Ashton Gate Primary School Newsletter

Mrs Sue Withey will be leaving Ashton Gate at the end of this term after 27 years of incredible service to the school. Many of you will know Sue from her role on the front desk at Upton Road, where she has been based since the site opened in 2015.

What you may not know, however, is that Sue has also been a hugely important member of the school’s HR and administration team, leading on sensitive and complex work with great care, precision and organisation.

It is clear to all of us who know Sue just how much she cares about Ashton Gate, and leaving has not been an easy decision for her. She has always been at the heart of school life, and the school will not be the same without her.

Thank you, Sue, for your incredible service and dedication — you will be greatly missed by us all.

Please note this event will be held at Upton Road.

DSIT—PAPAYA—SFC—240326.pdf (348 KB) • 1 pages

On Monday evening we had a wonderful Iftar celebration. It was so special to see our Muslim families, children and staff coming together to share food, conversation and such a warm sense of community.

This year we started by inviting our Muslim families, but we hope this will become a yearly event that we can grow and open up to even more of our school community in the future.

A huge thank you to everyone who helped organise, set up, donated food and supported the evening – it really showed what makes our school so special. 

Over the last two terms, our pupils have taken part in a number of football leagues with fantastic enthusiasm and success. The Year 5 and 6 teams kicked things off last term and played brilliantly throughout. They were followed by the Year 3 and 4 teams, who also performed excellently, one team even won their league, while another finished in an impressive third place!

This week, the girls’ football league began, and the team made a very strong start to the tournament, winning every game! 

On Monday, a group of Year 5 and 6 swimmers took part in the swimming gala at Hengrove. They faced strong competition but swam brilliantly in every race. Well done to everyone who took part!

A huge thank you to all the children who represented Ashton Gate in these events. You showed excellent teamwork and represented the school with pride. Thank you as well to all the parents and carers who helped by transporting players to and from events, and for coming along to support and cheer on the teams.

Huge Congratulations to Orla in Year 6, who has been shortlisted for the National Literacy Trust’s Young Poet Laureate competition. She has been selected from over 1000 entries, as one of the 20 shortlisted candidates, and we all wish her so much luck with the next round.

This week Year 4 visited the Council Chambers in City Hall to take part in a debate with other schools. The question that we debated was: All primary schools should limit their use of technology to one hour a day to reduce energy consumption. 

A group of Year 4 children discussed this question and then worked together to write their debate arguing ‘for’ and ‘against’ this question. Siena and Owen then represented Ashton Gate in this debate and read out the arguments which took a lot of confidence and courage! A huge well done to all involved!

This term, we will be running a parent’s/carer’s meeting about our updated reading curriculum in KS1. We are hoping this will give you the opportunity to ask questions and understand more about: our Little Wandle reading scheme, the Phonics Screening Check, and our teaching of reading skills, fluency and vocabulary.

This will be held on Monday 30^th March, at 9:30am, on the Ashton site.

We look forward to seeing you!

After Easter Year 2 will be taking part in a DT day, sewing and decorating a pouch. We would love to have as many volunteers as possible to come and support us. Timings for the day will be 9.10 to 12ish. 

Please let your child’s class teacher know if you are available to attend. 

• Maple – [email protected]
• Rowan – [email protected]
• Oak – [email protected]
• Sycamore – [email protected]

On Thursday 2nd April, Year 4 are going to be visiting the Explorer Dome. 4G and 4L are looking for parent volunteers to help walk to and from St Francis Centre. If you are able to support this trip, please contact your child’s class teacher. The timings for the sessions are below:

Year 6- Explorer Dome – Tuesday 24th March

To enable us to walk to St Francis hall and back to visit the Explorer Dome, we need some parent helpers. If you are able to assist, please contact your child’s class teacher. The timings are as follows:

Session 1 – 9.10- 10.05   6K – helpers would need to arrive at 8.55 

Session 2 – 10.15- 11.10   6FH – helpers would need to arrive at 10.00 

Session 3 – 11.20-12.15  6M – helpers would need to arrive at 11.05

Session 4 – 1.45-2.45  6BH – helpers would need to arrive at 1.30

In week 6, year 6 will be working on a final piece to finish our Frida Khalo art unit, this will contain an element of collage and it would be helpful if they could bring in some items from home to help with this: Magazines (around topics they enjoy), photographs or images of their favourite things, magazines with inspiring images in (nature, science, sport etc), old sheet music, example of lovely typography etc.

Please send any items you think would be helpful with your child. With our thanks, the Year 6 team.

We are excited to introduce ‘Shoesday Tuesday’, a fun new initiative to encourage more sustainable journeys to school.

On Tuesday 31st March, children are invited to come to school wearing shoes of their choice. These can be trainers, wellies, sparkly shoes, or their favourite comfy pair, as long as they walk to school. Please ensure these are safe and suitable for walking. Children can bring their usual school shoes to change into if needed. Please note the children will be expected to be in school uniform.

The aim is to promote walking as a healthy, environmentally friendly way to travel while making it a little more fun for everyone. We hope lots of families will join us in taking part. Let’s see some fantastic footwear on Shoesday Tuesdays!

Years 3 and 4 welcomed author and parent Matt Oldfield into school on Wednesday morning, to talk about his process as an author. A huge thank you for giving up your time, and inspiring our readers.

All named items in the lost property have been returned to the children.  Unfortunately we have 20 unnamed winter coats/jackets.  Could you please check that you are not missing anything?

There are also numerous unnamed items of school uniform.  Please pop in to the Upton site and check the lost property cupboard.

Bristol City Council introduced the School Streets scheme at Ashton Gate Primary, Upton Road site, on 21^st October 2024. This involved creating a walking and cycling-only zone on a section of Upton Road. 

Vehicles are not permitted to enter the zone for 45 minutes in the morning between 8.15am and 9.00am and 45 minutes in the afternoon between 2.45pm and 3.30pm. Emergency vehicles, Blue Badge holders and residents in the affected section of Upton Road are exempt from these restrictions. 

We are now inviting local residents, parents, teachers and local businesses to share their views by taking part in a short survey.  We would like to understand what you think of the scheme, your perceptions on compliance and safety and the impact it has had on your daily life. 

Your feedback is important to us and, alongside other monitoring data, will help to determine the future of the scheme.  

The survey can be accessed online via the following link from Monday 16^th February:

The survey will close on Monday 23^rd March.  

We will be celebrating World Down Syndrome Day on Monday 23rd March. The children are welcome to come to school rocking their funky socks!

Download PDF

WDSD-Socks-A4-Poster.pdf (1 MB) • 1 pages

Regular school attendance is one of the best ways to help your child succeed. When children come to school every day, they keep up with their learning, build confidence in their skills, and develop good routines that set them up for the future. Every day at school matters—it helps your child stay on track and get the most out of their education.

It is also important to arrive at school on time. If a child arrives late to school every day, their learning begins to suffer. Below is a graph showing how being late to school every day over a school year adds up to lost learning time over one academic year.

Please remember to order your child’s lunch before 10pm on a Wednesday. If your child only has a meal once a week, you will still need to book this.

We are still having a lot of children who do not have a lunch booked with no packed lunch. Please remember the default meal is always salad bar. No other option will be available.

Please remember not to order a school lunch if your child is on a school trip, where a packed lunch is required. If you have already booked a meal for this date, the meal can be cancelled by the payer until 10pm on a Wednesday for the following week. As all food is pre-ordered there will be no refunds issued for non-cancelled meals.

A reminder that we are a nut free school. Please do not send your child to school with snacks/packed lunch with items containing nuts. This includes items such as Pesto, filled crepes and chocolate spread.

We are now on Facebook. Please like our page, we will be using this page to celebrate events and learning moments taking place across the school. We encourage you to invite other parents and family members to join as well, so that too can be part of our vibrant school network. Rest assured, our Facebook page will prioritise the privacy and security of our children. We will follow all the necessary precautions and guidelines to protect identities and ensure a safe online environment.

Studybugs is no longer in use. Please record any illnesses/medical appointments using the Arbor parent portal app. For planned absences please complete the online form on the attendance page of our website.

Get ready for new adventures this spring with Your Holiday Hub
Children and young people in Bristol who receive benefits-related free school meals, can book lots of fun activity sessions taking place during the school holidays from 6 to 17 April. Your Holiday Hub sessions are fully funded and include a healthy meal as part of the day. There’s lots to choose from with activities ranging from sports to crafts, and drama to baking plus so much more. Join in and stay active with fun new things to see and do. 

Download PDF

Holiday-Hub-A4-Poster.pdf (2 MB) • 1 pages