Ashton Gate Primary School Newsletter

Dear parents and carers,

Happy New Year to you all. I hope you had a lovely Christmas spent with family and friends.

As you may recall, I spent the past year working at another school within the Trust and have now returned to Ashton Gate full-time following the completion of my secondment. While I greatly enjoyed my time at the other school, I missed Ashton Gate very much and am delighted to be back as part of this wonderful school community.

Term 3 has already got off to a fantastic start, with classrooms full of engaging and purposeful learning. It has been a pleasure to visit classes this week and hear the children speak so enthusiastically about what they are currently learning. It is clear how much they gain from their time in school each day.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mrs Dowlman for taking such excellent care of the school in my absence. She has led Ashton Gate superbly over the past twelve months. I would also like to thank Mr Hawkins for stepping into the Head of School role during this time; he has done a tremendous job in supporting the school.

As a reminder, Mrs Dowlman is Head of School for Upton, Mrs Gerolemou continues as Head of School for Ashton, and Mr Hawkins and Miss Goodman are Assistant Heads.

Wishing you all the very best for 2026,
Mr. Jones

Dear Parents,

Year 1 are learning about mechanisms as part of our DT curriculum .

In week 5 of this term, we are going to make cars. We will need rectangular boxes to construct our vehicles. We would like to kindly ask for donations of suitable (not too small, not too big) rectangular cardboard boxes. Please bring them into school and hand them over to your class teachers.

Thank you so much in advance,
The Year 1 team

Welcome to the new look Ashton Gate Primary School newsletter. We hope this new system will help make the newsletters 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 tool is brand new, created for us by a parent at the school. We would really appreciate your feedback, especially if you run into any problems or have suggestions to make it even better.

The closing date for applying for a reception place for 2026 is 15 January 2026 – The quickest and easiest way to apply is online at Bristol City Council website. If you require further information, contact School Admissions at [email protected]

We have observed road safety concerns and illegal parking on double yellow lines on Greenway Bush Lane near to the School Street barrier location. To ensure the rules of the road are being followed, and to ensure the safety of the children at Ashton Gate Primary School, parking enforcement has been informed and will be doing patrols.

As the school community, you are able to make a huge difference – improving road safety for all children attending the School. The map below shows a 5-10 minute Walking Bubble, your school is centred in the middle of the map, and the surrounding circle illustrates to a 5-10 minute walk to and from the school.

If your home is inside the walk zone, it means that you live very close to the school and that active travel could be a great option for you. If you’re not already, why don’t you try walking, scooting or cycling to school? Parents, if you need the car to travel to work, it may be quicker and easier to leave it parked at home while you do the school run. 

If you live outside of the walk zone, in order to reduce congestion at the school gate we would like those who currently arrive by car to try parking outside of the zone and walking or scooting the rest of the way to school. You may even find it takes you less time than trying to find somewhere to park near the school gates.

We also have a Park and Stride agreement with Aldi, so you are able to park in Aldi car park and walk to school from there. 

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.