WINTER 2020 LETTER FROM THE EDITOR LOCAL POYNTZ TEAM: - Jon Aries, Caroline Haselhan, Sarah Ridler, Amanda Scott, Jane Spare, John Wright, Marilyn Wright and myself, Pamela McCoy. LOCAL POYNTZ PHOTOGRAPHERS: - Sally Aries, Gillian Otlet I am writing this in the first week of November and we now know that we are in another lockdown and there is much uncertainty ahead of us. The last lockdown was at a time of lengthening daylight hours, a time when trees, shrubs and flowers were putting out their buds and shoots. The weather was warm and we could sit in our gardens with a glass of wine and admire nature. This time we face short days, dark days, wind and rain. We should be making preparations for Christmas; visiting Cribbs Causeway to browse the shops for ideas, planning the feasts for Christmas day and ordering the turkey or goose but, instead, we are worrying about whether we shall be allowed to have our traditional Christmas. The Christmas candlelit carol service is a wonderful occasion, which for me heralds the start of Christmas, will be somewhat different this year. I am the eternal optimist and believe that all will be well; that the rules can and will be relaxed and that we can enjoy the Christmas festivities as usual. Whatever happens I wish each and every one of you a safe, joyous and wonderful Christmas. I wish you all a healthy and prosperous New Year, free from Covid-19. ------------------------------------------ ENCLOSURE: In this magazine you will find an envelope, inside of which there is a fridge magnet. The magnet is from Acton Aid and has their help line ‘phone number as a reminder to you that they are still there to help you, wherever and whenever they can. Please keep it and ‘phone them if you require any help. ADVERTISEMENTS: - If anyone would like to place an advert in these magazines please contact me, at the email address below, and we can discuss it The deadline for the spring edition is 1st February 2021. We really need to have all articles by that date, PLEASE. FRONT PAGE: - Gillian Otlet took this beautiful image. It is one of the Church windows decorated for the Christmas windows competition, represents the hymn “Angels From The Realms Of Glory” and was designed and decorated by Mrs Eileen Hughes. EDITOR- Pamela McCoy 01454 228874, 07766074252 Email [email protected]. Printed by Jamprint Design & Printing Ltd. 01249 823950 3 LETTER FROM THE EDITOR LOCAL POYNTZ TEAM: - Jon Aries, Caroline Haselhan, Sarah Ridler, Amanda Scott, Jane Spare, John Wright, Marilyn Wright and myself, Pamela McCoy. LOCAL POYNTZ PHOTOGRAPHERS: - Sally Aries, Gillian Otlet I am writing this in the first week of November and we now know that we are in another lockdown and there is much uncertainty ahead of us. The last lockdown was at a time of lengthening daylight hours, a time when trees, shrubs and flowers were putting out their buds and shoots. The weather was warm and we could sit in our gardens with a glass of wine and admire nature. This time we face short days, dark days, wind and rain. We should be making preparations for Christmas; visiting Cribbs Causeway to browse the shops for ideas, planning the feasts for Christmas day and ordering the turkey or goose but, instead, we are worrying about whether we shall be allowed to have our traditional Christmas. The Christmas candlelit carol service is a wonderful occasion, which for me heralds the start of Christmas, will be somewhat different this year. I am the eternal optimist and believe that all will be well; that the rules can and will be relaxed and that we can enjoy the Christmas festivities as usual. Whatever happens I wish each and every one of you a safe, joyous and wonderful Christmas. I wish you all a healthy and prosperous New Year, free from Covid-19. ------------------------------------------ ENCLOSURE: In this magazine you will find an envelope, inside of which there is a fridge magnet. The magnet is from Acton Aid and has their help line ‘phone number as a reminder to you that they are still there to help you, wherever and whenever they can. Please keep it and ‘phone them if you require any help. ADVERTISEMENTS: - If anyone would like to place an advert in these magazines please contact me, at the email address below, and we can discuss it The deadline for the spring edition is 1st February 2021. We really need to have all articles by that date, PLEASE. FRONT PAGE: - Gillian Otlet took this beautiful image. It is one of the Church windows decorated for the Christmas windows competition, represents the hymn “Angels From The Realms Of Glory” and was designed and decorated by Mrs Eileen Hughes. EDITOR- Pamela McCoy 01454 228874, 07766074252 Email [email protected]. Printed by Jamprint Design & Printing Ltd. 01249 823950 3 Need help with Transport? Green Community Let us Travel help you! Do you struggle with public buses and are other modes of transport too expensive? We are Community Transport and we can help with GP appointments, shopping, hospital appointments as well as much more! Give us a call and have a chat to us to see how we can help you. 01454 228706 Covering, Yate, Chipping Sodbury, Frampton Cotterell, Coalpit Heath, Emersons Green, Winterbourne, Cromhall, Charfield, Tormarton, Wickwar and much more across South Gloucestershire! IRON ACTON PRIMARY SCHOOL NEWS The school community has amazed me over the course of the year so far – what resilience and perseverance every member has shown! I would like to thank every member of staff, every child, governor and parent for all they have done to keep the school running smoothly during such a tough time. Thank you to all those of you in the community who have supported us too – your words of encouragement make such a huge difference. As I reflect on the first term of the year, there have been many exciting new things that we have begun. Our new approach to teaching the curriculum through an enquiry (question and challenge) based approach has exceeded all expectations. The children are excited and enthused; the staff are crafting creative and inspiring learning opportunities. Embedded within this new approach are frequent opportunities to reflect upon the needs of others and how we can help – this is something that really characterises Iron Acton as a whole but also can be seen permeating through the attitudes of the children. Just last week, our oldest children spoke to Ashley Mee about his involvement in Water Aid. This was a great opportunity for them to be inspired and to see how they might also make a positive contribution to others. Our newly formed federation with Hawkesbury continues to provide more and more opportunity to benefit from working together. So far this year we have been able to take part in shared training and planning events – both of these areas are enhanced by working together with others. Our governors now carry out their role across the two schools – they are incredibly skilled at what they do and have made a real difference to the way the schools are run. Earlier in the term, we were able to visit the church for our annual Harvest service. This was the first time we had been able to bring the whole school together in many months and what a special occasion it was. Each class shared something they had prepared which linked to this important time of the year and Father Malcolm shared a message about where our food comes from. We were sad not to be able to welcome families to the service this year but it was good to be able to do something together as a whole school – something we had been missing terribly. We now look forward to preparing our Christmas events. We plan to hold all the usual events as far as possible so that the children can still experience the magic of Christmas at school. There will be a lot to look forward to - Christmas lunches, Nativity plays and Christmas parties amongst others. We continue to show prospective families around the school ahead of the Reception 2021 cohort, for which the deadline is 15th January 2021. The visits are mainly outside and parents are asked to wear a face covering. We have had a lot of interest so far and we look forward to welcoming more families to look around over the next few weeks. If you are interested in having a look please contact the school office on 01454 228322 or [email protected] On the next page you will see some of our autumn poetry written by the some of the children in Year 2 and shared during our Harvest service. Mike Riches November 2020 Friends started off this school year a bit differently having our first meeting via zoom, it was convenient being in our own homes and we welcomed some members who haven’t been have able to come to a meeting, but not quite the same as having a drink together in the pub. We are very pleased to announce that Katy Shackleford has taken on the role of Chair, we all look forward to supporting her as we find some new and enjoyable events that are safe in these unusual times. Our 1st socially distanced event was the pumpkin trail during half term. Thank you for all that helped, the children and teachers at Iron Acton Primary school for the pictures and the families that displayed them in their windows. We had school families, past and present, their friends and also families from the local area joining in the trail.