St Benedict’s C. of E. VA Junior School Benedict Street, Glastonbury, Somerset, BA6 9EX Tel: 01458 831811, Fax: 01458 832261 Email: sch.164@educ.somerset.gov.uk Website: www.stbenedictsjuniorschoolglastonbury.org Headteacher: Mr P Ranger
Dream, Believe, Achieve. Newsletter 20
11th February 2019 Dear Mums, Dads & Carers, London Calling! IT’S HERE! After lots of planning and discussion, it’s finally here! Year 6 are visiting London on Wednesday and Thursday this week: amongst the highlights of their trip will be a session in Parliament, a flight on the London Eye and a visit to the incredible Science Museum. If you still have payments outstanding, please contact Mr Ranger/the Year 6 team/office to avoid any issues on Wednesday morning. Please note there will be NO GIRLS’ FOOTBALL CLUB ON THURSDAY. St. Benedict’s Eco Drive… One area I’m keen to focus on this year and into the future, is transforming St. Benedict’s into a more eco-friendly school, looking at ways we can work together to reduce our carbon footprint and do our bit for our universe. Here’s how we’re starting… Cat Class enjoy crafty fun with Bishop Ruth On Thursday 7th February, Cat Class made the short journey to the Glastonbury Scrapstore where they joined Ruth, Bishop of Taunton for a crafting session. Aside from a bit of creative fun, the purpose of the visit was for them to take part in a ‘reusing plastics’ video to be shown in our local diocese. Cat Class received a very clear message about how each of us can do our bit towards improving our environment and created some eye-catching pieces of 3D art. Many thanks for Diana Greenfield for helping to organise the event. SAVE THE DATE: Saturday 30th March: To highlight the reusing plastics issue, Diana and her team are holding a fantastic event at St. Benedict’s Church, during which children and adults can create amazing clothes by re-using materials. There will then be a cat-walk for children, followed by adults, during which everyone can strut their stuff, showing off their fabulous new creations!
Year 6 pupils to become Playground Scrap Stars No, we’re not encouraging fighting on the playground! On Friday, seven Year 6 pupils visited the Glastonbury Scrapstore to load up three trolleys’ worth of Scrap materials: this ‘waste’ material will be transformed into incredible items by our pupils as they use it to engage in role-play and imaginative fun. It’s all part of our drive to ensure pupils have lots of exciting alternatives at break-times.
ECO-BRICKS – saving our planet one brick at a time! Last week, Molly in Year 4 brought her Eco-Brick to school to talk to her classmates about how we can help to re-use plastics that would otherwise be thrown into landfill and pollute the environment for years to come. We’re going to do an assembly together this week, so that the whole school understands Eco-Bricks, then I’d like to encourage everyone to create one as a family to bring into school – I have an idea for how we can use them here at St. Benedict’s (more on this after half-term). For more information, please visit the Eco-Brick website at: www.ecobricks.org Police visit School for pupil talk As a school we are developing a strong relationship with the local police and two officers, PC Mark Hicks and PC Katie Moyse, visited us today to give the children an honest update on some of the issues facing them locally. Our visitors differentiated the assemblies (one for upper school and one for lower school) and the children had opportunities to ask questions throughout. The aim is for our pupils to see the police force as a friendly face and we have plans afoot to set up an even closer link with them – more on this after half term.
Disco Theme announced Our roving Year 6 reporters, Bobby Abbiss and Caleb Redman covered every inch of the school on Thursday 7th February. Their task was to find out what theme the children of St. Benedict’s wanted for our next disco and the result was a unanimous one… FILMS – your favourite film characters. The disco will take place on the first Friday back (1st March), from 6 – 8pm. Tickets will be available after half term. Abracadabra! It’s a Magical World Book Day! – 7th March 2019 Last year, World Book Day celebrations were cancelled due to the heavy snowfall we had in March. This year we have decided to announce a theme: a group of Year 6 girls have been to see me and are passionate about having a ‘Magical’ theme, which we think is a great idea: as part of this, pupils will enjoy some topical lessons on 7 th March. Hopefully this gives everyone time to prepare their outfit for the big day – remember there’s much more to magic in fiction than just Harry Potter, so get creative! Attention on attendance: Each week in Celebration Praise on Fridays, we announce the class with the best attendance for the week, and we thought you might like to see it too! The national expectation is that attendance is over 96% and as a school we are challenged if our attendance falls below this. It is so important to set our children up with the expectation that they attend school/work whenever they are able to, with the obvious exception of serious illness or injury. Many pupils manage 100% attendance over the school year and we salute their resilience! Here are last week’s results: Class: Unicorn Cat Chameleon Owl Spider Tortoise Leopard Peacock
94.3% 100% 94.1% 90.3% 96.9% 93.6% 94.7% 91%
St. Ben’s take on Millfield in local clash: Sixteen excited footballers from Years 3, 4 and 5 got to take on local outfit Millfield in St. Benedict’s latest football outing on Tuesday 5th February. On a cold and dark evening, some fantastic play lit up the Millfield pitches as both games got underway. On Pitch One, St. Ben’s struggled to contain a lively Millfield team, with stout defending by Beren Roberts and Devran Hopkins keeping the home team at bay; keeper Finley Bailey was on on great form repelling the marauders like Hadrian’s Wall. Before long, however, St. Ben’s had fallen behind. Meanwhile, on Pitch Two, it was the reverse as St. Ben’s knocked on the Millfield door, initially rather like an elderly milkman with a slightly arthritic wrist, but then with
increasing vigour and precision leading to the opening goal. In midfield, Hannah Jones was like a Duracell bunny, energetic and irrepressible, with Chloe Christian alongside her on hand time and again to break up Millfield attacks. Back on Pitch One, St. Ben’s were struggling to relieve the pressure with Carter standing out in midfield and Bailey in goal pulling off save after save. With players swapping between the pitches, it was more about the experience than the result, as games like this will prepare next year’s team. On Pitch 2, goals from Ng, Moon and Chant (2) helped to secure a comfortable victory, which was celebrated afterwards as the players enjoyed a post-match dinner of delicious pasta, whilst the supporters warmed up with a mug of tea. A massive well done to all the players and a huge thank you to the parents who came to support as well as to Mr Shaw for driving the minibus.
With best wishes
Piers Ranger The week ahead Tuesday 12th February
Wednesday Thursday
13th February 14th February
Friday
15th February
Monday
25th February
DASH club (8.00 – 8.30a.m); Drama club 3.15 – 4.30 p.m.; Tag Rugby club 3.15 – 4p.m.; Netball club 3.15 – 4 p.m.; Film club 3.15 – 4 p.m. DASH club (8.00 – 8.30a.m.); Glee club 3.15 – 4p.m. DASH club (8.00 – 8.30a.m.); Art club 3.15 – 4 p.m.; Animation club3.15 – 4 p.m.; NO Girls’ football club. DASH club (8.00 – 8.30a.m); Homework club 3.15 – 4 p.m.; Lower school football club 3.15 – 4 p.m.; DASH club (8.00 – 8.30a.m.); Cross country club 12.15 – 12.45; Choir 3.15 – 4 p.m.; Chess club 3.15 – 4.15 p.m.
Half term holiday: Monday 18th – Friday 22nd February. Back to school : Monday 25th February.
Pizza with the Police at the Park Saturday the 2nd of March 2019 1830-2030hrs Glastonbury Skate Park, Beckery Old Road. Come and teach your local Beat Team how to do some tricks on skate boards, bikes or scooters. All ages welcome. Snacks and refreshments will be available (Subject to availability)
With thanks to -