Riverside News Issue 489 – 24.04.26

Home > Newsletters > Riverside News Issue 489 – 24.04.26

⭐ STAR of the Week ⭐

Leopard: Raffi E

For being such an enthusiastic learner! Raffi loves everything about school. He makes us smile when he dances his way to his carpet spot in the morning and we are so proud of him for his positive approach to any challenge we give him. Well done Superstar!

Zebra: Ronnie M

For being a kind and supportive friend, playing beautifully with others, and showing great determination in his phonics learning. Keep it up, Ronnie.

Lion: Ronnie B

For working incredibly hard to master counting in 2s, 5s, and 10s, even pushing yourself to complete tricky challenge tasks in Maths. .In English, you are making wonderful progress and are now writing clear, accurate question sentences. Well done for being such a determined learner!

Bear: Liam H

For excellent work based on our story ‘Jim and the Beanstalk’, working carefully and confidently and improvng the presentation of your work. Well done superstar!

Otter: Mihir P

For always showing that he is ready to learn whilst sitting on the carpet and for being so engaged during our learning time. Mihir actively participates at every opportunity with the learning. Mihir is a great role model in Otter class. Well done! Keep up the great work!

Seal: Elsie M

For her being an all-round PE superstar this week! Elsie showed brilliant teamwork and enthusiasm throughout the lesson, as well as happily volunteering to demonstarte the different tasks in each lesson. Keep it up Elsie!

Dolphin: Ela L

For showing a great improvement with her handwriting and always trying hard in our handwriting sessions. Well done Ela, keep up the good work.

Giraffe: Casper G

For being an exceptional role model during our residential trip. He consistently demonstrated politeness, care, and thoughtfulness toward his peers. He gave his absolute best in every activity and supported those around him. Well done!

Lucy S

For being extremely helpful to your classmates and teacher and for working and listening beautifully. We are especially blown away by the hard work and imagination you poured into your project—you truly created an amazing world!

Turtle: Harrison N-P

For his incredible resilience and creative problem-solving. He showed true determination by building his own Minecraft controller using Micro:bits, refusing to give up until it worked perfectly. A fantastic achievement!

Ronnie-Ray S

For being an absolute superstar during our Year 4 Residential. You truly shone bright throughout the trip, demonstrating what it means to be a fantastic team player. Whether we were tackling a high ropes course or working through a group challenge, you were there with a smile, encouraging and cheering on your teammates every step of the way.

Panda: Archie H

For showing outstanding resilience when tackling complex Scratch projects and algorithmic puzzles. You consistently persevered through difficult debugging challenges and never gave up.
Well done!

Tiger: Alexander S

For working hard and writing an excellent piece of writing about a dragon that included lots of interesting description. Keep up the amazing effort Alexander!

Meerkat: Tommy C

For creating effective adjectives in your dragon writing, showing great Achievement by using expanded noun phrases to make your writing come alive.

Rhino: Gregory S

For producing a brilliant Gem Dragon non-chronological report and consistently choosing to strive for your best by listening carefully and always acting on feedback.

Kangaroo: Melissa M

For a brilliant week, showing fantastic dedication to her learning and putting 100% effort into every task. We have been especially impressed by respect she has shown to all the adults teaching in class this week. She is a wonderful role model. Well done

Koala: Mia B

For her amazing hard work in reading! She was so determined to do her best in her assessment, and it really paid off with a huge improvement. We are so proud of your ‘never give up’ attitude!

Penguin: Oscar P

For fantastic participation and engagement and learning in our maths lessons.

 

📅 UPCOMING EVENTS! 📅

Dates not shown on previous issues are added in RED!

Summer 1 2026

24/04/26 — RSE Parent Consultation

06/05/26 — Year 3 Science Trip to Kendal Nature Reserve

08/05/26 EYFS Library Trip

11-14/05/26 Year 6 SATs Breakfast

15/05/26 Mad Satters Pizza Party!

18/05/26 Year 6 Bawdsey Manor – Parent Information Meeting

19/05/26 Year 3 Skreens Information to Parents

20/05/26 EYFS Open Door – Shared Classroom

21/05/26 Children break up today

22/05/26 INSET Day

Summer 2 2026

01/06/26 — Children return to school

03/06/26 — M&M Theatre Production

03/06/26 — Year 6 Acting Workshop with M&M Theatre Production

04/06/26 — Year 4 Colchester Zoo

08/06/26 — Class Photographs

09/06/26 — Marvellous Men’s Sale

15/06/26 — Marvellous Men’s Sale (After School)

17-19/06/26 — Year 6 Bawdsey Manor

22-26/06/26 — Year 6 Secondary Transition Week

24/06/26 — Sports Day Rehearsals – AM

26/06/26 — Moving on Day

26/06/26 — New EYFS Play & Stay Session 1

29-30/06/26 — Year 3 Skreens Park

01/07/26 — Sports Day

06/07/26 — KS2 Districts

08/07/26 — EYFS/KS1 PTA Summer Disco

08/07/26 — Year 6 Production to Parents & Younger Siblings at 1.30pm

08/07/26 — Year 6 Production to Parents ONLY at 6pm

10/07/26 — Reports to Parents

10/07/26 — PTA: KS2 Summer Disco

15/07/26 — Year 6 Leavers Party

17/07/26 — Year 6 Graduation at 9am

17/07/26 — Children break up today

 

Latest Facebook Posts

🌲 Adventure Awaits: Year 4 Takes on PGL! 🧗‍♂️

🏛️ A Step Back in Time at Chelmsford Museum! ⚡️

Summit Heights & Sandy Toes: PGL Day 2! 🧗‍♂️✨

⛏️ A Block-Buster Week in Year 4! 🇲🇽

⛺ Adventure Awaits! Day 1 Highlights from the Year 4 Residential 🌲

Year 3 Maths Active Event

A Polite Reminder – Scooters and Bikes on the Way to School

We’ve had a few parents share their concerns about younger children riding scooters or small bikes at speed on the way to school, particularly along Ferry Road. In some cases, children are well ahead of their adults, and there’s a real worry that one could accidentally veer into the road before a parent is close enough to intervene.

Please can we kindly ask all families to ensure that children stay close and ride at a safe pace when travelling to and from school. This helps to keep everyone safe – especially near busy roads.

Thank you for your understanding and continued support in keeping our school community safe.

Letters

Below are a list of letters, leaflets and posters uploaded to the website this week.

Leaflets/Posters for Parents

Letters sent this week

Year 3 Trip to Skreens Park, Chelmsford – 24.04.26

Swimming Conduct – 20.04.26

Year 4 MTC – 20.04.26

Urgent Safety Notice_ Road Safety and School Crossings 20.04.26

Previous letters, leaflets and posters can be found on the school website Events & Letters > Letters & Parent Meetings

Parking Concerns Around School

We kindly remind parents and carers that any parking issues in the local area can be reported directly to Chelmsford City Council. This helps ensure concerns are logged correctly and sent straight to the enforcement team.

To report a parking issue:

  1. Visit the Chelmsford City Council website.

  2. Click ‘Parking & Travel’ on the homepage.

  3. Select ‘Parking Restrictions’.

  4. Click ‘Report a Parking Issue’.

Your report will go directly to the council’s Enforcement Team, who will respond to you directly.

Thank you for helping us keep the area around the school safe for all.

Meningitus outbreak - advice to parents

The outbreak of meningitis in Kent has been heavily covered in the news and may be causing anxiety in Essex.  The public health team at Essex County Council have said that there is no increased risk to anyone in Essex unless they have a direct link to a case of meningitis in the Kent outbreak and been contacted by the UK Health Security Agency.  Simply being a contact of a person with a direct link does not increase the risk.  If you would like to know more about the outbreak and how it is managed there is an update on the UK Health Securities webpage.  If you would like to know more about meningitis and how to spot it the NHS webpages give good advice.

Reminders

Reporting Pupil Absence

This is a reminder to all parents/carers that the correct way to report absences is to leave a message on the absence line answerphone daily. If messages are sent by email to the admin email address they will not be registered in time for the morning attendance and you may then receive a call from our attendance team.


Supervision

This is a gentle reminder that parents are responsible for supervising their children and siblings on-site before and after school. We have had a couple of incidents reported to us which were considered ‘near misses’ and children could have got hurt. Thank you for your attention to this matter.


KS1 Playground
Please do not allow children to play on the equipment either before/after school. At the end of the day, parents and children should leave the site promptly . This enables us to open up the playground for our other clubs. Thank you.


KS2 Playground
Please note that the day in KS2 does not start until 8:40am when the doors open. Children should not be left unsupervised on the playground before this time. Children should not play on the equipment. Thank you

Posters

SEN

Emotional Based School Avoidance Support

SNAP charity has compiled a short guide explaining Emotional Based School Avoidance (ESBA). The guide includes advice and resources to help parents and carers.  

To find out more and access the resources, visit SNAP’s website. 

Online Safety Guides

Before children have even learnt to read, most can navigate through devices to play games and watch cartoons.

Internet Matters primary school guide helps you to:

  • Get up to speed on popular apps and platforms like YouTube and Roblox
  • Learn more about risks and challenges they might face, from inappropriate content and too much screentime.
  • Find tips and resources to protect them from online harms

OPAL

We are excited to share that we have begun the OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning) project to enhance the lunchtime experience even furtherfor your children. The aim is to provide more opportunities for creative and active play. 

This section of the newsletter will keep you updated on our OPAL journey, including upcoming developments and ways you can get involved.

Also, if you are having a clear-out, please look out for our donation requests for resources to enhance the playground. Your contributions would be greatly appreciated!


As part of our exciting OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning) journey, we are continuing to develop a rich and varied outdoor play experience for all our children—whatever the weather!

To help us make the most of our wonderful outdoor spaces even as the weather turns wetter and muddier, we are asking that every child brings a pair of wellies to school from September. These will be kept in school so that children can continue to enjoy outdoor play at lunchtimes and still return to lessons feeling clean, dry, and comfortable.

Thank you for your continued support as we build a happier, healthier, and more active playtime for all our children.

The OPAL Team


OPAL Play Project – Donations Wanted! 

As you know, we are developing our playtimes through the OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning) project. This exciting approach helps children develop creativity, teamwork and resilience by giving them access to a wide range of play opportunities.

To keep building on this, we’re looking for donations of the following items:

  • Baby clothes not dolly clothes
  • Ball pit balls 
  • Sandpit toys/Spades etc
  • Wooden spoons/Kitchen utensils
  • Wood chip, wood chip, wood chip!
  • Suitcases
  • Tyres
  • 2x working tablets (these would be used to just for the music app as we don’t have any spare)
  • scooters
  • remote control toys
  • medical play kits
  • hair rollers
  • bobbles clips etc

If you have any of these at home and no longer need them, please drop them off at the school office. Every little contribution helps us make playtimes even more exciting!


 

Dinner Menu

We are operating a three week rolling menu. The menus, ingredients and allergen lists can be viewed on our website by clicking here.

Attendance W/E: 17/04/26

 

Class

%

1

Tiger

97.80

2

Seal

97.30

3

Bear

97.10

4

Otter

96.60

5

Turtle

95.70

6

Lion

95.20

7

Zebra

94.30

8

Dolphin

93.70

9

Koala

93.40

10

Panda

91.60

11

Giraffe

90.50

12

Meerkat

90.40

13

Kangaroo

89.60

14

Leopard

88.60

15

Rhino

80.40

Team Points

Makaton: Sign of the Week

We’re excited to share our ‘Sign of the Week’.

The Megacentre Community Space

Please see a list of activities that run throughout the week at the Megacentre at their new venue (78a Eastwood Road, SS7 7JP).

Please not you do not need a formal diagnosis to access any of our support.

Unless otherwise stated, sessions take place at our Community Space: 78a Eastwood Road, SS6 7JP.

Here’s a quick guide to what’s on:

Monday Mix
Exclusive soft play for SEND families – plus crafts, football, gaming room, inflatables, laser tag, and more.
 Held at The Megacentre, Brook Road
  No booking required.

Monday – Youth Group

Open youth group for secondary aged children, Games, Crafts & Snacks. Term time only.   No booking required.

Tuesday – Punching for Purpose
Boxing-based sessions to build confidence and resilience.
 5:00–5:45pm (ages 6–15)
 5:45–6:30pm (ages 16+)
 Suggested donation: £7
 Booking required: families@megacentrerayleigh.co.uk

Wednesday – T21 Heroes (for  families & children with Down Syndrome)
First Wednesday of the month: 1:00–2:30pm (under 5s)
Fortnightly sessions: 3:30–5:00pm (ages 5+) – contact us for dates

Wednesday – Midi Mix (SEND club for school-age children)
 4:00–6:00pm
Activities include arts & crafts, sensory play, table football, table tennis, and outdoor games (weather permitting).

Thursday – Your Space – Youth Wellbeing Group

 4:00–5:30pm

Secondary age.  Referral only, please contact us if this sounds like something your child would benefit from

2nd Thursday of the Month – SEND Coffee Morning
 10:00am–12:00pm
Meet other SEND parents, ask questions, and hear from guest speakers on a range of SEND topics.

4th Thursday of the Month – DLA Workshop
Support and guidance for completing Disability Living Allowance forms.

Friday – Mini Mix (Under 5s SEND Group)
A safe, welcoming non-judgemental group for families with younger children who have SEND needs – free play time, no structured activities and no music.  Facilitated by experienced SEND professional.

Weekly Sports Round-Up