Headteacher Message! -
Good Afternoon,
I hope that you had a restful weekend and are ready for the last two and a half weeks of the academic year. It has been an incredibly busy and exciting fortnight at Ashley, filled with numerous activities and memorable moments.
First of all, I hope that you enjoyed the action at the Sports Day events which were a tremendous success! The children showcased their athletic skills, the school values and great sportsmanship, making us all proud. Thank you to all the adults who came to support and cheer on the children ~ the atmosphere was brilliant. A special mention needs to go to the year 5 sports crew who assisted with the Reception and Key Stage 1 sports day as they were supportive, encouraging and full of energy. A big thank you to Miss Williams and Miss May who put an incredible amount of effort into making sure both events ran smoothly.
We experienced an unplanned lockdown and a fire alarm during this fortnight. We are pleased to report that the children handled both situations with remarkable calm and sensibility. Everything went smoothly, and we are grateful for the cooperation of everyone involved.
Last Tuesday, most of the children in year 6 visited their secondary school which helps make the move from primary school to secondary school a smooth and positive experience. We also held our ‘Move Up’ morning at Ashley so the children could meet their new teachers for the upcoming school year. It was a wonderful opportunity for the children to familiarise themselves with their new classrooms and teachers, ensuring a smooth transition in September. More transition information will be shared with you before the end of the term.
Year 5 children have participated in interactive workshops, led by Papaya charity, focused on building a healthy relationship with technology. These sessions were informative and engaging, helping the children to understand the importance of balancing screen time with other activities. The workshops for year 6 are this week ~ I am confident that they will have some interesting facts and statistics to share with you afterwards!
Last week, it was amazing to see the Year 2 children walking across the field in their bee keeping suits. There are more visits planned for this week. The children learned about the importance of bees in our ecosystem and had a wonderful time observing them. A special thank you to Mrs. Scott and her helpers for tidying up the area around the bees, making it safe and welcoming for the children.
The Year 6 dress rehearsals for their production of The Lion King were nothing short of amazing. The performances were so moving that they brought teachers to tears. We are incredibly proud of the hard work and dedication the children have put into this production. If you are joining us this week for the performances, you are in for a treat!
Finally, a quick reminder that school is closed on Friday for our final INSET day.
Mrs Ratcliff
Headteacher
REMINDERS -
Inset Day - FRIDAY 11th JULY
SCHOOL CLOSED TO PUPILS
HOT WEATHER - Please ensure your child has sun cream applied before school and that they bring their sun hat and water bottle. While the high temperatures remain children can wear a PE kit.
We are also allowing children to bring in small hand held fans, frozen flannel or small container of ice to help cool them down at school. We will be providing children with extra fruit and/or ice poles to keep them hydrated. We have also provided additional shade in the school field.
REPORTING ABSENCE- Ashley are solely moving to Studybugs from September 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 ONLY before 8.30am
Uniform & Appearance Reminder
We have noticed that many of the PE shorts are getting shorter and shorter. Some shorts cannot be seen as they are covered by the t-shirts or hoodies. Please ensure that the shorts your child is wearing are appropriate: when your child is standing straight with their arms by their side, their shorts should be longer, or of equal length, to the tips of their fingers. If we deem your child's shorts a inappropriate length we may call you and ask to bring a change of clothes for your child.
A smart uniform is part of the culture at our school and an important aspect of our pastoral care. Some items are only available from the school’s supplier, County Schoolwear: www.countyschoolwear.co.uk/ashley
We would really appreciate your co-operation in ensuring your child is wearing the correct uniform to and from school.
The Friends of Ashley also sell and accept donations of preloved (second-hand) uniform. Please click here for more information
All items should be clearly labelled with your child’s name, including shoes and trainers.
The Past Fortnight -
On Friday 4th July, Fox class attended the Mini Olympics event at Cleves Primary school. It was a fantastic opportunity for them to show off their team skills, agility and enthusiasm for sport. They all tried their absolute best and every effort was made. As a result, we came away as winners and Fox class became the proud owner of the trophy for the second year in a row! Thank you to all the support the parents gave us to make this possible.
- Miss May
Congratulations to the Ashley cricket team for finishing second in the ERPSSA Cricket League. The team of Y5 and Y6 children, some whom were new to cricket, played against local schools in a 2-day tournament. In the final, brilliant bowling and sharp team work when fielding restricted our opponents to just 60 runs! Despite some impressive batting, we unfortunately lost too many wickets to win. The team were great sports ambassadors for Ashley - they played with positivity and respect throughout. We are very proud of them.
- Miss Williams
Year 5 -
Year 5 have had a very busy and enjoyable couple of weeks! They are all to be congratulated for competing so successfully in our Sports Day and showing not only skill and effort during each event, but also such great sportsmanship during team events and when enthusiastically cheering on their peers. A special mention should also go to Owl Class who did wonderfully well when taking part in the Mini Olympics at Cleves School on Friday 20th June. Overall, they came second out of the four competing primary schools - an excellent achievement of which they were rightly proud!
The children have also continued to enjoy some extremely interesting talks by special guest speakers during our RE Unit on 'What Makes A Good Life?' Mrs Ali's talk from a Muslim perspective was followed by a talk about Humanism by Mrs Athersuch, and then yesterday, we were joined in the Hive by Mr Martin for a fascinating discussion from a Christian viewpoint.
The children have been thinking deeply, asking pertinent questions and making insightful connections between major world religions. We are very much looking forward to our final talk by Mrs Gopaul next week from a Hindu perspective.
- Mrs Kent
Year 4-
This week, Year 4 got into the make stage of their D&T project and made bread that they had designed. We started off by weighing out the flour and mixing in yeast and water to create a dough. It was really sticky! (But we loved it!) . We then needed to spend some time kneading the dough in order to stretch out the dough. It took a lot of muscle power to do this so teamwork was really important! After kneading it, we left it to prove. It was amazing to see how much it rose in only half an hour! After the proving, we added flavours, shaped it and took it to the school kitchen who were amazing at baking it for us to take home. The results (and taste test) were great!
- Mrs Ready
Year 3 -
In science we created our own sundial to show how shadows move and change size by the position of the sun in the sky. We went out into the playground at different points of the day and recorded what we found. This allowed the children to put their knowledge of light and shadows they have learnt to create an investigation, which we all enjoyed very much.
- Miss Hoseason
Year 2 -
This week, Otter Class has been lucky to go and visit our Ashley bees as part of our learning in both English and Science. The children have been incredibly well-behaved and even managed to see larva and the queen bee. The rest of year 2 will be visiting our hives in the coming weeks. Thank you to our beekeepers for taking the time to show year 2 our apiary.
-Mrs Van Der Schaff
Year 2 have been collaborating with others in their class to show how well they can work together to create a collage of different minibeasts.
- Mrs Van Der Schaff
Reception -
Last week the children in Reception visited St Mary’s Church. They learnt about the creation story, why people are baptised and why some people chose to get married in a church. All the children thoroughly enjoyed looking around the church and identifying some it’s key features such as the altar, pulpit, lectern, font and organ. Many of the children came back to school and designed their own stain glass windows and had a go at drawing the church. They behaved brilliantly and should be proud of themselves. Thank you to all the parent helpers that accompanied us on the trip.
-Miss Key
WELL DONE -
A huge congratulations to Riley (Y5) for making the District School football team. What an amazing achievement for a talented young man! We are all very proud of you Riley!
WELL DONE to Dilara (Y3), Holly (Y4), Nevi (Y4), Freya (Y4), Emily (Y3) and Finley (Y3) who represented Team Elmbridge in a tennis tournament at the weekend, amazing effort team.
