Welcome back to the final term of this school year. Fasten your seat belts there is a lot planned for the children and a lot to achieve in the remaining six weeks.

At the start of the week I had the pleasure of joining Year 6 at Abernant Lake in mid-Wales for their residential camp. There was a great range of activities which the children completed with enthusiasm and resilience, learning new skills particularly on the water. Have a look at the Szapp tile for the full report and photos. Thank you to the staff who gave their time to support the children whilst they were away; Mrs Richardson, Mr Eades, Mme Maurier and Miss Williams. The children were a joy to be away with, the adults thought they were exceptional in all aspects. Well done to the staff team who held the fort back at school. 

Read on for further news of our trips this week; Year 1 have been to Beggar Bush, Reception have visited the Belmont Estate and Year 2 had a workshop on the Downs. Thank you to parents/carers who supported these events. We do rely upon help sometimes when we have a trip, particularly when we are walking, we can’t leave school site without the correct number of adults, so do help if you can. Thank you. Also, the weather is so unpredictable at the moment, please ensure your child has a showerproof jacket with them, even if it is sunny when you leave home in the morning. 

Please note the dates for what is ahead and ensure you are checking the SZapp Feed for messages. Checking the Szapp feed is important- if several messages are sent, you may miss earlier ones. 

Contact details/medical information

At the start of term, we always remind parents/carers to notify the school office of any new contact details/ medical information for your child.

Inset and Academy Days:

Monday 22nd July - INSET day, children not in school

Tuesday 23rd July - INSET day, children not in school 

Monday 2nd September - INSET day, children not in school 

Tuesday 3rd September - INSET day, children not in school 

Campfest w/e 12th July

Camp Fest 2024 is approaching! Please save the date and in the next week, the PTA will be sending out a sign up form along with a volunteer list. If you can volunteer, we would be extremely grateful, like with all PTA events, this is a fundraiser and we rely on lots of support from all the wonderful Christ Church families.

Come along to our SEND Coffee morning hosted in partnership with Bristol Parent Carer Forum where you can find out more information on what support is available locally for your child with special educational needs and disabilities. It doesn't matter if you don't have a diagnosis, Bristol Parent Carers are available to support every family in Bristol and are parents themselves so get it!

Nicky O’Leary, from the school nurse service will also be present to answer any questions you may have.

There is no need to book, but it would help us to have an idea of numbers so would be grateful if you could register your interest by filling in the Google Form here.

Date: Thursday 20^th June
Time: 9 - 10:30am
Location: Activity Hall (please enter via the school office)

Dear Parents/Carers

Thank you to parents/ carers for filling in the MAT Due Diligence google form with your questions at this stage for Cathedral Schools Trust.  We are in the process of collating the questions for CST and will feedback to you in due course.  

Thank you for your support

Charlotte Withers and Georgina Harford

Co-Chairs of Governors

It has been an exciting and jam packed week in Reception. Not only did both classes travel to Belmont Estate for a day of learning about nature and spending quality time together but they also started the topic of ‘Mini beasts’. It all started with the story ‘A Good Place’ by Lucy Cousins when they were challenged to draw their own choice of insect using crayons and pastels and pages from the story.      

The children really impressed all the adults with their detailed, factual knowledge about insects and came up with some really interesting questions that they would like to find out during their learning for the term. Reception are very excited about the imminent arrival of the class caterpillars and are looking forward to observing and talking about the changes that happen in their development!

The children shared their holiday news with a partner before drawing their favourite moment from half term and writing simple sentences to go with it. They continue to use their phonic knowledge and are developing their use of finger spaces, capital letters and full stops.

The challenge in maths this week was counting, ordering and recognising numbers to 20 using coins, counters and Numicon tiles. Some of the children still need some support recognising numbers beyond 11 and counting accurately forwards and backwards.

At the end of the week the children enjoyed a ‘body part scavenger hunt’ as part of their ‘Changing Me’ unit of work. We thought about body parts we can see on the outside and also those on the inside.

The Belmont Estate trip was a great opportunity for showing many of our school values such as co-operation, respect and of course kindness to all creatures and each other. Many children were seen helping each other out of the stream, being careful not to knock into a caterpillar string or stand on a frog in the grass and co-operating alongside others to enjoy the outside environment together.

Well done Reception for a great first week back – showing your energy and enthusiasm as always!

Mrs Richardson, Mrs Petters and Miss B.

Year 1 had a great start to the week with our trip to Beggar Bush on Monday. We enjoyed toasting marshmallows over the fire; making bird feeders by filling apples with seeds; making necklaces with hand-crafted stick beads; and creating our own natural paints using beetroot, leaves, berries and even charcoal. It was such a great day!

Year 1 kickstarted their new topic all about looking after the planet by exploring the book ’10 Things I Can do to Help My World’ by Melanie Walsh. We created a class painting of Earth by finger painting and discussed the things we love most about the world. They included: ‘all of the amazing animals’, ‘tall trees to climb’, ‘beautiful plants and flowers’, and ‘the ocean that we can swim in’. We thought about what we can do to look after our planet and wrote a list of simple actions each of us can take at home and at school.

In Art lessons, we looked at the work of artist and environmentalist Andy Goldsworthy. We enjoyed working out which natural materials had been used to create his land art and shared what we liked most about his work. Then we went outside to find natural objects to sketch, using magnifying glasses to pick up all the little details. Well done for a fantastic first week of term Year 1!

Year two have been exploring the world outside this week. In maths we have been looking at how to record and interpret statistics and data. On Tuesday we made our own tally charts by completing a transport survey using the roads around our school. We found that many people in our community travel on foot, by bike and in cars. 

On Thursday we took part in a caterpillar and butterfly workshop on The Downs. We learned about the life cycle of a butterfly and the process of metamorphosis. We also learned the names of some native butterfly species such as the marbled white, the chalk hill blue and the peacock which has 'eyes' on it's wings to fool predators into thinking it is a much bigger animal. We realised how lucky we are to have such a beautiful natural habitat on our doorstep.

Year 3 have been focusing on our Geography topic of 'Sustainability' this week. This has included a cross-curricular link into Literacy as we have written a letter to persuade a fictional village to 'cease with their abominable littering' (a child's example). After thinking about ways we can be sustainable at school and at home, we looked at renewable energy resources across the globe. The children designed their own 'Green' city which included the latest technologies inspired by various international cities.

Yesterday, Teddy came into school enthusiastically with his litter-picker and got to work at lunchtime. The playground is looking spotless; what a green champion!

To top off our already-fantastic week, we started our Sports Day practice, beginning with some running and hurdling techniques. 

Year 4 have begun their music unit on Haikus this week, which has complemented our literacy beautifully! On Wednesday afternoon, we explored sounds that represented the words that we thought about, associated with blossom trees blooming. The adjectives were amazing and the sounds showed a lot of careful consideration. Well done Year 4!

In Literacy we have been writing Haikus inspired by nature. We then chose our favourite one and published it with a watercolour wash and illustration.  They are beautiful!

Year 5 have had a great week completing their "Come Dine With Me" unit in DT. They had to research and prepare a starter, to include the hero ingredient of pepper. They also had to research and prepare a dessert, which contained the hero ingredient: pineapple. There was such creativity and variation in the recipes - it was lovely to see. Each team then tasted and rated another's, based on presentation as well as taste. The children were very kind and very fair in their judgements; it was great to hear them praising one another and rewarding their efforts. Well done Year 5...MasterChefs in the making!

At school, we have been busy! We are looking forward to working with the artist Liz Hunter to complete exciting paintings inspired by nature and the outdoor environment. In preparation for her visit later this term, we have found out more about her work and some of the artists that we are going to use as our inspiration. We learned about the work of Emily Powell who loves painting landscapes, the sea, flowers, and plants. Her work is bold, colourful, fun, and full of energy. We also learned about the artist David Hockney and studied work inspired by the patchwork fields of Yorkshire.  Looking at pattern within Hockney’s work we came up with our own Hockney inspired pieces in our sketchbooks. 

We have also welcomed a visitor Katherine, from the Red Cross, into school. Katherine firstly explained what the Red Cross does as an organisation. Then we played games and took part in activities that helped us learn a variety of skills and knowledge about how to respond to common emergencies. We discussed how to control external bleeding; how to treat burns; how to support people who have fractures or sprains and what to do if someone has a head injury. We also learned how to put someone in the recovery position. Katherine was brilliant and we all agreed that we were now feeling more confident about how we could help by the end of the session! 

In Geography, we completed the second lesson on map skills. Following the last session's work on OS coordinates, we studied digital maps. We looked at two different locations and discussed their physical and human differences. Using map skills and working in small groups, we built a case to answer the question: ‘Is Kilve a better place to live than Clifton.’

Year 6 had a fabulous residential camp at Abernant Lake in Wales.  Please see below reports from the children of their time:

Written by the year 6 children: 

Day 1 at Abernant Lake:

We arrived at school and everyone was buzzing with excitement and anticipation of the coming days. 

We finally got on the coach and found our seats and from the minute we left Clifton we broke into song! After a few hours we finally arrived at our destination... still singing! 

We took our heavy bags and headed to our dormitories. We were filled with excitement for exploring the fantastic Abernant Lake! 

We then split into our groups and headed to our first adventurous activities. We enjoyed fencing , a fantastic obstacle course and rifle shooting. We loved our activities and impressed our adults with our team work, enthusiasm and kindness to one another. 

Finally, it was time for dinner and everyone cleared their plates! The food got a thumbs up from both the children and adults. 

We enjoyed another activity before some time playing football, cricket and just enjoying free time! 

Then it was time to head back to our rooms, get showered and off to sleep "promptly" ... well maybe not as promptly as our teachers hoped!

Year 6 Camp - Day 2 at Abernant Lake:

After a very early start we got dressed, packed our bags and headed down to breakfast. Wow what a feast! We had a wide variety of choices, including sausage, bacon, eggs, beans and toast.

We then all headed down to the Abernant lake where we enjoyed canoeing and kayaking. We played lots of exhilarating games and got completely soaked! We impressed the instructors by our amazing listening, kindness and skills.

After another fantastic lunch with filled up tummies we headed for our afternoon activities. Two groups went back to the lake for raft building and paddle boarding. Madam Maurier was very brave as she headed out on the raft that we built! She managed to stay on the whole time. We had such fun and impressed Mrs Richardson and Mrs Jones with our determination and balance on the paddle boards.

Mr Eades' group enjoyed rifle shooting and climbing. We enjoyed both activities, but were ready for our dinner after.

After dinner it was finally time for the DISCO! We danced away with the smoke machine and some great music and impressed all the adults with our dancing!! There was MC Hammer moves, break dancing and of course a limbo!!! (The teachers didn’t join in with that one!). 

We ended with some chocolate treats and a drink and settled down for the night. The corridor was silent by 10pm and that is the way it stayed until 7.30 this morning. 

We woke to bright sunshine this morning and headed downstairs for cooked breakfast and as much cereal and toast as we could eat. After packing our bags we headed off for our final activities … we will update you later with our final days activities. 

Year 6 Camp - Day 3 at Abernant Lake:

After breakfast we returned to our rooms to pack our bags and get ready for our last morning of activities.

Mr Eades’ group headed to the lake for paddle boarding and raft building. We enjoyed the water battle we had with another school and building the raft to float on the lake.

Madam Maurier’s group really enjoyed fencing and the assault course. The fencing dual became very competitive indeed!

Mrs Richardson’s group had good fun fencing and were very competitive too! Everyone enjoyed climbing, and listened brilliantly to ensure they could reach the top of the wall.

We ended our morning with yet another fantastic lunch before finishing our packing and enjoying time in our rooms with our friends.

It was then time to say goodbye and head to the coach. We had a fantastic time and have made all the teachers and Mrs Jones that kindly looked after us very proud!

With the steeple of Christ Church looking down, our Year 5 cricket team fought hard during their two matches at Bedminster Cricket Club. There was some super improvement on display in the fine art of batting and of bowling. It will be great to see the Year 5s return to this sport in Year 6.