School Newsletter Newsletter No 14 Autumn 2020 Stoke Bishop C of E Primary School Cedar Park, Stoke Bishop, Bristol, BS9 1BW Telephone: 0117 3772173 Email: [email protected] www.stokebishop.bristol.sch.uk Head Teacher: Mr David Forrester
Hello to all our Parents, Carers and Children,
Happy Christmas!
A huge thank you to the PTA for organising the Reindeer event for the children. A wonderful surprise and a fascinating learning opportunity that the children really engaged with. It was much appreciated by everyone at school – the adults as much as the children!
A massive thank you to you all for the wonderful Christmas donations to the Avonmouth Foodbank. There were in total 1207 items by our calculations. Enough to stretch the arms of all the Foodbank appeal reps from each year group as they loaded up the car!
There really was no space for any more and the staff at the foodbank were genuinely amazed and truly grateful for your generosity.
I would like to say special thankyou for the effort and enthusiasm of our reps: Zoe, Leo, Aneira, Imogen, Jori, Bethany, Sebastian, Charlotte, Rory, Zelda, Xin Jie, Matthew, Carly, Ben, Patience, Alice, Eddie, Thomas, Aye, Theo, Betsy-May, Sophie, and Ella
Their efforts resulted in a huge total that everyone can be proud of. So big they couldn’t weigh it all there and then. If we ever get a final total we’ll let you know.
The winning class was R2 with 202 items. Enormous congratulations to them.
Whatever you have chosen to do over the next few weeks, have a wonderful, safe Christmas and we look forward to seeing everyone in what will be a brilliant New Year. It’s possible – ‘Believe it’!
Best wishes
David Forrester
Canopy Carols
We hope you have had a chance to view your children singing their carols for each year group. The weather did eventually intervene, so some of the videos have been done indoors.
Your messages regarding this have been very kind and I just wanted to be clear that we were unable to go ahead with it because PHE Bristol had a different interpretation of the guidance from myself. I was trying to push the line to it’s limit but they were not having that and I am happy to accept their decision. It’s not a case of right or wrong, bad or good – merely a difference of opinion. Ultimately we need to accept their direction because that is their role, hence the change. If we can’t see the best of intentions from everyone at any time of year, and especially at Christ- mas, then that leaves us all in a worse place.
Take the opportunity to gather round and watch it all together at home. Great for setting that Christmas mood at home. Enjoy!
Christmas 2020 – Stoke Bishop Church Of England Primary School
Care Home Carols
On Tuesday, a group of Year 6s went to Waltham House Care Home spread Christmas cheer by singing Christmas songs and Carols for some of the residents. The care home had previously set up a visiting 'pod' in the garden whereby residents could be visited by their loved ones. This meant that it was completely Covid-safe .The children all worked incredibly hard to learn all of the songs in just over a week. They acted sensibly and maturely and sung beautifully. The staff at the care home were very grateful and the residents thoroughly enjoyed the visit. A huge well done to William, Elise, Leah (6Q), Keziah , Roseanna and Freddie (6H).
Christmas Jumper Day Office changes
It was lovely to see everyone in their Christmas This Newsletter is the last that Melanie Brown will jumpers on Wednesday and thank you to everyone be doing for us, as she is leaving today. Best who donated. We raised £124.00 which will be wishes to Mel for her new role. given to the Save the Children charity. We are very pleased to announce that we have appointed a replacement. Mrs Fiona Dodd will be
joining us from the beginning of Term 3.
Christmas Card Competition
Congratulations to Polly (5A) whose design was chosen in this year’s constituency Christmas Card competition. A link to the website featuring everyone's designs is below.
Constituency Christmas Card: Artist Wall – Darren Jones (darren-jones.co.uk)
Who will be reading this week’s Christmas Mystery Reader story?
https://youtu.be/ Two chapters this week... TMJk_rYHdtM
Chapter 6
https://youtu.be/1APYAD-6DX0
Chapter 7
https://youtu.be/Y8UQ9Worutg
Term Dates 2020-21
Spring Term
Term 3
Monday 4th January 2021 to Friday 12th February 2021 This week reception to year 4 have been taking part in the virtual Lapland challenge. Reception, Year 1 and 2 worked together to Term 4 achieve the distance of 145 miles and Year 3 and Year 4 Monday 22nd February 2021 to managed to do this distance all on their own! Thank you to Dan Thursday 1st April 2021 Summers for showing us the challenge, we have loved doing it Summer Term and it has been wonderful to see the children so enthusiastic to get out and exercise even in these weather conditions! Term 5 Monday 19th April 2021 to Friday 28th May 2021
Term 6
Monday 7th June 2021 to Wednesday 21st July 2021
Inset Days
Monday 4th January 2021
Monday 22nd February 2021
Friday 28th May 2021
Dates to remember:
December
- 20th PTA Window Wanderland Trail
January
15th Deadline for primary school applications A MESSAGE FROM THE PTA...
A massive thank you to all the parents and staff who've helped the PTA this year. Despite restrictions, the PTA has raised an impressive £1,569. Thank you for all your hard work, enthusiasm and generosity in making, donating, co-ordinating and buying for the fundraising activities this year: tea towels, Christmas cards, Christmas trees, 2nd hand uniform, the raffle, dress up days and of course the wonderful Christmas window wanderland trail. To give you an idea...
KS1 teatowels £367 Children's designs £425 cards, mugs etc Window trail £187 Christmas trees £229 Raffle £635
The children were delighted on Wednesday to be visited by Chutney and Pickle, reindeers from the Cotswold Reindeer Herd. This was organised and funded by the PTA. (If you need more reindeers in your life, you can visit them near Cirencester (www.cotswoldreindeerherd.co.uk)).
In 2021, the PTA will continue with its goal to generate a sense of community whilst raising funds for the school to enhanced the experience for the children. Please be in touch ([email protected]) if you have any ideas for the PTA or would like to get involved or help out in whatever way - large or small. We're planning to hold a zoom meeting early next term to make plans for the rest of the year, so look out for details in the newsletter next term. This week started on Monday with the Explorers Hub Christmas party which was great fun. The day began with the Lapland Festive Race and 3 laps around the Daily Mile track in order to clock up the 145miles target we are trying as a whole school to reach. This was followed by the whole school virtual Christmas Assembly on Teams led by our very own Year 6. After lunch the children put on their party hats that they made last week, they played lots of party games and danced their socks off. In fact, we saw some pretty groovy moves on the dance floor this year!!
On Thursday morning we had a very magical visit from two reindeer, this was organised by our wonderful PTA and the children were beyond excitement to meet the reindeer before their big flight! The PTA also provided the children with some gorgeous Christmas hats to take home. In the classroom, we filled our trough tray with reindeer food (oats and glitter) The children had hours of fun scooping it up, filling post and sprinkling it to feed the reindeer.
The children have also been making Christmas tree decorations, printing patterns with Christmas shaped sponges and making Christmas cards to take home.
It has been a very busy term and the children have worked extremely hard – we are very proud of them and the progress they have made.
We would like to wish all our families in Explorers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Christmas week with the Discoverers
What a term we have had! We have been really proud of how the Discoverer’s have returned to school and worked their socks off right up until the end!
This week has been full of different Christmas activities but two stand out above the rest! We had a visit from 2 reindeers on Wednesday. The children loved seeing them and hearing all about how they help Santa! A big thank you to the PTA for organising this surprise!
On Monday we enjoyed our Christmas parties!
Christmas Carols in the playground
We hope you enjoy listening to us sing on the link below!
https://youtu.be/msWgsQR-9ok Christmas week in the Inventors Hub!
Year 3 have had a very exciting last week of term. On Tuesday, they enjoyed their Christmas party decorating fairy cakes and playing games outside.
Despite the initial disappointment of parents not being able to attend the carol service, Year 3 did an amazing job recording their carol service for you. Here is a link for you to watch:https://youtu.be/bVlKK99vUR8. On Wednesday, Year 3 had a surprise visit from Lapland. We found out lots about Reindeer. Thank you to the PTA from us all.
We finished off our topic work by learning about earthquakes. We created and designed structures out of marshmallows and cocktail sticks that could with stand earthquakes. We then simulated an earthquake using a bed of jelly. Only some survived! Year 3 also practised how to drop ,cover and hold for if there was an earthquake in another country. Christmas week in the Inventors Hub!
YEAR 4
It has been such a fun week in Year 4! Our highlights have included, having our very own Christmas lunch, meeting two incredible reindeer and enjoying our Christmas parties. The rest of the week has revolved around penguins! In English, we wrote some persuasive letters arguing on the side of emperor penguins against overfishing in the Antarctic. The children enjoyed three Art lessons this week and made their very own penguin models.
Christmas week with the ‘Innovators’
The final school week of 2020 has been incredibly busy and jam packed with Christmas Activities! On Monday Year 6 led a wonderful whole school assembly. There were poems and amazing instrumental duets and solo performances from Kezia & Gwen (flutes), Gemma (cello) & Leah (piano), Ella & Heidi (piano), Roseanna (trumpet) and William (violin).
The assembly has been uploaded onto the school website at the following address: https://www.stokebishop.bristol.sch.uk/2020/12/16/christmas-assembly-2020/
REINDEERS
We were also visited by some of Father Christmas’ reindeers on a very wet and windy Wednesday morning. Thank you so much to our friends in the PTA for organising this—the children absolutely loved it! Christmas week with the ‘Innovators’
Wednesday was Christmas Party Day! Although our Christmas Parties were run slightly differently this year the children had fun playing charades, musical statues, pass the parcel and taking part in class quizzes…
5L had an excellent time at their Christmas Party on Wednesday. The children all donned their homemade party hats to play lots of games including musical statues, pass the parcel and charades. There was also the much anticipated exchanged of the Secret Santa gifts, where the children had been so thoughtful in buying presents for each other. A huge thank you to Hannah and Dnaa for organising this and well done to everyone for keeping it a secret! The party finished with lots of singing and dancing and a great time was had by all.
And finally, in what has been an extremely challenging year for us all, we would just like to say a huge thank you to all of the parents and carers, for your help, support and encouragement over the course of the year. From everybody in the INNOVATORS Team we wish you all ‘seasons greetings‘ and we hope that you have a fantastic holiday, a prosperous new year and we very much look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday 5th January 2021. Community Links
E-Scooters
We have been concerned for a while about the number of E- scooters that we are seeing around the neighbourhood, especially when ridden by children – whether it be on roads or pavements. We have some definitive information attached about these, that it may be useful for you to read or to pass onto someone you think needs to be aware. Even more important than the illegal nature of these items is the fact that they present huge issues of safety for the riders, pedestrians and other road users.
Bristol North West Foodbank Christmas Opening Times Extra Openings shown in green.
Date Location Opening times Thursday 17th De- Lawrence Weston 10am- cember Baptist Church 12noon (aka Hope
th Thursday 17 St. Andrew’s, 10am-1pm December Avonmouth Friday 18th De- Emmanuel Chap- 10am- cember el, Henbury 12noon st Monday 21 De- St. Andrew’s, 10am-1pm cember Avonmouth nd Tuesday 22 De- St. Andrew’s, 10am-1pm cember Avonmouth Wednesday 23rd Hope Chapel, 10am- December Hotwells 12noon rd Wednesday 23 St. Andrew’s 10am-1pm December Avonmouth Thursday 24th De- Lawrence Weston 10am- cember Baptist Church 12noon (aka Hope
th Thursday 24 St. Andrew’s 10am-1pm December Avonmouth Friday 25th De- Foodbank & Foodbank cember -3rd Janu- Homebank & Home- ary closed bank closed Monday 4th Janu- St. Andrew’s 10am- ary Avonmouth 12noon