News

Friday, 15th June 2012

Dear Parents,

Summer Term Newsletter No. 8

ASHLEY SCHOOL – DISTRICT SPORTS CHAMPIONS

We start today’s newsletter with a big CONGRATULATIONS to all our athletes, who participated in the inter-schools athletics competition at Stompond Lane on Wednesday afternoon. The event started with a parade round the running track with all the teams walking the 400m circuit, holding up school banners. Then it was onto the action; the running, jumping, relay races and throwing. Ashley School is particularly strong at athletics and 2012 really was a vintage year. With excellent performances in every department, we achieved a top three placing in the majority of the 36 events. There were 18 schools in the District Sports competition, which was divided into smaller and larger schools. We are still considered a smaller school and the results for our competition were as follows:

YEAR 3 1st PLACE YEAR 4 1st PLACE

YEAR 5 4th PLACE YEAR 6 1st PLACE

OVERALL 1st PLACE

Needless to say, there was much celebrating at the end. Well done to every single one of our athletes, who contributed to such an incredible afternoon, and many thanks to both our coaching team of Mrs Rich, Miss Goymer and Mr Phil, and to our parental and sibling supporters on the trackside. What an afternoon it was!

BATTLE OF THE BOOKS – A REPORT FROM HARRIET LEGGETT

On Tuesday afternoon six children from Year 4 entered the ‘Battle of the Books’ inter-schools reading competition. We had to choose a book that we could really look at and explain. The book we chose was ‘The Tunnel’ by Anthony Browne. We thought it was a good book because some people would say ‘Oh, it’s only a picture book’, but, no, the pictures are amazing. If you really look, there are loads of highly detailed and interesting pictures. We did the work on our presentation in school and by ourselves. Even though we didn’t win, we are really pleased with ourselves and proud of what we achieved.

Thank you, Harriet, and well done to your talented team of Kitty-Mai Alderson-Berry, Maisie Gilligan, Rhiannon Glands, Harriet Leggett, Zac Tarver and Frazer Taylor. Thanks to Mr Cadman, who organised the event for the six local schools. The afternoon started with a talk from judge and local author, Gwyneth Rees, and there were some fantastic performances. The winners were Cardinal Newman for their representation of ‘Holes’ by Louis Sachar.

LUNCH AND LEARN IS BACK

On Tuesday and Wednesday lunchtimes the juniors Lunch and Learn Club restarted. This week the children heard from an advisory teacher for hearing impairment and from a marketing and product design manager for food packaging. A really mixed bag! The children relished the opportunity to hear about the professions. A big thank you to Mrs Lemmon and Mrs Kent for offering their time and sharing such fascinating talks.

YEAR 2 ALMOND AND HONEY HAND SOFTENER

Year 2 culminated their learning around bees and minibeasts this week with the making of ‘Almond and Honey Hand Softener’. To do this they used our sweet smelling Ashley Honey and a petal infusion made with plants from our school field. The children were lucky enough to all take a small pot of the hand softener home to try. A big thanks to Elaine Cole who led this workshop, which was kindly funded by the FOA.

YEAR 3 AT WISLEY TODAY

Our Year 3 children are learning about the incredible richness and diversity of the rainforest for their topic of learning this half-term around the enquiry ‘What can we discover on a rainforest adventure?’ As part of that learning, they are spending time today down at RHS Wisley, looking at how plants and flowers are adapted to different habitats, notably the plants and flowers of the rainforest that grow in the Glasshouse. It should be nice and warm in the Glasshouse, Year 3! Have a great day.

CLASSES FOR SEPTEMBER 2012

We are close to finalising all the details regarding which teachers will be with which classes from September. We also need to look at mixing some of the year groups and will be in touch with you about this the week after next as I am away in Chamonix with Year 6 next week. We look forward to sharing this information with you very soon.

CHAMONIX INSPIRE ALPINE EXPEDITION 5 – www.newleadersinsustainability.com

On Monday morning just before 6am the Year 6 children will head off to Chamonix in the Alps for their New Leaders in Sustainability expedition in the mountains. The journey there will take us by coach to St Pancras, by Eurostar to Paris, by TGV train to Annecy and by coach across to Chamonix. We will be there by 5.30pm UK time. Our week away will focus on individual, team and global well-being and what we need to do / how we need to be to create the right conditions for a sustainable future. We will spend the middle night in a refuge up in the mountains and, weather permitting, we will go into ‘La Mer de Glace’ ice cave to see how dramatically the glacier has changed and melted over the past century. It is a transformative learning experience and you can keep up to date on how we are doing and what we are learning by clicking on the website link above. As mentioned, I am out all week and our Deputy Head Jackie Stevens will be your point of contact, should you need to speak to someone in my absence.

100 CLUB ENERGY CHALLENGE FOR ALL FAMILIES

You will all hopefully remember that the Year 6 energy team would be really pleased if you and your children could take part in the

100 Club challenge to get everyone to become more aware of how much electricity energy we use at home each week to help to develop good energy conservation practices; something we do at school on-going. You should have received a form for you and your children to use and very simply you need to look at your electricity reading once a week, record it and work out how much you have used. If and when you go below 100 kwhs per week, you should let the Year 6 team know by returning your slip to them and you will get a 100 Club certificate!

FOA SUMMER FETE – SATURDAY, 23rd JUNE

A week tomorrow is our FOA Summer Fete. With such unsettled weather of late, we are not sure what kind of conditions to expect so we are planning for all eventualities! We look forward to seeing many of you there for this year’s Olympic themed event. The action packed afternoon starts at midday and concludes at 3pm.

SECOND HALF OF THE SUMMER TERM

Our second half of term is just six weeks long and five from today! Here are some dates to look forward to:

Wednesday, 20th June Hedgehog Class Assembly

Friday, 22nd June Reception Year River Boat Trip

Saturday, 23rd June FOA Summer Fete 12-3pm

Monday, 25th June Final Inset Day – School Closed

Thursday, 28th June Year 2 Natural History Museum Visit

Friday, 29th June Year 1 Trip to the Seaside at Littlehampton / Reception Year Green Stall

Monday, 2nd July ‘Feeling Good’ Week in School linked to the Olympics

Wednesday, 4th July Squirrel Class Assembly

Saturday, 7th / Sunday, 8th July Ashstock Camping Festival on the Field

Monday, 9th July Ashley Flower Show pm – Separate letter out this week!

Friday, 13th July Reports Out / Year 6 Bugsy Malone Performance 7pm

Monday, 16th July Year 5 British Museum Visit

Wednesday, 18th July Sports Day – Gates Open at 12.45pm

Friday, 20th July Book Prize Assembly and End of Term at 2pm

Hopefully the weather will improve and we will have a sunny, happy final half-term of the year. Enjoy the Parish Tea Party tomorrow afternoon if you are going and keep an eye on the Ashley blog for the Chamonix expedition 

Yours sincerely,

Richard Dunne

Headteacher