School Newsletter Newsletter No 13 Autumn 2020 Stoke Bishop C of E Primary School Cedar Park, Stoke Bishop, , 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,

An interesting week! The positive boost of vaccinations being introduced has given the media something to get their teeth into and a sense, in general, that things may start to become more normalised by next Summer. It is of course, early days, but a welcome ‘gift’ given the season.

Some of you will also have noted the education minister’s ‘gift’ to school of an extra Inset day (to be paid back somewhere else in the school calendar). If the last minute, vague, badly thought out nature of this proposal doesn’t sum up what we have been dealing with for the last eight months, then I don’t know what does.

Please be reassured we will not be changing anything. The last day of term is Friday the 18th December and whilst we are aiming for the children to carry on having fun, they will still be learning - even on that last day. Our 3rd Inset Day is still as planned, on Monday 4th January. That means the children start back on Tuesday 5th January – whatever the government may come up with by then!

As I communicated on Tuesday, parents are invited to see the children sing a few carols for 15 minutes in the afternoon next week. If this event is to go ahead it has to be done in a very clear way that maintains the bub- bles and measures that we have set up in general for parents to be on site. Please follow them. We will not adapt these in any way. If you do not then we cannot let the carols go ahead: We only have space for one person per family to come and watch the carols. Each year group of parents will line up separately – please see the map overleaf – socially distant and wearing a mask. You will be asked to enter at different times so that the year groups remain separate. You will be directed to stand within a marked area on the playground identified by cones. When standing in the area you should remain socially distant from other parents at all times. The children will remain separate in their bubbles in the hall and then when they come out onto the play- ground area to sing. Please keep your mask on throughout the carols. Hopefully it shouldn’t stop you cheering and clapping!

As with every aspect of school, whilst we follow the government guidance and make every effort to minimise any risk of contact, we cannot ensure that this will not be the case at all. If you are a person of high risk, we recommend that you do not attend this activity.

If you are not able to attend for any reason we will be filming each carol service and uploading it to the school website for you to watch at your leisure.

It may well be raining (not very Christmassy). As long as it is not heavy we will go ahead. If it is torrential we will be forced to cancel it. Unfortunately we will have no opportunity to rearrange this.

A lot of rules I know. Hopefully it’s worth it to have a little taste of Christmas. Please continue to observe all the measures over the next few weeks and over the Christmas period.

Best wishes

David Forrester

Carol singing details and map

Covid Arrangements for the Holiday period We very much hope that everyone is able to stay safe and unaffected during the next few weeks, but the reality is that someone is likely to receive a positive test. This becomes increasingly likely as a result of households coming together at Christmas. You will therefore find, attached to this newsletter, a breakdown of what you should do regarding informing school for each day of the holiday period if you or your child receives a positive test. Please put this somewhere safe so that you can refer to it easily. It will also be here on the school website, along with other information that we are adding over the coming week.

Office changes Sadly, we are losing Melanie Brown, who has been working in the office and on the Reception front desk for the last year. She will be finishing at the end of this term so we wish her all the best for her new post, and want to say a massive thank you for her contribution to school during a pretty eventful year. Hopefully her memory bank will be able to associate us with more than just ‘Covid’! We will update you once we have made a new appointment. Mystery Reader

Two chapters this week... Who is reading this week’s story?

Chapter 4 https://youtu.be/8UIPQ53czHk

https://youtu.be/Vof8TUZm- 9Q

Chapter 5

https://youtu.be/ruZo4bVdGY4

CAROLS for BRISTOL – FEATURING YEAR 5 CHILDREN FROM STOKE BISHOP

Join thousands of others in this unique online event from the comfort of your own home.

Available on YouTube from 7 pm on Friday 11th December. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxYf659DlM0al2BjF6TRmkA

This has been one of the most challenging years in our nation’s living memory; for some, unbearably so.

In any other year, thousands of people, regardless of faith, would make their way into churches across Bristol, to sing their favourite carols and hear the timeless story of Christmas.

This year, that will not be possible.

In response, some churches in Bristol are coming together to create an online service, CAROLS for BRISTOL.

With contributors including: Pat Lam, City Primary Schools, Charities, Agencies and Individuals serving Bristol, the Mayor of Bristol, Lady Nade & Elles Bailey, NHS Staff from the BRI and , Bristol Cathedral Choir.

#CAROLSforBRISTOL

Dates to remember:- Term Dates 2020-21 Autumn Term

December Term 2

11th - 20th PTA Window Wanderland Trail Monday 2nd November 2020 to Friday 18th December 2020 Spring Term 14th Final day of collection for the Foodbank Term 3

15th Flu Vaccinations (2nd Visit) for Year 4 + extras Monday 4th January 2021 to Friday 12th February 2021

15th PTA Raffle draw Term 4 Monday 22nd February 2021 to Thursday 1st April 2021 16th Christmas Jumper Day Summer Term January Term 5 Monday 19th April 2021 to Friday 28th May 2021 15th Deadline for primary school applications 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

We are really pleased to let you know that our school has come in the top 15 for Wesport Virtual Winter School Games challenges out of the 90 schools that took part. The children enjoyed taking part in a wide variety of challenges and were keen to beat their personal best scores. Christmas Foodbank Donations Wow! An absolutely massive thank you to all our families for your wonderful generosity. We have a final day of collection on Monday th14 December and will then be distributing to the foodbank. We’ll let you know the final outcome next week but if you have a chance to gather some donations this weekend we will be hugely grateful for them.

So many thanks for your support with this.

MESSAGES FROM THE PTA...

PTA Christmas Window Wanderland Trail Ideas for the PTA next year…. Friday 11th - Sunday 20th December The PTA are, as ever, keen to hear from anyone with ideas for events in the The dates for the Window Wanderland have been extended so coming terms. What would you and your you have even longer to discover the joy of Christmas on the children like to see? We're planning to streets of Stoke Bishop, Sea Mills, Coombe Dingle and hold a zoom meeting early next term for . anyone interested in helping with the PTA - be it sharing ideas, planning or implementing! In the meantime, if you have an idea, please drop us a note to [email protected] and we'll PTA Christmas Raffle start collating. We're crossing our fingers Paper free, cash free and virtual for fewer covid restrictions in the spring or summer terms. We’re selling tickets online here: https:// www.ticketsource.co.uk/stokebishopprimary/christmas-raffle- 2020/e-gjjgok This is so that we don’t have to handle cash or tickets or put anyone’s health at risk by selling them in person. The ticket numbers will be allocated to you after you’ve made a purchase. The draw is taking place on the 15th over Zoom at 8pm and you can buy tickets until noon that day. It's £1 a ticket but there’s a booking fee, so worth buying a few at a time or clubbing together to keep fees down. We have been very busy in Explorers Hub this week getting ready for Christmas. The children have been making paper chains to decorate the classroom and measuring them to see how long they need to be. There was great excitement whilst the children decorated our Christmas Tree…it is looking quite spectacular! This week every child has made a bead bracelet with a repeating pattern, these will be sent home on the last day of term for the children to give to someone as a Christmas gift. We have also started our whole school Lapland Christmas challenge, where the children will collectively walk 145 miles in 7 working days before the end of term. The idea is that this is a race across Lapland to Santa’s house. We have been walking laps of the school field and the children are really enjoying doing it.

This week during our collective worship, the children have learnt about the Christmas story and we also lit the second advent candle on our wreath. The children thoroughly enjoyed having their Christmas lunch, there were Christmas songs playing and squeals of excitement as the children pulled their Christmas crackers!

Don’t forget it is The Explorers Christmas Party on Monday 14th December and the children can come into school dressed in home/party clothes. The children have been making party hats to wear for all the fun and games on Monday.

Finally, a big thank you for all of your generous donations to the foodbank, it is such a wonderful charity that Stoke Bishop is very proud to support. The Discoverers

The countdown to Christmas has begun in the Discoverers Hub this week! All of the children did an excellent job in our Nativity and a huge thank you to Mrs Preston for putting it all together into 1 clip for everyone to enjoy. As a HUB we have started our journey to Father Christmas’ house, we will have to run 145 miles to get there from Comet the reindeers house, wish us luck!

We enjoyed our Christmas dinner on Thursday, especially the crackers!

Dates for your diary

Monday 14th - Christmas Party (Children can come into school dressed in party clothes)

Wednesday 16th Christmas jumper day

Wednesday 16th at 2.45 - Christmas Carols in the playground

Another week in the Inventors Hub!

This week, Year 3 have been enjoying science week. We have learnt all about the rocks beneath our feet and around us. We made the 3 stages of the rock cycle using Starburst sweets. We cut the sweets up and compacted them together to make sedimentary rocks, we then added lots of heat and pressure to change them into metamorphic rocks and then we melted them to make igneous rocks. We also learnt about the process of how fossils are made. We then made our own fossils out of clay. In English, we have written our final amazing poems using the words we collected and inspired by the famous paintings Kandinsky's "Lines", Jackson Pollock's "Lavender Mist", Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry Night" and Salvador Dali's "The Persistence of Memory". We have also worked very hard practising our carols ready for the performance and can't wait to show you.

Year 4 have continued to complete some amazing work from home this week. We have been very impressed by your dedication and hard work throughout this two week period, mixed in with some bits of fun! We can’t wait to celebrate with some Christmas activities next week!

Reminders for next week:

Monday: Bring in a plastic bottle and newspaper for our penguin project! Tuesday: Christmas party- wear party clothes all day. Carols for parents at 2.45pm on KS2 playground Wednesday: Christmas jumper day.

This week with the ‘Innovators’

VICTORIAN DAY Year 5 had a fantastic time at their Victorian Day yesterday. All of the children came in wonderful fancy dress ranging from Emmeline Pankhurst to Chimney Sweeps (and many more!). The children enjoyed finishing their William Morris inspired art work, that they have been working on all term, using printing. They also had the chance to create absurd Victorian names for each other and then practice their Victorian handwriting to create their own name cards. We spent some time learning about the British Empire and used Atlases to identify the countries that were part of the Empire during Victoria’s reign on a world map. Finally, we went out onto the playground and played lots of traditional Victorian games including an amazing homemade game from Aye. A great day was had by all! This week with the ‘Innovators’

The INNOVATORS HUB have had a fantastic day celebrating their learning from this term’s topic. Once again the costumes and props created at home were incredible and we would like to thank all the parents and carers for their help in getting the children ready. The children enjoyed Victorian hand writing lessons, choosing Victorian names for themselves such as ‘Zebra Beetroot Phillips, Happy Nancy Joy or Evil McSneevel. The children also took played some traditional Victorian Games such as ‘Blind man’s Buff’, Hopscotch and Marbles.

Dates for your DIARY!

Wednesday 16th December - Christmas Party Day. The children can come into school wearing their party clothes and or a Christmas Jumper. Please bear in mind though that they will still be having outdoor play so they will need appropriate clothing and footwear.

Thursday 17th December at 2.45pm - Innovators Christmas Carols on the playground. You are invited to watch and join us, as we sing a selection of carols on the KS2 playground. You will be able to come into school a little earlier than normal and make your way around to the playground where the Sibling Drop off point is. From there ,we ask that you stand -socially distanced of course - to listen to our singing and get into the Christmas spirit!

We will sing for approximately 15 minutes after which you can either take your child home or carry on around the one-way system to collect your other children as usual. Community Links

Bristol North West Foodbank Christmas Opening Times Extra Openings shown in green.

Date Location Opening times th Thursday 17 December Lawrence Weston Baptist Church 10am-12noon (aka Hope Church) th Thursday 17 December St. Andrew’s, 10am-1pm th Friday 18 December Emmanuel Chapel, 10am-12noon st Monday 21 December St. Andrew’s, Avonmouth 10am-1pm nd Tuesday 22 December St. Andrew’s, Avonmouth 10am-1pm rd Wednesday 23 December Hope Chapel, 10am-12noon rd Wednesday 23 December St. Andrew’s Avonmouth 10am-1pm th Thursday 24 December Lawrence Weston Baptist Church 10am-12noon (aka Hope Church) th Thursday 24 December St. Andrew’s Avonmouth 10am-1pm th rd Friday 25 December -3 Janu- Foodbank & Homebank closed Foodbank & Home- ary bank closed th Monday 4 January St. Andrew’s Avonmouth 10am-12noon