Head Teacher's Blog

We've all had our routines disrupted.  Zig and Zag have landed on their cute hairy feet however with no food shortage or queuing.  They're just munching their grassy carpet at the Clayden's house.

Friday 27^th March 2020

Dear Parents and Carers,

A Keeping in touch letter

 

Thanks

• I’m just writing to say a big thank you to all our families.  You’ve all been so patient last week as the messages gradually came out that we would have to close the school. 
• Thank you to families where there are key workers for keeping us up to date with your needs and your solutions to keeping everyone safe.
• Thank you to Ashfield staff who are either coming into school to supervise the children of key workers and vulnerable children or manning the home learning electronically.
• I’m sure you will join me in thanking NHS staff and other key workers for their contribution in this national emergency.

 

School without you all

School has been a strange place.  The corridors echo. The children who have had to remain with us have been fabulous.  We’ve really missed everyone else though.  It’s been good to wave to a few of you if I’ve been out delivering.

 

Home Learning

Your teachers have been busy updating the website and Google Classroom with home learning ideas.  There will probably be too many ideas for you all to do.  Please log on to classroom.google.com   if you are struggling to get on to this, please don’t hesitate to contact class teacher via the email addresses below.

The work is there to provide interest and choice.  We realise each family is different and has their own needs. Please adapt the amount of work and type of work to your family.   If you have any questions, please contact your class staff on the following emails:

Nursery: acorns@ashfieldprimary.co.uk

Reception: maples@ashfieldprimary.co.uk

Year 1: silverbirch@ashfieldprimary.co.uk

Year 2: willow@ashfieldprimary.co.uk

Year 3: beech@ashfieldprimary.co.uk

Year 4: rowan@ashfieldprimary.co.uk

Year 5: elm@ashfieldprimary.co.uk

Year 6: oak@ashfieldprimary.co.uk

The reply might not be immediate as staff may be in school, caring for a child or vulnerable relative.  We will have a rota caretaking each other’s emails for this purpose.

 

 

Internet safety

With 0ur children staying inside and accessing home learning electronically there may be some digital risks. Please see our e-safety guide for parents on the website: https://www.ashfieldprimary.co.uk/home-learning/

 

 

 

Guinea pigs and Blog www.ashfieldprimary.co.uk/head-teachers-blog/

Zig and Zag have also had a change to their routine.  They are on holiday at the Clayden’s house and by the looks of the photos they are having fun.  If you have a funny or lovely picture that you’d like to share with the school, please email me and I’ll put it on my HT blog. I can’t promise to use them all but it would be a lovely way to stay in touch with each other.

 

 

Happy to help

Do let me know if you are experiencing difficulties you think Ashfield could help with, such as a food bank referral. I’ve put my email address elspeth.warren@ashfieldprimary.co.uk at the top of the letter as well as the usual info@ashfieldprimary.co.uk

 

Take care and stay safe.

 

Best wishes

 

Elspeth Warren

 

Happy New Year

The children have had a great first week back in January 2020.  We've been really impressed with how ready to learn they have been.  Thank you all for your Christmas cards and gifts.  Look out for class newsletters coming home for the spring term.  I've got a basic diary for you here to save the dates.

KS1 led us in our annual Christingle celebration at Bridge Church.  Revered McCullough and the Bridge Church Elders mad eus feel very welcome. The children retold the Nativity story and sang beautiful carols and Christmas songs.  KS2 children helped the younger children with their Christingle orange candles.  Thanks you to all the volunteers who helped us walk the whole school down to the church and thank you to so many parents family members and carers who helped us to celebrate.

Instrumentalists from KS2 entertained school and their families in a series of concerts this week.  WE are really proud of the efforts they have made to practice and improve.

Early Years children presented their Nativity story in nursery rhyme form today.  They not only looked fabulous,  their speaking and singing was super too.  They did so well remembering all their lines and song words as well as being brave in front of a large but appreciative audience.

KS2 Christmas Carol Concerts 5th December 2019

Oak, Elm, Rowan and Beech classes held an afternoon and an evening concert for parents playing instruments and singing a variety of traditional Christmas carols. 

Oak Class sang, 'O Little Town of Bethlehem,' with ukelele accompaniment.

Elm Class sang, 'We Three Kings.'

Rowan Class sang, 'Here We Come A Wassailing,' with cello/violin, guitars, glockenspiels and recorders.

Beech Class sang, 'The First Nowell.'

 

The choir gave us a rendition of their 'Winter Carol,' performed the previous Sunday in Otley Market Square at the Victorian Fayre.

 

Our audience of parents, carers and family, helped us to sing,'Silent Night' and 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas.'

Thank you to all who donated jumpers and came to buy.  We raised £39 and did out bit for the environment.

• One in four Christmas jumpers bought last year was thrown away.
• About £220m will be spent on them in the run up to Christmas this year.
• Because they’re not worn often most are as good as new.
• Children grow so fast that Christmas jumpers will be grown out of before they wear out.
• The Ellen MacArthur foundation recently exposed the scale of the waste generated by the fashion industry, and how its throwaway culture generates greenhouse emissions of 1.2bn tonnes a year

 

Come to Ashfield to recycle – your old 2018 Christmas jumper and purchase a nearly new jumper for 2019.

Nearly new jumpers can be bought for £3.00.  If you bring in an old jumper, you get a token for £1.50 towards a nearly new one.

 Our Christmas jumper sale will take place on Friday 29th November in the hall at 3:15.

Don’t go adding to the issues we are faced with, recycle and support a good cause.

 

After The Orchard Centre relocated to Kirkstall, we decided to dedicate the space to a library.  Mr Raymond has had the space re-carpeted and painted.  School Council talked to Mrs Hughes about the murals they would like on the walls.  They chose themes from the books they are reading with captions to reflect how reading and books make us feel and what they made us think about:

• Rest and recuperate
• Imagine
• Face your fears
• Find a friend
• Soar to the stars
• Choose to change
• Watch and wonder

Mrs Davison has a new band of librarians after a rigorous selection process.  They will help her to open the library up for classes and individuals during and after the school day.  More details about this to come.

Six newly appointed school librarians, Oscar, Izzy, Poppy, Finley, George and George, helped me to judge the class reading corner competition.  They looked at each class's entry under the following categories:

• Can you tell which author or book the corner is based on?
• Is it inviting to children?
• Is it creative?
• Are books displayed invitingly?

Each child gave each category a score out of 4 for each class.  It was a close competition.  The winner with 85 points was Elm Class.

Have a look on the Class Blogs section of the website for the pupil comments.

Rowan Class have started our reading corner competition with a Harry Potter themed entry. I'm looking forward to seeing the other entries before our new pupil librarians help me to judge the competition. 

Maple Class have a cosy 'Reading Cave' to hold their class books after the story by Rob Hodgson. 

A David Attenborough theme with a hand made model of David Attenborough made by Toby R.

An Alice in Wonderland theme.  We're not saying every day in Oak is like a Mad Hatter's tea party!

Red Nose Day 15th March 2019

As well as making a contribution for coming to school in red, our parents, pupils and staff also got baking for our bun sale.  Thanks you so much either if you were a baker or a buyer.  In total we raised £302.49 for Comic Relief.  Well done everybody.

World Book Day 7th March 2019

This January and February, I've been working on writing with Elm Class.

Here are some examples of their super work.  It's great for me to keep in touch with classroom techniques.

Christingle Tuesday 18th December 2018

A huge thank you to all our carers, parents and relatives who came to support our Christingle led by KS1.  I was so impressed with the children's reading, acting, singing and behaviour as they presented us with the nativity story and made an atmospheric start to Christmas with the church looking stunning lit by our Christingle candles.

KS2 Christmas Performance Wednesday 12th December 2019

Early Years' Nativity Performance 11th December 2018

Community Clear Up Day Saturday 17th November 2018

Many thanks to all the children, parents and staff who came into school this weekend to help clear up the wildlife area.

Please remember to vote for your parent representative on the governing body.  Slips are due back by 16th November 2018.

Grandparents' Day in Silver Birch Class 1st October 2018

Silver Birch children were really excited to invite their grandparents into school to show them their work, sing them a song and show them their fabulous reading skills.  Thank you to all our grandparents for supporting their grandchildren.

Thursday 27th September 2018 Peter the artist worked with KS1

Peter brought his own art work into school called 'Fantastic Hat'.  our children created their own drawings based on this.  

This year ,we couldn't manage to get a date to visit the church for Harvest Festival so decided to keep our celebrations low key with a Sing-along to our Harvest Greatest Hits.  Thanks you to all our parents and carers who supported us with this.  We're also really grateful for the donations to Otley Food Bank.  School Council will take these to the food bank next week and feed back to the school on the fabulous works they do for our community.

The President of Otley Inner Wheel Club, Jennifer Angus, brought Ashfield a gift of a Peace Rose to celebrate World Peace Day on Friday 21st September.  After an assembly earlier in the week, the children wrote their ideas to make the world and our school a more peaceful place on tiny doves.  You can see these in the background of our photograph.  Mr Patel and his gardening team are going to choose a tranquil place in the magic garden for our special gift.

The children in Year 6 had an amazing time on residential - despite the rain.  They were real troopers and challenged themselves in all sorts of ways - taking on chores such as bed making or washing up, pushing themselves to be brave on the assault course, zip wire and high swing as well as working as a team to help each other.  When I came to visit for the overnight shift, I was so impressed with their kindness to each other.  What an excellent start to the school year for our school leaders.