Bathford Church School Newsletter
Friday 22nd March
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Summary of contents:
Headteacher message
Celebration Assembly
Learning in school this Week
Reminder: FOBS Community
Dance Umbrella
Online Safety: Top Tips for Developing Healthy Sleep Habits
Forest School Timetable Term 4
FOBS: Save the date Summer Fete Sat 15th June
Reminder: School Hall Hire
Important Dates Term 4
Term Dates 23 - 24
Term Dates 24 - 25
School lunch menu (Winter menu up to end of March 2024)
External notices:
Chartwells Job Advert - Mondays and Fridays help in the Bathford school kitchen for 2.5 hours over the lunch period only
Ceilidh at Bathford Church School Friday 26th April 7pm
Free School tennis day
Smartphone Free Childhood
Brocks Outdoor Adventures - Billie from afterschool club runs these events.
Corsham School Open morning
Row for Recovery Family Fun Afternoon on the Village Green 14th April at 12pm
In2Sport Camps
Tech Holiday Camp
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Easter Club
Gympanzees Easter Pop Up
Easter Discovery Day
Avon Relate: support available
Pepperpot Nursery: spaces available
Marshfield Cricket Club
Piano lessons
Library: Sensory Spaces
Library at Home
LIVEWELL (BANES): Cost of Living advice
National Sleep Helpline
LEAP: Healthy Eating Programme
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Our Headteacher, Becky Hayter, writes
There have been so many highlights this week, with our wonderful Dance club taking part in the Dance Umbrella festival, Class 2 visiting the SS Great Britain, Class 5's Forest School session and a brilliant choir performance to parents. All this, as well as many parents' evenings and a visit from two Assistant Directors of Education from the Bath and Wells Multi Academy Trust! No wonder the week seems to have gone quickly.
The week culminated in the Reception class family assembly which, I am sure all would agree, was a privilege to watch. The children presented learning from their Spring topic to the whole school and this included art, singing, fact-sharing and some very impressive story re-telling. Well done Reception class, we hope you all feel so proud of yourselves for being so brave and sharing your learning with such wonderful enthusiasm.
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Celebration Assembly
Today we had a wonderful Celebration Assembly where we celebrated the children who have gone 'above and beyond' and really embodied one of the four aspects of our Grow, Care, Serve, Share vision.
This week our stars of the week are:
Reception: Rosie for putting so much effort into everything, always showing such positivity and enthusiasm.
Class 1: Emily for showing resilience and always trying your very best.
Class 2: Toby for excellent resilience and effort, really demonstrating Grow - Be your Best.
Class 3: Jude for your concentration and perseverance in maths.
Class 4: Olivia for being so engaged in your learning and asking and answering questions.
Class 5: Frankie for your fantastic effort and progress in maths.
Class 6: Maya for excellent effort and presentation in all of your work.
Congratulations to everyone for being such an important part of our Bathford School team. Our stars from this week and last week will enjoy their hot chocolate with Mrs. Hayter on Monday next week (except for our Year 6 children who will be on residential and so will have hot chocolate after the Easter holidays!)
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Learning In School This Week
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Reception Class
What a magical week it has been in Reception class. It has been a complete joy and delight to watch the children put so much effort into preparations for the class assembly. At any age, it is such an achievement to be able to stand up in front of the school and families and speak, however, to be able to do this at ages 4 and 5, is just incredible. I am in awe of the children’s courage, especially given that some of us find public speaking a little daunting. I can only imagine how proud the families felt watching their children. we also felt immensely proud of the class. My highlight this week has been listening to the children encourage each other and complement each other on their artwork and performance, there is such an atmosphere of kindness in the class, it feels incredibly special. Reception class you are fabulous!
Apart from assembly preparations, we have explored RE deeply this week. The children continue to develop their awareness of different religions and why special celebrations and times are important to different people. This week the children have done a brilliant job retelling the story of Moses and talking about what we have learnt about Judaism. We have also been looking at the Christian Easter story and discussing key events and themes. The class are looking forward to their Easter celebration at the church next week with Reverend Loretta.
Today in our Jigsaw PSHE session we spoke about keeping clean and why this is so important within school. We watched a clip featuring a very cheeky monkey who was making all the wrong choices in relation to hygiene. He sneezed and coughed on people, didn't wash his hands after going to the toilet and ignored his main lunch and only ate his pudding, it was terrible! We had fun discussing how monkey had gone wrong and what he needs to do instead. The children were brilliant at explaining how we need to cough and sneeze into the crook of our arm. They also agreed that we must wash our hands before we eat and after going to the toilet so that we don't spread of pick up germs. We enjoyed a masterclass in hand washing from Amari and Minnie who showed us just how it is done!
The children had a great time exploring 7 and have been brilliant at working out how many of our 7 ducks had mysteriously vanished. The class have been working on finding number bonds to 7 with physical resources and are beginning to record number sentences.
We took inspiration from our learning about Moses into science experiments. As a class we loved exploring floating and sinking, discussing the density or buoyancy of items and making predictions about whether items would float or sink. The children's challenge was to consider which materials would make a good boat for baby Moses, make it and test their theories. I'm afraid to say, baby Moses did not always remain dry, however, there was some great explorative play.
Have a wonderful weekend all.
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Year 1
We have had a bit more of a normal time in Class 1 this week after the excitements of the last two weeks, however we have continued to have great fun and achieved lots in our learning. Science continues to engage everyone with our investigations into melting and solids and liquids. We have enjoyed playing with ice and seeing how it behaves in different conditions. Can we make it melt faster inside or in our hands? Where is the warmest place to melt it in the classroom and where can we keep it frozen for the longest? All very interesting and fun questions to investigate!
In our writing work we have been thinking about Spring and observing how it changes our world. We have found Spring nouns and adjectives and created two kinds of Spring poems, an acrostic and a poem with a repeating line or phrase. The children have demonstrated their imagination and understanding of both types of poem beautifully. They also enjoyed using observational skills to paint lovely watercolours of spring flowers.
On Wednesday we completed our windmills, attaching sails and using straws and wooden skewers to create the rotor. We had quite a lot of trouble maintaining stability and getting the sails to turn. Making windmills is harder than it looks! We are going to try a different version of sail next week and then decide which we thinking is most effective. Despite not turning very well the sails were fun to make and quite a challenge to join. but everyone worked really hard and showed great perseverance at getting the job done.
We finished reading the end of the Christian Easter story and thought a lot about how people at the time might have felt on different days in the story. The children used a huge range of amazing vocabulary to describe the feelings and are very much looking forward to sharing their ideas with Reverend Loretta on our Easter visit to the church on Monday.
Have a wonderful and hopefully sunny weekend.
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Year 2
And breathe! Another splendid week in Class 2. We must of course start with our trip to the SS Great Britain. We explored the deck of the boat, the First Class Lounge, steerage, the galley, and the hold! We also were able to go under the boat and examined the hull. We discussed the passengers and crew of the boat and what their voyages must have been like. We tried on lots of historic outfits and explored the Brunel Museum and Historic Dockyard. It was wonderful and we walked our socks off! We have used the descriptive devices we have been studying in English to complete a quick recount of our trip, we will use these to add detail to our own portal stories. We have also spent time with Miiss Ruck and conducted an experiment where we are trying to ascertain what sunflower seeds need in order to grow. We have continued our work in Mass in Maths, learning about measuring in grams, kilograms, and then using the Four Operations to solve problems based on mass. We continued our Ball Skills lessons with Mr Parrish, this time learning how to keep possession and attack. It was wonderful seeing the parents for Parent's Evening and discussing everyone's wonderful progress as well! One last week to go, and we are looking forward to our Forest School Afternoon and Pirate's Day next week!
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Year 3
It has been a quieter week this week although no less busy. The children have finished writing their diary entries based on the story 'Escape from Pompeii' imagining themselves as young Roman children during the time of the Vesuvius eruption. It's been wonderful to discover all the descriptive vocabulary that the children have been developing and watch them share their writing with joy.
In maths we are continuing with measurement and comparison of mass in grams and kilograms. In RE we have been discussing the order of events in the Easter story and considering its meaning within the Christian faith.
I think the highlight of the week was the stunning artwork that the children produced with Mrs Keenan as part of an ongoing art project. Using oil pastels and ink wash, based on the theme of sustainability, the children have created some beautiful leaf images / designs. These are to be part of a final, larger collage piece that will eventually be on public display, here at the school. I'm very much looking forward to seeing the finished artwork.
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Year 4
This week, we have been very reflective in Class 4. We have started to draw our Ancient Egyptians topic to a close, and wrote paragraphs on Monday to summarise our best learning. The children have remembered so much, and it was wonderful to hear what has captured their interest and enthusiasm the most.
On Thursday, we were learning about the importance of the gods and goddesses to the Ancient Egyptians, which led to a discussion about the artefacts we can see in museums. This led to an impromptu vote, suggested by one of the children, thinking about whether or not artefacts from museums around the world should be returned to Egypt. The result was that the majority felt some should be returned and others kept where they are. Well done for your considered thoughts and points of view about this Class 4.
In maths, we have started a new topic of fractions, and in English, we have been planning our stories. We have also been practising our handwriting, which is super - keep up the great work on this!
Earlier in the week, we enjoyed our penultimate ukulele lesson, in which we looked at musical notation, and how to write down what we play so that others can perform it too. The ukulele playing has been amazing, and the children are getting better and better each week.
We finished off the week with a great PE lesson on cooperative games, in which the children did themselves proud by communicating clearly, following instructions, listening, and taking turns.
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Year 5
What a lovely week we have had in Year 5! We started off the week with forest school which we were lucky enough to have on such a beautiful day! The children built dens with sticks, grass and moss, thinking about how to make them sturdy, water resistant and comfy for the inhabitants. In the afternoon, the children made nests for birds that they could pick up; they used sticks, moss, mud and other materials to make it secure. Also, they built a fire and used the techniques they have learnt such as finding grade 1 and 2 sticks, using a waffle pattern and using a diamond blow. What a great day!!
In maths, we have started our new topic of statistics. The children have been learning how to draw, read and interpret line graphs and read and interpret tables. The children have really enjoyed this topic, so we are happy to be continuing it next week. In English, we have continued reading our book, Who Let the Gods Out? We are very close to the end of the book, and we are hooked by every page! What a funny, informative and interesting book. We have also been thinking about relative clauses, how and when to use them in a sentence and how we can use them more consistently in our work. We even learnt a catchy song to help us remember what they are and when they can be used.
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Year 6
Well done Year 6 for working incredibly hard this week - and this term! The enthusiasm and dedication to learning and wanting to make progress has been impressive! Through practising elements of SPAG and recapping prior knowledge to angles and 3D shape in maths including geometric art... they've been brilliant...
Finally, the time has come for the much anticipated residential... next week we are looking forward to playing hard... with plenty teamwork, facing new challenges and showing resilience and growth mindset throughout! They're in for one big adventure!
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Dance Umbrella
Our amazing Dance Club took part in the annual Dance Umbrella celebration this week. It was clear they had practised extremely hard and often. We took the bus into town and rehearsed flawlessly before returning later in the evening to perform with hair and makeup even more flawlessly! We performed amazingly to a wonderful medley of songs including hits such as the Addams family theme. It was truly lovely to be part of this wonderful Dance Celebration that includes so many other schools and the group really represented Bathford so well!
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Piano lessons available with Susanna Downes (at school)
If your child is interested in learning to play the piano please email Susanna for details: pianosounds@protonmail.com.
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Within our Cost of Living Support pages you will find information about B&NES’ Warm Spaces Scheme, providing individuals with safe spaces to visit and access warmth, safety and comfort during the winter months. You will also find information about benefits, reducing energy costs, food support, debt advice, information about pension credit, help towards childcare costs, support if you are experiencing illness or disability, advice for carers, help with prescription charges, managing money and your mental health. PLEASE SCAN THE QR CODE ABOVE FOR MORE INFORMATION.
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