Dear Parents and Carers, 

Parents evenings

I would like to thank you all for your fantastic support throughout our parent evenings this week. Our teaching team have found it extremely helpful to have the opportunity to discuss the children’s journey so far this year and to share key information with you. Thank you also to our teachers for your hard work and late evenings this week.

Pupil behaviour

Our renewed behaviour approach and strategy is now well embedded across the school and the children have responded very positively to the expectations and rules in place. It is crucial in any school that low-level disruption to learning is kept to an absolute minimum in order to ensure that all children are enabled to make the best progress possible. We are determined to continue to improve our standards of behaviour through our positive ethos to behaviour. Our new rewards system is now becoming well established and it is an absolute pleasure to see the children achieving their Value Points, receiving their ‘Star of the Week’ awards in assemblies and working as House Teams to win the much-coveted trophy each week.

Governor support thanks and elections

Without the generosity, support and challenge of our Governors, the school would not be able to thrive and we are grateful for the time that they give so freely. Whether it is attending formal termly meetings, supporting through regular visits to understand the many responsibilities of managing the school efficiently or attending events to ensure that our parent community can talk openly to us, we feel very lucky to have such a wonderful team.

Thank you to those parents who have offered to become new Governors - we are dleighted to have recieved 4 nominations for the 2 vacancies and you will have received an email with a google form to fill in for the election which will close on Weds 27th November - Parent Governor Election form.

Uniform reminder

In this new term, we are very much hoping that the half term break has given parents and carers an opportunity to ensure that your children have the correct uniform, PE kit, footwear and winter wear for the term ahead. We are proud of the high standards at Christ Church and have started to see a reduction in the number of children coming to school incorrectly dressed. As always, if there is any help that we can provide in this respect, please contact the school office. We do ask that you please ensure that all clothing and bags are clearly named so that lost property can be returned.

Fundraising

We would like to again thank you for your voluntary contributions so far. This has now enabled us to begin to secure planned bookings and to begin to purchase materials such as books, arts and craft materials and play equipment, all of which significantly enriches your children’s experiences at Christ Church. Thank you.

The PTA Christmas Fair is fast approaching! We are very much looking forward to an afternoon of festive fun on Sunday 24th November.  Please put the date in your diaries, and we would be very grateful if you could take some time to support your year group stall - see the message from the PTA below with google form sign up link.  

School Business Manager

Finally, it is with regret that I have to announce that our much-loved School Business Manager, Mrs Tamara Jordan, will be moving on from Christ Church School at Christmas.  Tamara has been with us for nearly twelve years and has been instrumental in both the school building and operation that we have today, and in ensuring the success, improvement and stability of the school. Her expertise, endless support and wealth of knowledge will be missed greatly, but she will be working closely with myself to ensure that we successfully recruit her successor in the coming weeks.   

Kind regards

Mark Oldfield

Headteacher

Inset and Academy days for the rest of the year (these are days when school staff are in training involved in other school oepration - children are not in school on these days):

• Monday 6th January - Inset day
• Friday 23rd May - Academy day
• Monday 21st July - Inset day
• Tuesday 22nd July - Inset day

Wednesday was an unforgettable day at our primary school as three players from Bristol City Women's Football Club came to visit! Excitement filled the air as the children gathered in the assembly hall, eagerly awaiting their arrival. When the players walked in, the children’s faces lit up with joy and admiration. The players greeted everyone warmly and took turns sharing their personal stories of perseverance and teamwork, highlighting the importance of dedication both on and off the pitch.

One player talked about her journey from a young age, practicing every day to achieve her dream of becoming a professional footballer. She emphasised how essential it is to stay determined and believe in yourself, even when things get tough. Another player shared stories about how working together with her teammates helped them overcome challenges, teaching the children valuable lessons about the power of friendship and cooperation. The third player spoke about how important it is to listen to your teachers and coaches, as they help guide you and support you on your path to achieving your dreams.

The players then answered questions from the students, who were thrilled to get personal advice and encouragement from some of their sporting heroes. Before they left, they took a group photo with everyone, leaving each child feeling inspired and motivated to pursue their passions. The visit was a fantastic reminder of how hard work, teamwork, and resilience can lead to great success, and it’s sure to be a memory our children will treasure for years to come.

For those who have been inspired by the talk from Bristol City Girls Football, Shine run a Girls Football Club on Wednesdays at school and would love you to join:

We blasted into term two this week in Reception! It was lovely to share with our friends what we had been up to over the break and to listen to what they had done too.

We got back into the swing of things remembering our routines, rules and responsibilities well. Mrs Richardson was so proud of us – how we sat and listened in our first Key stage assembly all about our school values and especially respect!

On Tuesday we found out about why we remember, remember the 5^th of November – Bonfire night! We then learned all about how to keep ourselves safe on this exciting night.

In phonics we continued practising our phonemes and learning our new phoneme and tricky word each day.  ‘j’ for jellyfish was a particular favourite! 

In maths we have been finding circles and triangles in our environment and thinking about what does and does not make it a triangle or circle!  We took lots of pictures of our successful shape hunting around the school. We also worked in partners to use positional language to say where the teddy was in relation to the box!

On Wednesday we thought about our exciting new topic, Space! We shared with our class all the things that we knew and then we came up with some wonderful questions that we would like to answer. Our adults were really impressed by our knowledge and ideas.

We read ‘Astro Girl’ by Ken Wilson-Max to find out why someone would want to be an astronaut so much and imagine what it would be like to zoom off into space.

We are all really excited for next week and what we will discover!

Mrs Petters, Mrs Castle and Miss B.

This term, Year 1 are exploring the fascinating world of animals in winter. We kicked off our learning by diving into the beautiful story Winter Sleep: A Hibernation Story by Sean Taylor and Alex Morss. The story follows a child and their grandmother as they journey through a winter landscape, discovering how the Earth "sleeps" during the colder months. From this story, we learned that some animals survive winter by hibernating. In class, we wrote our favourite facts about hibernating animals. For instance, we found out that in the UK, the only mammals that truly hibernate are hedgehogs, dormice, and bats. Other animals, like badgers, don’t hibernate completely – instead, they enter a period of reduced activity. We're excited to continue our exploration of winter animals and their incredible adaptations throughout the term!

This week Year 2 have been History Detectives.  We have been using clues to try to find answers to questions about the Great Fire of London.  We used diary entries, maps, drawings and old newspaper pictures to help us discover some answers.  We will continue to learn more about the Great Fire of London throughout the term.

In Literacy we have started exploring our new text, ‘Grandad’s Secret Giant’ by David Litchfield.  It’s a lovely story about friendship and kindness and we’re looking forward to the wonderful discussions and writing it is going to inspire this term.

We are continuing with our addition and subtraction learning and using our knowledge of number bonds to 10 to help us solve problems with larger numbers.  We’ve also been practising how to exchange a ten for ten ones when we’re taking away larger numbers.

Welcome back to term 2! We hope you had a restful and enjoyable half term. As ever, we have thrown ourselves straight back into a busy learning week. We have introduced our new Literacy book ‘Escape from Pompeii’ where we will be focusing on volcanoes and non-fiction writing. This links to our new Geography topic of earthquakes (it’s as if we planned it that way!) This has already been a huge success and the children have shown so much existing knowledge on the subject.

We have also been finishing off our addition and subtraction topic in maths by consolidating our learning on column addition and subtraction. Roll on week 2…

Year 4 has been all smiles this week as they tackled the task of presenting facts about keeping our teeth healthy. From eye-catching posters to catchy raps, toe-tapping songs, and even an entertaining drama piece, the creativity was on full display! Our budding health experts showed that learning about dental hygiene can be as fun as it is important. What a tooth-rific bunch they are!

On Tuesday, Year 5 had a fantastic poetry writing workshop led by the UK’s Green Poet, Martin Kiszko. Martin recited a couple of his own poems about climate change before talking us through some different structures and explained a little about how he writes his poetry. We then had a go at writing our own Kennings, Clerihews and Double Dactyl’s (we’d never heard of them either!) sticking to the form and structure of each poem. It was a really enjoyable, creative session and we were blown away by the imaginative ideas from the children, especially when writing some brand new types of poetry.

We are so excited that Christ Church has been invited to take part with Martin during the Clifton Literacy Festival on Sunday 17^th November, where some of the children will be performing alongside Martin. Please see Mrs Rowe, Mrs Brown or Mrs Cator for more information if you are interested in attending.

This week, Year 6 have been getting creative by writing and performing songs about the Vikings, bringing history to life with some catchy percussion too! In maths, we’ve been diving into fractions, and everyone is making fantastic progress. Our English lessons have also been full of drama as we’ve continued exploring The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. This week, we stepped into the shoes of the Queen of Narnia and wrote speeches from the Queen to the citizens of Narnia. We enjoyed acting out our speeches and performing them to the class It’s been another week full of learning, laughter, and creativity. Keep up the great work, Year 6!

The children have been working hard designing their own Christmas cards and you should have received your sample card this week. If you would like to purchase any, your individually designed cards are available to buy in packs of 12 via ParentPay. Orders must be made and paid for via ParentPay by 3pm on Friday 15^th November. Any orders after this time will not be able to be processed. 

Hopefully there aren’t any, but if you find a mistake with the spelling of your child/children’s name on the reverse of the card, please see Mrs Rowe (5RB) before the end of Wednesday next week as she will be able to amend this during the order process.

On Tuesday 12^th November to mark the start of anti-bullying week all the adults and children in school are invited to come to school wearing odd socks. Odd socks day is an opportunity to express ourselves and celebrate our uniqueness.  We cannot wait to see all the odd socks and of course parents and carers you can join in as well!

On Friday 15^th November, the whole school will be helping raise monies for Children in Need.  Children in Need is such a worthwhile cause as they fund local charities and projects who help remove barriers that are facing children and young people, so that they can thrive. Last year, Children in Need supported over 460,000 children and young people by a whole range of disadvantages such as poverty, disability, illness, distress or trauma.

In exchange for a donation of £2 the children are invited to participate in a sport themed non-uniform day. The children can come to school wearing yellow, something spotty or their favourite team sports kit, sports kit for a team they play for or their Christ Church PE kit. Miss Barsby, with the help of Mrs Richardson are currently planning a sport themed event to celebrate the day.