Dear Parents and Carers,
I am pleased to inform you all that just shy of £900 has been spent on playground games and toys for your children to enjoy during their free time. Purchases were made in collaboration with children, with the children being asked to create ‘wish lists’ with items they would like. Ideas included:
- Velcro bats and sticky balls
- A toy farm
- Chess
- Uno
- More skipping ropes, bean bags and balls
- Skittles
- Frisbees
- Small world play equipment, including farm animals and horses
Two playground ambassadors have been appointed, both Year 6 pupils, following applications for the position. Congratulations to Elsie and Jessie. Our ambassadors have already helped unpack and organised the equipment.
If any families are having a spring clean and are seeking a new home for any board games, chess or draught sets or small world play figures and/or animals, then the school would welcome donations for class wet play options.
Parental/Carer support for pupil’s learning
We are noticing at school that many children are not reading at home, or completing their homework. We would respectfully ask all parents and carers to support their children at home with any school work sent home. There are direct links to pupil progress and the amount of support children receive at home, be this hearing a child read, practicing letter recognition and formation, playing games (noticing the patterns on a dice) and learning turn taking.
We will be emailing out our home/school agreement in the forthcoming week, which we will be encouraging all pupils and parents/carers to sign.
Coats and boots
With the inclement weather seeming endless at the moment, please would all parents/carers ensure that children have a coat (with a hood) and boots in school on a daily basis.
Sports
A reminder that all children should be wearing school PE t-shirt and school jumper, along with dark leggings or tracksuit bottoms for PE lessons. I have noticed a number of brightly coloured, non uniform tops and t-shirts being worn of late by some.
PE days are:
| Oak | Thursday | Friday |
| Chestnuts | Monday | Thursday |
| Beech | Monday | Tuesday |
| Hazel | Monday | Tuesday |
NEWS
THIS WEEK
Hockey Tournament
8 children from Year 5 and 6 participated in the Gillingham Hockey Tournament. Despite the rain, the children played really well with some excellent teamwork and goals scored. We played two matches in the initial round, winning against St George’s 3-0, and losing to Mere 1st team 5-0. This placed us in the 2nd Place group after a small break, where we won our first match against Wyke 2-1, and losing to Motcombe 2-0. The children played well and should be proud of themselves.
GENERAL NEWS
Breakfast Club
Please find below the link for Breakfast Club sign up! We have been asked to reinforce the importance of signing up using the link, to ensure adequate staffing is in place, as well as breakfast food, should it be needed.
Throughout this term Prime Sports, who staff our breakfast club provision had 304 sessions that children were not signed up for, but still attended. As a result, this takes hours of administration time checking and chasing payments, as well as putting staff in a difficult position as they do not know what children to expect each day.
https://primesportscoaching.classforkids.io/camp/138
After School Club
A reminder to all parents to book After School Club slots in advance, as this helps with planning and ensuring staff are on hand to care for children. Bookings for After School Club can be made through the school office.
CLUBS
LEGO Club
This term’s Lego Club challenges are all focused around the winter Olympics. Today’s challenge was to build a ski jumper, our winner’s were Ted and Edie who built a brilliant ski jumper, with skis, ski poles, tree obstacles and a lovely woolly hat.
Please book slots using the links provided or via the school office
| Clubs | Day & Time | Year Group | Led by | Cost |
| Lego Club | Mondays
15.30 – 16.30 |
Miss Buxton | Cost per half term (see link for cost) https://kwbclubs.ecwid.com/Stower-Provost-Community-School-Monday-Dorset-Spring-Term-1-2026-Monday-p624603022 | |
| SPAG & Reading SATs Club | Mondays
15.30 – 16.30 |
Year 6 | Mrs Clasby | Free |
| Tennis Club | Tuesdays
15.30 – 16.30 |
Chestnut & Oak
KS2 children |
Prime Sports | Free – school supported
Booking will be taken w/b 6th Jan, with a link sent to parents. |
| Maths SATs Club | Wednesdays
15.30 – 16.30 |
Year 6 | Mrs Clasby | Free |
| Basketball Club | Fridays
15.30 – 16.30
|
Chestnut and Oak
KS2 children |
Prime Sports | Free – school supported
Booking will be taken w/b 6th Jan with a link sent to parents. |
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Usborne Book Sale
Our lovely friend Hayley will be visiting from Usborne books on parents evening, please help support our school library as for every purchase you make, the school gets a percentage of the sales back as free books.
School holiday arts and sports activitiesfor Dorset children who need additional support
Artz+ Sportz+ is funded and organised by Dorset Council
dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/sport-leisure/artz-sportz
Booking – Places must be booked in advance. If demand is high, we will
allocate places. We can supply details of how we do this fairly on request.
Unless otherwise stated, activities cost £7.65 per child for 2-3 hours,
£10.20 for 4 hours and £12.85 for 5 hours or more. There is a 20% subsidy
for those on income-based benefits.
To book email leisure@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk stating your name, address,
telephone number, chosen workshop(s), number of spaces and child
name(s).
Bookings close on Wednesday 28 January and allocation will take place on Thursday 29 January. After allocation, any remaining places will be advertised on www.facebook.com/ArtzSportz
Please see the attached for further information.
5th February KS2 Dance Festival at Mere Primary School 8.40 depart and 12.15 return.
Half term events for families
I have been asked to share information on behalf of Dorset’s rural arts charity, Artsreach, about the events that are taking place in partnership with rural community volunteers across Dorset this February half term.
With the support of Dorset Council and Arts Council England, Artsreach provides opportunities for children to experience to professional live performances and creative workshop activities in their local communities. Tickets are available from as little as £6, and events this half term are taking place in:
North Dorset: East Stour, Child Okeford and Sturminster Newton
West and Central Dorset: Cerne Abbas, Litton Cheney and Broadwindsor
East Dorset: Hinton Martell and Sixpenny Handley
You can see all of the events here: https://artsreach.co.uk/whats-on/category/young-people
PTFA FUNDRAISING
There is no better time to support the school using the Easy Fundraiser app. It is easy to download on your phone, and raises funds for the school without having to do anything, other than going through the app to make online purchases.
Remember businesses can use our Easy Fundraiser page too. Larger items like insurance and travel can also be purchased through the Easy Fundraiser page.
You can raise even more money by asking others to join the merry throng – use the QR code!
How it works: Easyfundraising partners have over 7,000 brands who will donate part of what you spend to a cause of your choice. It won’t cost you any extra. The cost is covered by the brand.
https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/panel/
CLASS NEWS
OAK
This week, Oak have been involved in a wide variety of learning activities. We sang a new song in spelling and started some grammar work about expanded noun phrases and fronted adverbials. In writing, we started a draft copy of our persuasive letter from Oliver Twist. In science, we checked the properties of a variety of materials…but that lead to some classification difficulties. Just what exactly does strong mean? As part of our Oliver Twist English work, we had a Victorian day, where we tried a variety of activities including rote learning, singing all the verses of the National Anthem, oakum picking, writing on slates, cross stitch, using dip pens (messy) and writing in copperplate handwriting. We allowed left handed children to use their favoured hand – although this may not have happened the Victorian days. We also looked at some old documents which included a school punishment book as well as school illness data ( a lot of lung problems!) We looked briefly at children and adults in prison and thank to Mr Chappell, we compared them to modern prisons.
Remember SATs club year 6:
Monday 3.30 to 4.30 (SPAG/reading)
Wednesday 3.30 to 4.30 (maths)
The club is open to any year 6s who wish to widen their knowledge in an informal environment – but there is a lot of hard work to be done.
CHESTNUTS
It has been another busy and productive week in Chestnut Class!
In English, the children let their imaginations run wild to develop unique characters. Beyond just storytelling, we have been sharpening our linguistic tools by using descriptive language to build vivid settings and applying persuasive language to help characters navigate their journeys.
During our Science we spent time identifying different types of forces in action and pinpointing their specific contact points. The students did a fantastic job describing how these forces interact and directly influence the movement of objects.
Finally, in Geography, the children participated in a hands-on investigation of various rock properties, using their “detective skills” to decide whether their samples were sedimentary, metamorphic, or igneous.
BEECH
This week’s book focus is Spy Fox, which we have done a guided retelling of and then the children have started to draw a comic book strip of their own spy story. In Maths this week, Year 1’s have been looking at how to show numbers 6-10 as five and a bit as well as odds and evens. Year 2’s have been looking at the 10 times tables and starting to look at the 5 times tables.
In other learning, the children have been looking at the types of landmarks in Geography. The children have continued to thoroughly enjoy their use of BeeBots within Computing and using junk modelling for houses during ‘Outdoor Learning’.
HAZEL
This week has been full of self-portraits. The children have made self-portraits out of playdough, drawn around their facial shadow and played guess who, and improved upon their painted self-portrait from last week. The children went on a nature hunt and created a nature necklace, played a mirroring game where they mirrored their partners actions, and listened to songs and nursery rhymes from around the world.
DIARY DATES
Dates in red have been added to the diary list this week.
| Date | Time | Information |
| 16th Jan | 14.55 | Praise and Celebrate Assembly |
| 19th Jan | 15.30 | No SATs Club |
| 23rd Jan | 14.55 | Praise and Celebrate Assembly |
| 30th Jan | 14.55 | Praise and Celebrate Assembly |
| 3rd Feb | 15.30 – 17.30 | Parent/Carer Meetings
Parents with children on the SEN register will be invited to meetings on a separate date tbc. |
| 5TH Feb | 8.40 – 12.15 | KS2 Dance Festival at Mere Primary School |
| 5th Feb | 15.30 – 17.30 | Parent/Carer Meetings
Parents with children on the SEN register will be invited to meetings on a separate date tbc. |
| 6th Feb | 08.30 | Big Bap Friday – sausage and bacon rolls.
Please order and pay in cash by 4th Feb to the office. |
| 6th Feb | 14.55 | Praise and Celebrate Assembly |
| 12th Feb | 15.20 | Half Term starts |
| 13th Feb | All Day | INSET DAY (No school for children) |
| 16th Feb – 20th Feb | HALF TERM | |
| 23rd Feb | 08.50 | First day of second half of term |
| 27th Feb | 14.55 | Praise and Celebrate Assembly |
Best wishes,
Mrs B