Lift Hockley Primary E-Newsletter

Aim High: “Mighty oaks from little acorns grow”

Working happily together inspiring a desire to learn.

Attendance

Last week’s whole school attendance was: 94.99%

EYFS & KS1 winner -

Sycamore - 97.7%

KS2 winner -

Juniper - 98.5%

House Points:

Last week’s whole school house point winners were…

BETTS!

Well done team!

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Week beginning:

3rd November

2025

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School news:

The week before half term was packed with learning, fun, and crucial safety lessons! Our week kicked off with the Essex Fire and Police teams, who visited for a special 'Sparks and Spooks' Assembly to teach all the children about firework and Halloween safety, ensuring everyone can enjoy the upcoming celebrations responsibly. We also dedicated time to celebrating Black History Month with an assembly that highlighted the inspiring achievements and contributions of Black figures, promoting an important message of inclusion and diversity within our school. (see next slide for further information). The younger children in Early Years and KS1 had a wonderful, imaginative day when Little City turned the hall into a thriving mini-town, letting them explore different careers from retail to construction and the fire service-check your Class Dojo for photos of their explorations! Finally, a huge thank you to the PTA who organised the Halloween Disco. It was wonderful to see the children put on their best costumes for a spooky evening of music and fun and an amazing £1,263.92 was raised for the school!

School development: Our continuous school development was recently recognised by a visit from the Regional Education Director and LIFT’s deputy SENCO lead, where we proudly shared the great work happening in our classrooms and discussed our plans for the future. Mrs. Shimmen attended a Computing Curriculum network meeting and Mrs. Cronin, Ms. Neaves and Mrs Collins, successfully completed their Paediatric First Aid training. We also held a staff meeting focused on phase monitoring and assessment data, allowing teachers to carefully analyse student progress and plan targeted support to help every child achieve their best.

Week 6: Mindful Observation

Activity: Find something in nature, like a leaf, a flower, or a pine cone. Spend a few minutes just looking at it. Notice its colours, its shape, its texture. Are there tiny veins on the leaf? Are there any small insects on it? Don't try to name it or judge it—just observe it as if you've never seen it before.

Discussion prompt: What was a new detail you discovered about the object you observed?

Celebrating Black History Month:

We were absolutely blown away by the work that each class had engaged with during Black History Month. Each class chose a figure from history to learn about and celebrate in their own way, then we reported back on our discoveries in a special celebration assembly. We cannot wait to display these in the school for everyone to enjoy. We’ve got basketball players, scientists, civil rights activists, explorers and a host of other incredible figures.

Ask your child today who they celebrated in their class last month, and see if they can remember anything about the others, too!

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Visit to the City….

Earlier in the last week, EYFS, Year 1 and Year 2 took part in an activity called ‘Little City’. Iyla in Year 2 said that she liked the hairdressing part the best.

Colton in Year 2 said that he liked the cars, especially the blue one as he thought it looked like a turtle.Overall, everybody had a fun time!

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Written by our School Journalists:

Sam and Willow

Well done school boys football team!

They played in the parish cup the score was 0-0 and they lost on pens. Oliver F took the first pen and scored, then Finley M took the next pen and missed. Then Jet MADE A GREAT SAVE FOR A COMEBACK! Angus took the next pen and scored to level the score. Which took it to the second round and Zachary missed! Then the other team scored and won the game. Unlucky boys! They played well but sadly they lost the game. In two games they made an awesome comeback but overall they were tired by the last game and sadly got knocked out. Jet said "don't lose hope after one mistake”

Jack said "Don't stop playing just try your best""

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Key Dates and information:

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Parent Calendar

Link:

Regular Administration Matters:

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Breakfast and Afterschool club booking:

In order to streamline the booking process for breakfast and after school club, we are asking parents to please complete THIS form weekly to inform us on your wrap around care requirements for the following week. If parents could please update the form towards the end of each week ready for the following week, this will help the wrap around care team prepare the registers .If you have already emailed Sue with your intentions for next week we ask that you still please complete the form.To state again- this will need to be completed weekly (ideally at the end of each week) in preparation for the following week and paid for via Parent Pay at the time of booking. In the event of your weekly arrangements changing please still feel free to email or contact Sue- sbaxter@hockleyprimary.org , or call 07932306587.

We respectfully request that payments are made at the time of booking, as the administration of chasing payments is time consuming for our office staff and costly to the school. We appreciate your support with this.

School Dinner Menus:

Please see our website for

Our Updated menus

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Please read

Mr Jenkin’s letter regarding attendance and guidance from the Local Authority.

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PTA

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We are always so grateful to or PTA who continuously work hard to offer fun, exciting activities which in turn raise money for our school. This money funds things like our EYFS outdoor area, sporting equipment, learning resources, IT equipment…the list goes on! If you would like support the PTA, the dedicated team would be grateful for any time and skills you can give - not matter how big or small! Please contact Vicky Ballard on : 07881807937

See details of our annual Christmas Shopping event here.

If you have a child starting school in September 2026, please read Mr Jenkin’s letter inviting you to our school tours and come and play sessions.

Booking for these events are essential and can be done via the link on the letter.

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PE perseverance award

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Every fortnight, our PE coaches will choose a child from each phase group who they are awarding for PE Perseverance. We will share the winners on our Newsletter. Congratulations to our PE stars!

KS1: Baxter Yr 3/4 : Leo W

Yr 5/6 : Finlay M

Celebrations:

Congratulations to Felicity for receiving the 'Epic Eagle' of the week for her football team. Fliss was praised for her growing confidence, being willing to ‘have a go’ in training sessions and being flexible and enthusiastic when rotating positions - developing her own skills as well as benefiting the team! Well done Felicity!

A special mention to Ruby who was the lead in a short film she made with her performing arts group. It was shortlisted to be shown at the Pauline Quirk Academy film festival at the O2 Cineworld at the weekend. What a wonderful experience and event to be part of! Here is a lovely photo of Ruby who is very proud of her award! We are sure all of your family are super proud of you too!

During half term, Maddox was invited to play a football tournament in Amsterdam. There were 28 teams from across Europe and Maddox’s team got to the final, narrowly losing to Anderlecht from Belgium. The highlight of the day was Maddox’s team beating AC Milan 2-1 on the way to the final. What an incredible achievement and amazing experience - congratulations Maddox!

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Family Support:

Latest Edition of our Local Policing Newsletter can be found here.

Family Support:

Little City

Community Events

Community Events