that

if a parent/carer takes their child out of school e.g. on

holiday or other unauthorised leave of absence, for 5

days (10 sessions) or more, without the authority of

the head teacher, each parent/carer will be liable to

receive a penalty notice for each child who is absent.

We would like to remind you that penalty notices will

be issued for 5 or more days unauthorised leave of

absence. The amount payable on issue of a penalty

notice is £60 (issued to each parent/carer, for each

child) if paid within 21 days. These will then increase

to £120 after 21 days but within 28

days. After 28 days, the LA may

prosecute under Section 444

Education Act 1996.

CLUBS FOR NEXT TERM A letter regarding clubs for the Spring Term has been

sent home this week via email. Please access the letter

here and have a read through it with your child to

decide which club/clubs they would like to attend and

then fill in the preference form and return it to the

school office by Monday 2nd December. Once clubs

have been allocated, you will be informed, again via

email, with a permission letter attached to be

completed and returned with payment (either via

Tucasi or by cash/cheque) by Friday 20th December.

EMERGENCY PROCEDURES .As part of our Emergency Procedures, we consider a range of possible scenarios. One such scenario is a fire and the children are well drilled in how we evacuate the school. We also consider scenarios where children may need to “shelter” inside the school, for example, if there was a warning of serious air pollution in the locality or the close proximity of a dangerous animal roaming loose. With this in mind, Wray Common will be carrying out a “sheltering drill” next week. We want to share with you the following in case, whilst extremely unlikely, there was a serious emergency situation: Please be assured that the school understands your

concern for your child’s welfare and that it is doing everything possible to ensure your child’s safety.

Please do not contact the school as calling could tie up telephone lines that are needed for contacting emergency service providers.

Please do not come to the school as this could interfere with access by emergency services and may put parents at risk.

Please wait for school to contact you about when it is safe to collect the children and where this will be from.

We would communicate with you via our Tucasi communication system during the period.

ANOTHER CHANCE FOR NASAL FLU SPRAY The Immunisation Team have kindly re-opened the

online portal to allow any parents (not just those of

year 5 children) who missed the flu vaccination earlier

this week. This will be your child’s final opportunity to

have their nasal flu spray at school. The vaccination

will take place on Tues 17th December. To consent, you

will need to go online to www.surreyimmunisations.co.uk

and input our school’s unique code :SR145226. Please

call the Immunisation Team on: 01737 775467 if you

have any problems accessing the system.

HONOUR BOOK 1S Sybil For her super story writing about the colossal shark. Max For applying his phonics in his story writing. Great job! 1W Ahmed For a super attitude to learning all week. Jack R For writing an entertaining story with great use of similes. 2B Evie For putting in super effort to finish her Leeds Castle recount. Jaxon For super focus on handwriting to write up his Leeds Castle recount. Callum For super writing today about the Redhill Ridgeback. Arah For settling in to 2B so brilliantly. 2DS Joshua W For practising his handwriting both at home and at school so that there is a big improvement. Harriet For writing an excellent recount about the Redhill Ridgeback dragon and remembering to refer back to her writing target. 2V Zahraa For starting at Wray Common with such enthusiasm and working hard. Harry F For an amazing effort to improve his handwriting. 3F Henry For his detailed non chronological report using lots of technical vocabulary. Rhys For his focussed independent maths work on division and multiplication. 3LS Luka For an excellent working attitude this week. Keep it up! Henry L For inferring so brilliantly, even challenging Mrs Laing’s interpretation of the text! 4M Izaak For using his times table facts to work out other times tables. Edward For always having a great attitude to learning and being engaged in discussions. 4P Max For writing an excellent piece of handwriting building tension using his tension toolkit. Alex For a much more focussed approach to his learning, particularly in writing. Keep it up! 4R Bethany For brilliant suspense writing about the lighthouse—I was gripped! Emma For being so caring and helpful towards everyone, especially me! Thank you! Adwit For being a super mathematician during our division lesson on remainders by making links between divider, divisor and quotient. 5B Freya For being well organised and attentive in class and always giving her best. Ben H For working conscientiously all week and making good progress in maths. He is now able to use the chunking method in division confidently. 5Bu Spencer For great reflecting and editing skills with his description of Wind in the Willows characters. Elena For showing great independence and progression in our division lessons. 6C Adam For fantastic use of punctuation, description, tension and author voice in our German in the Woods writing. Henry For some great descriptive similes and phrases to describe a setting in German in the Woods. Wow! Harrison For super ideas and impact when writing his WWII recount. 6E Macie For her amazing descriptions included in her German in the Woods writing. Marni For really developing her writing style and author voice through use of description and punctuation. Hugh For his deep level of thinking when explaining our science objective of ‘How do we see’?.

DATES FOR NEXT WEEK Mon 2nd Year 3 catch-up swim

Tues 3rd House Factor auditions (Rubies and Sapphires)

Y3 Reigate School drama performance

Weds 4th House Factor auditions (Emeralds and

Diamonds)

Y5 SES Water talk

Fri 6th MUFTI day for the Christmas Fayre

5:00 - 7:00 p.m. Friends Christmas Fayre

WRAY COMMON CHRISTMAS FAYRE FRIDAY 6TH DECEMBER 5:00 - 7:00 P.M.

Thank you so much for all of your contributions this

morning for the Christmas Fair. Don’t forget that next

Friday is the big day, so in exchange for wearing mufti

clothes, we are asking for donations of cakes as well as

chocolate, books and bottles. Please bring your

donations to the covered area by the Main Entrance at

school drop-off time. Please note that we will also be

selling Wray Common tokens after school at the gate

on 3rd, 4th and 5th Dec. With many new festive stalls,

including: a secret present room, a brand new grotto,

bauble bobbing, as well as delicious new café items,

there is something for everyone, so please do come

along and support this fantastic event! As always, we

really need your help to make this

event as successful as it can be, so if

you can give the Friends an hour of

your time, please contact Sophie

Swann on 07802 584173 or leave

your name with the school office.

Thank you.

AVAILABLE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY? We are looking for anyone who would be prepared to work as a Lunchtime Supervisor, as and when required, to cover absences at short notice. If you would be interested in joining a list of ‘bank’ Lunchtime Supervisors, and particularly if you are already a school volunteer i.e. have been DBS checked and attended our safeguarding training, please let the office know.

SWIMMING Swimming has now finished for the term, with the exception of Year 3 who have a catch-up swim on Monday 2nd December at their usual swimming times. Swimming will resume after Christmas, upon our return to school on Tuesday 7th January.