cotham gardens primary school

weekly newsletter

This week, Mr Jarman led the first in a sequence of three Professional Development sessions for teachers on making the most of our wonderful English curriculum from CUSP. This curriculum is designed to be ambitious and evidence based, ensuring that all children become confident and competent readers and writers.  

We have introduced new visual prompts - “Every We Time We Write” - which display the fundamental technical qualities that need to be in EVERY piece of writing, depending on the year group. I have asked teachers to put a copy on their Class dojo page for you to see and support at home too. 

The final Year 5 Bikeability training session took place at Cotham Grove this week. It has been a fantastic opportunity for the children to gain the skills and confidence to cycle safely on our busy roads—a truly valuable life skill and an essential part of our re-vamped personal development programme.  

Year 6 took a breather from their core learning to collaborate with architects and engineers from Stantec Engineering, Ridge and Partners LLP, Mott MacDonald, and Network Rail. They designed and built their own station models for their Look Draw Build DT project, showcasing their creativity and teamwork. SATs start next week and the Year 6 team is helping to ensure that all children are in school on time and energised for the tests by holding a daily breakfast in the front playground at Cotham Grove. I hope everyone gets a good rest this weekend, and comes in ready to try their best – that's all we can ask at this stage :-) 

Finally, I had the great pleasure of watching the Hedgehogs class assembly yesterday. It was a fantastic celebration of their learning, brought to life with with, humour, great acting and some enthusiastic singing. I think the audience also enjoyed being put on the spot with their factual knowledge quiz! 

Emmeline Smith 

MONDAY   

YR6 SATS week begins           

YR5 Swimming - 5MC and 5WL

Boy's Football League Final 

TUESDAY

YR1 Bristol Zoo Project Trip

THURSDAY

YR2 Aerospace Trip

FRIDAY

YR6 Post SATS Activity Day

Play Streets / Bake sale at the Elmgrove site from 15.30pm

This week’s class attendance winners are:

Class Dragonflies  with 100% - Well done! 

This week’s class punctuality winners are

6B and 6J with 100 %

Well  done!

                                                                  Also a big well done to classes

                                                                  Honeybees and Ladybirds with 99%

Whole school attendance this week was 94% 

We have also seen a huge improvement in the number of pupils arriving on time for school. Thank you for your continued support. 

Punctuality Reminder 

When a child arrives late to school, they miss important events like assembly, teacher instructions and introductions. Children often also feel embarrassed at having to enter the classroom late. Gates close at 8.55am and children should be in class, ready for registration at  9am. Children arriving after the gate closes should be signed in late via the screens in the school office entrance. 

If your child arrives after 9.30am, the morning session will be marked as unauthorised. 

We just wanted to thank everyone at Elmgrove today who parked safely away from the school gates and engaged with the Active Travel group. We know the cameras may have been a bit disconcerting for some - I myself am very camera shy - but there were very good reasons to take part! As per the school email yesterday, no children will be identifiable in the filming. 

So, why were they there? The team are making a short film for UWE as part of a larger academic project called TRUUD, which looks at the link between the built environment and health. They approached us to understand what we are doing, so that it could feed into this important research. 

TRUUD stands for ‘Tackling Root Causes Upstream of Unhealthy Urban Development’ "Our urban environment impacts our health and wellbeing. Links have been found between diseases you can’t catch such as type-2 diabetes, heart disease and poor mental health and where we live. We’re collecting evidence and designing tools and interventions with industry, government and communities to help prioritise health in our urban planning."

For more information see: https://truud.ac.uk/ 

If anyone would like to get more involved in the Active Travel group or have any questions about what we're doing, please join the WhatsApp community https://chat.whatsapp.com/BqaqL5YOEEP3zsGpeJflAC or email cgschoolstreet@gmail.com.
Thanks

A last reminder that your child is cordially invited to join us for a spot of pre-test breakfast next week from Monday to Thursday. Children can come in from 8.10 onwards and entrance will be by the gate into the front playground situated by the office (as shown in the photo.) The children will not be able to enter the school via any other entrance. There will be a member of staff at the gate and if the children arrive early they must wait by the entrance- not on the pavement.

Mrs Bush has sourced a collection of the finest pastries, cereals, toast and juice. It will be a calm start to each day and ensure all the children have the fuel to power those super-computers upstairs!

A few children were booked to have a school meal this week but arrived in the lunch hall with a packed lunch from home.

If your child changes their mind and no longer wants a school meal, please don’t forget to update the option on Arbor before school. This will help ensure that you are not charged for a lunch that is not needed.

Missing Lunches 

As you know, we ask parents and carers to book their child’s lunch choices in advance via Arbor. This helps reduce food waste, saves our office staff from having to call home, and allows our teachers to start lessons promptly in the morning.

Any child without a lunch choice or home packed lunch in the morning will automatically be booked for an emergency jacket potato.

Allergen Options

Allergen lunch options are specifically for children with documented allergens (e.g., dairy-free, gluten-free). Please only select these choices if your child has a specific allergen, as our kitchen prepare only what is necessary for those with allergens.

Thank you for your cooperation in making lunchtime smoother for everyone. We truly appreciate your support and understanding as we all adjust to using Arbor!