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.