Ashton Gate Primary School Newsletter

After 21 years of dedicated service to our school, Maria Forsythe will be leaving us at the end of this term. Maria has been a much-loved member of our school community for so many years, and tremendous numbers of children, families and staff will remember her for her warmth, kindness and gentle nature. She has always brought a calm, caring presence to school life, offering support, reassurance and a soft-hearted approach to everyone around her. Maria’s contribution over nearly three decades has been truly special, and she leaves with our heartfelt thanks and very best wishes for the future. She will be greatly missed by us all.

A group of our Year 3 pupils took part in a collaborative poetry event at the Cresswell Theatre in Bristol Cathedral Choir School on Wednesday this week. The children performed a poem they have been learning in class, with their presentation livestreamed to other Year 3 classrooms across Amplify Education. They represented the school wonderfully and performed brilliantly, showing great confidence and enthusiasm. The event also included a special appearance from poet Martin Kiszko, who inspired the children with readings of his work and led an engaging workshop that they thoroughly enjoyed. A shout-out to our lovely parent volunteers too who were a wonderful support on the day. 

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.

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.

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:

School Discos – Final Reminder

This is your final reminder for the PTA School Discos as ticket sales will close tonight (Friday 8th May) at 10pm. After that you won’t be able to buy a ticket, and we are unable to admit anyone on the day.

Tickets are £2.50 per child and are available to buy on our website here:

If your child is still unsure, we always suggest buying a ticket anyway – it’s a small donation which goes straight to the school and saves any disappointments.

A couple of things to remember:

• This is a drop off event – parents leave your dancing shoes at home
• Parents – please keep any coats / bags with you as they end up getting left behind
• No phones allowed – the Discos are like any school day, so we suggest leaving them at home, otherwise they will need to be handed in as usual
• Year 5 and 6 students will need to be collected – no child will be allowed to walk home alone, so please make sure someone will be collecting them

Final reminder of times and dates below:

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.