16th October 2026 – Ashton Gate Primary School

Important For All Groups

Attendance at Ashton Gate Primary School

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.

Infographic titled “How Does School Attendance Affect a Child’s Learning?” showing how absences reduce the number of school days attended out of 190. It compares attendance levels: 100% (0 days absence, 190 days in school, “Perfect”), 95% (10 days absence, 180 days), 90% (19 days absence, 171 days, “4 weeks missed”), 85% (29 days absence, 161 days), 80% (38 days absence, 152 days) and 75% (47 days absence, 143 days, “Over half a term missed”). Notes explain that averaging 90% attendance over five school years equals roughly half a school year missed, and that taking a two-week holiday in term time limits the best possible attendance to 94.7%.

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.

Bar chart showing how daily lateness adds up over a school year: being 5 minutes late each day equals 3 days lost, 10 minutes late equals 6.5 days lost, 15 minutes late equals 10 days lost, 20 minutes late equals 13 days lost, and 30 minutes late equals 19 days lost.

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Important For All Groups

Ignite Bristol

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Notices For All Groups

Nurse Drop-in Session on Emotional Wellbeing

Wednesday 11^th November from 3-4.30pm

Upton site Main Hall

We would like to invite parents to a drop-in session with the school Nurse Team 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 and wellbeing.

Nurse Drop In Session – Upton Road

Wednesday 11th November 2026 · 3:00pm – 4:30pm

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News For All Groups

Orienteering Festival at Ashton Park

This week a group of year 5 and 6 children took on the challenge of an orienteering event at Ashton Park. The children had to work together to find different points across the school fields and to solve puzzles. Well done to both teams! A special mention to the year 5 team, who came 2nd overall!

Messages from Teachers For Reception

Reception Meet and Greet

Just a reminder that there will be a Meet and Greet for Reception parents on Wednesday 4th November. This will take place at 2.30pm in your child’s classroom. Your child’s teacher will go through a short presentation on curriculum and experiences in Reception and you will have a chance to ask questions and look around their classroom. The children won’t be in the classroom at the time, they will be having a lovely time elsewhere in the school.

Reception Meet and Greet

Wednesday 4th November 2026 · 2:30pm

Important For All Groups

Harvest

We are collecting for South & East Bristol Foodbank. Please drop your donations to the school between Monday 12th October until Thursday 22nd October.

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Local Community For All Groups

Dr Bike Mechanic 22nd October (Upton Road)

The Dr Bike mechanic will do a FREE thorough safety check and carry out minor repairs to ensure bikes are road worthy. This service is open to both parents and children.

What Dr Bike should be able to do: fix punctures, adjusts breaks, tune gears and deal with minor problems such as replacing cables or brake blocks.

What Dr Bike can’t do: fix broken or bent frames and wheels, carry out major repairs or replace significant missing parts.

What to do if you are interested:

complete this form

Dr Bike (Upton Road)

Thursday 22nd October 2026

Please note that whilst every effort will be made to try and see to everyone’s bike on the day, this is sometimes not possible due to numbers. We will confirm whether you have been allocated a space closer to the time.

News For All Groups

Ashton Site Bike Week Golden Lock Box

We are running a bike week. Cycle or scoot to school from Monday 19^th – Friday 23rd October and you might win a prize! If you find the golden bike lock on your bike during this week, you are a lucky winner and can claim a prize from the lucky dip Golden Lock Box in the Ashton office.

Bike Week

Monday 19th October 2026 – Friday 23rd October 2026

News For Year 2

Year 2 ‘Bikoween’ Bling Your Bike/Scooter Competition

Decorate your bike or scooter in Halloween themed fancy dress to win prizes! To enter simply decorate your bike or scooter and bring it into school on Friday 23rd October 2026!

Judging will take place in the assembly that day by guest judges from the School Active Travel Team at Bristol City Council!

Bike and scooter prizes up for grabs!

Year 2 Bling your bike/scooter

Friday 23rd October 2026

News For All Groups

Poppy Appeal

We now have Poppies and other stationery available for sale at both school sites to raise money for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal.

At the Upton site Year 6 will be selling these in the playground during playtime. On the Ashton site they will be in the main reception area.

Important For All Groups

Parents Evening

Parents evening for EY & KS1 will be 4th & 9th November.

Parents evening for KS2 will be 3rd & 5th November.

Bookings will open on Thursday 1st October 7am and close Sunday 1st November 7am. Please use Arbor to book your appointment.

Arbor

Book Parents Evening

Thursday 1st October 2026 · 7:00am

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Local Community For All Groups

Grassroot Communities Hub

Last week, Mrs Dowlman attended the Community Leader Breakfast at Ashton Park School. Along with Ashton Park and Southville Primary School, we are actively working alongside local community leaders to explore how we can further serve, support, and develop our wider community through the “Cradle 2 Career” project.

At the breakfast we heard from Graham and Heather, representing “Grassroots Communities”, who spoke about an exciting opportunity for our local families and children in Greville Smyth Park.

Grassroots Communities supports everyday people and communities to make changes from the grassroots and up!

For example, they are looking into an exciting opportunity to create a Community Hub and Cafe from an unused toilet block on the edge of Greville Smyth Park.

This short survey will help shape the initial proposal.

compete the survey

More about Grassroots

Develop a free, open access youth club for 8-19 year olds and creative space for 19-30 year olds
Venue hire service and a cafe; supporting the community and funding sustainable youth work
Contribute to Greville Smyth Park and wider BS3 community e.g. public toilets, youth activities and community venue
Create social, employment and training opportunities

Why?

Bedminster and Southville doesn’t have a free, open access youth club, and hasn’t done since 2004
A third of BS3 is under 30 years old, equating to over 4,000 people
In 2025 the Government launched the first National Youth Strategy in a decade, creating a once in a lifetime funding opportunity to develop places and spaces for young people
There are large developments planned or underway across BS3, means the need is only going to grow. Please complete the survey above, to have your voice about this exciting local opportunity!

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PTA News For All Groups

PTA Meet-up: IMPORTANT VENUE CHANGE

The venue for the upcoming PTA meet up has changed.

We’ll now be meeting at the Ashton site, rather than Bristol Beer Factory. The time is unchanged: 7.30pm on Thursday 22 October.

PTA Meet-up

Thursday 22nd October 2026 · 7:30pm

RSVP

It remains an informal get together, where you can learn a little more about the PTA, its goals for the year and how you can support it in small ways (or big, if you fancy it!).

Attending doesn’t commit you to anything – there’s no forced volunteering here. You will be the first to hear about the Christmas Fair plans though, and maybe you’ll be inspired to get involved.

We look forward to seeing many of you there.

PTA News For All Groups

Save the date: Ashton Gate Christmas Fair

Our annual Christmas Fair is taking place on Saturday 6th December at the Ashton site.

The fair is one of the PTA’s biggest fundraising events of the year, helping us raise money for the school and the things that make a difference to our children. We’d love to see as many families there as possible, so please pop the date in your diary!

Ashton Gate Christmas Fair

Sunday 6th December 2026

Could you lend a hand? We’ll always need volunteers to help make the fair a success. Whether you can spare an hour or help out for longer, every bit of support makes a difference.

More details on how to get involved to follow.

Lend a Hand

PTA News For All Groups

PTA in Action: A new PA system for the Upton site!

Last year, the PTA raised over £20,000. That is an incredible sum of money. But how do we use it?

This year, we’ll be sharing more details of how we use that money and the difference that your generation donations make to our whole school community.

And we already have our first update! Thanks to the money raised from recent events, we’ve bought the school a brand-new PA system.

This means Ashton and Upton can now have their own dedicated systems, so our site manager Martin no longer needs to transport speakers and wires between the two sites.

We delivered the new system this week, and Mrs Dowlman and the team were delighted.

Thank you to the PTA and everyone who helped raise funds! We love getting together as a whole-school, and this new system will mean that we can sing, have assemblies…. and share terrible jokes!
Mrs Dowlman

Thank you to everyone who has supported our fundraising over the past year. Every pound spent, and every hour volunteered, adds up.

Keep your eyes peeled for more updates – we’ve got lots more to share!

Notices For All Groups

Lunch Ordering

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.

Go To Parentpay

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Notices For All Groups

Nut Free School

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.

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Notices For All Groups

Social Media

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.

Visit Us on Facebook

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Notices For All Groups

Recording Absences

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.

Open Arbor

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