Holidays in term time

A polite reminder that we do not authorise any holidays in term time. We recommend all parents/carers read our Attendance Policy and are familiar with it.  It is important that all parents/carers understand that if you choose to take your child/ren out of school for a holiday in term time you may be issued with a fine from the Local Authority. Our policy includes more details on this. 

Please note we do not provide work for pupils who take holiday in term time. 

Sports Day 2023

We are delighted to be hosting our annual Sports Day this year on Wednesday 14^th June. Sports Day is a fantastic celebration of the sporting achievements of our children and thoroughly enjoyable for all involved.

This year we are adding in a Family Picnic on the common Stay and Play from 11.50-12.50pm. Details of this were sent home last week, if you haven't had this please email the office for more details. 

We have a reserve day of Wednesday 28^th June in case the weather impacts us on the 14^th June.

We recommend parents bring a picnic blanket/ camping chairs for Sport Day/Stay and Play. 

School Uniform

As many of you will be thinking about school unform for September we thought it would be useful to remind you about our school uniform policy. 

It is our school policy that all children wear school uniform when in school, or when participating in a school event outside normal school hours unless agreed otherwise. We provide a complete list of the items needed for school uniform on our website.

Our policy on school uniform is based on the notion that it:

• promotes a sense of pride in the school and engenders a sense of community and belonging;
• encourages identity with, and support for, the school ethos
• is practical and smart;
• prevents children from coming to school in fashion clothes that could be distracting in class;
• makes children feel equal to their peers in terms of appearance;
• is designed with health and safety in mind.
• nurtures cohesion and promotes good relations between different groups of pupils
• supports positive behaviour 
• protects children from social pressures to dress in a particular way.

Our School Uniform is as follows:

We ask all parents/carers to support our school by ensuring your child/ren come to school each day wearing the correct uniform. Thank you for your support. 

School Development Plan 2022-23

In September, we shared with you our focus for development this year. The two areas identified for us to work on were:

- Developing our lunchtime play (OPAL Play)

- Becoming a Forest School

Lunchtime Play

We hope you've been following our social media updates (Twitter and Facebook) and reading our termly newsletter on the fantastic play offer now in place for our children. During lunchtimes all of our children have excellent, high quality and engaging play activities. The activities on offer range from planned games lead by play leaders, to child initiated play of water play, mud kitchens, loose parts play and creative play areas. We will be continuing our work on OPAL next year to further develop the opportunities for play. 

We are welcoming parents/carers to join in with our lunchtime play on sports day. We hope you enjoy this time and can see for yourselves how fantastic and enjoyable lunchtimes are for our children. 

A huge thank you to Mr. Noone and and the Play Team who have been the driving force behind all the work happening to develop lunchtime play. 

Forest School

We delighted to now be able to call ourselves a Forest School. Mrs Appleton-Smith is our Forest School Leader. This year she has undertaken all the training for this role and worked across the school trialling our forest school lessons in most classes. The feedback from parents, children and staff has been fantastic. Our children are enjoying learning about the nature all around them but also developing their wellbeing. From September all children across the school (Reception up to Y6) will have two terms of Forest School lessons.

Thank you to Mrs Appleton-Smith for all your hard work and the parent volunteers who have helped develop our forest school area- we are very grateful for all your support and hard work. 

OPAL- update term 6

Summer is in full swing and it’s hugely important children are bringing in hats and water so they can spend time outside. We’ve had a hugely successful first year using the OPAL programme and will be sharing some feedback from the children in Term 1 of next year. We are also looking forward to welcoming everyone for the OPAL stay and play session on sports day where you can explore our site and see this amazing scheme in action. We’ve also got some exciting new games out on the playground this term so keep an eye on our school social media channels to see these in action!

This term we are continuing to develop our waterplay and den building and are looking for the following items:

• Old sheets or bedding
• Wooden poles e.g bamboo
• Ropes
• A hosepipe or watering cans

Many thanks for your continued support.

Meditation- an update from Mrs Bassett-Lowe

Mrs Bassett-Lowe has been continuing her Wednesday afternoon meditation teaching. This term she will be working with Year 3 and Year 4. Follow our social media accounts for updates!

Schools Church Celebration 

On Sunday 21st May Hambrook hosted the Winterbourne Schools Church Celebration. This was a lovely opportunity to celebrate all the wonderful things that happen at our schools. Thank you to everyone who joined us- it was a really lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon! A special thank you to the children who read out their poetry and our Y5 class who provided the refreshments. 

Year 6 Trip

Year 6 had an amazing time on Wednesday for their class trip. To develop independence and life skills, every Year 6 child had to buy their own train ticket so we could catch the train from Bristol Parkway to Bristol Temple Meads. This tied in brilliantly with our learning on Brunel and the impact he had on the rail industry in our local area. We explored Temple Meads and the changes that have been made to the station since Brunel originally designed and built his first-of-a-kind terminus. To extend our learning on Brunel as an engineer, we walked to the SS Great Britain and had a guided tour of his iconic steam ship. Combined with our workshop, Year 6 really gained an insight into what Brunel was like as a person, as an engineer and as a significant individual who contributed heavily to Bristol and our local area.

Classes for September

Information on class teachers for September will be sent home next week. 

Class Move Up morning is Friday 30th June. During this time all children will spend time with their new teacher. 

Over the coming weeks we will be holding enhanced transition afternoons for our children with My Plans/EHCPS to make the move to a new classroom as smooth as possible. If you have any questions or concerns, please speak to your child's class teacher. 

PTA Summer Fair

This will take place on Friday 30th June 5.00-8.00pm. We look forward to seeing you all. 

Thank you to our wonderful PTA who provide so many wonderful opportunities for our children and raise valuable money for our school. 

Term dates and INSET days 2023-24

Our term dates for next year are:

Our INSET days for next year are:

Friday 1st September 2023

2nd January 2024

19th February 2024

Monday 3rd June 2024

Tuesday 4th June 2024