All Saints Church School

Ladies Walk, Montacute, Somerset, TA15 6XG Tel: 01935 826626 Fax: 01935 825788

e-mail: office@allsaints.bwmat Head Teacher: Mrs Sharon Bowditch BAQTS

Friday 3rd July 2020

Dear Parent and Carers

It is hard to believe we are approaching the end of the summer term. I am so very proud of how all

children, both at home and in school, continue to adapt and make the very best of the current situation. We

are all looking forward to seeing all our home learners return to school over the next couple of weeks to

take part in our shuffle up days. You should all have now received, via Schoolzine, the day, date and time

for your child’s allocated shuffle up session.

As mentioned in previous letters, I want to write to update you as much as I can with further information as

to how we intend to move forward in these unprecedented times. Please find below my thoughts and

actions with regards to summer holidays and September.

September: As mentioned previously I have been awaiting information and guidance from the Government

in order for us to re-affirm the plans we have made for September. Yesterday the Government released

their guidance with the intention for all children to return to primary settings and that each class will be

referred to as a bubble. Many of our current processes will continue, but with contained groups of children.

Now that I have this information, I will update our Risk Assessment and share it with you next week, along

with further plans.

Summer Holidays: During the summer holidays, the school will be closed. Before the end of this term,

Teachers will provide some activities and tasks on the website that are optional for children to complete.

Dates will also be published, specifying when staff will be available, should you have pressing concerns

during the holidays. The holiday periods are important for the staff and children to recharge in readiness for

the new term, which will once again present another change to our normal routine. For all of us, this period

has provided different challenges of varying scales and it will be important that we all have a break and

prepare for a very busy 2020/2021.

Curriculum: Due to the nature of recent events, our children will have had a wide range of experiences in

relation to their learning. Therefore, we are planning a ‘Recovery Curriculum’ that will aspire to the concept

of equality of opportunity for all and provide a base line of learning by recapping and developing key skills

and knowledge that all children will experience. The intention being to prepare all children for the next

steps in their learning journey. Each class will develop a ‘Recovery Curriculum’ plan which will be shared

on our website soon. Again, I will write to you before the end of this academic year with more details.

Ordering Meals: During the first part of the Autumn term, we will not be offering hot school meals but will

instead offer packed lunches which will be safer and considerably more efficient for delivering to the

children in their classrooms. As before, children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are eligible for Universal

Infant School meals and there is no cost for this. We will continue to provide Free School Meals to those

who are eligible, and all other children will have the option to purchase lunches at a cost of £2.50 a meal. I

will review this during the first two weeks of our return.

Wrap around care: This is being discussed next week. I will once again inform you of our decisions and

logistics once details have been finalised.

Return of library books: Please can we ask that all library books, that were taken home before lockdown,

are returned to school before the end of term. We will place the books in quarantine before placing them

back on our shelves ready for September. There will be a box in the entrance foyer for books to be

returned.

Reports: Later today you will all be receiving your child’s school report. Teachers have reported on your

child’s learning from September 2019 to March 20th 2020. There is no Government expectation that

attendance is reported on this year due to the pandemic. Please can you fill in the parental comment form

attached to your child’s report and return it to the school office via Schoolzine. Many thanks.

Fond farewells: It is with great sadness that we say farewell to Mrs Harvey this term. Mrs Harvey will be

retiring having worked at All Saints since the school opened in 1997 and before that at Montacute Primary

school. Mrs Harvey has dedicated her working life to supporting so many children throughout the years.

She has been a much-loved Teaching Assistant, lunch time supervisor and netball coach over the years

and will be dearly missed. Mrs Harvey is not only an amazing Teaching Assistant, who has given so much

to so many children, but also a very dear friend to us all. We wish her all the very best as she embarks on

the first of many grandparenting duties.

We will also be saying farewell to Mrs Siegle who has also given her heart to All Saints. Mrs Siegle

originally supported the school as a Governor, followed by a role as a Teaching Assistant. Mrs Siegle has

become a friend to us all and we cannot thank her enough for all the hard work she has carried out, in her

various roles, during her time at All Saints. We wish Mrs Siegle all the very best.

Thank you once again for all you support.

To find out about all the exciting learning that has been taking place across the school and at home, please

continue to read.

Kind regards

Mrs Bowditch

Acorns Acorns have continued to take part in a range of fun activities both at home and at school. Their topic “Ready, Steady…Grow!” has looked at a range of life cycles including that of the butterfly and of frogs; the pupils at school even saw a frog during their PE session that had jumped down the bank from the pond! The children have also been learning about what plants need in order to grow as well as thinking about the importance of eating a range of healthy food, with a particular focus on ‘eating a rainbow’ of fruit and

vegetables.

Armed Forces Day Last week, pupils at school and at home took part in a virtual assembly that had a focus on Armed Forces Day. Pupils were encouraged to reflect on work carried out by the military to keep us safe, particularly thinking about how Armed Forces personnel have supported the building of Nightingale hospitals as well as delivering medical supplies and transporting patients across the country. We have many connections to RNAS Yeovilton within our own school community and are all very grateful for the work that they do. Thank you for all of the support that has been shown for Armed Forces Day; please see a collection of photos below of All Saints pupils and staff saluting our forces.

Miss Cameron Class 1 have been very busy with their learning at home and at school. Bubbles 3 and 4 have been sharing socially distanced PE sessions! We have practised ball skills this week, in particular we focused on dribbling the ball and a ready running position. We have also been working on our core agility skills, with

body weight exercises such as squats, star jumps and lunges. Miss White Class 2 have been very busy. We started a new topic called Trading places where we are looking at life in

Brazil and life in the UK. We have learnt how

carnivals are a big part of life and have used

wonderful adjectives and adverbs to

describe floats and carnival costumes. This

week our English work is to follow

instructions and make a carnival mask – we

are looking forward to sharing photos with

each other to see what we have all done.

The Amazon rainforest has provided us with

lots of activities – we have learnt to draw

many of the animals in our art and we have

used computer programmes to sort the

different animals using sorting programmes.

We are spending time using a book called Augustus and his smile. We started by listening and reading the story and then sequenced the ideas in the story but turned it into a diary. Alicia completed her sequencing on the computer whilst Ella printed hers and drew the parts if the story

Over the week we built up our diary writing to turn the whole story

into a diary. We were very impressed with all he language features

that the children were able to include. Again, the children chose

whether to use the computer and word process their work or

handwrite it and send me a photo.

Lots of our maths work was linked to Brazil. We looked at shapes and symmetry in

football pitches, measured and solved problems about the huge statue of Christ the

Redeemer in Rio and then used our measuring skills to measure the length and

width of a variety of paw print of Amazon animals. Ruby presented her work clearly

when she looked at the paw prints.

We know that there are many people who live in crowded cities in Brazil. We

solved a problem thinking about all the possible combinations in which their

houses could be built. Bethan was lucky to have some multilink at home and

used that to help her solve the problem.

William completed his geography work by printing the activity. He spent time

finding out all about Brazil, its language, flag and special facts about it,

including where in the world it is

Mrs Smith

In our key worker bubbles (5, 6 and 7), we have worked on some collaborative art projects. To cheer up

our corridor, we made an ‘under the sea’ collage. Each child worked on their own piece of paper and then

we had the ‘wow’ moment of joining them all up. The corridor certainly looks bright and cheerful now! The

children also created natural art in the forest area, braving the mixed weather conditions! They have also

supported each other’s topic learning making a range of Roman and Native American artefacts.

In Class 3 we have been very busy learning about the Romans. The topic has been enriched by lots of

creative activities. In the first week on this topic we learnt about Roman entertainment. The children

researched chariot racing, amphitheatres, theatres and the Roman baths. Here are some of the creations

linked to this learning.

The children also learnt about Roman numerals in maths. They used what they knew about Roman numerals to make some Roman coins to put in the Roman purses they made. They also worked on a mosaic maths problem involving symmetry. The children have also written leaflets and diary entries using the knowledge they have used about Roman life.

This week we have learnt about the Roman army and they have imagined they are applying for a job in the

army using all the knowledge they have learnt. The children loved making Roman catapults and are also

going to make shields and Roman sandals this week too!

Mrs O’Donnell

In Year 4, the children have been working on finding out the properties of shapes, angles and symmetry in maths. They have been creating symmetrical designs, making triangles using straws and sorting quadrilaterals depending on their properties.

In English, the children have been learning the story of Pocahontas and then written their own version based on meeting someone new. They have also learnt about how America was discovered and what life was like on board ship.

By Rachel

By Rhia

Continuing with our Native American topic, the children have created some wonderful arts and crafts. They have also been using Google Earth and maps to discover more about America and its landscape.

Mrs Holt and Mrs Roberts

Class 5 have been looking at poetry using the wonderful Michael Rosen Poem ‘These are the hands’ (His

tribute the NHS) as our inspiration.

Here is Charlie’s Version – These are the eyes…

These are the eyes that... These are the eyes that flames burn before that put out danger that save the area Find the equipment And that are never late These are the eyes that are always there That save your soul drag you out of the blue get the boats out quick that always come out to sea scoop you up put you down These are the eyes that save not our lives but animals That fix the wound Stich back together save a mammal’s life do the best they can and never give up These are the eyes that save the world...

As part of our fortnightly project work on life and living things, the children looked at a variety of life

processes, pollination and life cycles. They were also asked to find out about the naturalist Charles Darwin.

Here is the work of Matilda on life cycles and Charles Darwin, and an example of work from Lilly which was

completed, labelling the part of a flower.

Alongside this science work, the children were also asked to discover environmental materials that they

could use in order to create a natural picture frame. Here is Evelyn’s creation.

Mr Hutchings

Class 6

Wow! What a year we have had. As we enter our final weeks in Year 6 we can hopefully all look back with extremely fond memories; memories that have been touched significantly by a piece of history. Class 6 left the classroom on March 20th and none of us knew what was ahead of us. However, each member has worked so hard and what really comes through is the strength of teamwork throughout the whole class – we are so proud of every member of our class.

Furthermore, we are delighted that most of Class 6 have been able to return. It is wonderful to still have contact with our home learners through TEAMs and even though we are in bubbles there is still a strong sense of unity. We all enjoy hearing our lesson on TEAMs and then coming together live so that we can continue to share our learning. The last few weeks have really shown the bonding between all our class. We love to see each bubble welcome the members of Class 6 to the marquee in the morning. The bubbles have enabled so many children to find their voices and participate more in discussions; discussions that have needed trust and respect over the last few weeks where we have been learning about relationships. What a wonderful Class you all are – thought provoking discussions and caring words to your peers, it has been a pleasure to teach you all.

This week has seen more teamwork, from a distance, as we have been designing and making our banner. It has been challenging to support needle threading and knotting of thread but with patience, each bubble has found their resilience and are all proud of their sewing. The ideas thoughtfully express this unique year; you will all have to wait to see the final unveiling.

Also there has been a wonderful buzz as each bubble has been taking on different roles through English and drama. We have been learning all about job roles, personal statements and interviews. The interviews for managing a chocolate business ‘Chocofabs’ began this week. It has been amazing to hear the children speak out and skilfully add ‘experiences’ to their interview answers. The topic work has continued excitedly into maths where we have been collating data and working on market research to use previous knowledge and work out how to run a glove business at a profit. There are some entrepreneurs in class, without a doubt.

We are looking forward to sharing the last few weeks together with some special times for what is a very special group of children

Mr Ross and Mrs McKenzie