Dear Parents and Carers

We have now reached the sixth week of this term and the children continue to work hard, building their new learning and consolidating the skills and knowledge already learned. We will soon be assessing how far they have come in their progress and this will form part of the upcoming parents evening on 12^th and 13th November (look out for our booking information to come next week). We have seen some fantastic writing outcomes as we focus on various forms of composition with our older children and it has been lovely hearing the new Reception children learning their sounds and beginning to blend – the foundation of reading and writing.

We are proud to have presented this week our first winner of the 50 Value Points award to the wonderful Lulu in year 3. Please encourage you children to be their best every day and to gain their award in the coming weeks.

Visits and Trips – As we all know, the love of reading not only brings us pleasure but is essential to our lifelong learning. Writing for a purpose is always something that we discuss with the children before setting out to learn how we write in different ways. This week our year 5, & 6 children attended a talk by the author Ross Montgomery at Clifton College. Olivia in year 6 said ‘I am reading the book ‘Small Wonder’ and it is a very interesting book. The author told us all about the book at the talk, but left us with a cliff-hanger’!

After a short walk through Bristol to St Georges concert hall on Tuesday, years 3, 4 & 5 enjoyed watching the Kyans string quartet perform several pieces and talk to the children about their music, their instruments and their lives as musicians at the Royal Academy of music in London. We hope that this will inspire lots of children to take up an instrument at some point in the future.

We would like to say a huge thank you to our parent volunteers who gave their time to support these trips; without your help and care we would not be able to provide the safe staff ratios to make the trip happen.

Collective Worship – this week we welcomed our friends from the Bristol Food Bank who talked with the children about their work to provide help to so many local families.

On Thursday 23^rd October we will be holding our Harvest Celebration at Christ Church and would love for you to join us if you can. Refreshments will be available and we are looking forward to this day and coming together as a school community.

School Council – this week the children have been thinking about the role of a school council representative and the work that they do. The children will soon vote for their elected class representatives and their work to bring pupil voice, decisions, ideas and thoughts to our school will begin.

Supporting the school – We have been so pleased to receive many offers of volunteer help from our parent/carer community; please do get in touch if you can offer some time on a regular basis to support the children. For those that have offered, thank you. Once your DBS checks are back we will be able to get you into school helping.  This will be fantastic and a great additional help alongside Juliette, Liz and Alastair who already come weekly and hear readers, alongside our QEH sixth form.

Thank you to those parents and carers that came to our coffee morning this week. This is a lovely communal time where parents can take a little time out to talk about their children, the challenges of life as a parent, and share support for one another.

Many of our parents of children in Reception and those new to the school came to our phonics workshop this week – thank you. We hope that this was helpful and will give a little more information for how to support your child with reading and writing at home.

Voluntary Contributions – Thank you to all the parents and carers who have logged into Arbor and made their voluntary contributions — we really appreciate your support.

So far, we’ve received contributions from 61% of our school community. To continue planning and securing trips and workshops for the children this year, we do need this number to be consistently higher.

If you haven’t yet made your contribution, please log in to Arbor at your earliest convenience to do so. Every contribution makes a difference and directly benefits the children’s experiences at school.

Notices:

New Reception Places 2026 – Our next tour and talk for parents and carers considering applying to our school for a Reception place in 2026 will take place on Thursday 16^th October at 9:30am.

Next week we will send out a parent/carer survey and would politely ask you to fill out the Google form to help us to evaluate our provision and continue to work on improving the school where we can.

Finally, we will soon write to our year 5 and 6 families to begin the process of planning and funding the school residential camps to Kilve (Y5) and Grittleton (Y6).

I wish you all a restful weekend ahead and look forward to another busy week of learning to come.

Warmest wishes

Mark Oldfield

Headteacher

Term dates 2025-26:

• Term 1 Tuesday 2nd September 2025 to Friday 24th October 2025 (Inset days Tues 2nd and Weds 3rd Sept, children not in school)
• Term 2 Monday 3rd November 2025 to Friday 19th December 2025
• Term 3 Monday 5th January 2026 to Friday 13th February 2026 (Inset day Mon 5th Jan children not in school) 
• Term 4 Monday 23rd February 2026 to Thursday 2nd April 2026
• Term 5 Monday 20th April 2026 to Friday 22nd May 2026 (Academy day Fri 22nd May children not in school) 
• Term 6 Monday 1st June 2026 to Wednesday 22nd July 2026 (Inset days Mon 20th, Tues 21st and Academy day Weds 22nd July, children not in school) 

We would like to remind all families about the importance of online safety and ensuring that children are using the internet responsibly. Recently, we have had some reports of a small number of pupils, in Key Stage 2, accessing material and using language that are not age appropriate. We encourage all parents and carers to check that safety settings and parental controls are in place on all devices, and to regularly review the websites, apps, and games children are using. Helpful advice and tools can be found on trusted sites such as www.thinkuknow.co.uk and www.nspcc.org.uk.

Thank you for your continued support in helping to keep our children safe online.

This week in Reception we have continued learning about Autumn. We read the story Rufus and the Blackberry Monster followed by some blackberry tasting. We thought the berries were sweet and juicy, but some of us got a sour one! The next day, we used the blackberries to create some beautiful works of art. We used pastels and pens to draw the bramble branches and used blackberry juice to add the fruit detail.

In maths we have been learning to recognise and continue simple patterns. We have been making spirals and zigzags in sand and salt, as well as creating AB patterns with a range of manipulatives including conkers and leaves.

Year 1 have had another fantastic week this week. Monday saw us learning about taste during our science lesson followed by a taste test to see if we could identify whether different foods were salty, sweet, savoury, bitter or sour. The children did a brilliant job and some great discussions were had.

In Geography, we learnt about rock pool habitats and what animals and plants might be found there. We thought about why they are so important to creatures at the coast and why we need to look after them.

We have been comparing numbers in our Maths lessons, learning about greater than, less than and equal to as well as the mathematical symbols which represent these. The children have done a wonderful job this week, well done Year 1!

This week in Maths, our class explored addition and subtraction fact families within 20. The children had great fun spinning a number wheel to generate a random number, then using it to build their own fact families! This hands-on activity helped them see the relationship between addition and subtraction in a playful and engaging way. It was wonderful to see their confidence grow as they spotted patterns and made connections between numbers.

In Literacy, the children have been busy becoming real authors as they began writing their very own stories titled ‘The Rabbits Who Reasoned’, inspired by our core text. They showed incredible creativity and imagination, using a wide range of brilliant adjectives to bring their characters and settings to life. It was wonderful to see how each child made the story their own — from inventing new animal characters to adding exciting twists and changes to the events. Their writing shows just how confident and thoughtful they are becoming as storytellers, and we can’t wait to see how their final versions turn out!

Year 3 had a fantastic trip to St George's this week to watch the Kyan Quartet. 

They enjoyed listening to pieces by Beethoven and Handel and learning about the different instruments within the quartet and the different sounds they made. 

The children stunned us wtih their insightful and thoughtful questions to the musicians and also with their brilliant sitting and listening skills.

They were fabulous abassadors for the school and we are so proud of them.

Year 4 have had a busy and exciting week in school, filled with creativity, curiosity, and learning across many subjects. In English, the children have been writing persuasive letters to the President of Brazil, urging him to take action to stop deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. They produced some passionate and well-reasoned arguments, explaining how deforestation harms both the environment and the lives of indigenous people. The class worked hard to include persuasive language and strong evidence to support their points of view.

In maths, Year 4 have been developing their skills in column addition. They have been adding four-digit numbers, often involving multiple exchanges, and demonstrating great perseverance and accuracy. Now that we have mastered addition, the next step will be using the same methods for subtracting.

In geography, the class began exploring the topic of different climates. They investigated why various parts of the UK experience different levels of rainfall and temperature throughout the year. The children were fascinated to discover which areas are the wettest and coldest in the country – and were relieved to learn that Bristol didn’t top either list! This led to some thoughtful discussions about how geography and climate affect people’s lives.

One of the highlights of the week was joining Years 3 and 5 on a trip to a local concert hall to listen to a string quartet. The children loved hearing live classical music and were captivated by the skill of the musicians. They had the opportunity to ask questions between pieces, learning more about the instruments and how the musicians work together. It was a wonderful experience – one that we hope has inspired lots of excitement and appreciation for music.

In Year 5 this week, the children have been busy consolidating their rounding skills in Maths and then applying these skills to help them to approximate. They played a fun game on Monday whereby they made a 4 or 5 digit number by throwing dice and then had to put their counters on the nearest 1000 or 10,000 to that number. If they got four counters in a row, before their partner did, they won! There a buzz of excitement in both rooms, along with stiff competition! A lot of fun was had!

In Science the children have been wowing us with their knowledge of Space, planets and the Solar System. Not one Science lesson passes by without some of the children sharing their fun facts that they’ve learnt through reading or watching information clips. This week’s focus has been on Planet Earth and we’ve been seriously impressed by some very creative and informative fact files. Keep up the good work Year 5!

It’s been another busy and exciting week in Year 6! On Monday, we were lucky enough to visit the Redgrave Theatre for a talk by author Ross Montgomery. He spoke about his journey as a writer and shared fascinating insights into how he creates his stories. The children found his advice both inspiring and practical — especially his tips on building characters and developing imaginative plots. Many of us came away full of new ideas for our own writing!

Back in class, creativity has continued to flourish. In Literacy lessons, we have been working in pairs to write imaginative job adverts for a teaching position at Hogwarts – inspired by our Harry Potter Literacy text.  Here are two fabulous examples written by Bear and Atticus, and Annie-Apani and Alfie.

Quidditch  Master

Location: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Set in the heart of the romote ,unique and beautiful Scottish highlands , lies Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Known for its exceptional high quality education ,it also is rated OUTSTANDING by Owlsted. Quidditch is the game that the magical community plays and Hogwarts is renowned for its outstanding Quidditch players. Your role would be to carry on our worldwide legacy. We are looking for a teacher of excellence: a teacher that is able to run our quidditch matches like never before.

The successful candidate will be responsible for teaching our wonderful students how to fly a broom, how to steer a broom and how to take off and land a broom. You will also be refereeing all matches and teach an advanced training session to the gifted seekers twice a week.

Applicants must be highly skilled flyers that have perfect balance, sharp reflexes and a high spirit for this sport. A calm attitude and a fun sense of humour is important for children so they can have a good experience.

This is a live-in role, with food and accommodation provided, overlooking the Whomping Willow in our extensive grounds .Occasional tournaments may require travelling by hippogriff to other schools such as Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. 

If you believe you can help our students to take to the skies with passion and skill, please send your application and flying record to professor Dumbledore by the next full moon

  Join us where the sky is only the mere limit.

By Bear and Atticus

Headmaster Wanted

Location: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Scotland

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry are currently seeking a new Headmaster (don’t ask what happened to the last one) on their premises and it could be you! Hogwarts is an amazing school, known worldwide for their impeccable ethos and moral compass. Hogwarts has received an outstanding rating from the M.S.R(Magic School Report).

The successful candidate will be responsible for all children and teachers who reside here; protect them from danger and maintain their health. Your main duties will include: checking on the students regularly and making sure that the school has justice for the un-just. It is necessary in this role to not be afraid to fire or hire teachers. The post also includes supporting teachers during: an existential crisis, teaching and lunch break. This role will be challenging in many ways such as: keeping the school in ship-shape condition and making sure that there is no bullying whatsoever. You will be required to ensure that all students at Hogwarts are showing the school rules which include: being kind, respecting others(including children and visitors),no brooms for first years and no non magic gum!

This role is available to anyone, no matter where you come from - we will always take your application into consideration no matter of your background. Interviews will take in assemblies. We request that during the interview, you stay with us for up to seven days and nights. If you would like to apply for this job your application deadline is Saturday the 11th of October 2025. Please contact us at 0764878486 for more information or email us @OWLSATHOGWARTS.com/uk. 

We look forward to seeing you on soon. You could be the one!

By Annie-Apani and Alfie

In art, we have been busy completing watercolour paintings for our Harry Potter Potion Room display. We have also designed our own Christmas cards, which are being sent off to be professionally printed. These will be available to purchase soon – well done Year 6!

Last week, a group of our children represented Christ Church at the Ashton Park Cross Country Competition — and what a wonderful afternoon it was! The sun was shining, music was playing, and the atmosphere was full of energy and encouragement.

Pupils from Years 3 and 4 raced together, followed by the Year 5s and finally the Year 6s, with every runner showing great effort and enthusiasm. It was fantastic to see so many children putting themselves forward to take part and support one another.

A special mention goes to Millie in Year 5 for being the only girl in her class to compete, to Alessio for his determination to finish in style, and to Hugo for an outstanding performance — finishing 3rd out of 150 runners! What an achievement!

We are delighted to share that one of our chosen charities this year at Christ Church Primary School is the Bristol North West Foodbank, a fantastic local organisation supporting families in our community.

On Tuesday, we were pleased to welcome Emma and Janet from the Foodbank, who shared a lovely story with us about Felix the Hungry Foodbank Caterpillar. With a little help from his friends, Felix collected food to support those in need — a wonderful reminder of how small acts of kindness can make a big difference.

From next week, we’ll begin collecting donations for our Harvest Appeal, and after half term, we’ll also have a collection box available in school for ongoing contributions. Please keep an eye on the newsletter for updates on the key items the Foodbank is currently requesting.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support and generosity towards our chosen charity.