Abbey Road Primary School, Tewkesbury Close, West Bridgford, Nottingham, NG2 5ND

Tel: 0115 9748055 E-mail: office@abbeyroad.notts.sch.uk

Dear Parents/Carers

Bugsy Malone

Our Year 6 pupils took to the stage at Rushcliffe School last week as they performed Bugsy Malone to family and friends. Each and every member of the cast played their part brilliantly and I was extremely proud as I watched them all perform with such confidence and enjoyment.

Performing on a stage with accompaniment from a live band is quite a magical experience and I hope that memories from the two nights will remain with the children for many, many years to come.

So many people were involved in making the show such a success – thanks to every single person for giving their time, effort and energy. Costumes, scenery, lighting, music, special effects, acting, dance routines, props… all fantastic!

Farewell and Good Luck Year 6! I know that our Year 6 children still have a few more Abbey Road days to enjoy before they prepare for their move to ‘big school’ but I would like to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of them our very best wishes for the future. The Abbey Road staff team have enjoyed getting to know each individual and watching them grow into fine young people very much ready for the next stage of their education. They are a talented bunch – with plenty of sporting, creative and academic successes between them and we look forward to hearing news of their future achievements. Can I also take this opportunity to thank our Year 6 parents for their support over the years – particularly those who will be reading an Abbey Road newsletter for the last time.

Sundown Adventureland

I had the pleasure of joining Rainbows and Sunshines for a sunny, fun-filled day out at Sundown Adventureland earlier this week. Having packed as much as we could into our day, I don’t know who was the most exhausted by the time we climbed back on board the coach! Many thanks to parents who joined us. Here are just a few photos to show you what we got up to – there are many more on our school website.

Abbey Road News

Open School – Take One Picture

Thank you for joining us at our Open School event last week. I hope you enjoyed meeting with teachers and looking at your children’s work – including our Take One Picture Art Gallery, inspired by the painting ‘George and the Dragon’ by Paolo Uccello. If you were not able to see it first hand, here are just a few photos. The children loved sharing their artwork with each other and I could see how proud they were as they guided you around the hall. We have already decided that this event will become a permanent fixture in the Abbey Road calendar!

Congratulations Abbey Roaders!

Jack Watson, from Year 6, is now the national tumbling champion having secured the highest score at the national finals earlier this month – incredible achievement Jack!

Congratulations to Isabelle Haworth and Harry Steel from Year 5, who have successfully auditioned for The Television Workshop. They were selected from over a thousand applicants and the weekly sessions will provide them with acting training as well as offering them opportunities to audition for parts on both stage and screen.

Rebecca Ekwuru, Farah Akbar, Amarveer Johal and Adam Boydell all represented Nottinghamshire in recent chess competitions. Rebecca earned the title of highest scoring girl

and Farah was presented with a ‘supporting attitude’ award.

Amarveer also played in the 2017 ‘Gigafinal’ last weekend, which was held in Manchester. Although he won three out of his six games, he fell just short of the points needed to put him through to the final stage ‘Terafinal’. Well done to all of our chess players.

Aquanis Education – Supporting with Fundraising

Aquanis are a local supply teacher agency who work with schools to support them in covering staff absence. They have just donated a 7” tablet to school, which we have passed on to the HSA. Thank you to Aquanis for the kind donation… I am sure it will feature as a raffle prize during the term ahead.

Alford Road Crossing

A local resident has registered a petition to introduce a pedestrian crossing to Alford Road, close to the playground and playing fields. Five hundred signatures are needed overall in order for the petition to be presented to NCC County Councillor, Johnathan Wheeler, and less than a hundred are now required. If you would be interested in adding your name, follow this link: https://www.change.org/p/make-it-safer-to-cross-alford-road-to-get-to-the-playground

HSA News

It has been another busy year for our hardworking Home School Association members. They have raised £16,500 this year, which is incredible and a record amount. Unfortunately, our ‘Awards for All’ funding application was rejected as National Lottery monies are currently being directed to smaller organisations but we have been invited to resubmit our bid at a later date. As a result, we are not able to purchase all elements of the proposed outdoor project.

However, in order for the children to be able to benefit from the HSA’s fundraising efforts, the trim-trail element of the project will still go ahead and be in situ for the autumn term. This new play equipment will sit on all-weather surfacing so that it is able to be used by the children throughout the year. The HSA have also agreed to support the purchase of some new IT equipment with some of the remaining funds to help in our delivery of the computing curriculum.

The HSA’s recent sunflower competition proved extremely popular and photos have been flooding in and making us all smile! The winning bloom was 2.3m high and belonged to Tyler Henley from Rainbows. Well done Tyler!

Hicks Lodge

Bike Club members enjoyed their days out at Hicks Lodge National Forest Cycle Centre. Watching the children gain in confidence as they tackled the windy, woodland tracks was wonderful. The ice cream at the end of a day of pedalling was also very welcome! Thank-you to bike club staff and also to the many parents who transported bikes and accompanied the children.

Also on a cycling theme, our 24-hour Cyclathon total now stands at £3,853 plus Gift Aid. Massive thanks and well done to all!

Year 4 Share Their Learning!

Year 4 have really enjoyed studying the book Krindlekrax this half term and so invited their parents to share their learning, together with some tea and toast... the staple diet of the Splinter family! If you don’t know the story, it follows the adventures of Ruskin Splinter and delivers so many important messages around the themes of bullying, bereavement, forgiveness and accepting people for who they are – and cleverly written with plenty of humour too. (Thanks to Mrs Turner for recommending it to me!)

Building Update

We have faced a few (rather frustrating) delays with our front extension project but we remain hopeful that work will begin during the summer holidays. We are also hoping that new fencing will be added to site over the summer holidays too – although we are still awaiting confirmation of funding support from the Local Authority. The new fencing will create a path from the entrance to the main office and make our school site less open to visitors. It will also close off the school carpark so that children accessing lessons from our ‘bungalow’ can cross safely between the two buildings. We will keep you updated via email so that you are aware of what stage we have reached with both projects before the start of the new term.

Reading Record Book Winners

Our literacy team launched a competition earlier this half term, inviting the Key Stage 2 children to design elements of their new Reading Record book. Winners were announced yesterday and, as well as receiving their book token prizes, they also got to see their artwork and words published. Books will be distributed in September. Well done to Molly (Year 3), Edie and Iris (Year 4), James and Martha (Year 5) and Emily (Year 6).

Parent Volunteers

Many of the articles in my newsletters thank our fabulous band of parent volunteers. Parents offer their time and share their skills in so many different ways and in doing so; they enrich the provision for our children.

It was lovely to be able to serve cream teas to some of our many volunteers this week and to be able to say thank-you in recognition of all they do.

So… to all those who support the HSA in fundraising; run after school activities; work as governors; read with the children; join us on school trips and work together with teachers in so many different ways – THANK-YOU!

Mrs Horton is on the lookout for reading volunteers – adults who would be willing to offer a little time each week to listen to children read on a 1:1 basis – helping them to foster a love of reading whilst also developing their fluency and confidence. All our regular volunteers work under the guidance of a teacher and are DBS checked. If you are interested, contact Mrs Horton for more information. tina.horton@abbeyroad.notts.sch.uk

And Finally…

Thank you for taking the time to share your views with us via the parental consultation. I will write to you

next week to share feedback and to let you know some of our plans for the next academic year ahead.

Thank you also for all your support during the last two terms. With help from the whole school community, I

have enjoyed getting to know a whole lot more about Abbey Road. Back in January, I set myself the

challenge of learning every child’s name and, although I still make the occasional error, I am nearly there and

look forward to getting to know sixty new Rainbows and Sunshines in September!

Tuesday 25th July is the last day of term. I hope you all have a lovely summer holiday and we look forward

to seeing you back at school on Thursday 7th September.

Ly Toom