9th 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

Messages from Teachers For All Groups

Message from Ms Challis

A huge thank you to the girls in year 6 who took part in the BBC Radio 4 Puberty Puzzle Documentary in May. The documentary has won an award for medical journalism! The documentary makers have reached out to me to say that you all spoke so bravely and honestly and were ‘at the heart of the whole program’.

If you are interested in listening to some of our wonderful Ashton Gaters speaking about their RSHE curriculum, you can find their award winning documentary using the link below.

listen here

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!

News For All Groups

Thank you

Thank you for all your kind donations of soil. The planters are looking beautiful now and the children really enjoyed getting involved.

Messages from Teachers For All Groups

Headlice

Headlice has been reported in Year 1, please check and treat your child’s hair accordingly.

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

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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Important For All Groups

School Photographs

As you are aware school photographs have been taken this week. Your child will come home today with a card and instructions on how to order. Please note the deadline for ordering is Friday 23rd October.

Deadline for ordering photographs

Friday 23rd October 2026

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.

Messages from Teachers For Year 3 and Year 4

Author Visit

Multi-award winning children’s book creator and BAFTA-winning animator Mikey Please will be visiting Years 3 & 4 on Thursday 15th October! He’ll be introducing the latest book in his gorgeous picture book series (beginning with The Cafe at the Edge of the Woods), as well as the first in his chapter book series The Rambler’s Curse. You can find further information about this visit in the link below. Mikey will be able to sign pre-ordered books on the day of the event. Please place any orders by 9th October. Please note that The Cafe at the Edge of the Woods, The Cave Downwind of the Cafe and The Thieves Beneath the Floorboards are picture books, and The Rambler’s Curse is a chapter book (most suitable for ages 8+)A huge thanks to Storysmith for facilitating this visit, and for donating signed copies of Mikey’s books to our school library.

order your book here

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Local Community For All Groups

BS3 Multicultural Feast

book your space here

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Important For All Groups

Flu Immunisations

The nursing team are coming on Friday 16th October to administer the vaccination.

Please use the link below to give permission or decline the vaccination.

consent form

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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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PTA News For All Groups

PTA Quiz Night

Friday 16th October is PTA quiz night! It’s almost upon us, and there are just a few tables left.

PTA Quiz Night

Friday 16th October 2026 · 7:00pm – 10:00pm

If you haven’t got your team together yet, now’s the time to round up your friends, come up with a suitably hilarious team name and put your niche knowledge to the test.

It’s always one of our favourite nights – a great mix of trivia, friendly competition, pizza and a few drinks from the bar. What’s not to like?

You’ve got until Sunday, 11th October to grab your tickets here:

Get Tickets

And don’t forget to pre-order your pizza when you book. 🍕

PTA News For All Groups

Autumn Raffle – get your tickets

If quizzes aren’t your thing – or you just love a prize – our pop-up autumn raffle might be the thing for you.

We’ve got some great experiences up for grabs – get ‘em while you can!

2 x tickets to a Bristol City home league game in the 2026/27 season (men’s or women’s game) ⚽️
2 x tickets to Wake The Tiger – to be used by 31 December 🐯
A 2-hour children’s art workshop at Art-K – to be used by 13 December 🎨

The raffle is only open until Thursday, 15th October, so there’s less than a week to enter. Don’t miss out. Enter the raffle here:

Enter Raffle

PTA News For All Groups

Come and meet the Ashton Gate PTA

Fancy finding out a bit more about the PTA, getting involved or simply meeting some of the people behind it?

We’re having an informal PTA meet-up at 7.30pm on 22 October at Bristol Beer Factory.

PTA Meet-up

Thursday 22nd October 2026 · 7:30pm

RSVP

We’ll be chatting Christmas Fair (yes, it is that time of year again!) but otherwise there’s no agenda, no commitment and absolutely no expectation that you sign up to volunteer. It’s just a chance to have a drink, find out what we get up to and meet some of the team.

We’re a friendly bunch and would love to see some new faces, so come along and say hello!

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

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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