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Elmfield Early Years and Primary Newsletter
Newsletter No 10 –July 2012
Dear Parents and Carers
It may not seem like it in terms of the weather but our Summer Term
is drawing to an end! It has been an incredible year starting off with
the best exam results the school has had and continuing with amazing
learning experiences and Bristol City Council making the decision to
keep our School OPEN!
We are all looking forward to the excitement of the coming year!
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the parents/carers and children
for their support in making Elmfield the wonderful school it is and will continue to be
in the future.
Wishing you a very happy and sunny summer holiday
Ms Fogwill (Acting Deputy Headteacher) and the Elmfield School team
Dean Field Study Centre Camp Falcon and Ostrich went on a very
exciting 2-day trip to Dean Fields
Camp where we did lots of fun
activities, such as river walking (the
pupils’ favourite), the zip wire,
climbing and the high-adrenaline pole-
jumping where they had to jump from
the top of a very wobbly 30ft pole
onto a trapeze! All of our pupils and
Mrs Gorely showed a lot of bravery
that day!!
Jubilee Celebrations
We had an amazing day here at Elmfield celebrating the Queen's 60th Jubilee! The
children created and performed some fabulous BSL poetry and made everyone feel
really proud. Our street party was attended by lots of parents, members of the Deaf
community and old friends. It was lovely. Everyone had a really nice time.
Thanks to our Teaching
Assistants who worked so hard
to organise this fabulous event!
Jubilee Quiz Who is this (very) young girl pictured at a
street party in Exeter on the occasion of the
coronation of Queen Elizabeth II back in
1952?
The answer is at the end of this newsletter!
Mr Gill’s Baby Shower After the Jubilee celebrations, we held a baby
shower for Mr Gill, whose little princess, Robyn
Grace, was born on Friday 6th July!
Visit to Glastonbury and Wells On 21st June a group of our students travelled to Glastonbury to take part in a
workshop on Mediaeval Hygiene and Medicine. They also had a guided tour round the
Abbey, and an introduction to mediaeval cookery in the kitchen where they turned
the spits and helped make bread.
Since the Abbey buildings are in ruins (thanks to Henry VIII), on the way back we
called in at Wells Cathedral so that they got a better idea of what the abbey might
have looked like with its roof still intact.
The Education Coordinator at Glastonbury was delighted with our students’
enthusiasm, good behaviour and penetrating questions.
Sailability at Baltic Wharf, Bristol Six pupils from Ostrich and Falcon classes
went for two hours sailing at the Floating
Harbour in Bristol. Each pair of pupils had
a different coloured sailing boat, and
everyone was provided with a wet suit and
life jacket.
We found that learning to sail was fun and
also challenging when we had to sail against the wind. Towards the end of the session
we were even allowed to sail on our own!
Thanks especially to Anna Willoughby for
her help in organising this session with Gill
from Sailability, and to Mark Hester for
his superb pictures.
There will be another Sailablity session
during Term 1 (2012/13) so please let us
know if your child is keen to come.
Owl Class Goes Potty! Owl class were lucky enough to have a visit
from an arts specialist. They learnt about
how pots and vases were made in Ancient
Greece and how through the decoration
stories were told, which helps us to learn
about how they lived. The children
decorated their own pots and told their
own stories.
World Sport Day
Sadly our sports day had to be cancelled because of rainy weather, but earlier in the
term we all joined in with most other schools in the UK and celebrated World Sport
Day, celebrating all of the international teams participating in the Olympics. We split
up into 4 different groups representing 4 different countries. They were Jamaica,
South Africa, New Zealand and Russia. Our pupils did some research on their own
countries, its facts and culture, and presented it very well to the rest of the school.
Then we competed against each other in the afternoon. Well done to the Jamaica
team for coming first but a bigger well done goes to every child and staff member
who participated and made World Sport Day a fun and informative day for everyone.
Visit to Brean Down As part of their reward for continuing good behaviour over the last three terms,
Falcon class earned themselves the privilege of going to Brean Sands for the whole
day on Monday 9th July! We tried out all of the rides, both big and small, and I'm
pleased to report that no-one threw up! The dodgems proved to be a old favourite for
all of the children (and Mr Ford) and we've lost count of the satisfying crashes given
to each other. We were blessed with good and dry weather and even finished off the
great day out with an ice-cream each.
Spud-We-Like! Back in March Duck class planted
potatoes in our garden. We had to dig
holes with a trowel and after we’d
planted our seed potatoes, we watered
the soil.
Then, on Monday 9th July, we harvested our crop!
We dug up our potatoes and sorted them. There were 12 pink potatoes and 50 white
ones! We chose some of them to cook and taste in school. They were lovely. We
shared out the rest of them and took them home to cook for our tea!
Goodbye, Mrs Angove! In April of last year, we said goodbye
to Mrs Angove because she wasn’t
going to be coming back to work at
Elmfield. We didn’t know then that
we would get her for another whole
year from September!
But now she really is leaving us, and
we would like to thank her very very
much for all her hard work in Duck
class and throughout the school.
From September Mrs Angove will be
mostly working in Wales, but also with us
on a supply basis.
Goodbye to Ciaran and Jack! We are very sad that Ciaran and Jack
have come to the end of their time here
with us at Elmfield Primary. We shall
miss them both very much, but at the
same time we are very proud of all their
achievements while they were pupils here
and wish them all the best for the future
at Elmfield Secondary School and Mary
Hare School respectively.
Sensory Room We have had lots of exciting deliveries lately for our new Sensory Room, which we
are in the process of setting up. During the summer holidays staff are planning to
come into school for a painting day, so that when the children return to school in
September, the room will be ready to use. We shall report back on
our progress in the next full edition of our newsletter.
Romeo and Juliet/Fun Olympics Also in next term’s newsletter will be a full report on our end of
term activities.
Birthdays There have been lots of birthdays in Falcon class recently! It was Jack’s 11th
birthday during the half term holiday, Thursday 7th June, and Tobias celebrated his
10th birthday at home on Saturday 30th June.
We hope Ciaran has a happy 12th and Angus a happy 3rd birthday during the holidays.
Olympic Tickets Ballot and Raffle On Friday 13th July Olympic football tickets were allocated to Harry
Pearce, Elfed Willoughby, Oscar Mott, Tom Bowden, Owain Sanders
and Ciaran O’Brien’s families.
On Tuesday 17th July the winners of pairs of Olympic
athletics tickets were:
Khan Johns
Martin Brooks
Ben Ringrose
New School Year, New Class Names! The children and staff have agreed new names for the classes. These are:
Butterfly (previously Duck) – Teachers: Kate Fogwill and Claire Spencer
Ladybird (previously Owl) – Teacher: Mary York
Grasshopper (previously Ostrich) – Teachers: Jo White and Kathryn
Gorely
Scorpion (previously Falcon) – Teacher: Nathan Ford
Class groups for September 2012
Butterfly Ladybird Grasshopper Scorpion
Kate Fogwill
Claire Spencer
Mary York
Kathryn Gorely
Jo White
Nathan Ford
Emily Ayling
Angus Sage
Hugh Glanville
Bailey Griffiths
Hugh Lonergan
Zakaria Nur
Tom Bowden
Oscar Mott
Arron Nicholls
Harry Pearce
Rosie-May Potter
Owain Sanders
Tobias Hester
Jonathan Merritt
Oliver Elliott-Chorley
Elfed Willoughby
Jubilee Quiz Answer! IT’S MRS ISAACS!
Looking Ahead…
Wednesday 18th July: End of Term 6 - 1.30pm
Monday 3rd September: Beginning of Term 1
NB: There will be NO In-Service Days at the start of Term 1.
Friday 19th October: End of Term 1
Monday 21st/Tuesday 22nd/Wednesday 23rd October: In –Service Days. The School
will be CLOSED to pupils.
Monday 5th November: Term 2 begins
Friday 21st December: Term 2 ends
The Elmfield School Team would like to wish you all
Information From The Family Centre
29th July - Trip to the beach and aquarium
A day at the seaside building sand castles and maybe paddling in
the sea if it’s warm enough! There will also be an interpreted
guided tour of the aquarium. See website for details.
Sunday 16th September - Castle Quarry
Set in 30 acres of woodland in the north of Bristol offering a range of Outdoor
Adventures to all ages. This should be great fun and is certainly not to be missed!
Competition
We would like our younger members to send us an image of their experiences with
The Family Centre. We welcome drawings, photos or any other visual image, whether
it is created by hand or on a computer. There will be two age categories and two
fantastic prizes. There are three topics to choose from. For more information visit
our website. Final entries in by 21st September.
Information From Other Providers
Family wildlife day Go Wild in Badocks Wood! Saturday 21st July from 11am – 4pm
Come to Badocks Wood to explore the t hidden wildlife in your local nature reserve.
All ages welcome to this free event run by parents at Westbury Academy on behalf
of Sustainable Westbury on Trym http://suswot.wordpress.com/ Meet us at the
tumulus by the wildflower meadow above the wood. Bring a picnic and blanket, walking
shoes, child-like curiosity and a magnifying glass or bug net if you have one.
MusicSpace
MusicSpace is throwing open its doors on Thursday 26th July
2012 from 12:30pm ‘til 4pm. Come along and find out more
about the South West’s biggest music therapy charity at The
Southville Centre, Beauley Road, Bristol, BS3 1QG. Please call us on 0117 953 1731 or email us on info@musicspace.org if you are interested in coming along or would like to find out more.
NDCS Course
A free environmental and conservation course for 16 – 18 year olds is being run by the
NDCS from 30/7/12 – 3/8/12 at Goblin Combe near Bristol and attendees will gain a
recognised qualification, the John Muir discovery award. For more information and to
book a place visit www.ndcs.org.uk/events
Learn Baby Sign!
The Centre for Deaf People is running a course in baby sign on 14th
August from 11am to 12pm, at 16-18 King Square, Bristol BS2 8JL.
Cost: £5. Babies and toddlers free. Tea and biscuits provided.
Signed Circus Show
Stumble Dance Circus will be performing their show ‘Box of Frogs’ on Thursday 27th
and Friday 28th September at Circomedia, St Paul’s Church, on Portland Square. It
will be an evening showing, starting at 7.30pm, a great show incorporating circus,
tricks and fantastic visuals throughout.
The show on Friday 28th September will be sign interpreted and we also have a
hearing loop in the venue for hearing impaired. You can find details of the show here
http://www.stumbledancecircus.com/shows/box-of-frogs/.
Please email Rebecca@circomedia.com if you are interested.