Newsletter – 28-Jun-24

KS2 Performances

Years 3 and 4: Jill and Fred’s Most Hysterical Historical Adventure

Tuesday 9th July – Dress Rehearsal at 1.45pm (grandparents welcome, maximum 2 guests per child).

Wednesday 10th July – Main Performance @ 1.45pm (Maximum 2 guests per child due to the Hall’s capacity, plus siblings). 

Years 5 and 6: Aladdin

Monday 15th July – Dress Rehearsal at 1.45pm.

Monday 16th July – Two performances at 1.45pm and 6pm 

(Maximum 4 guests per child plus siblings, due to the Hall’s capacity. First come first served).

A google form will be sent out to parents next week, (week commencing Monday 1st July).

Numbers will be capped for each performance, so tickets on a first come first served basis.

Non-school uniform – Friday 5th July

Pupils will be able to wear non-school uniform on Friday 5th July in exchange for a bottle donation towards the PTA Summer Fair bottle tombola. These donations will be collected by the PTA outside the school gate on the morning of Friday 5th July.

The Priory Fete – Saturday 6th July

Dear Parents and Carers

Dear Parents and Carers,

BMX Champion Visit

Thank you very much to Sarah-Jane (SJ) Nichols for coming back to the Priory (she is an ex Priory pupil!) and talking about the sport of BMXing. SJ has been a British, European and World Champion BMX competitor. Her first success was during the 1980s but has recently started competing again and is currently Number 2 in the world in the 40+ age bracket!

It was an inspirational assembly featuring a Q&A session with Arthur for Year 3 who also competes in BMX racing at a national level. 

Student Charity Enterprise

Well done to this young man for showing great initiative in finding out about poverty, then writing and selling books about the subject to inform other people. The books were sold for £1 at the stay and play event. Not only did he write the book, but this community-minded boy chose to give 20% of the profits to the school, and  80% of the profits to the homeless charity, Shelter. 

Let the voting begin

To help the pupils learn about the British value of Democracy and voting, we are going to have a whole school vote about our whole school art project. We have a large piece of art at school which is due for a change. Mrs Britt, our Art Lead, is putting forward some ideas to the student council who will form a shortlist. Then this will be shared to all classes and pupils will be able to cast their votes in the ballot box! We are planning for the ballot to take place on 4th July, the same day as the general election. 

The last week of our June “Festival of Sport” has been a busy one! 

On Tuesday World Champion Triathlete and Priory mum Kate Robson put our KS2 children through their sporting paces with a super fun ‘triathlon’. Children made use of the athletics running track to try combining 3 events in triathlon style. It was a blistering hot day but sadly we couldn’t persuade Mr Walsh to put in a pool for the occasion so we improvised – swapping the swim for elephant walks and the bike riding for skipping but at least the running remained! It was all great fun and the children enjoyed the experience immensely. Kate is a sporting inspiration for the children and they were all impressed by her achievements and sporting enthusiasm. Thank you Isla (Y5) & Cohen’s (Y3) mum!

Also on Tuesday Mrs Adams and Mrs West took seven Year 6 pupils to They Vyne School to compete in the local round of KS2 Quad Kids Athletics.

As the sun shone down the children competed in a range of activities which included; sprints, long distance, standing long jump and Howler throws. The aim was to accumulate as many points as possible for your team. At the end of a very hot two hours the group did brilliantly bringing home the small school’s trophy. It was an incredibly competitive line up of local schools and the children did their very best to work hard and support each other as always!

On Thursday it was the turn of some of our younger children to compete in an KS1 area athletics competition hosted here at school. Both teams of our younger children put on an amazing performance to come 3rd and 4th overall. The children were led by Mrs Hughes who was particularly impressed with their long distance running and the sportsmanship demonstrated by some of our younger athletes. It was a fantastic afternoon of community sport here on our gloriously sunny school field.

Friday – the last day of our amazing Sports Festival – saw all children taking part in Quidditch lessons. Yes Hogwarts has finally come to The Priory! Sport for all is so important in primary school as we help children build the habit of healthy physical activity. A major driver behind this year’s sports festival has been encouraging children that don’t see themselves as ‘sporty’ and report not enjoying sports to enjoy physical activity. Quidditch hit the spot! It was a fabulous day of improvised broom flight as we re-enacted the game enjoyed by so many in their reading. Happy faces all round!

Our final Inspirational Sports Assembly is taking place as we write. Ex-Priory student and World Champion BMX SJ Nichols will tell us all about her BMX journey as a young person and her rediscovery of the sport as she competes on the world stage again this year some 30 plus years after becoming World Champion! Be sure to check in next week to read all about it.

Star of Wonder Awards

YEAR R: 

YEAR 1: 

YEAR 2: 

YEAR 3: 

YEAR 4: 

YEAR 5: 

YEAR 6: 

Hampshire County Council’s Parkwise Initiative

Over the coming weeks our School’s Junior Road Safety Officers (JRSOs) in year 6 will be delivering short presentations to all of the children at school about the Parkwise Promise run by Hampshire’s travel team. The JRSOs have prepared the presentations themselves and are excited to be delivering and discussing this important message with the rest of the school.

We are all aware of the very current and daily issues that occur along our own road outside of school and so we are going to be educating the children about safe, considerate and responsible parking as well as urging our parent community to do the same and to sign up to the PARKWISE PROMISE.

What is the Parkwise Promise?

In an effort to create a safer environment outside our schools at the beginning and end of the day we are participating in ‘The Parkwise Promise’, a Council led initiative to target dangerous and inconsiderate parking near to schools. Congestion on the roads around our school in the morning and afternoon poses a risk to our children and their families as they travel into school. This can be reduced by more children walking and cycling either all or part of the way into school. However, the school does recognise that there are circumstances when travelling to school by car is the only option. In this case we ask parents to drive and park with consideration.

Below are some points to consider when parking, some are legal requirements:

• Do not park or stop on the ‘School Keep Clear’ zig zags
• Do not park opposite or within 10m (approx. 33 feet) of a junction
• Allow pedestrians better visibility by parking clear of any crossing points
• Unless signposted otherwise, do not park on pavements or verges
• Do not block vehicle access points including driveways
• Keep clear of bus stops or designated bus bays.

Over the course of the next 2 weeks, leaflets and letters will be coming home with the children to explain more about this initiative and the parkwise promise that all parents can undertake.

LOOKOUT FOR OUR NEW PARKING BANNER COMING SOON!

Reporting concerns

Key actions to take if you have a concern that a child is in danger, may suffer harm and maltreatment…

MAKE A REPORT IF…

• If you fear that a child is in immediate danger CALL 999 and report the concern
• IF YOU HAVE CONCERNS AND YOU ARE NOT SURE WHAT YOU SHOULD DO – report your concerns to the DSL and team at school

Alternative options – as a member of the public you can report a concern to Hampshire’s Child Protection Services directly – information about the services is available here – this site provides useful information and learning about a range of abuse as well as what will happen when concerns are reported –

https://www.hants.gov.uk/socialcareandhealth/childrenandfamilies/safeguardingchildren/childprotection

If you are a member of the public and wish to report any welfare/safeguarding concerns DIRECTLY TO CHILDREN’S SERVICES:- you can complete Hampshire’s online form here: online enquiry form

You can report a concern over the telephone and via email –

Phone 0300 555 1384   
Monday to Thursday 8.30am to 5pm
Friday 8.30am to 4.30pm

Email childrens.services@hants.gov.uk     Please note: Emails are dealt with during normal office hours Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. At other times phone our out of hours number.      

Out of hours – Out of hours contact telephone number for Children’s Services Phone 0300 555 1373 

REMEMBER – SAFEGUARDING IS  EVERYONE’S RESPONSIBILITY

Summer Clubs

Please note that there will be two new summer camps running at The Priory this summer and The Oaks will continue to run their summer club at Mortimer St Mary’s.

• 22nd – 26th July:  Summer Camp with Mrs Enticknap

  (a Priory parent and qualified teacher) . Please click here for full details and then click here for the booking form and email to zoe@hillyardmail.com

• 29th July – 16th August: Curveball Summer Camp with Coach Zack

  Please click here for more information and click here to book

• 5th – 23rd August:  The Oaks at Mortimer St. Mary’s

  Please click here for details or email office@theoakschildcare.co.uk for more details.