Parents

Weekly Parent Bulletin - Friday 28th March 2025

Dear parents,

It's been an odd week as I have spent most of it in Manchester at the annual United Learning Headteachers conference. It's been a great event, but I always miss being at school. I think I'm a bit like the Julia Donaldson character 'Stick Man'... I just want to get back to my Avonwood family tree!

Yesterday Year 6 enjoyed a 'Vikings Day' with a team from the Ancient Technology Centre. I'm always delighted to see our "inspiring wonder and intellectual curiosity" mantra being upheld in all year groups, notably Year 6 even with the added challenge of SATs. Our Year 4 pupils also performed a brilliant group ukelele show, it always amazes me that staff can teach whole class instruments like this. Meanwhile Year 3 had their sleepover at Avonwood last night, preparing them for their Year 4 residential next year. Hats off to the staff team that ran this one... getting 60 children to sleep in one hall is quite the accomplishment!

Excitement is building across the school for our Year 4 performance of Aladdin next week! I gather the dress rehearsal went very well on Wednesday, so we look forward to welcoming parents next week. I can't explain how much time, thought (and stress!) goes into planning these shows, so a big thank you to the Year 4 staff team and their helpers for making this new addition happen.

On Monday we host our 2025 'Great Avonwood Bake Off'. More details in the whole school updates below. Our very own Paul Hollywood, Mr Baz, takes his cheif judging duties very seriously. We look forward to being amazed by another set of amazing show stoppers! Ready...steady... bake!

A reminder that on the last day of term, there are no after school clubs with all children collected at 13:30.

Wishing our families celebrating the end of Ramadan on Monday a joyous and happy Eid-ul-Fitr!

Have a great weekend!

Mr Jackson

Whole School Reminders

Avonwood Calendar

You can find a PDF of our school term dates here and it is permanently hosted on our website on the parents' calendar section.

Great Avonwood Bake Off

The count down to our amazing annual 2025 Avonwood Bake Off is on! Children love mixing and licking the spoon and we love to see all those amazing and delicious bakes. Bakes should be dropped off at 8:20am onwards in the foyer on Monday 31st March. Please see the poster for more details. Prizes are up for grabs and everyone wins at the cake stall at the end of the school day where you can purchase a yummy cake!

PTA Quiz Night

Tickets to the Avonwood Quiz Night go on sale on April 1st. This adult only quiz will be held on the evening of May 9th in the school hall. Get your team of up to 6 members together to enjoy this fun evening of quizzing with your friends and family. Just the same as last year, teams will be able to bring their own refreshments and snacks to enjoy on the night. Tickets are priced at £5 per head. Please buy your ticket using this collectiv link remembering to add your team name as a reference/note: https://pay.collctiv.com/avonwood-quiz-79589

We are still in need of parents to help run this years Summer Fair tombola. Please contact your class PTA rep or email avonwoodpta@gmail.com if you can help out. Thank you.

Weekly Year Group Updates

EYFS

Spring in our Step - Don’t forget about our ‘Spring in our Step’ topic finale! This half-term is all about life cycles, signs of spring, planting and growing. To finish this topic, we would like to invite parents into school to join us for an afternoon of planting fun! The afternoon will include activities such as decorating pots, planting, making bird and butterfly feeders for our sensory garden. We would love it if you could join us during our continuous provision time on Thursday 3^rd April 2-2:45pm for this topic finale!

Year 1

Charity Car Wash - On Wednesday 2nd April we will hold our car washing event. Children should wear waterproofs (or old clothes) and wellington boots. School uniform should be brought in school bags so that they can change into this after the event.

Year 2

Junk Model Cars: reminder to bring in the cars that have been made at home as part of the additional homework by Thursday 3^rd April if you would like to race them in the class competition.
School Trip - Look out for the letter that was sent out this week about our class trip to Winchester Science Centre.

Year 3

Swimming Lessons- A polite reminder that a cost of £20 needs to be made on parent pay by Friday 4th April to pay for swimming lessons. Swimming begins on Monday 28th April.
Volcano Project: As a finale of our volcano topic, we have given the children the opportunity to make their own volcano. Please can children bring in their volcanoes the week commencing 31st March as we will be watching them erupt on Wednesday 2nd April. Please note that the children will need to bring in any resources needed to explode their volcano e.g. baking soda, vinegar etc - we will not be providing this.

Year 4

Aladdin Performance: You will have received three tickets to attend the Aladdin performance on Wednesday 2^nd April at 9.05am - we look forward to welcoming you then. They did their first dress rehearsal to an audience on Wednesday and absolutely smashed it!
Trip Reminder: Reminder that the deadline for paying for the Tank Museum Trip is the end of March, any problems please chat to the office ASAP.

Year 5

No updates this week.

Year 6

Lamb heart dissection - Monday 31st March - We understand that some children might not be keen to participate in the lamb heart dissection activity or may prefer to simply observe rather than actively participate. Please rest assured that we will not force anyone to join in. We aim to create a comfortable and supportive learning environment for all students. If there is any information you feel we should know about your child before this activity, please email via the office.
PSHE next week - we will be teaching the topic of gangs and how they can assert control as part of our Jigsaw curriculum. The content covered is age-appropriate. Please feel free to talk to us on the door or contact us via the office if you have any questions.
Buddens Information Talk - Thursday 24^th April - We will be holding an online talk providing additional information about our upcoming residential on Thursday 24^th April at 5:30pm (Join the meeting now). We will record this meeting for anyone who is unable to join us at this time. During the meeting, we will be providing you with more information regarding the specific activities we will be participating in whilst away, and we will be able to answer any questions you may have. A reminder that a kit list was sent out with medical forms - we will recap these during the meeting also. Further information will be sent out via letter closer to the time to clarify final details. In the meantime, if there is anything that you wish to discuss with us regarding your child, please feel free to catch us on the door or contact us via the office.