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Term Four Newsletter 2016

Dear Parents and Friends,

This has been an exciting term and we have

seen many engaging and inspiring lessons

going on in school.

Staff News…arrivals and departures

Congratulations to Mrs Edmund and her

husband James and to Mrs Evans and her

husband Tom. With amazing timing both

families are expecting a third child early in the

autumn term. We shall look forward to meeting

the new arrivals and to the teachers returning

after their maternity absence.

As always we will be working hard to ensure

that the excellent teaching and learning

continues during staff absence. More news

when we have it.

Marlene Fry has now finished working as our

Kitchen Manager after over twenty years in

charge. Marlene has been a wonderful member

of the school community and has always shown

exceptional care for the children. Marlene is

always fondly remembered by those who have

moved on, and will be greatly missed. We wish

her all the best in her retirement. Marlene has

been unwell but is now bouncing back and we

hope that she will be able to come in and say

goodbye to the children.

Joy Skurczynski, one of our great team of

teaching assistants, has just let us know that

she will be retiring at the end of this academic

year after an amazing twenty five years at the

school. More later.

A warm welcome to Victoria Abbott who has

joined the lunchtime supervisory staff. Victoria

is an ex-pupil and it is a pleasure to have her

back in school.

We have a PGCE Student on her final placement

before starting teaching. Hannah Ward will be

gradually taking on more and more aspects of

the role of teacher in Class One.

Maths Evening

Would you like more information

about how we teach maths at

school? You are invited to

attend a parents’ information

meeting on April 28th 2016 at either 2.00-3.15

p.m. or 6.15-7.30p.m. to find out more.

There will be a chance to see how children at

different ages are taught, some of the

resources we use and how we make it fun and

interesting. More information will follow on a

separate letter with a reply slip so we can

gauge numbers. In the meantime, please note

the date and time.

On Wednesday 9th

March we celebrated World

Book Day by Dressing up as a Book Character

and taking part in a Book Swap.

In the evening lots

of children came

back into school in

their pyjamas for a

Bedtime Story.

‘Grow £1’

A huge thank you to Paul Evans and Helm for

agreeing to sponsor Bathampton Primary

School's ‘Grow a £1’ initiative. The scheme was

launched on Monday 21st

March and each child

received a handout seed bag and leaflet.

This challenge is designed to raise funds for

the school and we hope to end up with lots of

new resources for each class. Most importantly

we want children to experience the creativity

and fun of trying to grow their £1. We hope

that children will develop an adventurous

willingness to test out their ideas, and be

happy to risk a plan not necessarily working

first time.

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Child Protection

Did you know that Mr Falkus and Mrs Lake are

Safeguarding Lead and Safeguarding deputy

respectively? If you have any concerns about

the safety of children including those related to

anti-bullying and e-safety please let one of us

know.

Reception Question People Who Help us

In Reception we have been learning about

People Who Help Us. We have had the

opportunity to ask lots of questions and learn

new skills.

We had an exciting visit from the police. We

were able to try on uniforms and explore the

police car. Some children even got to pretend

to drive it.

Clare Squires, our

School Nurse, taught

us how to stay healthy

and to wash our

hands really well.

Jenny Sutherland

who is a Vet taught

us how to look after our pets with help from

Jesse the dog.

We also had visits from Alexa and Sophia’s

Grandad and Mel McDonald to chat to the class

about what it is like to be a GP and an

Anaesthestist.

Thanks to everyone who came in for giving up

your time, the children have loved learning

from you all.

In Maths we have been looking at shapes, 2D

flat shapes and 3D solid shapes. Look at all the

different ways we can show what we know and

to learn to use mathematical terms to describe

our shapes.

In Reception we have been getting to grips with

Technology this term. The children have

enjoyed learning to take photos using the iPad.

They soon worked out how to take a good

group photo and Charlie and Ben spent ages

getting their jump timing just right to get the

perfect mid-flight photo! We are hoping to add

some voice overs to make a film for the new

intake parents.

We all had a great time on World Book Day and

have made our own wall of “News” to share

with the school. Here are some of our captions.

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Class One

Class One have been learning about "Special

Places." We recently visited our local church and

found out about the interesting things you can

discover in a church building and why they are

important to Christians. Jonty and Dan joined

us and helped to make it an informative and

happy afternoon.

Class Two Learn about Castles

On Wednesday 16th

March Class Two went on a

trip to Farleigh Hungerford Castle. When I

arrived I was feeling very, very excited! We saw

arrow slits in the ruins. Emmanuel put on chain

mail. Then the lady told us about The Lady

Tower. (Lester)

I loved the story about the Lady Tower, it was

about a Lord and a Lady. The Lord got cross

with the Lady and locked her in the tower. The

man gave her food but she refused to eat it

because sometimes he poisoned the food. He

was a bad man. The villagers were sorry for the

Lady. Sometimes she put a string down for the

villagers to put a basket of food in but the

villagers were poor and sometimes ran out of

money so she had to drink her own wee!

Luckily it was a happy ending. (Nina)

When we arrived I was amazed to see how

gigantic the castle was. The chain mail was so

heavy I nearly fell over!

(Jacob)

I was very excited

when I walked in the

castle! Then a lady

came and she asked

Emmanuel to try on

the chain mail. Then

we went for a tour,

first we went to the

kitchen and Noah

dressed up as a spit

boy. He was very

funny.

My favourite bit was looking for evidence of the

dragon. Me, Ben, Flo and Sebastian were

looking all over the place and found lots!

(Mateus)

A taste of healthy eating

James said “This is the tasty, but healthy

sandwich that I designed and made. It contains

salad, cucumber and hummus.

Class Three have been using how, when and

where adverbs to make their sentences more

interesting.

When the clock struck midnight, Hogarth

sprinted merrily into the enchanted wood.

(Katie)

The Iron Man fell like a bulldozer, scrambling

into the pit. (Zac)

At 5:00am, bang smack in the middle of

Australia, the Space Bat Angel Dragon landed

without warning, making church bells tumble

out of their towers. (Daragh)

At the crack of dawn, the Space Bat Angel

dragon, plopped heavily onto Australia. (Afon)

Hogarth crept suspiciously, down Dark Lane,

straight after school. (Wilf)

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Class Four Roman Assembly

Class Four also gave a superb assembly about

the Romans with singing, dancing and some

great acting. The children obviously knew a lot

and presented it in an engaging and energetic

way.

For the battle formation we used the shields

that we made in Art. They did the tortoise and

the wedge formation with the creative shields

(and it actually looked like real Roman

Soldiers)!

We have worked hard producing this Roman

assembly and also had a lot of fun learning it

too. I really liked the bit when Oisin projected

his voice and said “sit down and finish the

game of cards!” to Noah. Magnificently,

everyone knew their lines and knew when to

come in!

We have had fun making these wonderful

mosaics flashing as we show our parents with

an amazing sparkly smile! Also we made these

fancy summer Roman sandals that we are very

proud of and want to show the whole school.

Near to the end we found a tutorial on how to

draw a Roman soldier and we think they have

turned out well. Just before we finished we

sang Mama Mia followed by Waving Flag and we

think it was on fire because it was so good.

Last but not least we got lots of praise and

everyone said we were brilliant. At the end Miss

Corcoran told us that we can go and see our

parents and our parents gave us lots and lots of

excellent comments. By Hatty and Katie

Mateo’s Uncle’s Presentation on the Romans

Excitedly, I walked into the room then I sat

down (not knowing I was going to be amazed).

Mateo’s uncle’s voice boomed to get our

attention. Ian Ross showed us a presentation

with several pictures that give us clues about

the Romans and how they lived.

Ian started talking about historic fiction.

Apparently his stories are fiction that is set in

the past but the stories need to sound realistic

so he had to do lots of research about Romans.

I don’t think he likes to brag but he said he

knows a lot of things about Romans and at the

end we could ask him anything that we want to

know about Romans. Class Four really enjoyed

the talk. We all had lots of questions and Ian

could answer all of them! By Oisian

Preciously, Ian’s books were being passed

around; their names are ‘Swords around the

Throne’ and ‘Battle for Rome’. As evening

approached, Lucy and I told ourselves, when

we‘re older we should read that book, and we

think you should too! By Lucy and Matilda

Fact: Ian Ross has been researching and writing

about the later Roman world and its army for

over a decade. He spent a year in Italy, teaching

English, but now lives in Bath. Visit his website:

www.ianjamesross.com, or find him on twitter:

@IanRossAuthor

Swimming

On the first day of term, amazingly, we started

swimming at the leisure centre! All of Class

Four went. One afternoon before swimming

Oisian answered the register saying ‘I hope

your day goes swimmingly’.

When we get to the leisure centre we get

changed and excitedly we skipped to the side

of the pool. Annoyingly, we have to wait to get

in. Finally, we jump into the pool… for a warm

up we run, jump and swim.

Luckily, on Monday we had a Milestone Test so

we got to play for a bit in the pool with some

floats! That was fun. By Izzy and Betty

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Dance Umbrella 2016

On Thursday the 17th

of March 2016, eighteen

children from Years 4-6 took part in the Dance

Umbrella at the Forum.

The Key Stage Two Dance Club have been

working hard since before Christmas to learn a

dance routine especially for the Dance

Umbrella, where schools are invited to perform

at The Forum in Bath during a special evening

performance.

With the help of Mrs Lake the dancers chose an

exciting theme for their dance, and a piece of

music from 'Matilda' the musical called

'Revolting Children'. They enjoyed having fun

creating dance moves, working together to

choreograph a routine and working out how to

fill the huge stage (which is about the size of

our school hall!).

During the evening there was great excitement

as all the dancers prepared backstage and

parents and friends took their seats in the vast

auditorium. It is always a magical event as the

children watch the performances of other

schools and get to perform on a large stage

with lights and very loud music.

As Camilla wrote afterwards ‘Before we went on

stage, we felt quite nervous about it but when

we were dancing we really enjoyed it. I wish this

experience could happen all over again as it

was really exciting and entertaining’.

Our dancers this year really did us proud and

pulled out all the stops to perform the routine

with accuracy and enjoyment, whilst portraying

the role of Revolting Children brilliantly!

The audience also seemed to enjoy it and

joined in by clapping along to the music and

giving a huge cheer at the end.

Mrs Lake did a superb job of co-ordinating the

dance while encouraging the dancers to

contribute ideas and feel a sense of ownership.

Well done to all the performers thanks to their

families for supporting this event, and to Mrs

Clarke for helping during the evening.

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Year 5 Netball

On Wednesday 16th

of March, the Year Five

netball team went to a netball festival. We were

all ready to go until we realised we couldn’t

find the bibs. Therefore we had to use our old

ones. We walked in looking like complete scruff

bags. This of course drew a lot of attention.

Everyone else had matching tracksuit and we

didn’t even have tracksuits. We walked in

wearing shorts/skorts. Everyone else had

proper netball kit, this was intimidating.

Another disadvantage was we only had 6

players and it was a 7 a side game.

Once we had done a proper warm up we got

started. All the teams looked impeccable but

Bathampton soon showed them who’s boss.

Our first nerve-racking game was against Royal

High A-team. As I stood in the circle my knees

trembled. Then, the whistle blew!! Our team got

off to a flying start and before we knew it the

ball hurled into the net and 1-0. After 4 more

smashing goals from the terrific twins the final

score was 5-2 to us!

Soon after our first game they were keen to get

going and this game was against the B-team

also from Royal High. At first our passing was a

bit rusty but we soon made up for it. We really

worked as a team which was why the final EPIC

score was 7-0!!

The next match was against Royal High C-team.

We were surprised by how many teams Royal

High had! We won 9-0, our best score yet.

Eventually we played St Stephens and our great

shooters Mia and Erin helped us to get a 5-0

result. Afterwards we had hot chocolate and

cookies. We left the tournament feeling like we

could do anything. As captain I was pleased

and hope we have many more good results. By

Maria Maylor

Year 5 Cross Country

On Friday 4th

of March, Class Five went to St

Marks cross country competition! The course

was difficult and confusing; we all went the

wrong way and we had to find our way back. All

along the course was St Marks children guiding

us the way and telling us were to go if we were

lost. There were seven schools running

including us, Bathampton.

After the run they gave us a ticket with our

number that we came and when everyone was

finished we all sat down on the fake grass

waiting for them to announce the winners.

Bathampton came first place leaving two other

schools to place second and third! They did

first second and third place in the girls and

boys as well.

We walked up to the path waiting for Mr

Leonardi to tell us where the coach was. It

started to snow a bit as we walked down to the

coach. We hopped on and went back to

school!!! By Kate Trott and Cameron Skipp

Year 6 Cross Country Event

On Friday 11th

March 2016, Class Six went on a

cross country event at St Mark’s along with St

Saviour’s and Bathford.

When the whistle sounded, it was like a

stampede, everyone wanted to be in the front!

We had to do a different route of three laps so

it was a lot harder. There was a lot more uphill

in the course but we all did well do get round.

Overall we came 3rd

but we were all really proud

of ourselves. By Evie Humphries

Team Bath VS Manchester Thunder

On Friday 12

th

February Year Five netball

players went to watch a netball match at Bath

University.

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Our Year Five netball coach plays for Team

Bath. Her name is Rachel Shaw. When Team

Bath were walking past us Rachel waved to us.

When we got to the match we saw Bath and

Manchester warming up. When Bath came out

everybody cheered like mad! Within ten

seconds Manchester scored! We saw lots of

different passes, brilliant catching and

extraordinary shooting. After the match, sadly

for us, Manchester won but I still really enjoyed

it By Olivia Corry.

Art in Upper Key Stage Two

Class Five have been studying Europe. They are

looking at the different techniques used by

various modern artists including pointillism by

Pissarro and mark making by Van Gogh. They

have focused on colour and words in the style

of Paul Klee and are now completing a “silly

real” work based on the surrealism of Magritte.

The whole class has produced work of a high

standard and enjoyed learning about the

various styles. We are very fortunate to have, in

Mrs Huntley, a practising artist to teach art.

Class Six have been learning about rain forests

and indigenous peoples.

Art lessons have included 3D modelling in

fabric and clay, drawing and painting animals,

colour mixing greens and making dream

catchers. Their room is alive!

Clubs

Bathampton Lace Club is going from strength

to strength: there are fourteen regulars and

another eight who had a go at the first piece.

Several are working at the highest level of Tape

Lace and will be trying Torchon Lace soon. It is

wonderful that so many have learnt the basics

and may come back to this old craft later in life,

as Cheryl Merrick (an ex-pupil now teaching

herself) has recently.

Computer Xplorers

This new club, led by John and Yim Fisher, is

going well. The children are using stop motion

animation software called ZU3D. The only

problem is that the children are so engaged in

what they are doing that they don’t want the

club to finish each week!

Table Tennis

Some Year Six attend the weekly table tennis

club. The Club Leader Ray Bennet allows us to

play games against each other. Our skill has

definitely improved. Some people have taken

part in tournaments. Table tennis is fast but

not as tiring as tennis. Ex-pupil Dillon Pike is

co-coaching. By Luka Porter

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Friends Quiz

Thank you to everyone who supported our

school quiz evening on Friday 11th

March at

which we raised a good sum that will go

towards improvements to our school.

The Friends collectively choose the questions

and we all had fun having a go. If you haven’t

been to a school quiz do give it a try! It’s not

about the winning, but the taking part…which

is just as well!

Safe Routes to School

This term, Safe Routes to School has focused

on understanding the issues raised by the

previous school travel plan to see if they are

resolved yet. Our work received a professional

boost when the company developing the

Jewson’s Yard site at the end of Tyning Road

asked their transport consultant to review the

issues we had identified and give us ballpark

costs for improvements. We will now marry this

up against an upcoming survey for parents -

please look out for it in book bags.

A request again this term to park only in the

George car park for everyone's safety. In

particular we are seeing parents parking on the

double yellow lines on the corner of Church

Close, in the Vicar’s clearly-marked permit spot

next to it, as well as in the teachers’ two permit

spots outside the Reception/Class 5 and 6 gate.

These areas are not ours to use for pick up and

drop off.

We are also on the hunt for an architect with

bridge design experience, who might be willing

to spare us a couple of hours to come and re-

look at initial ideas to get us safely over the

bridge. Having advertised widely among the

local communities for a crossing patrol officer,

we are now hoping that University adverts bring

more luck.

Finally in May we are hoping to join up with

other SRTS teams at St Saviours and Batheaston

to take part in ‘Walk to school week’. Watch this

space.

Report by the SRTS team (Fiona Powell, Chloe

Yandell, Pnina Moscovi and Katie Cutting).

Bath MAT

You may have heard in the news recently that

all schools are on the road to becoming

academies by 2022. A number of local schools

have already become academies or announced

their intention to convert and all schools are

considering their options.

The East Bath Partnership of eight schools are

actively exploring options that would enable

each school to retain its unique identity and yet

continue to benefit from partnership. One very

exciting idea that emerged recently is of

creating a large primary and cluster-based Multi

Academy Trust (MAT) in Bath. This would be

sufficient in size to benefit from extra funding

and to support central services and staff

professional development.

A lot of local schools have since expressed

interest in being part of a primary led, cluster

based and values driven organisation that they

could help design.

A definitive decision to commit is some way off

but schools have been asked to register initial

interest by the end of the summer term. There

is a time line schools have to follow and this

will include a meeting for parents to share the

design of the academy and discuss issues

arising from a change in status.

The Staff and Governors will be very busy

considering the practical issues to make sure

that any change would be positive for the

school.

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Raising Funds for Dorothy House

Emily Knight, Events Fundraiser, for Dorothy

House Hospice Care came into school to accept

a cheque from two children. Brothers Laurence

and Kit raised close to £400 for the

organisation through a sponsored run.

Independence

As I often say to parents it is astonishing how

the years seem to fly by once children reach the

upper years of their primary school. It is a

surprisingly short distance between leaving

primary and starting at university, college or

work. We strongly encourage all parents to

keep working on the task of developing

children’s independence.

Training children to be responsible for their

own book bags or PE kit is also important and

can start as early as Reception. We recommend

that all children from Year Two are involved in

helping out at home with some of the family

chores by helping at mealtimes or tidying up.

From experience children might initially gripe

but most children enjoy helping once they get

used to it and like the feeling of responsibility.

Parenthood involves gradually letting go and

gradually passing on responsibilities and it’s

never too early to start!

Attendance

Please note that we will begin sending out

letters to parents where their child’s attendance

had dipped below 90%. We hope all children

will have attendance in the high 90s but

appreciate that unavoidable illness can affect

this. However if a child’s attendance is below

90% this is a significant loss of learning and we

feel that parents both would want, and need to

know if this has happened.

A reminder that lateness affects learning and

we ask that all parents ensure their children are

in school by 8.45 a.m to be settled in their

classes by 8.50 a.m.

Your shopping is raising money for the

school

29 parents have already signed up to our Easy

fundraising scheme which donates money to

the school when you shop on-line at Amazon

and other shops.

This has raised over £250 without costing a

penny! If you have not already signed up

please go to www.easyfundraising.org.uk and

learn how easy it is to subscribe. If you are

already on board please help share the good

news –perhaps relatives and friends could join?

Friends and family who buy goods on-line for

their businesses are also a great way to boost

the scheme.

Monday 9th

May is KS2 SATs Week 2016

Year Six children must be in school this week.

Please do not book any sleepovers during this

week or in the week before as these tend to

affect children’s concentration and morale.

We would also ask that screen time be

managed especially carefully to avoid late

nights or relationship distractions.

Thank you

April

Friday 1st

End of Term 4

Monday 18th

Start of Term 5

Thursday 21st

‘Mill on the Brue’ Year 6 Parents

Meeting. Options 6 p.m. OR Fri 22nd

at 9.15

a.m.

Thursday 28th

Parent Maths Information

Meetings 2.00 p.m. and 6.15 p.m.

Friday 29th

Class Six to Lifeskills Centre a.m.

May

Monday 2nd

May Day

Monday 9th

KS2 SATs Week. Year 6 Children

must be in school. Please note.

& Y2 Multi-skills Day @ St Marks

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Wednesday 11th

2016 Reception Parents

Induction Meeting 6.45 p.m.

Monday 16th

National Walk to School Week

Wednesday 18th

Class Five to Charterhouse

Residential Centre (return 19th

)

& Reception Parents Back up Induction Meeting

9.15 p.m.

Thursday 19th

Class Four to Charterhouse

Residential Centre (return 20th

)

Thursday 26th

Class Photographs

Friday 27th

End of Term 5

June

Monday 6th

INSET Day 5

Tuesday 7th

Children start Term 6

& Y1 PE Festival @ St Marks

& Singing Event @ The Abbey 6.30 p.m.

Thursday 9th

Class One ‘Sing As One’ Event @

Widcombe Infant School

Friday 10th

Open Morning

Monday 13th

Y3 & Y4 Tag Tails Festival @ Home

Wednesday 15th

Primary Parliament @

Somerdale Pavilion, Keynsham

Friday 17th

Y6 Tennis/ Cricket @ St Marks

Monday 20th

Y3-Y6 Athletics @ St Marks

Friday 24th

Y5 Tennis-Cricket @ St Marks

Wednesday 29th

Orchestra Concert 3.30 p.m.

July

Saturday 2nd

Summer Fair

Monday 4th

Year Six Residential @ Mill on the

Brue (return 6th

)

Wednesday 6th

Reception Multi-Skills @ St

Marks

Thursday 7th

Secondary School Induction Day &

New Classes Induction Afternoon

& Meet your child’s new class teacher 3.15-

4.00 p.m.

Wednesday 13th

Optional Parent/ teacher

Meetings if required

Thursday 14th

Option One KS2 Sports Morning

9.30 – 11.00

Option One KS1 Sports Afternoon 1.45 – 3.00

Friday 15th

KS1 followed by KS2 Disco

Monday 18th

Year Six Production 6.30 p.m.

Tuesday 19th

Option Two Sports day (Timings

as 14th

)

Thursday 21st

Leavers Service 9.30 a.m.

& End of Term 6 for children

September

Thursday 1st

& Friday 2nd

INSET Day 1 & 2

Monday 5th

Year One and above start school

School dates online at

www.bathampton.bathnes.sch.uk/calendar

We hope you have a great holiday

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