Holy Trinity C.E. (Aided)

Newsletter ~ July 2019

Message from Mrs Price ~ Head of School

Dear Parents,

What a fabulous end to what has been a fabulous year!

Thinking about what's been going on just this last week or so:

We have had our SATs results for Yr 6 which shows that yet again Ramsgate Holy Trinity is not only the highest achieving school in Thanet but is one of the top performing schools in the country. We are very proud of how our children performed, giving us one of the strongest sets of results we have had in years.

We have also had their fabulous performance of Mystery at Magpie Manor - a West End production and a real credit to all involved.

And thank you to all who came in to our Summer Fayre last Friday - what a wonderful afternoon it was! Lovely cakes, a coconut shy, raffle, tombola, facepainting - the list goes on! A very big thank you to our wonderful PTFA, who worked so hard and made this such a success.

Looking back a little further through the year there are several things that stand out.

I can't believe that our wonderful Reception outdoor area was only installed in October - it has given our children such an exciting and creative start to their time with us and it just feels like it's always been there!

I also can't believe that Mr Tift - and Mr Websper too of course - only started with us this year. PE has just gone from strength to strength with them and I can't wait to see what successes, developments and trophies next year will bring!

I do also want to say how creative and engaging our curriculum has become - from Reception to Year 6 the children tell me with such energy and enthusiasm about the topics they are doing and the new things they are discovering - and I hope this comes across at home when you talk to them about what they are learning.

So as this year draws to a close can I wish you all the happiest of holidays and I look forward to seeing you all, rested and refreshed, when we come back again on Wednesday 4th September. Reception Class

Reception children had a wonderful day visiting Wingham Wildlife Park this term. This was linked to our topic on animals and the children have produced some wonderful work linked to our visit. Despite it being incredibly warm, the children were very well behaved and were an absolute credit to our school. We have had some lovely discussions about the animals that we saw and the children made some great memories.

Mrs Lewis

News from Year 1

Our trip to Howletts Wild Animal Park

At the beginning of June, Year 1 braced the rain and visited Howletts Wild Animal Park. The trip was an introduction to our topic of Paws, Claws and Whiskers. Despite the rain we had a lovely time and we saw lots of animals.

Mrs Joyner News from Year 2

Here we are at the end of another fun-filled, busy topic. Year 2 children thoroughly enjoyed training to be Pirates! It has been fantastic to see them expand their knowledge of real pirates and also develop their own fictional pirate characters. The children designed and made lighthouses, planned a party, written diary entries, letters and much more. They were particularly mystified when they received a message in a bottle. Was Robinson ever rescued?

Our beach visits were a huge success where the children shared their sand castle making skills! This term has given each 'shipmate' a chance to showcase all the skills they have learnt throughout the year.

It has been an absolute pleasure to see the children work collaboratively on their projects and plans and encourage each other every step of the way.

The pirate party was a fantastic chance to share our new found knowledge, play some games, enjoy a sing along and celebrate the final term in Year 2, not forgetting the all-important promotion from ‘shipmates’ to ‘Captains!’

Finally, an update on our ‘Bog Baby’ mystery - we sent a letter to Puffin books to inform them of our sightings and we received a reply to thank us for sharing!

I would like to take this opportunity to wish the children every success in Year 3. They have worked incredibly hard this year and made me extremely proud. Thank you! Miss Hilton

News from Year 3

It has been a very busy half term for Class 3. Trips to the beach and the park really gave us time to relax and enjoy the summer sun! Amidst the pressure of times tables challenges, extended writing and continued Maths Meetings, it has been lovely for the children to really get into outdoor learning, involving active maths games, outdoor STEM activities and collaborative team building games.

Mr Darrock

News from Year 4

Children in Class 4 have enjoyed working on a ‘Potions’ theme this term. In addition to finding out all about different states of matter and how the water cycle works, they have made potion bottles, written potion based stories and created some effective ‘Potion Poems’ written in pairs.

Here are a couple of examples:

Mrs Landeman

News from Year 5

It has been another incredibly busy time for Class 5 who started Term 6 with a short topic linked to changes in materials and finished it with a focus on the allotment. To kick-start their materials topic, the children attended two off-site STEAM events. Firstly, they were invited to Chatham and Clarendon where a multitude of events was put on for them: the children poured molten metal into casts and made keyrings; mixed ingredients to bake scones; separated salt and gold nuggets from very dirty water; and printed T-shirts. The following week, Class 5 visited the Discovery Park in Sandwich where they watched an inspiring science show, extracted DNA from kiwi, separated coloured dyes in ink, discovered for themselves the effect of adding Ferro fluid to different solutions and observed the effect of magnets on iron filings. In class, the children planned and carried out their own investigations to discover what affects dissolving rates and then inflated rubber gloves using a mixture of baking powder or bicarbonate of soda and vinegar to observe irreversible changes.

Having planted seeds and seedlings during Term 5, the children have spent time nurturing their growing produce. Because of regular watering and weeding, the Year 5 allotment has flourished and the children have been able to enjoy some of what they planted. Class 5 children have had the opportunity to taste home-grown lettuce, potatoes, beetroot and radish - but with the varied weather we have experienced over the past two terms not everything has grown as quickly as last year so we have yet to taste our strawberries, beans, courgettes, carrots, peas and chard. Many thanks to Mrs Dean, Mrs Verrall and Mrs Jordan for their contributions to our allotment.

If the children were not already busy enough, they have also fitted in rehearsals so that they can support the Year 6 production! However, their acting skills had already been tested in English with improvisations and showing characterisation. A particular highlight was the whole class performing popcorn as well as having to talk gibberish! In Maths, skills have been put to the test by working out how much it actually costs to have a mobile phone.

Amazing work Year 5. We both wish you a very restful summer holiday and are looking forward to working with you again next year.

Mrs Egan and Mrs Jackson

News from Year 6

At the beginning of term, Year 6 visited Betteshanger Park for a day of outdoor activities. The sun shone on a wonderful day full of smiles and fun. Children greatly enjoyed the geo-caching activities, which involved cooperating in teams to find hidden clues in the woods and fields. Children also had fun riding mountain bikes through the many trails and some rather deep muddy puddles, sorry parents! Finally, children were engaged with hammer and trowel when finding ancient fossils from the leftover mine spoils.

Later in the term, Year 6 visited Wellesley House for a collaborative day of art and design. It was lovely for the children to visit the beautiful grounds of Wellesley House School (lunch was taken in the orchard!) and to use their art facilities. The children created large plaster-cast reliefs using a variety of objects, based on their memories of their time at Holy Trinity. These will be used to decorate our school pond area. Children also made a clay tile which, once painted, they will be able to take home at the end of term. Many thanks to Wellesley House School, in particular the art department, for their hospitality.

Year 6 children have been busy singing, dancing and acting their way to performing this year’s school production, "Mystery at Magpie Manor". What a spectacular end to the year! Mr Cotton

School Council News

This term we embarked on Healthy Schools’ week and our School Council has contributed to this by carrying out a survey. Their aim was to find out about our school snacking habits.

The children were asked about the snacks they brought in from home for them to have during morning break.

The results were then collated and discussed at a School Council meeting. The School Council agreed that the majority of snacks brought in were not as healthy as they could be. Upon reflection of our survey results, we would like to eliminate snacks being brought in from home for Key Stage 1 children as we do provide free fresh fruit on a daily basis.

We are striving to support our children in a healthy approach to snacking and in order to do this we will only be allowing Key Stage 2 to bring in healthy snacks, such as fruit or a cereal bar. Please may we request that none of these items contain chocolate.

This decision also minimises our risk of allergens on the premises as we become a ‘Nut Free School’ in September.

School Gateway

To further improve our home/school communication, we are introducing School Gateway in the new school year. This is an online communication and payment system which you can access via your computers and/or any mobile devices. As well as improving our communication with you, we aim to move towards a cashless school. You will be able to securely pay online for all school trips, club fees and any other school related payments. School dinner money should continue to be paid directly to Principals either via their own online payment system www.principals-catering.com or in a clearly marked, sealed envelope via the school office.

You will receive further communication form us early in September when we are up and running and ready for you to register. Please do not try to register until you hear from us again! However, if you would like further information please visit https://schoolgateway.co.uk/

If you do not have a mobile device and would like to continue to pay cash/cheques via the school office, this is fine. However, our preferred method of payment will be online and we are happy to help anyone who is finding it difficult to register or to download the app.

You will also be able to book appointments online for our Parents’ Evenings.

Sports Update

Before we get into the fantastic sporting achievements of our Holy Trinity children, I must take this opportunity to thank all the staff, parents and children for their continued and invaluable support over the last year. The sporting success that Holy Trinity has managed this year would not have been possible without them.

Kwik Cricket tournaments There are three Kwik Cricket tournaments to report on and three Cricket teams who did their school proud. The Year 5 and 6 mixed team came up against some strong competition but they battled through to finish a respectable 6th place. In the Year 3 and 4 mixed tournament, our team were complimented on their bowling and how well they worked as a team. They made it all the way into the final where they faced stiff competition and finished in 2nd place overall.

The girls’ Kwik Cricket team took a different path. Their bowling was on point and their batting was near perfection. After the last ball had been bowled and the final runs added on, the girls ran out as tournament champions.

Waterloo Cup and Upton Cross Country Our cross country runners were in action two weekends on the trot this term. Always a fantastic event, the Waterloo Cup, is a relay team event with each runner completing one lap of a 800m track. Holy Trinity had entered 2 teams into each age group and there were some fantastic results for the children's first taste of competitive cross country relay running.

The second weekend saw 37 Holy Trinity runners take on the 1km track around Upton's playing fields. With lots of top 10 finishes and an almighty run from Reuben in Year 3 that saw him finish 2nd in his race, everyone had a superb morning.

Girls’ Football Cup This is one of the highlights of the year. For the first time ever, Ramsgate Holy Trinity fielded not one but two all-girl football teams in a competitive fixture and what a performance these girls put on. Both teams played superbly and although they didn't qualify for the finals, they showed the determination and resilience that every Holy Trinity child should possess. Sports Update Continued

Passport Athletics Competition On a warm Wednesday evening, 16 Holy Trinity athletes marched on to the athletics track at the Royal Harbour Academy to compete against 6 other primary schools in track and field events. They ran as fast as they could, threw as far as they could and jumped as far as they could. When the final baton had been passed and the scores added up, Holy Trinity finished a fantastic 4th place overall.

Kent Finals This term has seen Holy Trinity compete in three Finals. The first being gymnastics at Pegasus Gym in Maidstone. Out of the 48 teams competing throughout the day our Level 3 (year 5/6) team finished a superb 8th place and our Level 2 (year 3/4) team finished a fantastic 12th. Both teams had to use apparatus they hadn't used before which made these placings even better.

The second Kent Final saw our superb Mini Squash team travel to Maidstone to take on the best 6 teams in the county. Although they faced some tough competition on the day, the team walked out as Kent Champions and set a new Kent record for one of the games. What a fantastic afternoon of squash.

Tri-Counties Tri-Golf

After the success of the Tri-Golf team at the County finals, it was time to take on the best teams from Sussex and Surrey. The day started well with all players putting and chipping like Tiger Woods and racking up the points. As the activities came to a close and the points added up, Holy Trinity waited nervously for the result. They called 9th, 8th, 7th place and still no mention of RHT. What colour medal would we be taking home? SILVER! Holy Trinity had come 2nd out of the top 9 teams from three different counties. What an achievement!

Thank you once again to everyone who has been involved in the sport this year at Ramsgate Holy Trinity. Well done to all who took part in these events!

Mr Tift ~ Sports Coach News from our Choir

It has been a hugely successful year for our school choir. The children have attended numerous church services, performed with the Thanet Chamber Choir, performed at the Turner Centre with the choir from Palm Bay Primary School, won the Thanet Festival competition on their first entry, sung with 200 other children in the Festival of Song at the Margate Winter Gardens, had workshops with industry professionals and were invited to Westminster Abbey to visit the choir school and attend evensong. What a busy year! Next year, it doesn’t look like things will be slowing down and the choir is booked in to sing at Canterbury Cathedral!

Thank you to all of the children, and parents, who gave an enormous amount of their talent and time to enrich both our in-school music and worship time and inspire musical futures for all children at Ramsgate Holy Trinity.

Mr Darrock

Sports Achievement Assembly

We held our inaugural ‘Sports Achievement’ assembly on Friday 12th July. We were able to celebrate all of the sporting achievements over the year, as well as present our very first awards:

Outstanding contribution to PE and school sport ~ OLIVER T

Outstanding effort in PE and school sport ~ DAISY G

Sports Personalities of the Year ~ VINCENT J AND MIA G

STRIDE Awards:

YR ~ CIAN H YR1 ~ ALICE G YR2 ~ TEDDY H YR3 ~ VINCENT W

YR4 ~ ADRIANA P YR5 ~ DYLAN J YR6 ELLA M

Every child who had been awarded a medal or trophy throughout the year was invited to have a special photograph taken in the shape of the RHT shield!

Finally, we wish all children in Year 6 who are moving on to secondary schools and all adults moving on to new adventures, the very best of luck and happiness in the future.

We are looking forward to welcoming new children to our Reception class in September and of course, our new members of staff.

Wishing you all a wonderful summer break!