Ashton Gate Primary School Newsletter

This week, KS1 and Reception children gave a very warm welcome to a very special guest – Andy Day! Andy joined us to support our Earth Day ‘Storytelling in Nature’ focus and treated the children to a range of interactive and engaging stories. A big thank you to Andy for visiting and creating an exciting experience for us all.

On Wednesday evening, our Y5 and 6 choir took part in the Trust concert ‘All Together Now!’ at the Bristol Beacon. The children were fantastic and sang beautifully throughout the performance.

It was lovely to see so many friends and family members there to support them, creating a memorable atmosphere. Performing in such an iconic venue, alongside other schools from across the Trust and accompanied by a talented orchestra of secondary students, was an unforgettable experience for everyone involved.

A special thank you goes to Ms Kenyon and Ms Brown for their dedication in supporting the choir through rehearsals and on the day.

We are incredibly proud of them all.

We were lucky enough to obtain a grant which enabled us to buy new customised Hi Vis jackets for the whole school. Thank you to Roger Opie for helping to obtain this grant.

Bristol-based author Ash Bond will be visiting Ashton Gate Primary School on 21st May to talk about her thrilling fantasy series Peregrine Quinn! Further information can be found at:

If you pre-order one her books, please do so by 15th May and please include the pupil’s name and class when you check out.

Ash will be able to sign copies of the book on the day of the event. Storysmith bookshop, who are facilitating this author visit, are also kindly donating a copy of the book for our school library.

Congratulations to Orla in Year 6. As a shortlisted poet for the National Literacy Trust’s Young Poet Laureate Competition she attended a poetry masterclass and final round of the competition this week. Orla represented herself and Ashton Gate exceptionally well and whatever the outcome later in the summer, she is an Ambassador of Poetry, hoping to start a small poetry club and a poetry corner for upcoming issues of our newsletter – watch this space!

Wednesday 20^th May from 3-4.30pm 

Upton site Main Hall

We would like to invite parents to a drop-in session with the school Nurse and school Pastoral Learning Mentor focusing on children’s emotional health and wellbeing.

Please come along to the Upton Hall for tips and strategies for supporting your child’s emotional health or to chat about any concerns that you may have.

Well done to our Storytelling in Nature photo competition winners! We hope you enjoy your kindly donated books from Storysmith. 

Well done to

• Dev from Bumblebees class
• Florence from Oak class 
• Jagoda from 3CH 
• Gabi from 5B 

This week, Year 1 created their own version of ‘Springtime in Washington’ – a painting by the artist Alma Thomas. The children loved being creative with colours and brushstrokes, being inspired by the colours of spring – just like Alma Thomas!

Bristol Cathedral Choir School on 5 May at 6pm will host a Bristol Papaya / Smartphone Free Childhood event for parents AND children (Years 3 – 7) 

The Government’s consultation on social media closes on 26 May.

Smartphone Free Childhood will be hand-delivering the petition below to 10 Downing Street before the consultation closes.

After only one week, the petition already has over 100,000 signatures.

Anyone can sign – parents, carers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, young people.

Add your name here to show your support:

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.