Ashley C of E Primary School

Headteacher's Message! - 

 Good Afternoon,

 This is the final newsletter of the Spring term and what a quick one it has been!

This week was one of celebration. Years 2 through to Year 6 visited Church for our Easter Services, lead beautifully by Faith Group. I felt proud of all the children as they sang beautifully and confidently retold the Easter story.

Today started with a loud and enthusiastic rendition of Spring Chicken at the Easter Bonnet parade. The bonnets were amazing and we love keeping this tradition alive. thank you for your efforts at home to make these. This was followed by our book prize assemblies which were confidently led by the year 6 ambassadors and house captains. This is an opportunity for staff recognise how the children have been living out the school’s values of Care, Courage and Curiosity as well as acknowledge the great effort they have put into their learning and their wonderful achievements.

Amongst all the fun news, it is with sadness that we said goodbye last week to Mrs Gattesco (LSA) and  Lisa Kent (interim chair of the Local Committee).  I would like to thank Lisa for her guidance, challenge and direction especially as we prepared for the OFSTED visit.  I wish them well in their new ventures and look forward to impromptu visits in the near future! 

I hope that you are all able to find some time to spend with your loved-ones over the Easter holidays. We look forward to seeing you back at school on Wednesday 23^rd April as Tuesday is a staff INSET training day.

Kind regards,

Mrs Ratcliff 

Staffing Update - 

We are delighted to inform you that we have recruited an experienced early years teacher, Mrs. Lulham, who has worked in local schools and will be joining the Early Years team after the Easter holidays. Mrs. Lulham will be supporting the team across all three reception classes during the summer term. In September, she will take on the role of full-time class teacher for one of the reception classes. If you have other children at Ashley, you may recognize Mrs. Lulham, as she has previously worked alongside the reception team. We are thrilled to welcome her back and are excited about the passion she brings for education in the early years.

- Mrs Scott 

Road Safety Update - 

We wanted to share some important updates regarding road safety around Ashley Church of England Primary School. Following a productive meeting in March with Surrey Highways and a subsequent meeting in April with Councillor Tilling from Elmbridge Borough Council, several initiatives are being considered to enhance the safety of crossing the road in front of the school.

We kindly ask parents who drive their children to school, not to park directly opposite the school, but instead to use adjacent roads for parking and walk their children to school. There is a convenient, no-charge car park available at Elmgrove Recreation Ground, located on Highfield Road. From there, you can enjoy a short walk down the pathway to school.  We are also reviewing other parking and road safety options at this time and liaising with Elmbridge Council.

 Additionally, there is an ongoing petition regarding road safety improvements in our school area. Your support is crucial in making these proposed improvements happen quicker. Please take a moment to sign the petition using the following link:  https://www.change.org/HelpMakeSaferRoadsInWaltononThames and help us ensure a safer environment for all our children.  If you could please share this petition link with your friends and family, it would be greatly appreciated.   Thank you for your cooperation and support in keeping our school community safe.

 - Mrs Rudman 

Young Cares - 

We already have children in school who are recognised as Young Carers because of the extra help they give to parents or siblings at home. Some of these children are known to just school or others are registered with Surrey Young Carers and participate in free support groups and activities. If you would be interested in finding out more about the support available please follow this link: Young carers (under 18) | Action for Carers  

If you think your child matches the Young Carers description and would like them to receive support from Surrey Young Carers please do let Miss Clifford know so that she can make the referral for you.

MENU - 

 Please see the new Spring/Summer Menu - 

gst menu spring summer 2025 ashley primary 002 .pdf

Bee Keeper Update - 

Thanks to the generosity of the FoA, three more parents and a staff member have successfully completed their beekeeping theory training and are eager to join our beekeeping team. They will begin their practical training after the Easter holidays, just in time to welcome a new swarm of bees to the school! A huge thank you to our dedicated beekeeping team, who have been hard at work in the apiary over the weekends to ensure the hives are ready.

-Mrs Scott 

REMINDERS - 

REPORTING ABSENCE-   Ashley are solely moving to Studybugs as its a more efficient and secure system for reporting your child’s absence due to illness. If you haven’t already, please get the free Studybugs app, or register on the Studybugs website, and use it to tell us whenever your child’s ill and unable to attend school.

If your child is unwell, please report their absence via study bugs or call before 8.30am

The Past Fortnight - 

 Easter Pause Days - 

We celebrated Easter across the school on three consecutive days all starting off with a church service at St Mary's Church in Walton. Children walked beautifully in the sunshine to the church where hymns were shared, and the Easter story was acted out by the faith group. Children in Year 1 and Reception were lucky enough to have Reverend Cathy and Phil visit them at school for a special service in the Hive.  Following the services, the days continued with a range of Easter enrichment activities planned by the RE team and delivered in the classroom. Thank you to all involved for making our Pause Days so special and a time to stop and reflect on the deeper meaning of our Christian celebrations. Happy Easter 

 - Mrs Nawaz, Mrs Kent and Mrs Harris

District Cross Country - 

Well done to those who participated in the District Cross Country Race recently. We are all very proud of how well you represented Ashley you all showed wonderful team spirt. Our year 5 boys team came 3rd which is fantastic achievement. 

- Miss Williams 

YEAR 6 - 

This week, Year 6 have been treated to a visit from a Police Sergeant and spent an afternoon at a Junior Citizenship Day - two events that help to educate them about staying safe, being responsible and showing respect. Sergeant Caswell talked to the children about the age of criminal responsibility (10); making the right choices so that they are good citizens and respect the law. Some lucky children tried on uniform including handcuffs, and the helmet worn as riot gear!At Sandown Race Course, Year 6 attended 6 workshops outlining rail safety, water safety, CPR procedures, working as a team (Surbiton Hockey Club), Take the Jump (less stuff, more joy) and healthy teeth and diet. Do ask your children what they have learned - it was an interesting and fun-packed afternoon. Year 6 should be increasingly well-equipped and educated about the choices they make as they prepare to head off to secondary school.

- Miss Bardel 

YEAR 5 - 

 On Monday 31st March, Year 5 presented this term's 'Great Works' to their parents and carers in the hall. The theme was 'India' and the pupils took great delight in first, performing the Indian dancing they have been learning in PE, and then in teaching their parents some key Indian dance moves. The hall was full of smiles and - at one point - resembled something akin to a Bollywood movie set! Later, the children shared - via QR code - their beautifully presented travel brochures on India which they have been writing in English using a variety of software. In art this week, the pupils have been creating some wonderfully vibrant rangoli patterns, all of which demonstrate their knowledge on how to mix colours correctly when painting and also how to use both complimentary and analagous colours together for aesthetic effect. Well done Year 5 for all your hard work and amazing achievements this week!

 -Mrs Kent

YEAR 4 - 

This term, Year 4 have been working on a D&T project where our golden thread has been mechanisms. We have understood how to use a pneumatic system to make something open and close or move back and forth. Our purpose and specification was to design a toy (we worked on aliens to link with our space learning) with a moving part. Over the course of a day, we made our aliens, using our plans and were design engineers, making, building and problem solving. It's been a great learning opportunity and one we'll remember!

YEAR 3 - 

Year 3 has been very busy this last week. Mrs. Vesey visited us with some special fossils she has collected over the years. We enjoyed our Pause Day - making Easter cards and discussing the true meaning of Easter in our classes and finished off our leaflets on the Iron Age. 

- Miss Williams 

YEAR 2 -

Year 2 have been doing a bit of retrieval practice recently by discussing the events of the Great Fire of London. We then learnt a song about London burning and sang it as we watched the houses burning down. 

 - Mrs Van Der Schaff 

World Caretakers - 

The World Caretakers met last week to judge the 'Change and Adapt' posters that some of us made during STEM week. We could only choose 5 posters to take forward to the British Science Association for the final judgement! The World Caretakers voted and have chosen the following children's poster. 

Tigerlilly from Badger Class

Sadie and Darcey from Kestrel

Jonny and Carson from Owls

Freya. C from Herons

Arwen from Dragonflies. 

Well done to them and I will keep you posted on whether they win the finals! 

- Mrs Whitby

Motivate Mrs Morgan's (Year 6 Hawk class teacher) marathon dream! - 

A quick update on my marathon progress—only three weeks to go! I've been training hard and recently completed a 34km run, which felt great. This Saturday, I have another long run of 31km ahead. A huge thank you to everyone who has supported and sponsored me so far! Any further donations would be truly appreciated for this important cause.

 https://www.justgiving.com/page/natasha-morgan-4?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=EM

Are you interested in becoming a Teacher? - 

opportunities to gain a ba degree with qts at roehampton.pdf

☕️ Ashley SEND parents coffee catch-up ☕️

 Friday 20th June  from 1 - 3pm in the garden at 25 Sidney Road, KT12 2NA for an informal coffee catch-up. All welcome 🙂 Hope to see you then! Hope to see you then! ☕️