May 2016 Newsletter - Holy Trinity Primary School

Summer Term 1 Newsletter,
May 2016
A message from Mrs Wheeler, Head Teacher
Dear Parents and Friends of the School
A very special welcome to all the new families joining us in September 2016. It was lovely to meet many of you at the
beginning of May, and we are really looking forward to getting to know you over the coming weeks!
This is always a ‘short’ half term with an extra bonus day off on the May bank holiday—a lovely break for us all. Despite
this, we seem to have been very busy with our learning and enjoyment of all that Holy Trinity stands for.
Each Thursday I have ALL the children together for Afternoon Praise. This is one of my favourite times of the week
as I really enjoy the amazing singing and performing from these very unique and special children. One of our favourite
songs at the moment is ‘Lazy Days’ - do ask your children about it, they have some wonderful actions to go with this
song! We also share our ‘playground’ talents during this Worship, and each week I set the children a challenge ready
for the following week. I have been quite ambitious with these challenges, and yet week after week, the children
amaze me with their skills. Butterfly skipping is very popular at the moment—you need a friend for this!
The Spring Fete was a huge success this term, raising £2500. I am so grateful to all the organisers and helpers. It is
an enormous task to plan, prepare and set up for this evening event. So many people offered their help at the end,
bringing tables and chairs back in to the school—thank you! We were treated to some lovely performances from the
Folk Dancing Group and School Choir. The concentration and effort from all the children is commendable, and it is
clear that the adults who have ’trained’ the children are highly skilled and respected by all the pupils. I drew the main
raffle on the playground with Mr Mumford, and the prizes will be sent out before the end of this half term.
The children have been treated to some spectacular visitors this half term. A theatre company came in to school to
perform ‘Let’s Dig It’. This production took the children on a journey through History, and allowed them to see the
chronology of History with the periods they have studied placed in order against other moments in time. The Year 5
children treated us to a wonderful performance of Olivia! The whole school watched the dress rehearsal, and then they
gave two evening performances for the ‘general public’. They received some amazing comments, and I must say that
the quality of the production was excellent. A huge thank you to the Year 5 teachers and staff!
Our Year of Music continues, and the Strike a Chord Project has been shared with the rest of the school. We
welcomed Charles Hazlewood, a well respected Conductor. He told us all about his journey to becoming a conductor, as
well as naming some of the amazing places he has been, across the whole world! The Year 5 and 6 children will be going
to the Octagon in June to take part in a performance of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. They will also witness a world premier
of a piece composed by Paul Patterson. The Upper School children have also been taught how to play the Clarinet and
received lessons from Nicki Hewson, a specialist singing teacher and composer of musicals for schools. Four members
of staff have attended a Music training day, and they have lots of exciting ideas to use in Music lessons across the
whole school.
The Year 6 and Year 2 children have been working extremely hard, and May is the month where they have been able to
‘shine’ with their learning through the SATs tests. I am so proud of them all, as they demonstrate great resilience and
determination at a potentially stressful time. I am very aware of the national reporting of these tests, and although
there have been challenges with the tests this year, the children are so calm, and self assured. Once again we are so
lucky to have such an amazing staff team who believe in a broad and balanced curriculum, alongside our drive for high
expectations for everyone.
The Governors have been busy this term, with some significant decision making meetings and events. As you are
already aware, Holy Trinity Primary School will be joining the Bath and Wells Multi-Academy Trust in the near future.
The Consultation Meetings look set to be well attended which is great, and the Governors will then meet again on July
5th to put together a response to this consultation.
We have also been busy with interviews for new teaching staff from September 2016. I am delighted to announce that
Mrs Helen Camp ,Miss Amy Morley and Miss Emma Whitfield will be joining the teaching team from September. They
will visit the school on a number of occasions this term so that they are fully on board with the way in which we approach learning here at Holy Trinity. Mrs Julie Locke will be returning from her maternity leave in November, and so
we will be shortly looking at teacher plans for September. You will receive detailed information about these arrangements in your child’s report envelope on July 15th.
We will be saying farewell to Mr Rodd and Mrs Prager at the end of this Summer Term. Both members of staff have
been with the school for a considerable period of time, and we will mark this time together as a school later in the
term. Mrs Judy Johnson is also finishing as a Lunch Time Supervisor with us at the end of the term. She will however
be continuing in her role as Breakfast Club Supervisor.
Finally, I would like to wish you all a wonderful half term break—don’t forget the teachers have a training day on the
first Monday after the half term, so we will welcome the children back on Tuesday 7th June 2016. Do check the school
website and the back page of this letter for the dates of some fantastic events planned for the second half of the
Summer Term!
Teresa Wheeler - HEAD TEACHER
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
SPECIAL POINTS OF
INTEREST
ACADEMY STATUS
BUGFEST
TALENT CHALLENGE
TIME FOR SCIENCE
YEW TREE EXPLORERS
Class 4
In Class 4, we have been
learning about Plants in
Science. We went on a
wild plant hunt in the
school grounds and we
identified different
trees from their leaves.
We also used straws,
leaves, cupcake cases,
string and pumpkin
seeds to make a model
of a plant. We added
some labels to identify
the parts of the plant
and to explain what each
part does. Here are
some photographs of
our work.
Message from Rev Gaenor Hockey
Most of us enjoy playing games. Do you? But if you don't know how
to play a game you need to find out the rules to help you to
understand the game better. But who makes the rules to the
games? Well usually it is the person who made up the game.
So do you follow any rules in your lives too? Do you think Queen
Elizabeth ll does? Or does she give out the rules? Well the Queen
has a Parliament to govern the UK and she can only advise
Parliament, except in exceptional cases when she has to exercise
her powers. Queen Elizabeth, like us, has rules to follow too.
The Bible is a book full of wonderful stories and rules for us to
follow. But who wrote these rules? God did. And just like the rules
to our games help us to enjoy playing them, God wrote these rules
to help us enjoy living our lives the right way. But how do we know
this? We know this because of Jesus.
Mark 1:21-27 tells us of the amazement of the people as Jesus
taught in the synagogue. He taught with such authority yet he
didn't have the royal robes, orbs or jewels which granted
authority from the rulers of the day. Jesus knew about the rules
because his Father had written them. He was teaching the people
about the rules by which to live their lives and had the authority
as the Law Maker, being the Son of
God.
I wonder how often you read the Bible
to hear the words of God? When
Queen Elizabeth ll was crowned during
her Coronation service, the Archbishop
said, Be strong and of good courage.
Keep the commandments of the Lord
thy God, and walk in his ways.
The Queen has been open about her Christian faith and her trust
in Christ whom she serves. We look forward to celebrating Her
Majesty's 90th Birthday the Church, School and community
altogether at a special service on Friday June 10th at 2pm.
Revd. Gaenor
Vicar of Holy Trinity Church, Yeovil
£5 Talent Challenges!
Children across the school have been busy raising money
for our ‘Raise the Roof’ fund. They have baked cakes,
held raffles, made bacon rolls, cleaned cars, opened
their own restaurants to name a few !! In total the
children have raised £1,352.64!! An amazing amount so
thank you all very much.
Handwriting Cup Winners !
Nikodem - Class 8, Flynn - Class 5
Georgia - Class 7, Yvaine - Class 3
Award of the Arts
Aniela - Class 1
Hanbyeol - Class 9
Eden - Class 14
Year 5 - Explorers Visit Yew Tree Park
By Lewis (Class 11)
On the afternoon of 17th May, the Year 5 pupils went on a visit to Yew Tree Park as part of their geography unit.
The children plotted their route to and from the park whilst also plotting other points of interest whilst they
were there, for example: the park, skate park, scout hut. The children found this task great fun and at the same
time, it has significantly increased their map-reading skills in geography.
In this unit, the children have also been learning about grid references, plotting locations on maps and also reading
and studying both physical and digital maps. They will be moving on to studying countries both in Europe and South
America, thinking carefully about where these are located in the world. This work will also link with our ‘Geography
fortnight’ which is approaching and we are looking forward to using and applying our skills.
Class 14
Year 6 have had an important term with the SATs being the main focus. It has been great to change focus towards
other areas of the curriculum once more; in Science, Class 14 have independently planned and conducted their own
investigations on ‘how different types of exercise affect their heart rate.’ In art, we have switched our focus to
printing and have had some excellent outcomes so far. It has also been wonderful to have some time outdoors,
promoting the Forest School, with some of class 14 helping to create a ‘bug hotel’ and new seating area by the Forest
Lodge.
Chair's Note
A huge thank you to Claire Haywood and Daniela Tomkins for organising the Spring Fete - held on Friday 20th of
May. On behalf of the committee I would like to express my thanks to all of you who helped to set up and run the
Spring Fete; without you it would not have been possible. It was great to have the weather on our side this year
and to see so many people attending. The event was an outstanding success, with around £2500 being raised.
Ice Cream Sales
Ice creams will continue to be sold on Fridays during the second half of the summer term (weather permitting).
Unfortunately there will be none on the 15th July due to the 'End of Year' event.
Blue Bag collection
Thank you to everyone who donated items for this.
Upcoming Events
The next committee meeting will be held on Monday 27th June at 7pm and is open to all. At this meeting we will
discuss the events up to the end of the school year. If you have any ideas for future events, please attend the
meeting and let us know.
Feedback
The School Association welcomes feedback - good or bad - regarding its activities and events.
If you wish to make a comment, please email [email protected] or approach a member of the
School Association committee. On behalf of all the members of the committee, have a great half term.
Claire Dodge
Chair, Holy Trinity School Association
Classes 5 & 6 - Science
This term classes 5 and 6 have been looking at mini-beasts and habitats for Science. As the weather
has been so good we have had lessons outside and been using magnifying glasses and bug suckers to
find and study mini-beasts up close. We have also been thinking about habitats and what an animal
needs to live. We used natural resources such as leaves, twigs, wood and straw to create our own
habitats for animals that we found in the school grounds.
Classes 1 & 2
Classes 1 and 2 have been busy bees this half term! After
reading Jack and the Beanstalk, we planted our own beans
and have been watching them grow, including the bean we
planted in each of our classrooms which have ‘magically’
been growing bigger and bigger every night! As part of our
‘Marvellous Minibeasts’ topic, we read the Very Hungry
Caterpillar and we have excitedly watched our class
caterpillars make chrysalises and then turn into butterflies! We were also very lucky to have Bugfest visit where
we met lots of not-so-mini-beasts including giant millipedes, tarantulas and a snake! Some of us were very brave
and held some of the animals, while the adults stayed as
far away as possible!
A Message from Caryl Plewes, Chair of Governors
It has been a real privilege over the last week to see the commitment and enthusiasm of our parents and wider
school community. The governors and leadership team were very encouraged today by the number of parents and
others who came along to our formal consultation meetings about becoming an academy in the Bath and Wells
Academy Trust. It was good to be able to share our plans with you all as we on the Governing Body are very
enthusiastic about the choice we have made and the benefits it will bring to Holy Trinity. We had heard from other
schools that these consultation meetings can be rather small events so it was wonderful to see over 40 people come
along to both our meetings today. I was particularly glad to hear so many people asking searching questions, showing
that they have been thinking and researching for themselves the background to our choice for the future direction
of our school. Thank you to all who came out to the meetings and your challenge and commitment to Holy Trinity.
It was also wonderful to be involved in the team setting up and running the Summer Fair; it was a splendid, fun
evening. I know Claire Dodge, the Chair of the School Association will say her own thank yous, but I wanted to add
mine to the parents, teachers, governors and wider school family who pitched in and made the event a success. Such
a large undertaking is a testament to the commitment, energy and generosity of the whole school community – only by
being a team and working together can these big things be done well. Thank you everyone and enjoy the summer half
term break!
Class 9
This term in Class 9 we have been learning about textiles as part of our Design Technology unit. We began
the unit learning how to weave paper. This was followed by mastering our very own coaster by weaving
beautifully coloured wool. Next we experimented with many different hand sewing techniques such as front
stitch, back stitch and cross stitch. The students of Class 9 have thoroughly enjoyed being creative this
term and have demonstrated fantastic fine-motor skills. We are looking forward to moving on to dying and
painting on fabric next term!
Class 7
Class Seven have been learning about the rivers of Great Britain as part of our geography work. To help them
understand more about rivers we created a large scale model of one out on the playground. We used lots of blue
resources that were in the PE cupboard. These included rackets, hoops, bibs and cones! We managed to have a
source, meanders, deltas and an estuary. The children worked really well together to make this brilliant model!
Class 3
In class 3 this half term, we have been exploring so
many different things, including: plants in science,
the seaside in geography and art, shapes in
mathematics and creating fantasy stories in
literacy. One of the pieces of homework was to
create an aquarium and they all look absolutely
amazing – so much time and effort has been put
into these amazing models. All of them are so
colourful, each with their own brilliant design
containing various objects. The children are so
proud of them!
Our Year of Music
A Visit
from Charles Hazlewood
The world-famous conductor Charles Hazlewood visited Holy Trinity on Wednesday
4th May and talked to the whole school about his job. He told us that he loves music
and is very lucky to be doing a job that he loves so much. He had wanted to be a
conductor from the age of 15.
He got us all warmed up by singing 'Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes' and then
taught us a Welsh song about a cuckoo which we all enjoyed singing and tried hard
to sing in two parts.
We were especially proud to welcome Charles to our school as he has a special
connection with Holy Trinity. Charles was born in Yeovil and lived here while his
father was the vicar at Holy Trinity Church.
The year 5 children are really looking forward to their ‘Strike a Chord’
performance at The Octagon Theatre on 7th June where they will once again meet
Charles Hazlewood and perform with the Philharmonia Orchestra.
Class 8
This term in class 8 we have been working hard on our geometry topic in maths. It has been great fun
searching around the school for 2D and 3D shapes and we have realised that there are shapes
everywhere! We also had a go at making our own nets for shapes out of paper. Some of us managed to
make a hexagonal prism! We then had great fun making 3D shapes out of spaghetti and marshmallows! It
got a bit sticky, and it was tricky to make sure the spaghetti didn’t snap, but we made some amazing 3D
shapes such as triangular prisms, cuboids and pyramids!
Holy Trinity Church of England Primary School will be joining the Bath and Wells Multi Academy Trust in
the near future. Consultation Meetings have been arranged for Wednesday 25th May at 2.30pm and
6.30pm. Please do contact the school if you have any questions or comments. The presentation from this
evening will be posted onto our web site and can be found at http://www.holytrinity.somerset.sch.uk/
academy-information. This presentation may answer some of your questions.
Dates for your Diary
Monday 6th June
INSET Day
Tuesday 7th June
Children return to school
Group one new starters visit plus 14-06-16
Tuesday 7th June
Year 5 and 6 Perform at the Octagon Theatre
Wednesday 8th June
Year 4 visit @ Bristol
Friday 10th June
Queen’s 90th Birthday Celebrations
Come dressed for the Queen’s Birthday
party for the day!
Walk for the Queen at 10.30am
Service at HT Church at 2pm—ALL welcome
Saturday 11th June
Wells Folk Dancing Festival
13th, 14th & 15th June
Year 6 Residential trip to London
Monday June 13th and Tuesday June 14th
Bikeability Year 5
w/c 20th June
Geography Focus Fortnight
Monday June 20th and Tuesday June 21st
Bikeability Year 6
Tuesday 21st June
Group Two new starters plus 28-06-16
Wednesday 22nd June
WHOLE SCHOOL PHOTOGRAPH
Class 9 Worship 2.45 Main Hall
Thursday 23rd June
Year 1 visit Weymouth
Friday 24th June
Year 2 visit Weymouth
Monday June 27th and Tuesday June
28th
Fitness activities for Year 4 and 5!
Friday 1st July
Spirituality Day
Friday 1st July 2.45 pm
Open School event—please come and see our Seven wonders of the
world!
Monday 4th July
Westfield Enrichment Day
Tuesday 5th July
Group three new starters plus 12-07-16
Wednesday 6th July
Year 6 Transition Day
Thursday 7th July
Classes 1 and 2 visit Kingston Maurward
Tuesday 12th July
Class 8 visit the Ernest Trust in Trent
Tuesday 12th July
Year 6 Production @ 6.30pm
Wednesday 13th July
Class 7 visit the Ernest Trust in Trent
Thursday 14th July
Year 5 visit Ninesprings
Thursday 14th July
Year 6 Production @ 6.30pm
Friday 15th July 2pm
Service at Holy Trinity Church for new starters
Friday 15th July
Reports and new class information to go out
Friday 15th July 3pm
Parents of Year 5 children are invited to meet the Head Teacher from Preston Academy in TRINITY HALL
Friday 15th July
End of Year Event
Tuesday 19th July
Wednesday 20th July
SPORTS DAY
KS 1 10am; KS2 1.20pm
Year 6 Leavers service in Church @ 2.00pm
School finishes for Summer !
Thursday 1st September
CHILDREN RETURN TO SCHOOL!