Ashley C of E Primary School

Headteacher's Message! - 

 Good Afternoon, 

Welcome to our last newsletter of the half term. I can't quite believe where time is going; when we come back we will hit the final half-term of the academic year. This is the busiest half term for the staff who will be finishing off this year with all the assessments, reports, trips, events, sports and residentials whilst preparing for the next academic year and preparing children for transition.   

A big well done once again to Year 6 who worked really hard last week completing their SATS, they were a credit to themselves. The staff team were great at supporting the year 6 children and the breakfast created a lovely, relaxed feel to the start of the school day.

I would like to thank all the children who have represented Ashley at sport, music or chess events this half term. This week, we took a team of talented chess players to a School Chess Tournament. They played against some of the best junior players in Surrey. They all played so well, achieving third place overall! A huge well done to all the children who took part. Today the year 5 and 6 girls team are playing their semi-final match against Cleves. After half term, the year 6 boys team are playing in the finals against Cardinal Newman, at the Excel. We wish them all well.

I am looking forward to the FoA Summer Fair on the  8^th June. Hopefully, you will be able to join us for this fun community event and enjoy a 45 minute circus show. As well as the circus, there will be performances by the children, a BBQ, a bar, games and stalls selling popcorn, sweets and ice-creams.

Wishing you a good half term.

Mrs Ratcliff

Change to the structure of the school day

Last year, the government recommended all schools offered a minimum of 32.5 hours of schooling each week which meant we changed the structure of our school day. As a result, 15 minutes was added to the beginning of the school day and the start of the day became 8:40am. Following feedback from staff and parents/carers, we have reviewed this and from September 2024 will be moving the 15 minutes from the start of the day to the end of the school day.

	Current Structure	Structure from September 2024	Wrap Around Care 2024-25
Metal gate opens Wooden gate opens Official start time (gates close)	8:20am 8:25am 8:40am	8:35am 8:40am 8:55am	Breakfast club: 7:30am -8:35am
Car park gate opens Wooden gate closes	3:10pm 3:20pm	3:25pm 3:35pm	After school club: 3:25pm – 6pm

From September 2024, the official start time in our school will be 8:55am. Anyone arriving after this time would subsequently be classified as late. I appreciate that these changes may affect a small minority in terms of childcare, working arrangements or after school activities but I do believe that these changes will be beneficial to the school community and will have a positive effect on your child’s education.

 Social Media - 

We recognise that the use of smartphones and other technologies is now a feature of daily life for people of all ages. As you are likely aware, however, they can particularly expose primary school children to a number of risks – including cyberbullying and encountering harmful content. We are increasingly receiving communication from parents around the use of social media between their children and peers.  Although this is a parental decision can we remind the community that this often impacts on relationships within school and can lead to an impact on learning. May we also remind parents of the following age restrictions regarding the use of social media and apps.  Parents have a duty to supervise and enforce these age limits.

-Mrs Sawyer 

 Dates for the diary - 

New date for KS2 Sports Day & Picnic - Wednesday 19^th June.

Due to the postponement of KS2 sports day this week, we are pleased to confirm the new date will be Wednesday 19th June.

Book 'Sale' 17-21^st June

After the success of our previous book 'sale', we've had another clear out in the library to make way for new books. This means we will be hosting a book 'sale' outside at the end of everyday opposite the bike sheds. If you are willing and able to make a donation, you can on the day, but the books are free for the taking!

Wraparound Care Club – September 2024

We are currently working on wraparound care provision for September 2024. We will be sending an email out to parents shortly, please keep an eye out for this important email as there will be an online form attached to express to your interest for a wraparound care provision.

Leadership Drop-in session - 28th June

Playground message: Footballs

After half term, please do not bring leather footballs into school. As the weather improves, more children are playing on the field and we are having incidents with children being hit with hard, leather balls. Each class have coloured playground balls to use and more will more added after half term. This is across the school.

-Senior Leadership Team 

The Past Fortnight - 

Year 6 - 

A big well done to all of year 6 who recently completed their SATS tests. The children worked incredibly hard over the course of the year and did incredibly well during the exams. We are proud of each and every one of them.  Year 6 have been studying the artist 'Frida Kahlo'. From there, they have created their own self-portraits which represents them on the outside but more importantly represents them on the inside too. 

-Miss Casley

  Year 4 - 

As part of our RE learning about Islam, Mrs Ali spoke to Year 4 about how she practises Islam and how her faith guides her. It was really interesting to hear first hand what it is like and the reasons why certain things are done. Year 4 listened attentively and were very respectful when hearing about a religion that is different to theirs. They asked some thoughtful questions and were very interested in the answers that Mrs Ali had to give. They were shown a prayer mat, prayer beads and a Qu'ran and this was great to see these special items in real life. Many thanks to Mrs Ali for bringing our RE learning to life. 

- Mrs Ready 

Year 3 - 

Year 3 Great Works - Earthquake Simulation, Year 2 had a real treat yesterday and experienced what happens when we are hit by an earthquake. They learnt how tectonic plates move and a crack appears in the Earth's crust causing buildings to coming crashing down. They constructed buildings and watched them fall down as the tectonic plates were moved.

-Mrs Nawaz 

Year 2 - 

Year 2 have been using recycled materials to build bridges strong enough to carry a toy car. While identifying and sorting different types of materials. 

-Mrs Van Der Schaff 

 

Year 1 - 

Year 1 Smoothies and Great Works . In their Design and Technology lessons, Year 1 have been exploring tastes, design and safe cutting skills. They made their own smoothies last week with the help of fantastic adult helpers and taste tested them. With child-safe knives, they practised the claw grip and bridge hold to cut, slice and chop up their ingredients. As part of English, they have been learning how to write instructions and shared 'How to make a Smoothie' with Year 6 as part of their Great Work. It was wonderful to see our oldest pupils listening and talking to some of our youngest children about their learning. The children have taken their instructions home to make it for their families too!

-Mrs Rayner  

Reception - 

We have had a busy week in Reception this week; for our Great Works Year 6 came and listened to the children reading their Little Wandle books then they read a book to their reading partner. We tasted the fruits from Handa’s Surprise noting whether we liked them or not and what they tasted like before deciding which were our top three fruits. On Friday we did observational drawings of the different fruits concentrating on drawing what we can see rather than the whole fruit. In Rabbit class we drew our toys looking closely at the detail on them. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday afternoon we visited Walton Library where the librarian told the children all about what you can do at the library before the children went on a treasure hunt to find various items around the library and the visits ended with a story told by the Librarian.

 

 

Chess Tournament

On Tuesday 22^nd May, 7 representatives from Ashley School Chess club travelled to Ongar Place School in Addlestone to compete against 5 other schools. Matches were 20 minutes long and each player had 5 matches, powered by squash and biscuits. Our players were: Barney, Kuba, Archie, Oscar, Yoan, Paul and Jacob. They played with real sporting values and shook hands with each opponent. Although we came third, this was our first time at a chess tournament and it certainly won't be our last. Well done players, you were amazing!

-Mrs Athersuch 

Faith News- 

We are excited to launch a new school prayer after half term and would like to share it now with our Ashley community. The prayer was created in collaboration with Reverend Cathy and the children visiting prayer space who we asked - what makes a good school prayer? We will be teaching the children the new prayer and accompanying actions on their return but please do share to help them familiarise them with it. Thank you for your support.

 - Mrs Harris

Dear God

Bless this school and all those who work and learn together.

Help us to love you and care for each other.

Let us challenge ourselves and explore each new day.

Show us how to live our values and follow your wonderful way.

Amen

Pop Up Prayer Space

Year 6 volunteers ran a lunch time pop up prayer space following up from our collective worship scheme "Going for Gold". Children were asked to share which talent they would most like to be awarded a gold medal for? Horse riding and gymnastics were very popular!

Gardening News - 

World Bee Day - Monday 20th

To celebrate World Bee Day, Seeds and Weeds started work on our Hampton Court Bug Barrel project sculpting some bees to add to our design followed by a game of 'Bees Knees'.  We love our Ashley Bees and certainly celebrated in style!

 

 Outdoor Classroom Day - Thursday 30^th 

Thursday was Outdoor Classroom Day, This is a day to promote using outdoor learning.   Year 4 have been out with Mrs Winstanley Fisher engaging in a practical lesson about Plant Classification. Building on what they learned in class, this lesson informed them about the work of Swedish Botanist, Carl Linnaeus as they were encouraged to use our outdoor spaces, find out what is growing and create their own classification models.

 

 FOA News  - 

 

Summer Fete 2024 - Buy your circus tickets and win a themed mufti day for your class

Don't forget to buy your tickets here

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ashley-school-summer-fete-2024-tickets-904995896087

And sign up to volunteer at https://tinyurl.com/yvrnyaxj

Class stalls, BBQ, Bar all need YOU to help out. 

- Friends of Ashley

 Online Safety - 

group chats.pdf

Urgent Appeal: Help local working families in crisis

the bridge.pdf

BRITE Box Big Cook 2024 - 

brite box big cook 2024 .pdf

Well Done - 

A massive WELL DONE to Ben O (Y3), Frances N (Y6) and Jennifer N (Y3) took part in their first triathlon on Sunday at the Excel leisure centre.  A triathlon is a race where each entrant completes 3 sports, swimming, cycling and running.  Frances completed the Long Junior triathlon which was 200m swim, 2.7km bike and 2.3km run.  Jennifer and Ben completed the short junior triathlon which was 100m swim, 2km bike and 1.6km run.  They all earned points for the School in the Mermaid cup, which is a triathlon school league.  We are super proud of their efforts on Sunday.  There are 3 more events taking place this year, for more information and to sign up take a look at www.freetri.co.uk.  It would be great to have more Ashley School children taking part.