Headteacher’s Update — Mr Kevin Day - December 2016

Dear Parents, Governors and Friends of the School,

Welcome to the December newsletter, although it feels like only a few weeks ago that I was writing the first one of the school year! The long term seems to have flown past so fast. The teachers and learning support staff are currently ensuring that the children are learning and making the best progress possible, whilst balancing this with the inevitable practices and managing a school full of children who seem to get more excit- ed every day!

Highlights in the past few weeks have included the school annual carol service at High- bury Church, the students (and staff choir) were in wonderful form in every respect. I received many compliments from the families who attended about the students singing, behaviour and smart appearance. Thank you to Miss Lentel for organising this visit and to Richard Cleaves and Highbury for hosting.

Almost 50 parents and carers attended this year’s Primary Nativity and witnessed a col- ourful production with wonder- ful acting, confident narrators and absolutely wonderful sing- ing. Very well done to all in- volved and particular praise to the Senior Director, Mrs Hall.

Belmont enjoyed Christmas Din- ner this week with 150 children, staff and guests squeezing into our hall. It was a lovely occasions and once again all the students were brilliant and much to my de- light we had every single student involved so very well done to all of class 1 who were bold and brave to join in with the whole school.

School site and facilities; In the New Year Belmont will start to enjoy our two new secondary classrooms. The secondary corridor will re-open giving access to a host of new facilities including:

New student changing rooms New toilets for both boys and girls New school office and meeting room PAGE 2 Headteacher’s Update (Cont’d)

Primary children will also be benefitting next year with some new toilet facilities and a brand new primary playground. We also have given priority to this facility by using some funding for sport and play equipment to make our social times a learning experience as well as fun!

What next for Belmont?

Belmont remains committed to helping pupils develop as far as they can physically, socially and emotionally in addition to the other important areas like literacy and numeracy. During 2017 we hope to make considerable progress with two projects to help our students develop confidence, communication skills and independence. The first is the development of our onsite Forest School. We hope to develop this facility on our grounds to offer more opportunities to children, stop the travel time and costs and also to offer the provision to other schools and groups in the future. This project is being led by Mr Fry so if you want to help us or know more let him know.

Together with the school governors staff have also Identified our future goal to assist our chil- dren with cycling skills to keep them healthy, active,safe and independent in the future. We have ambitious plans to secure funding for spe- cialist bikes and facilities and to work with the community and Bettridge School to share and build provision. Mr Shand is leading this work and will keep us posted on progress in the new year. The project has had a nice start with a bike donation from Luke Evans and his Dad. Thank you very much!

As I write the newsletter, we have enjoyed a few very warm days for December and whilst I hope this lasts it’s very likely to be cold again in the new year so please continue to check the ‘adverse weather’ arrangements on the last page of the newsletter for what to do should the weather take a turn for the worse. PAGE 3 Headteacher’s Update (Cont’d)

Dressed for Winter? January is often the arrival increasingly colder weather; it is timely to remind you to make sure that your child always has a warm waterproof coat in school. A hat, scarf and gloves are also a good idea for our younger children to help keep warm. All named please! Our lost property container is, as always, overflowing. We do value outdoor play and fresh air so expect the children to be outside at playtimes unless the weather is very extreme. Thank you for your help here.

Clubs and sports Many of you comment on how you value the extra curricula activities that we host, I can confirm our plans to continue with this in the new year with Drama Club on Mondays and Multi Sports Club on Tuesday. Both these clubs run until 4p.m. and cost £3 per session.

Staff news We are pleased to be welcoming Mr James Grover in January who will lead and teach English across the secondary school. A big thank you to Mrs Sally Reid who has stepped into the English role during the past few weeks.

We are looking forward to welcoming Mrs Petrova, Miss Essex and Miss Record back to school in February, following their maternity leave but have to say a tem- porary farewell to Mrs Hanna as she starts her maternity leave at the end of Term 3. Friends@Belmont A BIG thank you to The Friends who contin- ue to do a great job of supporting the school, the successful Belbucks café was in full operation last week and the committed team also organised a sales stall for parents after the Primary Nativity and the icing on the was organising for San- ta to visit and issue goodies to all students (even the odd naughty big boys in second- ary!) Thank you to all the Friends@Belmont who have had a great 2016.

Reminder School finishes at the normal time of 2:55pm on Friday and the new term will start on Tuesday 3rd January 2017. As we get closer to the start of 2017 I would like to thank you all for your brilliant efforts and support during this year. It’s a privilege leading such a wonderful school with committed staff and governors, interesting children full of personality and supported by many lovely families.

On behalf of all the staff and governors we wish you all a Happy Christmas and a Peaceful New Year t

Kevin Day Headteacher PAGE 4 NNEWSEWS FROMFROM CCLASSLASS 11

Hello from Class 1! What a busy term it’s been for everyone. We are now all famil- iar with our new class and school routines. We are working and playing well as a group, having fun with our friends. We have enjoyed our Literacy topic - poems and rhyming words. The man was a very big hit with the children, and they loved the rhyme - ‘Run, run as fast as you can you can’t catch me I’m the ginger- bread man’. We acted the story out with the children taking it in turns to be the gin- gerbread man. Lots of the children have made fantastic progress with their reading- we are very impressed!

In Maths we have been brilliant at making and continuing repeating patterns and we have been ordering and sorting objects by size.

We are now enjoying the build up to Christmas with Nativity play rehearsals; the children are joining in really well and love singing the songs.

It’s been a great term we would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas, have a good break.

PAGE 5 News from Class 2 Class Two have been very busy this term. In literacy we have been learning all about poetry us- ing animals as a focus. We have learnt how to use similes and alliterations. One of our favour- ites was ‘a gorilla has hair as curly as spaghetti’ or ‘how a sneaky shark swims slowly!’ In Numeracy we have been looking at money, addition, subtraction and 3D shapes. In DT we have been designing and making rainforest animal masks. We enjoyed a morning at Bournside school to take part in multi sports all the children represent- ed Belmont very well. We have been busy practising the Nativity and have all coped really well with the changes in the school day. Children have been able to learn songs and lines and are looking forward to the big performance and their chance to shine. In Thrive we had a special visitor Mr Shand who needed to come and relax in Class 2. The chil- dren really enjoyed his visit. We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year, see you in 2017. Mrs Hall and Mr Langton News from Class 3 PAGE 6

This term has been an extremely busy one for Class 3. The pupils are continuing to work hard in all subjects and putting in a lot of effort towards getting their positive points and silver cards. In Literacy this term, the focus has been poetry where the children have been making up their own funny poems. Numeracy has been all about shape and symmetry with lots of exploring, cutting and sticking to find out the properties of a variety of shapes. In DT the class have been introduced to the skill of sewing and are well on their way to creating a lovely piece of needlework. Other subjects such as Art and RE have included a Christmas theme; learning about the light of the world and in music the children have been working extremely hard learning new songs and perfecting their singing voices for the all important Primary Nativity performance on Friday 9 December. Extra-curricular activities have included a successful trip to Bournside school to try out some multi-sports team games and despite the cold weather they have managed to get outside for some Football skills in PE together with their weekly Swimming lessons. On 1 December we celebrated our international day with Christmas around the world. The children learnt about a variety of traditions that happen in other countries and enjoyed guest speakers coming in to talk about a variety of different Christmas festivities. With two weeks left of Autumn term 2 the pupils will be busy preparing to celebrate with Christmas lunch, visits and carol service. With all the hard work that continues to go on we have still found time for the daily opening of the Calendar and switch on. Class 3 and staff would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! News from Class 4 PAGE 7

Class 4 have had a busy term. They have been learning about World War 2. Sarah Orton came in to talk to the class and brought some WW2 artefacts that the pupils handled and took photos of. Class 4 pupils have been learning WW2 songs whilst preparing for a WW2 play. Date to be confirmed. On display in the class are WW2 posters which the pupils have designed. They have also done some WW2 cooking and sewed a bag with the help of Mrs Probert. In Maths pupils have been improving their money skills just in time for Christmas shopping! Class 4 pupils took part in the International day ‘Christmas Around the World’ by dressing up to recreate the nativity. The pupils all have speaking parts in the Primary Christmas play ‘A Miracle in town’ on Friday 9 December. They will also be singing during the school service at Highbury Church on Tuesday 13 December. Class 4 have worked extremely hard this term and deserve a well earned rest with their families. Happy Christmas from Mrs Nelmes and Mrs Griffin News from 3.1 PAGE 8

Top class Christmas choir 3.1 have been exercising their vocal chords to pull off a spectacular singing performance to support the primary nativity play. They have worked extremely hard learning lyrics, getting in tune and have displayed top class talent. We will definitely be seeing more of this choir but in the meantime we would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. From Miss Cave, Miss Price, Mrs Farrer-Grover and the harmonious 3.1 .

News from 3.2 This term 3.2 have been working so hard and making excellent progress. We have been looking at medical emergencies in PSCHE and learning some basic first aid. We looked at how to put on bandages (using scarf bandages) and where to go if we have a medical problem. We have also been working on the Big Friendly Giant in English. The class have loved de- scribing the "horrid, ugly, mean giants". We are just finishing writing our own comic style Queen's dream. Have an awesome Christmas holiday! From Miss Lane & Mrs Greenwood News from Year 8 Page 9

It has a busy term for Year 8 Besides the favourite things of making scrumptious winter treats to eat and making bookends in DT, Year 8 have also had a hands on experience of a popular game within Jewish faith. With the Jewish Festival of Hanukkah (Festival of Light) fast approaching, a guest Jewish speaker- Mrs Shatz- visited and spoke about Jewish celebrations and traditions Jews ob- serve during this festival. In particular, the pupils enjoyed the opportunity to play the game of Dreidel. Dreidel is a game which reminds the Jews about the message in the story of Hanukkah. The message is about when their God created a miracle of allowing one jars’ worth of oil to last for eight days instead of one. This extra time was so that his people could reclaim their temple from the evil King Antiochus. The game involves spinning skills, reading Jewish symbols and winning rewards (if they were lucky or skilful enough!). We hope both tutor groups have a restful Christmas period and return to school with re- charged learning batteries!! Mrs Smith, Miss Stanley, Miss Lawson and Mr Freeman

News from 3.5 PAGE 10 This term has been an action packed one, for 3.5. It seems almost every week we have had some sort of event or trip. Without a doubt the highlight of the term was our Remembrance Day assembly in front of the whole school. Sean and Shanese who are both members of their local cadet detach- ment, opened the assembly by marching in magnificently. The class then did a short presentation about the significance of Remembrance Day, before reciting a poem which they had written in Eng- lish. The tutor group all read and presented brilliantly, receiving lots of praise not least from Mr Day who awarded them all with Head teacher’s awards. News from 3.6 PAGE 11 The pupils in 3.6 have been trying to read more. Now during registration, the class get a book out and read for a few minutes as we take the register. This is really helping to improve their reading skills and encourage a love of reading in the class.

News from 4.1 At Belmont we see behaviour as a set of skills that can be taught so it is, in effect, another sub- ject, most specifically focused upon in tutor time. Class 4.1 have been working very hard on important behaviour skills for life. Most of the skills are related to social interaction.

Here are a few of the skills that we have been working on as tutor group:  Being able to speak to each other without misunderstanding and with respect  Moving away from pupils that are more likely to cause us a problem  Recognising the things that make us angry and how to deal with that feeling  Trying to stay focused on work in school, most especially in lessons  Understanding that we can, and should, use mature language as we are getting older and moving closer to college and work experiences  Being confident in speaking about what might be troubling us

The list has been quite long but in short we are all learning to be more calm, more respectful and more grown up. Have we been successful? Well, this will be an ongoing project! We are actually doing well. As I write this I can reflect and confirm.... we are doing well. Bravo Class!

News from 4.3 PAGE 12

Taylor Russell and Luke Thompson, along with Jamie Vincent from year 9 have been hard at work raising money for the year 11 leavers trip. They planted over a hundred crocus bulbs to sell at Bellbucks Christmas Cafe, raising more than £50. Well done guys, at this rate we will be off to New York!

News from 4.4 Social time The group have enjoyed some time together each Monday afternoon, and have developed better social skills through co- operating with each other and being aware of the things they do well or find harder to achieve.

BELMONT SCHOOL PAGE 13 TERM DATES FOR PUPILS 2016/2017 Spring Term 2017 Term 3 Term Begins Tuesday 3 January Term Ends Friday 10th February

Term 4 Term Begins Tuesday 21st February Term Ends Friday 7th April

Summer Term 2017 Term 5 Term Begins Monday 24th April Bank Holiday Monday 1st May Term Ends Friday 26th May

Term 6 Term Begins Monday 5th June Term Ends Friday 21st July

Adverse Weather Conditions On rare occasions in winter, conditions may be hazardous with snow and ice. The Head Teach- er will make a decision, based on local conditions, whether it is safe to open the school. This will take into account conditions within school grounds and the local area, and the safety of staff travelling from further distances. If in doubt:  Check your phone for a text from us  Consult the council website http://www.glosclosedschools.com  Listen to local radio bulletins  Consider possibilities for child care

Attendance - Term Time Holidays A reminder to all parents/carers that any requests submitted to take pupils out of school for a family holiday will not be au- thorised unless there are “exceptional circumstances”. All re- quests should be made in writing to Mr Day.

School Council News PAGE 14

The school council with help from the rest of the students have been hard at work behind the scenes coming up with some wonderful ideas of how to improve our school for Mr Day and the staff team.

We have had a wide range of suggestions from longer lunches and shorter lessons to an indoor swimming pool and a school helicopter! The staff are very keen on the helicopter. There have also been some very sensible ideas as well; extra coat pegs, polo shirts for the summer, more bins for the playground, better toilets and changing rooms and more sand for the primary playground, to name just a few and some have already been done. We are all looking forward to the opening of the new changing rooms and toilets.

It’s not all chat on the School Council, the other week we all got a look at the new classrooms that Kier have been building and the chance to throw a few questions at Daniel the project manager, how much has this cost; how long has it taken to build; when will it be in proper use and where do you buy your shirts, very serious stuff!

Kier have also been running a Christmas competition, which was entered by some of our Key Stage 3 pupils and we are pleased to announce that Miranda Hogg won!

Watch this space for more School Council News.

Belbucks Café Raffle Winners

Emma Long - Beauty Hamper Cathryn Mellor - Bucks Fizz Parents of Oscar Sweet - Drinks Brooklyn and Jamie Lloyd - Food Hamper International News PAGE 15 Christmas around the World

Belmont School celebrated Christmas around the World on Thursday 1 December. A living was recreated with a real baby and mother Mary (Mrs Hockin and Ellis). Children and staff enjoyed listening to our visitors who talked about how they celebrate Christmas in their country and learnt how to say Merry Christ- mas in different languages.  Mrs Nelmes showed photographs of her time in America and pupils were surprised to hear that the Americans do not have crackers to pull with their Christmas meal. They also do not share our custom of eating , mince pies or Christmas fruit cake.  ‘Joyeux Noel’ Madam Bonsor talked about how the French celebrate. French children put out their shoes (shouliers) for Santa ‘Pere Noel’ to put presents ‘cadeux’ in. The French have their on . They eat turkey ‘dinde’ and have ‘la buche de Noel’ (chocolate log). Some people might go to .  ‘Buon Natale’ Mr Scognamiglio, our Ital- ian Learning Support Worker invited his Grand- ma ‘Nonna’ in to share with us how they cele- brate Christmas in Italy. Every Italian home has a crib scene and baby Jesus is only put in the manger on Christmas Eve. Christmas is a big event in Italy. Families go to church and Midnight Mass. They eat a special fish ‘pesce’ meal on Christmas Eve and eat meat on Christmas day. 6 January is traditionally the day children get their presents from an old la- dy! 6 January is celebrated and is associated with the coming of the 3 Magi (Wise Men) who brought presents of gold, frankincense and myrrh to baby Jesus.  ‘Maligayang Pasko’ Mr Samsam, a Filipino parent from the Philippines told us how chil- dren love to go carol singing around to their neighbours houses and with their families. (This used to be a familiar scene in England in the ‘good old days’ until the invention of computers!) The Philippines is a Christian country. People go to church. On Christmas day a pig is roasted over charcoal and a big feast is enjoyed by families. Children and staff had the opportunity to sample (an Italian light sponge cake) and (a German fruit log with marzipan). At the end of the day a follow up assembly was held and the children were given some prizes of chocolates and sweets. Mrs Nelmes also wanted to make sure that the teachers were not missed out. Presents were given out to all the hard working staff at who really work extra hard with the pupils at Belmont School. I would like to say a big thank you to all our visitors and wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year. PAGE 16 International News (cont’d)

Ben Winters was a fantastic and his two elves Paige Lewis and Chloe West looked great in their costumes. They helped Fa- ther Christmas hand out presents and sweets to pupils and staff. Yes it was also teacher appreciation day! It was wonderful to hear positive comments from both staff and pupils. Mrs Griffin ‘I thought it was lovely to learn about the other traditions of around the world. I thought the living nativity was a lovely special addi- tion. I learnt different words for Christmas’. Miss Cave ‘Fantastic assembly. So nice to have such a variety of visitors’. Mrs Greenwood ‘The assembly was very informative. It was lovely to have visitors from oth- er countries talking about their culture’. Mrs Smith ‘tres bien, excellent, tres interestant! Fantastic assembly!’ Mr Freeman ‘ Very interesting’

Belmont’s Sailing Star

Elliot has had a great year sailing with the Junior section of the Whitefriars Sailing Club in the Cots- wold Water Park. He has enjoyed being part of the crew in a variety of boats with others, but most of all competing solo against the other juniors in his own boat "Braw". This season he has achieved a Silver Certificate in the RYA Sailability Scheme but in the eyes of his instructors has been awarded the Club's end-of-year trophy for the 'Most Improved Junior Sailor'.

Elliot with Mrs Smith (Tutor) and Mr Freeman (LSW)

Sailing is one of the very few sports in which able-bodied sailors and less-able sailors can par- ticipate on equal terms. RYA Sailability offers people who think they cannot even get on a boat let alone sail one, the chance to achieve the self reliance that sailing can bring and feel the exhilaration of being on the water.

Good luck for next year to Elliot who will be trying hard for his RYA Gold Certificate.

Belmont’s Swimming Champion PAGE 17

Olivia Pickering, Class 4.1 is an extremely keen and successful swimmer who has achieved some amazing results with her swimming. Recently Olivia partook in the National Para Swimming Championships 2016 at Manchester Aquatics Centre which was held on 10-14 December. Olivia swam in five events over the weekend and gained a medal in each one as fol- lows: 50m Freestyle Silver medal 100m Freestyle Silver medal 400m Freestyle Bronze medal 100m Breastroke Bronze medal 60m Backstroke Bronze medal Olivia’s next event is the Counties held in January and February 2017 followed by the Internationals held in Sheffield in April. We would like to wish Olivia lots of luck for these forthcoming events and look forward to hearing what we are sure will be another set of positive results not to mention more medals!

Belmont student wins national PAGE 18 design competition

Kier building contractor is currently working on the Belmont School extension and refurbish- ment project. They invited Belmont students to take part in their national com- petition. Art teacher, Mrs Farrer-Grover arranged for her Art Club students to create a card and en- ter the competition. Impressively, Belmont student, Miranda Hogg’s fantastic design was chosen by the company Chief Executive to be the 2016 Kier Christmas Card. Paul Humphrey of Kier said her card was a clear winner and 4,000 copies will be printed and sent to their associates and UK customers. They are also creating an e-card to send out interna- tionally where they will animate Miranda’s card to make the lights on her design light up! Paul Humphrey presented Miranda with the final printed card and a voucher. He also presented further vouchers to the School Council who will decide how they will spend this money to benefit the students in the New Year.

Well done Miranda what a wonderful early Christmas present!

. The annual school Christmas card Competition has been received with great enthusi- asm, with all students in years 7 to 10 drawing away in the hopes to get their work onto the card, this year 14 students have succeeded. Winners will be announced at the end of term assembly, but in the meantime can you spot who won?

PAGE 19 Merry Christmas from all the staff At Belmont School