Newsletter: April 2025 | Colston Bassett School

Head Teacher's Welcome

We hope you all had an amazing Easter break and are looking forward to an exciting term ahead!

We would like to extend a warm welcome to our 4+ children Luna Arnold, Rory Bromley-Hall, Bonnie Brydon and Alice Corden who will be coming into school on Wednesdays and Fridays in preparation for joining our Reception class in September, along with Imogen Mullen who joined us in February. We know everyone will make them feel most welcome. Autumn Kirk will be joining 4+ after the May half term.

Visits and Visitors

We are delighted to offer a free virtual Kindness Workshop through the 52 Lives charity on Tuesday 29th April 2025. This is a brilliant way to teach the children about one of the most important things in the whole world – KINDNESS! Tanya Smith, who manages the Kindness Ambassador Programme, will lead the interactive presentation on Zoom, asking children lots of questions, showing children examples of kindness in action and getting children involved with various activities. The workshop is free, with a £50 suggested voluntary contribution from the school towards the charity’s costs (no parental charge). Further information will be sent out by via email shortly but if any parents have any questions in the meantime, please don't hesitate to contact us.

We have arranged a whole school outing to Bradgate Park in Leicestershire on Tuesday 8th July 2025. Bradgate Park offers children excellent opportunities to learn outside the classroom, with a range of quality outdoor education sessions to choose from. Further details will be provided in our next newsletter and via letter.

Open Morning

Our annual Open Morning will be held on Wednesday 7th May 2025 from 9:00am. Children will attend the registration period at 8:45am as normal, thereafter parents are welcome to come into school and peruse their children’s work and wall displays. Tea, coffee and light refreshments will be available in the art room should parents wish to partake. Staff will be available to answer any questions you might like to ask regarding the curriculum and activities we carry out at school. This will also be a great opportunity for extended family who may be interested in visiting the school, such as grandparents, aunties and uncles, to come along and see what we do. We hope to see everyone there!

Talent Show

Congratulations to Arabella Barke who won the school Talent Show last term, and to all the members of our Drama Club who were the runners up – they were all thrilled with their trophy and medals. A big well done to everyone who took part!

The Talent Show has been running for many years now and we all feel that a change would be beneficial for next spring. The two other major productions we have during the year are always different and the children are excited to take part. It has begun to feel as if the Talent Show has become a little repetitive and does cause the children a lot of additional pressure when they know the main summer production is only around the corner. We are currently looking into other options for a future spring production, possibly something more low key such as an Easter service. We will keep you all posted!

School Pick-Up

At Colston Bassett School we are always looking for ways to improve our processes and procedures to ensure the safest possible environment for your children. To this end, this half term we are going to be trialling a new system whereby we release the children from their respective classes at the end of the day, from different locations as follows:

Class 1 – Mrs Joels will dismiss from the assembly room door (in the playground)
Class 2 – Mr Deach will dismiss from the side door (where we used to dismiss)
Class 3 – Mrs Newcombe or Mr Oldershaw will dismiss from the front door (facing the school drive)

If you have two children at school in different classes, please collect your younger child from the playground first, and then go round to the front or side door to collect your older child. You may find that this is a little slower to begin with whilst we all get used to the new set up, so please bear with us. It will also give parents the opportunity to speak with their child's own class teacher at the end of the day if there are any matters to discuss. After school clubs will continue to be dismissed from the side door as before.

Assessment Week

As always, in the Summer Term we will be conducting assessments with all the children and these will take place the week commencing Monday 12th May 2025. This is to provide feedback for teachers so that we can highlight any areas that may need work and to identify independent progress. It is imperative that we endeavour to meet every child’s needs and ensure that all children are ready for the new school year which is looming on the horizon!

Sports Day/'The Wizard of Oz'

These will both be held towards the end of term – Sports Day, followed by our annual Strawberry Fayre, will be on Friday 27th June 2025 at 2:00pm (with a reserve date of Friday 4th July) and our summer production ‘The Wizard of Oz’, followed by our Leavers’ Service, will be on Thursday 24th July 2025 at 2:00pm. Please make a note of the dates. More information about these events will follow in our next newsletter.

Bikeability

This term, the Year 5 and 6 children will have the opportunity to take part in a Cycle Right training programme. This is being run in school on Thursday 12th June 2025 by Urban Movement Primary. Ineke Ward, a qualified National Standards Cycling Instructor employed by Urban Movement Primary, will deliver the training. All training is risk assessed.

The training is delivered to the National Standards which aims to equip your child with the skills and confidence to cycle in a safe, fun and sustainable way.

There are two Levels of Cycle Right training:

Level 1
This takes place in a traffic free environment, usually on the playground. Riders will learn to control and master their bikes and by the end of the session, your child should be able to demonstrate basic cycling skills and knowledge.

Level 2
This takes place on local roads and gives your child a real cycling experience aimed at dealing with traffic on short journeys such as cycling to school. By the end of the course, your child should be able to demonstrate confidence and decision making while cycling.

Level 1 training takes two hours and Level 2 training will take six hours. Successful completion of Level 1 will need to be achieved in order to progress to Level 2. This is to ensure the safety of your child. Ineke should be able to complete the programme in one day due to only having a small number of children. The children will receive a badge and certificate upon completion.

We hope the Year 5 and 6 children take up this fantastic learning opportunity. Further information about costings and pre-course requirements will be provided nearer the time.

Show and Tell

For your information, please see below for all the ‘Show and Tell’ assembly dates for the coming term. These will continue to take place in assembly on Thursday afternoons.

Thursday 24th April	Year 2/3
Thursday 1st May	Year 4
Thursday 8th May	Year 5/6
Thursday 15th May	Reception/Year 1
Thursday 22nd May	Year 2/3
Thursday 12th June	Year 4
Thursday 19th June	Year 5/6
Thursday 26th June	Reception/Year 1
Thursday 3rd July	Year 2/3
Thursday 10th July	Year 4
Thursday 17th July	Year 5/6

'Starbooks'

A big thank you to all parents – what a difference we have noticed with the children reading at home! ‘Starbooks’ has clearly enthused the children to read more and the hot chocolate reward at the end of the week is a popular choice! We will continue to hold ‘Starbooks’ this term and invitations will be sent out to the relevant class each Friday. Happy reading!

School Lunches - Important

Just some important information regarding meals at school. We have a child joining us for our 4+ sessions on Wednesday and Friday each week and then joining our Reception Class in September. She has a severe dairy allergy which includes physical contact as well as being ingested and therefore anaphylactic shock could occur. EpiPens will be in place at school and all the staff team will be aware so that lunchtimes can be monitored carefully. Just a reminder that all foods that are brought in for your child’s lunch must be in their sealed lunch boxes and not loose in school bags. Any special events involving food will be carefully planned by the school staff. Very many thanks for your co-operation with this.

Duckling Project

We are very excited about a new project this half term – on Tuesday 29th April 2025, we are having a delivery of five duck eggs, along with all the necessary equipment to hatch them and look after the ducklings. They are expected to hatch around Thursday 1st May 2025 and we will have the ducklings with us for another week to watch them begin to grow. The children will all be able to help look after them and we do hope they will enjoy this new experience.

‘Incredible Eggs’, the company who supply the duck eggs, do give us the option to keep the hatched-out ducklings if we would like to. Alternatively, they will collect them and return them to one of their farms to live. Incredible Eggs have provided us with a lot of information for any family who would seriously like to become the owners of some ducklings and we will send all the information and animal welfare conditions for you to read. There are some requirements that need to be met before they will sign over the ownership of the ducklings.

Please let us know via the school office if you would like to adopt some ducklings so that we can inform Incredible Eggs before they come to collect the babies. This will also have to be on a first come, first served basis. Thank you!

Safety in the Sun

As the summer is approaching, could we please ask parents to supply a bottle of sun cream for your child. You can either leave a bottle at school or keep it in your child’s book bag to take home if you prefer. The sun can be deceptively hot in May even if it still feels chilly in the mornings! We try to limit outdoor play without the correct protection, so we do keep some high protection factor sun cream at the school for anyone who has not brought cream with them. It is preferable if you could bring your own cream however, as it minimises the risks of any potential allergy. Sun hats are required too – if your child doesn’t already own one, we do have a supply at school you can purchase. Thank you.

Curriculum

Class 1
Scientists and Inventors (Science) This half term Class 1 will learn about famous scientists and inventors. The children will learn about the inventions of Lego and ear muffs, and will explore the materials used to make them. They will investigate other materials that keep us warm, carrying out simple tests. The children will also find out about the work of animal scientists, such as vets and zoo keepers, and will have the opportunity to collect data when finding out about horticulturists and meteorologists. Our School (Geography) This half term Class 1 will learn about the world, starting with their immediate environment and building on the firm foundations from the Early Years Foundation Stage. The children will explore their school environment using first-hand observation and experience to enhance their awareness along with essential map skills and fieldwork. Religion and Rituals (RE) This half term Class 1 will learn about what rituals are and how they differ to routines. They will think about the non-religious rituals they do every day or at special times and then learn about some important rituals in religions. The children will explore the rituals associated with prayer for Muslims, worship for Hindus and Holy Communion for Christians. Living in the Wider World – Diverse Britain (PSHCE) This half term Class 1 will identify that they belong to various groups and communities and ways in which they contribute positively to these. The children will learn about community, being good neighbours and looking after the environment. They will also learn about Britain, what it means to be British, about diversity and the importance of celebrating and being respectful of our differences.
Class 2
Sustainability (Science) This half term the children in Class 2 will be learning about sustainability, i.e. renewable and non-renewable energy, what a carbon footprint is and how it is measured. They will also learn about how waste impacts the environment and wildlife and what they could potentially do to help. World War II (History) This half term Class 2 will learn about World War II. They will learn when and why World War II began and find out about the key figures, the allies and the axis, as well as the countries involved. Class 2 will find out what it would be like to be living during the war. Belonging (RE) This half term Class 2 will complete their investigation of keys features of the Jewish religion. They will then look at the concept of “Belonging” in the context religion in our area. Finally, the children will look at how and why some stories are particularly important to Christians, Jews and Humanists. Diverse Britain (PSHCE) This half term Class 2 will learn all about our diverse, multicultural and democratic society. They will learn about British people, rules, law, liberty and what living in a democracy means.
Class 3
Forces/Nature (Science) This half term Class 3 will complete their work on Levers and Pulleys with some practical experiments. They will then look at various nature-based topics from Evolution and Classification of Living Things via Habitats; the Structure and Reproduction of Plants to the structure of the Human Body. What's It Like in Sheffield? (Geography) This half term Class 3 will learn about the physical geography of Sheffield, including its many hills and its proximity to the Peak District National Park. The children will use maps, atlases and digital maps to explore the city and find out about what the land is used for and what there is to do in Sheffield. Religion and the Individual (RE) This half term Class 3 will complete the topic: “Religion and the individual: What matters to Christians?” before broadening out their investigations into beliefs more generally and trying to answer: “How do people’s beliefs about God, the world and others impact on their lives?”. One World/Money Matters (PSHCE) In light of what Year 5 and 6 learned through the DAaRT programme last term, Class 3 as a whole will discuss risk taking and the positive and negative consequences of actions. The children will then explore the concepts of inequality and stereotypes and reflect on what they can do to help make the world a fairer place. They will also think about where money comes from and how it can be used.

Dates for your Diary

Please refer to the ‘Calendar’ on the school website:

www.colstonbassettschool.com/parent.php#parent_calendar

Newsletter

April 2025

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