Dear Parents and Carers

Wider Curriculum

We have seen another busy and productive week of learning and fun at Christ Church School with the children working hard as we approach the end of term to ensure that we make the most of the opportunities to widen and enrich the learning experiences. Some of the highlights of the week include our Year 2 Explorer Dome activity, Year 3 steel pan performance to Year 2 and Year 5, Reception visit from our local Paramedics and a chance to see inside of the ambulance and much, much more.

Value of the Week – Responsibility

This week in assembly with Mrs Richardson, Reception and Key Stage 1 explored our school value of ‘Responsibility.’ They learnt about the importance of politeness through the book Please by Simon Philip and Nathan Reed. The story helped discuss how the words we choose and the way we speak to both adults and our friends can make a big difference in building positive relationships. We are encouraging the children to take responsibility for their manners, using kind words, saying "please" and "thank you," and speaking to others with respect.

KS2 explored how sometimes it is easier to pass someone in need by, rather than choose to take responsibility for doing that which is kind and caring. After sharing a personal story of a trip across Australia, the children impressed us with their responses to questions about how they can take responsibility in their own lives, even when it is easier to walk away. We would appreciate your support in reinforcing the value of responsibility at home, helping the children further grow into considerate and confident individuals.

Sporting Stars

This week our year 5 & 6 girls netball team played in the local school’s netball tournament at Merchants Academy, giving their all as they develop into an ever-improving team.

Not to be outdone, our year 5 & 6 girls football team played their final match of their tournament at the Imperial Sports ground, battling through four challenging matches. With every one of the girls giving 100%, they finished the series with their heads held high. Thank you to all of our staff and parents for their support in making these important events happen.

Parents Evening

Thank you to all of our parents and carers who were able to attend our parents’ evenings this week. It enables us to spend a little time discussing how your children are progressing in their academic learning as well as their personal development and to reflect on the next steps in their journey. We hope that you found the meetings valuable and informative; our next formal reports to parents will be in the form of a written end of year report in the summer term.

Are you a kinship carer?

Kinship carers are friends or family who step in to raise a child when their parents may not be able to. This may be temporary or long term. You might be a grandparent whose grandchild has come to live with you or perhaps you are taking care of a younger sibling or niece. There are more than 141,000 children living in kinship care in England and Wales (source: Kinship care charity) and so you are certainly not alone.

If you are a kinship carer, please let us know. This will help us to better support you and your child, and we will be able to signpost you to further help and advice. We will handle any information shared sensitively and confidentially.

Our Kinship Lead is Mark Oldfield – Headteacher, please contact the school office directly. Our Kinship Lead has awareness of the particular needs of children in kinship care and the support available for children, carers and families.

You can also access information via:

• The HOPE Virtual School Kinship care
• Kinship: Home | The Kinship care charity | England and Wales

The Kinship care charity offer a wide variety of support for kinship carers including online workshops on a range of relevant topics and local coffee mornings. 

Uniform and Footwear

Thank you for supporting our work to ensure that we keep our high standards of uniform throughout the year. We are however still seeing too many children wearing incorrect footwear – mostly trainers and these are only allowed on PE days. Please ensure that your child is correctly dressed at all times for school.

Easter Church Service

On Thursday 3^rd April we will hold our Easter Church service at Christ Church. Starting at 10am promptly, we would love you to join us to gather together as a school community, to celebrate the children’s performance to us and to share in a message of hope and renewal.

Staffing News

I am delighted to inform you of the good news that Mrs Jordan has made the decision to remain as our School Business Manager, but will be moving to a part-time basis. Mrs Jordan brings a vast knowledge of the role, the school and an unmatched expertise in all things Christ Church and we are very fortunate that she has made the decision to stay. I am sure that you will join me in congratulating Mrs Jordan in the coming days.

Once again, I wish you all a lovely weekend ahead.

Kind regards

Mark Oldfield

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

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

What an action-packed week we have had! We continued our learning about people who help us with a focus on the medical professions. We thought about who can help us when we are sick or hurt and came up with some great ideas. We read the lovely books ‘Going to the Doctor’ and ‘Going to the Hospital’ pausing to discuss the interesting medical vocabulary, we were also eager to share stories of our own experiences.

Excitement overflowed on Thursday when we had a visit from the Ambulance Service. The paramedics gave us a talk and tested our knowledge and then we went to see the real Ambulance that was parked outside the front of our school! We had a super time exploring inside the Ambulance and merry medical mayhem commenced when we got to listen to the Ambulance sirens! Mrs Petters and Miss B were truly delighted to sound the sirens themselves! Wow what a fantastic experience!

We have also been learning about the life cycle of frogs. We used our skills of folding to make our own jumping frogs and have enjoyed watching real tadpoles in the classroom.

In maths we have been learning the names, and exploring the properties, of 3D shapes and finding them in our environment and in phonics we have been chunking and learning to read compound words.

Well Done all!

This week in Year 1 we have been applying what we learned in the spring workshop last week to our literacy.  We wrote all about the wide variety of birds and what they do in spring.

Did you know that different birds use different materials to make their nests?

Did you know that birds such as swallows and swifts are now returning to the UK after migrating for the winter?

In Art, we have been exploring the work of French Impressionist artist Claude Monet. The children loved examining his artwork and discussing the details they noticed. We learned that Monet was passionate about painting outdoors, often capturing the changing seasons in his work. Inspired by Monet’s style, we created our own paintings of his famous garden, experimenting with soft brushstrokes and vibrant colours to capture the feeling of light and water, just like Monet did.

In maths we have been learning about place value within 50. We have started exploring numbers between 20-50 using pictorial representations and manipulatives including base 10 and Numicon.

In geography, we have been learning about how weather changes over each of the seasons, and even though it’s not always consistent, there are usually some predictable trends. To put this to the test, we have recorded the weather every morning and afternoon for each day this week. We found there was a combination of cloudy and sunny weather with mild temperatures.

Year 2 were very lucky to welcome the Explorer Dome and team member Ben into school on Monday. The children watched a presentation named ‘The Wonder of Space, the Earth, Sun and Solar System’ in an inflatable planetarium. They learned about stars, constellations and the Greek myths related to them.

The children were fascinated by the story of Orion, the moon and his belt and were quick to point out that they’d heard the name of his dog Sirius somewhere before… It was a fantastic way to bring our Space topic to life, it’s not every day that you can see the stars on a sunny afternoon in Clifton!

This term, Year 3 have been filling Friday afternoons with music, rhythm, and a whole lot of fun! Every week, they have been taking part in steel pan lessons, learning to play a variety of songs as a class. It has been wonderful to see their confidence grow as they master new rhythms and play together as a group.

After weeks of dedicated practice, Year 3 performed their steel pan pieces for Years 2 and 5! They have worked so hard and they put on a fantastic peformance, full of energy and enthusiasm!

Well done, Year 3 – we are so proud of you!

Year 4 have been one hundred percent engaged in their decimal learning this week, moving on to explore hundredths and using their place value skills to confidently divide two-digit numbers by 100.

In PSHE, we’ve been dreaming big, discussing our future careers and all the different factors that might shape our choices. From aspiring astronauts to future fashion designers, the children had fantastic ideas about what they’d love to do when they grow up!

Following on from their incredible Piccadilly Circus artwork last week, the children brought London to life through their writing, crafting vivid descriptions of the city at night. Their words painted dazzling neon signs, bustling streets, and the electric energy of the capital after dark.

Meanwhile, in P.E, Year 4 put their cricket skills to the test in an exciting game of Caterpillar Cricket! They combined all the techniques they’ve been developing over the last four weeks—batting, bowling, and fielding—to take part in a fast-paced, whole-class game full of teamwork and fun!

This week, Year 5 became budding scientists as they explored the world of thermal insulators! In an exciting experiment, they wrapped cups of warm water in different materials—fabric, bubble wrap, and tin foil—to test which one kept the heat in best. Every five minutes, they carefully recorded the water’s temperature over a 20-minute period.

At the end of the experiment, they compared their results with their predictions. Did the bubble wrap pop? Was aluminium foil really the best insulator? The results sparked fantastic discussions about heat retention and real-world applications of insulating materials.

The fun didn’t stop there though as they then moved on to look at materials that dissolve to form solutions and materials that really don’t dissolve. Year 5 had a great time thinking of items in the kitchen that they know dissolve in water and then they planned an investigation to think about how we could test their predictions. They were very keen to ensure they thought about the dependent, independent and controlled variables to ensure they were planning a fair test.

Well done, Year 5, for your curiosity, thoughtful minds and keen scientific observations.

A huge thank you to our wonderful mums! We were delighted to be invited by a local shop to display some of our Mother’s Day-themed artwork in their window. Many of our talented Year 6 pupils contributed, along with other enthusiastic artists across KS2. Well done, Christ Church—what a fantastic effort! Be sure to visit Clifton Arcade to see our work proudly on display.

This week in writing we have been exploring Alma, a mysterious and atmospheric short film. Alma moves playfully through the snowy streets, but when she spots a doll identical to herself in a shop window, curiosity draws her into something far more sinister…

In our history lessons, we have deepened our understanding of Ancient Greece by reflecting on its lasting impact on the modern world. Using our knowledge, we designed unique stamps inspired by Greek achievements, from democracy to architecture and philosophy. Look out for some of our fantastic designs!

Finally, another week – another display! You may not have spotted it but our Year 6 writing this week was celebrated in a published work display in our next-door classroom. 

Our girls' football teams have done an incredible job in the recent league, which came to a close this week. They showed remarkable improvement week after week, playing with great teamwork and enthusiasm. Their dedication and hard work truly paid off, and we are so proud of their efforts and sportsmanship throughout the season. Well done girls!

And a big thankyou to Norah for all of the training you provided for the girls, leading up to their matches. 

Our netball team recently hosted a match against Headley Park, and although we didn't come out on top, it was excellent practice, and the team showed incredible spirit throughout the game, regardless of the scoreline. A few days later, we faced the same team again in the Bee High Five tournament held at Merchants Academy, and this time, we got our revenge! With great determination and teamwork, our Year 5 team secured a well-deserved 1-0 victory. We are so proud of how the team bounced back and showed such resilience and sportsmanship! Well done, team! 

We have now moved to our new student management information system, Arbor, and have now completed the Arbor Parent Portal launch.

Thank you to all parents and carers who have successfully logged into the Parent Portal, booked and paid for lunches and checked the information we hold for your child/ren.

If you have not already done so, please ensure you log in to the Arbor Parent Portal through the website link that was sent out at the end of last week - Information letter to parents/carers - Getting started on Arbor payments

All lunches will need to be selected and pre-booked on Arbor by parents and carers before 9am on the day the meal is required. Payment must also be made unless you are in receipt of Free School meals or Pupil Premium funding.

Thank you your continued support with making this transition run as smoothly as possible. 

If you are having any difficulties with this new system please do contact or visit the school office who will be able to support you.

On Tuesday the vegetable on the tasting table were peas and sweetcorn. The children enjoyed a pea dip made by Mrs Richardson with cucumber and pitta. Then for the peas and sweetcorn they enjoyed pea and sweetcorn fritters made by reception. The fritters were a favourite and some children definitely enjoyed more than 1!

recipe_pea_and_sweetcorn.pdf

Next week, for the final week of Eat them to Defeat them broccoli and courgette take centre stage on the tasting table. We look forward to sharing both a sweet and savoury treat on the tasting table.

By Belle and Zach, Matthew House Captains.

Adult Quiz Night - Friday 9th May, 7pm

The PTA committee are delighted to be hosting another ADULT Quiz night full of fun, facts and fizz (non-alcoholic options also available)!

Please sign up and join us - this event is a fabulous social opportunity too! You can come as a team of 8, or join a team on the night.

The QR code takes you directly to our new booking system, here you can book and pay for your tickets. This is a new system that we are trialling for this event with the intention to simplify the process for future events.

The event is held at the school - doors will open at 7pm and the quiz will start promptly at 8pm.

See you there!