Ashton Gate Primary School Newsletter

Welcome to this preview of a new newsletter format we’re working on. We hope this new system will help make the newsletter easier and faster to read, and help make sure you don’t miss any important information. Here are a few of the improvements…

• The mobile-friendly layout means you no longer need to zoom in and pan around to read the newsletter on phones and tablets.
• Use the year group filters to hide stories that relate to specific year groups. The newsletter will remember which year groups you’ve hidden and automatically filter them when you open the next newsletter.
• The table of contents summarises the stories in this edition. Use the In this edition section to jump to specific stories.
• The new system is more accessible. It should be much easier to use with assistive technologies such as screen readers.
• Important dates for your diary stand out more and you can tap the button next to each one to quickly add the event to your own calendar.
• You can now subscribe to the term dates calendar to see school holidays and inset days in your own calendar. Once you’ve subscribed, new terms and inset days will be added automatically every year.
• Important or useful links now appear as buttons so they stand out more and you can more easily take action if needed.

This new format is a work in progress. We would really appreciate your feedback, especially if you run into any problems or have suggestions to make it even better.

Headlice has been reported in Reception, please check and treat your child’s hair accordingly.

We have recently noticed an increase in Year 3 pupils bringing toys into school. While we understand that children may feel comforted or excited to share their belongings, toys can become a distraction during learning time and may also get lost or damaged. We kindly ask parents and carers to support us by ensuring that children do not bring toys into school, unless specifically requested by a teacher. Thank you for your cooperation and continued support.

The dates for the WW1 project are as set out on the newsletter and not on the homework sheet that has been sent home – we had to make some date changes. Apologies for any confusion.

The dates are as follows.

This term in DT, Year 4 will be sewing their own book sleeves. We will be doing this over the course of a day and would be very grateful for some extra pairs of hands to help with needle threading etc. If you are available to help out, please contact your child’s class teacher.

A huge well done to KS2 choir, who have performed 4 times this week! Starting off with the school fair on Sunday and then performing on stage at Bristol Beacon on Monday- this was to a very large crowd and they represented the school with confidence. They have finished off the week performing in the Y5/6 Winter Sing in school. Thank you for all your singing efforts, choir!

Year 3 had a fantastic and memorable day visiting Cheddar Gorge, where they enjoyed guided tours of Gough’s Cave and Cox’s Cave. The children also took part in an exciting demonstration about what life was like during the Stone Age, bringing their learning to life. They behaved brilliantly throughout the day and were a real credit to the school. A huge thank you to the parent volunteers who accompanied us and helped make the trip such a success.

The KS1 Choir attended The Spiegeltent this week to perform along with other Bristol schools. They all performed so well and sang beautifully.

We are so excited to tell you that Mrs Beckerleg has had a baby boy called Sid. Both are doing very well.

What can we say, apart from a huge thank you to everyone that came along to the Christmas Fair. We took over £5,000 on the day, which is just incredible! An even bigger thank you to all the volunteers who helped to make the fair the success it was. We couldn’t do it without you all. We hope you enjoyed being part of it. If you did and this has made you want to be more involved in the PTA, please drop us an email at [email protected]

Another thank you to all the classes for putting together such brilliant hampers, we raised an amazing £3000 and the lucky winners are named below.

• Aimee Arscott
• Alice Cooper
• Alice Hammond
• Andrea Hazlehurst
• Anja Haubold
• Barbara Reeve
• Carole Stevenson
• Dawn May
• Fiona Sansom
• Freyja Ruddock
• Henry Humphreys
• Jade Bartley
• Katherine Showler
• Laura Noble
• Maria Dragojevic
• Marta Salva Cifuentes
• Miss Reid
• Paul Usher
• Phil Stevens
• Ruth Attride
• Sarah Almond
• Siobhan Lewkowicz
• Suzannah Neill
• Tia Tucker

And the winner of the volunteer raffle was Kate Steel Jardel.

We will be working with the school after Christmas to decide how best to put the money raised to use and we will share this with you all as soon as we can.

Thanks again, from your very grateful PTA!

We’re aiming to raise £13,000 in 7 days so that we can set up a new farm ‘nurture’ group, supporting local children going through challenging times. The funding will also be used to help take care of the farm and gardens so that the group sessions can run. We can always see the great benefits of these nurture farm sessions for the children whilst they are at the farm and have been told there is also a continued positive impact in the rest of their lives.

“My son is a child that struggles at school and finds it quite difficult. The Nurture Club gives him a real boost and opportunity to shine.” Parent

Now is the time to donate as every £1 will be doubled by our match funders so please click below before 19thDecember and help us reach our target.

Windmill Hill city farm is in one of the 20% most deprived areas of England.

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.