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.