Dear Parents and Carers,

It has been another wonderfully busy week at Christ Church Primary School as we celebrated our bi-annual Arts Week. This year, Mrs Williamson thoughtfully chose the theme ‘Expressing Spirituality Inspired by Faith’, which has guided a week full of creativity and reflection.

It’s been a real pleasure to walk around the school and see the thoughtful activities our teachers have planned. The children have been fully engaged, taking creative risks, building confidence, developing artistic skills, and deepening their understanding and respect for different religions.

We are incredibly grateful to all the staff, parents, and carers who generously gave their time and support throughout the week. Your involvement helped make this a truly memorable experience for the children.

We look forward to sharing their beautiful artwork with you in the coming weeks.

Trips and visitors

We started the week with Year 1 visiting Beggar Bush, where they enjoyed a variety of activities and returned with bird feeders and woodland necklaces.

Reception managed to avoid the downpour on Thursday morning and enjoyed the Downs in the sunshine, where they were immersed in nature while learning about butterflies.

Year 5 took a short walk to the Cathedral on the same morning to study the architecture closely, using it as inspiration for their own artwork.

In addition to trips out of school, we also welcomed visitors into school this week to enhance the children’s learning. Year 4 spent an afternoon learning Bollywood dancing, while Year 3 enjoyed discovering a traditional Jewish dance called Hora, which symbolises joy and celebration. We also welcomed our talented artist Liz Hunter back, who worked with reception and year 6. The children created some fantastic pieces of work.

We are busy preparing for our Sports Day on Friday, 4th July. Miss Barbsy has planned a series of great events for all the children to enjoy, whilst earning house points for their house. After registration, we will walk to New Fields at Clifton College, aiming to start the event by 9:30am. We will return to school in time for lunch at midday.

A separate letter with further details has been sent out today.

All are welcome to come and watch! Children should wear their school PE kit along with their house-coloured T-shirt, and bring a sun hat and water bottle.

Light refreshments will be available—please bring cash.

We look forward to seeing you there!

School reports and transition

Class teachers are currently in the process of writing the children’s annual school reports, which will be sent home in bookbags on Friday, 11th July.

Information about class teachers for the next academic year will be shared with you next week. As a staff team, we are working closely to support the children with their transition to new classes over the coming weeks. This will include a full handover of key information to ensure a smooth start. We will be holding a Moving Up Morning on Wednesday, 11th July, giving children the opportunity to spend time in their new classroom and meet their new teacher.

For any children who may benefit from an enhanced transition, Miss Holland will be working alongside class teachers—and in partnership with parents and carers—to provide additional support.

Thank you to all the parents and carers who attended the Reception to Year 1 Transition Meeting led by Mrs Richardson on Tuesday. The presentation is available on Google Classroom and has also been shared via Szapp.

Notices

We are delighted to welcome Jennie Roberts to the position of Finance and HR Manager at Christ Church School. Jennie is a parent at our school and I am sure that you will welcome her as a new member of our staff team. Having also supported the school in her role as parent Governor recently, Jennie will be stepping down from this responsibility, and we are grateful for her work with the Governing Body this year.

Our recruitment to the post of Receptionist has been extended to ensure that we find the right person to join our school. If you are interested in this wonderful job opportunity, please refer to the advertisement on E-Teach – www.eteach.com or contact the school office directly.

As we approach the end of the school year, the school is at its busiest. It is a time where we have assessed learning progress carefully and must use the remaining days to both address any gaps in learning and equally to begin to prepare the children for the move to the next year group.

We are always grateful for your commitment to ensuring that your children remain in school at all times unless illness prevent this. We ask that no children are taken out of school for holidays in term time, as this damages their education. We also ask respectfully that children always arrive in time for school promptly as our gates close at 8:55am.

Weather Warning – we have noted the weather heat warnings for Monday 30^th June; please therefore ensure that your children come to school with sunscreen, sun hats and plenty of water.

I hope you have a well-deserved weekend ahead and enjoy the wonderful weather.

Warmest Wishes

Mark Oldfield

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

• Monday 21st July - Inset day
• Tuesday 22nd July - Inset day

INSET AND ACADEMY DAYS FOR NEXT ACADEMIC YEAR

• Tuesday 2nd September - Inset day 
• Wednesday 3rd September - Inset day

This week in Reception there was no end to the varying learning experiences on offer!

Monday saw our launch into ‘Arts Week 2025’. The theme being ‘Spirituality inspired by faith’ – this is how we introduced it to Reception…

‘Spirituality is about ensuring that everyone flourishes. It involves each of us understanding ourselves, relating well to others, appreciating the beauty in the world and reflecting on the deeper meaning of life. It also involves us contributing to the flourishing of others and the world around us.’

It was very important for us all to develop our drawing and enhance our creativity by thinking about the underlying values of love, kindness and respect for all. We focused on artists and different cultures, religions and worldviews that use hearts and hands as a symbol of love, good fortune and protection!

We looked at the work of Andy Warhol, Jim Dine and Chris Uphues for inspiration!

On Monday afternoon we were very lucky to have a visit from Charlie – our very own parent bee keeper expert! We were able to ask lots of our burning questions about bees and found out great facts from his informative talk.

On Wednesday we had an art workshop with Liz Hunter focussing on the artwork of Mark Hearld using different birds as a starting point. We used oil pastels to do the outline and patterns then painted our pictures with a colourful brusho wash. The outcomes were amazing!   

Thursday saw a walk to the Downs and a great workshop finding out about the life cycle and habitats of butterflies. Anna helped us to complete some fun activities involving a pollinator game, butterfly hunting and chrysalis building!

A BIG thank you to all the parents who accompanied us on this learning trip.

As we transition into our "Under the Sea" topic next week, we anticipate crafting and exploring many aquatic treasures!

What a week it’s been in Year 1!

We kicked off the week with a wonderful visit to Beggar Bush. The children crafted necklaces from wood, made bird feeders from apples, painted pictures with natural paints and, of course, toasted marshmallows! It’s safe to say we had the time exploring the woods – thank you to our parent helpers who made it possible.

For arts week we have been busy collaging, sticking, gluing, sculpting and sketching! We have put together a collection of work inspired by Sikhism. We leaned into the Sikh value of respecting all of creation and connectedness to all living things with a focus on nature, specifically insects and plants.

We can’t wait for you to come and see our artwork as part of the Art’s Trail in autumn.

This week has been absolutely jam-packed with art as we celebrated Arts Week in style! Every lesson, every day has been filled with creative energy (with a little bit of PE squeezed in too).

Our focus was on the religion of Islam and the many beautiful ways art is interwoven into it. The children explored a wide range of artistic techniques, from creating silk paintings of mosques using pencil stencils, gutta and silk paint, to designing and sculpting clay Hamsa hand trinket bowls. They also had great fun making printed mosque designs using styrofoam and printing ink, and produced incredibly detailed observational drawings of mosques.

The creativity didn’t stop there! We investigated the geometric beauty of Islamic tile patterns, making tessellations first with felt shapes and then developing them into colourful poster paint prints. The children have also been busy sewing mosques, moons and lanterns to form part of hanging garlands, and experimenting with zentangle patterns to explore intricate line work. It has truly been a whirlwind of colour, pattern, and imagination. Despite the busy schedule, every child approached each project with care and focus, and the outcomes have been nothing short of incredible.

We are so proud of their hard work and artistic achievements!

Year 3 have had a fantastic Arts Week. We have made clay hands, wooden mosaics, stuffed cushions, wax-resist stars and collaged stained glass.

What has been brilliant is seeing the children who have been nervous or unsure having a go and learning a new skill. The smiles that have been on faces this week has made all the hard work worthwhile!

Thank you so much to our excellent Year 3 parents who came in to run workshops.. We couldn’t have done it without you!

This week, Year 4 have had an exciting and creative time celebrating Arts Week, and we’ve been exploring the vibrant and colourful theme of Hinduism through a range of hands-on activities. The children have really impressed us with their enthusiasm, imagination, and teamwork as they’ve taken part in lots of different projects inspired by Hindu art and culture.

One of the highlights of the week was making lotus clay divas using air-drying clay. Each pupil carefully shaped their own lotus flower which, when dry, will be embellished with intricate designs and colourful details. We also worked together in small groups to create beautiful collages of Hindu deities, using layers of materials to bring these characters to life with texture and personality.

The classrooms were filled with colour as we dyed rice to make our own rangoli patterns, which turned out beautifully and showed great attention to detail. We also put our sewing skills to the test by creating charming stuffed elephant ornaments, now being decorated with ribbons, bells, and jewel stickers.

To make the week even more special, we had a fantastic visiting guest who taught us a fun and energetic Bollywood dance routine and kindly answered our questions about what being a Hindu means to them. It was a brilliant opportunity to learn more through movement and conversation. Well done to Year 4 for their fantastic creativity, curiosity, and hard work during this special week!

Inspired by Faith, Year 5 have been using Christianity as the basis for their Art this week.

On Monday we looked at Michaelangelo and how he painted his frescos on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. To help the children understand how difficult this task was, we gave them some paper to draw on but they weren’t allowed to sit at their tables. Oh no! They had to lie on the floor, affix their paper to the underside of the table and see what masterpieces they could produce!

Keeping on the church, chapel and cathedral theme, we also spent time studying the pattern of cathedral ceilings and then used Lego to print our patterns on a watercolour background. The children LOVED painting Lego dots and rotating their Lego boards to create their finished pieces. They did a really good job and should be proud of what they achieved in a very short space of time.

During the week, the children have also learnt about Henri Matisse and looked at how he “paints with scissors”. They looked at his famous work called “Dove” and used this as inspiration for some appliqué textiles work. Using their prior learning of running stitch, back stitch, blanket stitch or chain stitch, the children sewed around the edge of their white doves which were set against a blue fabric background. Yet again, perseverance paid off and their work looked amazing.

Later in the week, we took a trip to Clifton Cathedral to look at the stained-glass designs. We used this as inspiration for our 3d churches, made from layered cardboard, and used CDs to create our own stained glass windows for a pop of colour.

It’s been a busy week with lots of projects on the go but you’ll see the photos show what fun we’ve had along the way!

This week, Year 6 have loved our Art activities during our bi-annual Arts Week, with a special focus on Buddhism.

We’ve loved learning about the significance of dragons in Buddhist traditions — powerful, wise and protective creatures that often appear on temples and shrines across Asia. In Buddhism, dragons are seen as guardians of wisdom and symbols of strength, often representing enlightenment and protection from evil.

Inspired by these majestic creatures, the children have explored a range of artistic techniques to bring dragons to life. From detailed charcoal drawings to textured clay sculptures, we hope you agree that their artwork is fantastic.  They also had the opportunity to work with local artist Liz Hunter, to complete stunning brusho masterpieces.

CAMPFEST 2025

What is it A ticketed, family-friendly camping experience, with entertainment, that runs from 5pm Friday to 10am Sunday.

Why do we do it? To raise funds for the school and celebrate our wonderful school and community.

Where is it held? Cotham Park Rugby Club, Beggar Bush Lane, BS8 3TF

Who can attend? Christ Church families

When is it held?11th - 13th July 2025

How do I find out more and buy tickets? CLICK ON THIS LINK

More Info…

- FREE preschooler tickets for camping or day attendees (no meals) 

- Preschooler meal only tickets for camping or day attendees

- Gas stoves are accepted, but no BBQs please. 

- To help people find other parents, we are suggesting pitch areas by year group, although it's not mandatory.

‘Mary’s Living & Giving' charity shop are in need of donations - so if you’re having a clear out, please consider them.

They do not accept toys, electronics or furniture’