Ashley C of E Primary School

Headteacher Message!

 Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome to the final newsletter of the term. What an incredibly busy but fabulous end to the term we’ve had!

I would like to thank the brilliant FoA and team of elves for organising a wonderful visit from Father Christmas and transforming the Harmony Center into a magical grotto. The children were delighted to meet him and enjoyed the festive cheer he brought to the school. Events like this truly help to make the festive season magical for everyone.

The Christmas performances have brought even more magic to the past couple of weeks. They were all incredible and truly got me into the Christmas spirit, as I hope it did for you too. A big thank you to our brilliant staff for making these moments possible—it’s no small feat putting on performances like these, but they create memories that last a lifetime and give children their time to shine.

The festive fun continued on Wednesday! The children all came in wearing their Christmas jumpers and were treated to a delicious Christmas lunch. Thank you, from the children and staff, to the catering team for this delicious meal. It’s been such a cheerful way to round off a fantastic week.

Finally, as we wrap up the year, I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a relaxing holiday. Your children have worked hard this term —they’ve earned this break. Here’s to a happy, healthy, and successful new year. We look forward to seeing you on Tuesday 7^th January 2025!

 Mrs Ratcliff

 September Admissions 2025 - 

A quick reminder for those parents who haven’t made their application for Reception for September 2025 yet. You have until 15th January 2025 to make your applications. May we suggest you get this done before the end of term so you can tick it off your ‘To Do List’! 

Our Values - 

 

  At Ashley we teach the children to communicate their feelings and opinions in a respectful way.  As staff we also place a lot of importance on modelling this to the children and living in accordance with the values of our school: Care, Challenge, Explore. We try and teach our pupils that life has its ups and downs and learning strategies to deal with this is equally important.  We recognise that as parents you may sometimes have queries and frustrations.

In accordance with our values please can we ask that all parents communicate with our staff in a respectful manner, and we will always aim to do the same.  All our staff are here with your children's best interests at heart, and we are more than happy to talk through any queries you have. 

All our staff reserve the right to postpone a conversation if it is not being conducted in a respectful manner.  Thank you for support in this and for ensuring we model this tone to your children.

 REMINDERS - 

Inset Day - Monday 6th January

SCHOOL CLOSED TO PUPILS

 

School Lunches - 

The Autumn/Winter 2024/25 menu, is here: Menu

The school lunch menu will continue for the following term.

If your child/ren normally has a school meal, please can we remind you to order a school meal in advance.

Ordering closes on the Friday before and meals cannot be ordered after this time.

Should you forget to book a meal for your child/ren, we will call you and you will be required to bring in a packed lunch for your child going forward. You will not be able to book a meal on the day.

The current cost of a school meal is £2.75 for those children in KS2. Please ensure that payments are kept up to date at all times.

Payment should be made on-line via www.scopay.com/ashley  We do not accept cash or cheques. ourregistration code for Scopay will have been sent home with your child.  This can also be obtained from the school office. 

PLAYTIME SNACKS - In the juniors, playtime snacks should be a piece of fruit or vegetable. This helps to reduce our packaging waste and contributes to the children's 5 a day. Pots of chopped up fruit or vegetable sticks are ideal (not fruit winders). Infants still continue receive their free fruit or vegetable daily. The NHS Change4Life website has some great ideas for inspiration for a healthy packed lunch.  Please click on the link to find out more: https://www.nhs.uk/change4life/recipes/healthier-lunchboxes

   REMINDER: As we are a nut, kiwi fruit and sesame free school, please do not bring in any products containing these ingredients .

 

Reporting absence -  

If your child is unwell, please report their absence via study bugs or call before 8.30am

Ashley are solely moving to Studybugs as its a more efficient and secure system for reporting your child’s absence due to illness. If you haven’t already, please get the free Studybugs app, or register on the Studybugs website, and use it to tell us whenever your child’s ill and unable to attend school.

The Past Fortnight - 

Year 6 - 

Year 6 have been busy putting their final touches to their Gaudi-inspired towers, made from clay.  We have never seen such a creative, colourful and simply joyful pieces of art! The children have really captured the essence of Gaudi's vibrant, organic architecture. Well done, Year 6!

- Miss Bardel 

  Year 5 - 

Last week, the Year 5 pupils had a wonderful 'Christmas Pause Day' on which they visited St Mary's Church for our annual Christmas Service, before returning to school to do various activities related to the Christmas Story. They all sang their hearts out to traditional Christmas carols in church and spoke their allocated parts of the Nativity Story loudly and proudly. Other 'Pause Day' activities included using drama to 'hot-seat' the shepherds on their way to visit baby Jesus and making beautiful stained glass candles symbolising Jesus as the 'Light of the World'. Year 5 have also worked very hard as 'civil engineers' to research, plan and make bridges out of paper straws in DT this week. They had to put their knowledge of engineering and construction techniques, plus other success criteria, to the test in order to - in pairs - create a bridge which spanned at least 20cm and could bear weight. Each pair created a unique bridge structure and they should all be extremely proud of their efforts. 

-Mrs Kent 

 Year 4 - 

Year 4 took a trip to Hampton Court Palace last week to consolidate the end of their learning theme about the Tudors. We took time to explore the palace, did some sketching of the outside of the place, focusing on the details of the architecture and took part in a workshop to learn more about King Henry VIII using evidence to support answering a question about him. This was a brilliant experience and one that made us look at evidence as historians. Our artwork has also been building up over the course of the half term and this week, we mixed colours to paint our own Tudor portraits in the style of Hans Holbein. We practised mixing tints, shades and tones and then used these skills to paint our portraits. We think the results are brilliant!

 - Mrs Ready

 Year 3 - 

We celebrated our learning about Africa by performing an African harvest dance for Year 2. After the performance some children had the opportunity to teach the dance to Year 2 children who then performed it, lead by their Year 3 partners. 

- Mrs Nawaz 

Year 2- 

This half term in D&T, year 2 have been working on their sewing skills. The running stitch was their main focus, which was used when they made their hand puppets two weeks ago. We had help from a few amazing parents and would like to thank them once again for their assistance. Year 2 have used their puppets to perform a puppet show about their traditional/twisted tales to Year 1; which was a great success!

- Mrs Van Der Schaff 

 
 Year 1 - 

Year 1 have been very busy in Design and Technology over this half term, designing and creating a Christmas decoration.  The children began the process by investigating different types of decorations and how they link and join onto a tree.  The next stage was to plan and design their decorations on paper, thinking of the shape, materials, tools and embellishments they were going to use. They then worked hard in creating and making them, following their designs and finally they evaluated their finished creations this week.  We think they will look great on your Christmas trees!

 - Mrs Boyd

 

Reception - 

We have had a great week in Reception. On Tuesday we visited Father Christmas and some of his elves. The children had a magical time and loved asking him questions. We have enjoyed class parties, Christmas jumper day and taking part in Christmas games and crafts. It has been a jam-packed term, and the children all deserve a well earnt break. We wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and we will see you in the new year. 

- Miss Key 

Last week we were so proud to share our Christmas services in St Mary’s Church. Our Faith group children acted out the Christmas story which was narrated by the different classes and our faith ambassadors led a special prayer illuminated with their own fairy lights! Reverend Jonny commented on how well he could hear the children narrate the story and that the special meaning of Christmas was really well conveyed and that the singing was fabulous. Reverend Jonny also visited our school  to lead a special service for Year One and Reception in the Hive. The children loved the retelling of the Christmas story through sweets and again sang beautifully. Well done to all.

-Mrs Harris, Mrs Nawas and Mrs Kent

 

SENDsational Newsletter 

sendsational half termly newsletter.pdf

Gardening Diaries 

the gardening diaries final 24.pdf

I am moving on to a new role in January as a Horticultural Coordinator with Walton Charity, so sadly saying goodbye Ashley School after three years. I just wanted to say a big thank you to all our parents and children for your support in helping us create and grow our outdoor learning for the children. The enthusiasm, curiosity and desire to get muddy in their curriculum lessons, lunch club, Growing Together and Seeds & Weeds has been immeasurable!  It’s been a fantastic year of growing crops for our Big Food Share, community initiatives such as the Bulb planting with World caretakers and our amazing Bug barrel for Hampton Court.  Our Bird Garden build with over 100 of our children getting involved and finally the fundraising success of the Greenredeem - securing £400 for all our hard work! The polytunnel is in sight…

I will definitely keep in touch with the Ashley family and meanwhile encourage our children to keep growing in every way. Thanks.

Mrs Winstanley Fisher

Curriculum Gardener 

Online Safety - 

 Thank you to the parents who made it to the NSPCC's online safety workshop. We've collated some useful links from the workshop on a sheet with clickable links. There is also a link to a recorded workshop for those who couldn't make it.

- Mrs Athersuch 

nspcc online safety advice 1 .pdf

Foodbank 

 Panto....

This year's amazing St Mary's and St John's Youth Fellowship pantomime is Fearless Prince Rupert and is full of Ashley School alumni. It's a fantastic way to end the Christmas holidays and is fun for the whole family. Tickets are just £5 and include a free hot or soft drink at the interval. To book please email youthfellowship@waltonparish.org.uk or contact Zoe Byrne on 07950 932623. 

Performances will be at St Mary's Church Hall in Walton on:

Thursday 2nd January 2025 at 7pm

Friday 3rd January 2025 at 4pm

Saturday 4th January 2025 at 2pm

Saturday 4th January 2025 at 7pm