Christ Church C of E Primary School, Clifton eNewsletter

Dear Parents and Carers,

As we all approach a time when we will all hopefully have some time with family and friends to celebrate the break, it is often a space to reflect on the year that has passed. Having joined the Christ Church School community, I have certainly been welcomed to the school. The embracing warmth and care are testament to a parent and carer community that understands the importance of our shared responsibility to the children and it has been a genuine pleasure to know that despite the challenges that often arise, we are fortunate to be so well supported by you – thank you.

A broad and rich learning journey

It is always our aim to enrich the school experience for every child with a wide variety of approaches to learning and to ensure that we plan experiences that help the children to relate their classroom learning to real life. Visits to places of local interest and events are of huge value to our ability to engage and excite learning for all. Our visitors to the school add to that breadth and immersion in learning and the all-important fun elements help to make those memories that stay. We would like to thank you for your ongoing support in funding this through your voluntary contributions – it all makes a huge difference! I would also like to thank the Christ Church School staff team for ‘going the extra mile’ to make this happen.

Christmas Meal

Our catering team, AIP provided a wonderful Christmas meal for our children and staff this week. Not only did they manage a seamless stream of well cooked, delicious food, prepared festive desserts but all of this with a friendly, caring service. Thank you all.

Christmas Celebration at Christ Church

What a lovely end to the term with so many of you joining us at Christ Church to see and hear the children’s wonderful celebration of the nativity. Our instrumental players showed off their talents, the children were in fine voice entertaining us with so many carols and year three drew the whole thing together with their narrative retelling. We are lucky to be so welcomed and supported by the Diocese and Church team and look forward to our next visit.

Food Bank Donations

A huge thank you to everyone for the generous donations to the Bristol North West Food Bank, every bit makes a difference.

Staff Changes

We say a very fond farewell today to three of our wonderful staff team. Miss Cator and Miss Riddiford both leave us to begin their maternity leave and I am sure that you will join us in wishing them both every happiness and health in the coming weeks before their children arrive. We will of course write to you when the time comes to share their good news.

Sadly, Miss Ward leaves us today to begin her new role in the coming year. Her care, support, teaching and warmth will be much missed, but we know that this next step in her career will bring the same rewards to other children.

All that remains is for me, on behalf of all of all the staff and Governors at Christ Church School, to wish you a safe, happy and restful holiday. Our thoughts and gratitude are with those who continue to work in essential jobs throughout the holiday. Happy Christmas and a wonderful 2025 to everyone.

Mark Oldfield

Headteacher

The advent candles by the Worship Council:

Peace

This is the Bethlehem candle which represents PEACE.

When I think of PEACE I think of sitting quietly and relaxing, I feel calm and happy with the life I have now.

When I think of PEACE for the world I hope for all war and conflict to come to an end.

From Isiah 9 verse 6:

‘For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the Government shall be on his shoulders. And her will be called ‘Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace’

Joy

This is the Shepherd’s candle which represents JOY.

JOY means happiness and warmth especially when I am with my family and friends.

When I think of JOY to the world, people will think about others first, especially at Christmas time.

From Luke 2 verses 10 to 11:

‘And the angel said to the shepherds, ‘Do not be afraid, I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.’

Hope

This is the Prophecy candle which represents HOPE.

When I think of HOPE it means a glimmer of light, something to aim for when it is most needed.

When I think of HOPE in the world I think of people supporting those who are suffering and have very little such as refugees

From Isaiah 9 verse 2:

‘The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness – a light has dawned.’

Love

This is the Angel’s candle which represents LOVE.

When I think of LOVE it means family and friends in harmony – being kind and supporting each other.

When I think of LOVE in the world it is acts of kindness giving charity and support to the needy.

From John 3 verse 16:

‘For God loved the works so much that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life.’

January	Monday 6th	Inset day - no children in school
	Tuesday 7th	First day term 3
	Thursday 9th	Year 2 yoga RLB tea afternoon
	Monday 13th	Year 2 yoga
	Thursday 16th	3ED tea afternoon
	Monday 20th	Year 1 yoga Y3 Stone age workshop
	Thursday 23rd	4CE tea afternoon Y2 Dance workshop
	Monday 27th	Year 1 yoga Y2 African drumming workshop
	Wednesday 29th	Y6 SAT meeting, 9am
	Thursday 30th	2HB tea afternoon
February	Monday 3rd	Year 1 yoga
	Thursday 6th	5CB tea afternoon
	Monday 10th	Year 1 yoga
	Thursday 13th	1AN tea afternoon
	Friday 14th	last day Term 3
	Monday 24th	first day Term 4

Inset and Academy days for the rest of the year (these are days when school staff are in training involved in other school oepration - children are not in school on these days):

Friday 23rd May - Academy day
Monday 21st July - Inset day
Tuesday 22nd July - Inset day

In Term 1, we introduced value points to the children from Y1-Y6. Each week, on Friday, our house captains collect the points from across the school. Then, every Monday, the captains announce the weekly value point results to the entire school.

As we approach the end of Term 2, we’re excited to share the total points from the past two terms. Well done, everyone, for demonstrating our school values so brilliantly and earning value points for your house!

As part of our rewards system, we celebrate children who achieve 50 value points. During our weekly celebration assembly, these children receive their 50 value point certificates from Mr. Oldfield. Congratulations to all the children who have earned this recognition!

Starting in Term 3, we will share the names of these students in our weekly newsletters, along with the recipients of the weekly Star Awards.

Well done to all the children across the school. It is so great to see how proud you are of your achievements.

It has been a week packed full of festive stories, events and learning! We read ‘Christmas around the World’ by Lesley Sims and learnt about how they celebrate Christmas in different countries, that we located on the globe. We also looked at what presents would have been like for children in the past and discussed similarities and differences with the toys we play with today.

We learnt all about the Jewish festival Hanukkah. We explored different artefacts linked to the Jewish festival and learned about what Jews believe happened. The beautiful book Eight Nights, Eight Lights by Natalie Barnes helped us to understand how Jewish people celebrate Hanukkah at this time of year and we thought about the similarities between this festival and other celebrations we have learnt about.

We did lots of festive crafts this week including decorating a hat for the Christmas Lunch! Potatoes were scoffed and gravy was sploshed and everyone had a very merry lunch time! We especially enjoyed our festive biscuits or crispy cakes for pudding! Yummy!

At the church we all really enjoyed singing our songs and it was lovely to join together with everyone for a great musical event!

A fun and festive Friday saw us all thoroughly in the Christmas spirt and we ended our term with a film and a treat!

Wow! Reception, you have been so busy and we can’t believe how far you have come since you started school! Well done everyone!

We hope that you all have a magical break! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!

Reception Team

This week in Year 1 we’ve been learning about the Jewish festival of light, Hanukkah. We learned about the story behind Hanukkah and the symbolic meaning of the menorah. To demonstrate our understanding, we ‘lit’ 9 candles and decorated our own menorahs. In science we used our knowledge of materials to design a waterproof coat for Percy the Park Keeper. Just like real scientists we conducted an experiment to test metal, plastic, paper and fabric for absorbency and waterproof properties. From our rigorous testing process, we discovered that metal and plastic kept Percy dry. We then used the results from our experiment alongside our knowledge of materials and their properties to determine that a combination of plastic and fabric would be the best materials to keep Percy warm and dry.

In DT we planned, designed and made a moving picture using a slider mechanism. Our moving pictures tell the story of a hedgehog finding its way back to its leaf pile home.

Finally, we enjoyed a well deserved treat for filling our class marble jars! The children have worked remarkably hard this year and should be immensely proud of themselves—well done Year 1!

This week year 2 have been finishing their project work on the Great Fire of London. The children thought about the solutions that were offered by the King and government and how effective they would have been in the aftermath of the fire. They then re-designed London taking into account the features that would prevent such a disaster in future. Children enjoyed Christmas crafts this week including crown making for wearing to Christmas lunch. The children also made baubles using salt dough which they will decorate ready to take home along with their handmade Christmas cards. Children also finished the unit in Design Technology. They used their knowledge from previous lessons relating to stability and design to make a chair for baby bear. They used rolled up tubes of paper to fashion their chairs, while taking care to ensure they were stable by testing their products using baby bear.

Year 3 have loved preparing for Christmas this week by painting a bauble for their tree at home. They were also absolute superstars in the church on Thursday for our Christmas service leading the nativity; we are very proud of them. Well done Year 3.

This week, Year 4 got stuck into some exciting design work as they created their very own pavilions! Inspired by iconic expo pavilions, the children teamed up with partners to bring their architectural visions to life using glue guns, lolly sticks, and plenty of creativity. The results were truly constructive—showcasing teamwork, imagination, and some seriously impressive engineering skills!

It's hard to believe that we've reached the end of term! This week in Literacy, the children wrote a fantastic cover letter using formal language and paragraphs to explain why they were well suited for a job as an Elf Bakery Team Leader. They were able to imagine the skills needed to fulfil the role and they used ambitious vocabulary and sentence structures to convince a manager to employ them.

In Art this week, we created a couple of festive pieces, the highlight being our oil pastel snowmen. We worked on our shading and blending techniques to create a 3D effect.

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas holiday!