News

Friday, 29th June 2012

Dear Parents,

Summer Term Newsletter No. 10

YEAR 4 TRUMPET AND CLARINET PERFORMANCES

We started our day this morning with two resounding music performances from our Year 4 children. The children have had mixed group trumpet and clarinet lessons each week over the year, based on which instrument they wanted to play. Amazingly the numbers split perfectly for the two options! Today the groups presented three of the tunes they have learnt this year and very impressive their music playing was, too. The children have clearly enjoyed their music making together and we hope that a good number of them will continue playing into next year.

YEAR 1 GO TO THE SEASIDE

Today our Year 1 children have spent the day down at Littlehampton as part of their Seaside topic of learning. The excitement in the classes first thing was palpable! Let’s hope the journeys there and back have run smoothly and the weather has stayed kind for their time on the beach. Can’t wait to see the photos of your sandcastles, Year 1. Many thanks to all the parents who shared this day out with the children.

YEAR 2 TRIP TO THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM

Yesterday Year 2 ventured up to London to visit The Natural History Museum. The children spent the morning exploring the fossil gallery and dinosaur section to enhance their learning around ‘Dinosaurs and Extinction’. The highlight of the trip for all the children was the large, moving T-Rex which helped to bring the reality of dinosaurs to life. Having already carried out their own palaeontology dig, the children also loved seeing the fossil remains and actual palaeontologist tools. They remained engaged and excited throughout the whole day, despite the intense heat! Thank you to all the parents who supported on this trip.

24 TOURNAMENT AT RES – A REPORT FROM MISS BARDEL

Yesterday, a group of Year 5 and 6 children braced themselves for a mathematical challenge at Rydens Enterprise Secondary School. The team of 8 from Ashley pitched their wits against each other and four other local schools, battling for a place in the finals. Thomas Settle, Luke Simpson and Jakob Byrne-Jones all made it to the semi-finals and special congratulations go to Luke Simpson who came 3rd in the final. Well done to all the team who, despite the heat, performed splendidly.

FOA SUMMER FETE LAST SATURDAY

Our Summer Fete last Saturday was officially opened with the arrival of the Olympic Torch – thank you to James Nunn, who was chosen as one of the Olympic torch bearers and who kindly loaned us the torch for the day! Following on from this, the choir children sang ‘We’re building’ along with the National Anthem, before we started the torch relay to get the afternoon underway. We were fortunate that the weather held for most of the afternoon and it was great to see so many families and friends out on the school field. As you will be aware, the FOA has played a big part this year in funding a range of year group trips so that parents have either had no payment to make or a significantly reduced amount to contribute. We are therefore extremely grateful to the committee and all those who made the afternoon such a success. The funds raised really do make a big impact on what we do at school. I know the committee is keen to get your feedback on how the event can be improved both in the build up and on the day itself so please do give your views so that refinements can be made for the next major FOA event, the Christmas Bazaar.

Of particular success on the day were the free range Saddleback sausages, which sold out before the end

of the afternoon. For those of you who are interested, the sausages came from the butchers Bentleys of Surrey, who are based on the Walton Road in East Molesey (on the corner, next to Tops Tiles) www.bentleysofsurrey.co.uk/

CHAMONIX EXPEDITION

We welcomed back our Year 6 children this week after a truly transformational week away in Chamonix. It was a real privilege to spend time with them in the stunning surroundings of the mountains and we were very impressed with the way in which they grew and matured over the week. The team focused on three aspects of well-being; individual and how we look after ourselves, team and how we work most effectively in teams or communities, and global and what we need to do to live in greater harmony with the world around us. We also divided the children into five groups to undertake what we called Carbon Enquiries. Through their enquiries the groups considered five areas; energy, food, water, waste and transport, and how we can improve our practices in these areas at Ashley, in our community and at the children’s next schools. We will post up on the website the presentations they gave yesterday to some of our staff and governors. If you haven’t read their Chamonix blog from last week, please do. There’s some powerful learning under the Ashley blog section of the site – www.newleadersinsustainability.com

SPORTS AND FEELING GOOD WEEK NEXT WEEK

This year we have combined Sports Week with Feeling Good Week in preparation for the Olympic Games. The children will be having a fun-packed week based around the Olympic values of Excellence, Respect and Friendship. They will be working with different classes and year groups and they will also be taking part in numerous activities run by talented sport leaders. As it is the final week of Wimbledon, the children will be learning new skills in tennis and they will be able to use the new tennis resources that the school has just received. Throughout the week the children will be celebrating their sporting talents and this will be showcased in our very own ‘Ashley’s Torch Bearers Talent Show’. We would like to invite you to this show at 1.30pm next Friday, 6th July in the school hall to watch our talented stars. We hope the children will enjoy this spectacular week and become even more enthusiastic about the Olympic Games this summer as a result.

CLASSES FOR SEPTEMBER

Thank you to those of you who have sent in replies with your points for consideration regarding class arrangements for September. For information, we will be mixing the children currently in Years 1, 2, 3 and 4 for the start of the new academic year and it has been useful to get your feedback. Some of you have told us that you think it is a good thing for the children to be mixed and some of you have questioned why we need to mix them at all. It is common practice for children to be mixed at certain stages in their primary years. Indeed some primary schools do it every year. Now that we are a two-form entry school, we anticipate mixing year groups two or possibly three times during their seven years at the school. It freshens up the class dynamic, provides opportunities for new friendships to be developed or for those children not working well together to be separated. It also gives us a chance to redress any imbalance in terms of learning or behavioural needs. We see it as a good thing. With your comments now in, we will look at how we think the new classes will work best for September and we will share this information with you on Friday, 13th July, the same day as reports are sent out. As you will appreciate, the teachers and support staff, who work every day with the children, have a good idea about where positive changes can be made and we will be thinking very carefully about how the new classes can work best.

STRANGER DANGER

We have highlighted with the children today in assembly the need for them to always be aware of stranger danger; that if anyone they don’t know comes up and talks to them, they should not say anything, but find the adult they are with straight away. We don’t want the children to be overly concerned or distressed by this, but we do want them to understand that they need to be aware of this sort of danger, especially with the holidays coming up. Please do follow up at home as appropriate.

ASHSTOCK, ASHLEY FLOWER SHOW AND GREEN STALL

Next weekend is our Ashstock camping weekend, when many of you will be pitching up tents on the school field from midday on Saturday to midday on Sunday, and a week on Monday we have our Ashley Flower Show. A reminder again of how the children can contribute to that will come out separately on Monday. Thank you to all the Reception Year families who have put together such a fantastic array of items for their Green Stall today!

Yours sincerely,

Richard Dunne

Headteacher

PS Year 6 would love to hear from more families who have achieved their 100 Club energy challenge.