Aston and Cote Church of England Primary School - Aston & Cote Primary School

Aston and Cote Church of England
 Primary School
 “Learning together through courage, love and respect”

Tel: 01993 850435 Fax: 01993 851915
Email: office.3120@aston-and-cote.oxon.sch.uk Website: www.aston-and-cote.oxon.sch.uk
Headteacher: Mrs Fiona Taylor

Spring Term Issue 8 1st April 2021

Dear parents and carers
It has been absolutely fantastic to have the children back in school this month. We have had a very busy few
weeks with lots of amazing learning going on throughout the school including a brilliant Book Week. Our focus
book of Mirror by Jeanie Baker helped the children to consider what life is like for children living in Morocco
and Australia and to compare this to their own lives. The Masked Reader bedtime stories were a great hit with
everyone – I wonder if you guessed who was behind each mask? Our wonderful Reading Ambassadors have
included their Recommended Reads for each age group later in this newsletter – thank you to Immy, Ella-Louise,
Amelie, Edward, Amelia, Charlotte & Ethan
The children thoroughly enjoyed their first week back in school – as well as getting together with friends again,
they enjoyed the STEM Week activities each afternoon. It was also lovely to see to see the brilliant videos
that our Year 6 STEM Ambassadors posted on Class Dojo with suggested experiments that everyone could do
at home – well done to Willow, Ben and Edward for taking responsibility for this.
We have also managed to find time to assess the children in each year group and will use the information
gleaned to inform our planning for next term. Your child’s data will be shared with you at our forthcoming
parent evenings which will once again take place on Microsoft Teams due to current restrictions.
This half term has finished with a flurry of Easter themed activities including RE Day on Monday, an outdoor
Easter trail around the school grounds and a very popular Easter Egg Hunt – thank you so much to FACS who
provided the delicious chocolate eggs at the end.

All that remains to say is thank you once again to all parents and carers for your continued support and to the
whole staff team here at Aston & Cote who have been phenomenal in the most challenging of circumstances. I
wish all of you a very happy Easter and hope that you will be able to enjoy some well deserved family time in the
sunshine together.

Kind regards
Fiona Taylor

Happy Easter from all at Aston & Cote
The children in each class have been busy creating Easter pictures and messages. These
will be displayed in the school carpark this year as we are unable to use St James'
because of COVID restrictions. We hope that you will be able to come in and have a look
at the beautiful art- work and thoughtful prayers and messages that the children have
written.

School Value
Our value next half term will be “Friendship. We will be considering the importance of friendship for all of us,
and that Jesus is a friend to all.
“Encourage one another and build each other up.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Reporting positive cases of COVID 19
 If your child tests positive for COVID 19 during the school holiday, please inform Mrs Taylor via Class Dojo
 immediately so that we can take remedial action if necessary. This is particularly important up until Thursday
 8th April.

 Celebrating Success
 The recipients of the Headteacher’s Awards in March were:

 Windmill 1 Mallory & Jack W
 Windmill 2 Bob & Poppy
 Kingsway Poppy & Liam
 Oatlands Oliver & Grace
 Holywell George & Matthew
 Reedy Oscar R & Savannah
 Westerleigh Charlotte & Ella-Louise

Certificates were once again awarded to children who
demonstrated that they had grown their talents in a whole
variety of ways.

How are we doing?
I received some excellent feedback from many of you during the current lockdown regarding our excellent
remote learning provision as well as the well-being support that was available for all children if needed. We
would be very grateful if you would like to share your thoughts with Ofsted using the following link: How to use
Ofsted Parent View | Ofsted Parent View

Well-being support in school
In addition to the children’s learning being affected during the last year, you may have noticed that your child’s
capacity to socialise has also changed. Lack of focus is another common problem along with an increase in
anxiety. These are common worries that many of you have shared with us. Please be assured that we are
building in opportunities to address all these issues over the coming months and although there are no easy
solutions, we feel positive that we can overcome most of them by working in partnership with parents and
carers. Please do not hesitate to contact your child’s class teacher, if you would like to discuss your child’s
individual needs.

Next term
Arrangements for the start and end of each day will continue as follows:

Windmill 1: 9.05/ 3.05 (Main Gate) Please do not arrive before 9.00 unless your child has older siblings. Please
wait in a single file queue beside the church yard wall.
Windmill 2: 8.50 - 9.00/ 3.00 (Main Gate)
Kingsway: 8.50 - 9.00/ 3.15 (Staff Car Park)
Oatlands: 8.50 - 9.00/ 3.20 (Staff Car Park)
Holywell: 8.50/ 3.10 (Staff Car Park)
Reedy: 8.50/3.10 (Main Gate)
Westerleigh: 8.50 - 9.00/3.20 (Main Gate)

 Please queue responsibly, remembering to stay 1+m apart from the next family and not to block the footpath so
that other parents and children can walk past easily.

The Oxfordshire Book Awards
 The Oxfordshire Book Awards have been running since 2008. They are special
 because the awards are voted for entirely by children, who nominate their favourite of
 the books published that year.
 The aim of these awards is to encourage the participation of children and young people,
 both in participating schools and in the Oxfordshire community, in reading more widely,
 as well as to promote the enjoyment of reading amongst young people. The voting
 process encourages children to encourage in lively debate, discussion and critical
 appreciation of books.

 The award has three categories:
 Best Book (Secondary School Category) - Shortlist available from Browns Books for Students at
 40% discount.
• Best Book (Primary School Category) - Shortlist kindly provided FOC to participating state schools by
• Oxford High School.
• Best Picture Book (Primary School Category) - Shortlist kindly provided FOC to participating state schools
• by Oxford High School.

 We are lucky enough to have been donated a copy of every book on this year’s shortlist and, as a
 school, we will be voting for the book we enjoy the most!

 Here are this year’s nominations:

 Primary Novel Shortlist:

 Picture Book Shortlist:

 You can find out more about the awards by visiting the website: www.oxfordshirebookawards.com

Windmill 1 and Windmill 2- The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr

A little girl gets a big surprise when a tiger knocks on her front door! She invites

him in for tea but his appetite is bigger than expected!

You should read this book if you enjoy stories about animals doing cheeky things!

Recommended by Charlotte, Ella-Louise and Ethan

Kingsway and Oatlands- Lubna and The Pebble by Wendy Meddour and Daniel Egneus

When a little girl feels sad and lonely, she makes an unexpected new friend! She learns

How important it is to have friends and learns to help others who are also feeling lonely.

This book is great for anyone who loves a story with a happy ending.

Recommended by Mrs East

Holywell and Reedy-George’s Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl

This is a very funny story about a little boy who makes a medicine that will

make his Grandma grow so tall that she goes through the roof! You should

read this book if you want a good laugh!

Recommended by Edward and Immy

 Westerleigh- The Girl of Ink and Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

 If you like an adventure story and mythical creatures, then this book is for you.

 Isabella, forbidden to leave her island, dreams of a faraway land her father once

 mapped. When her best friend disappears, she uses an ancient map and the stars

 to try to find her! Recommended by Amelie and Amelia

Hi there, Mrs Gardner here! I just wanted to say a huge
 “Thank you so much!” to those of you who have given us
 their empty, flattened, any branded crisp packets. Two
 big boxes have been sent off to Terracycle this week!!
 Also, thank you to the helpful hands of some of Holywell
 Class who helped to sort, organise and pack the boxes
 up.
 I’ll let you know how many packets we’ve prevented from
 going to landfill as soon as I find out our brand new
 total.
 Just a reminder that they do not accept popcorn bags,
 crisp tubes, pretzel bags or meat snack bags. Just the
empty, flat crisp packets please 
 There’s plenty of room in the pouch box for more rinsed out and
 emptied ‘any branded’ baby food pouches and or kids yoghurt
 pouches. Get saving them up over the Easter break!

 NEWSPAPERS
 We are asking for any
 appropriate newspapers to
 be donated to school as we
 often use these to cover
 tables during Art and DT
lessons and we’re running low
 on our supplies.

 We’ve still got our battery
 collection going too, there’s It’s SO good to see some classes have
 a big battery box by the planted some fruit/ veg/ flower seeds
 office door that your child and bulbs, the grounds are looking very
 can drop them into on their spring like- well done!
 way to their classroom.

FACS Newsletter
 With the Easter holidays approaching we just wanted to keep you all updated with upcoming FACS
 activities especially our “Eggciting” Easter Egg Picture Trail Also if you are interested in finding
 out more about FACS and how you can help please do join us for our AGM on Tuesday 27 th April at 8pm
 via Zoom. Please do come along 

 Upcoming Fundraising
1. Easter Egg Picture Trail – Put on your bunny ears and hop around the village looking for Easter Egg
 Pictures. Maps will be available in Aston Community Shop from the 2 nd April. The trail will run from
 Friday 2nd April – Sunday 18th April – a great activity for the Easter holidays and whilst you are out and
 about you could get some “Street Tag” points for the school as well. Then let us know how many eggs
 you spot and be entered into the prize draw for a prize kindly donated by Aston Repair Depot – thanks
 Andy!

2. Last Will and Testament Vouchers – Hopefully you will have seen the ParentMail about this, FACS
 have been kindly donated 100 vouchers to purchase last will and testament packs. We ask that if you
 purchase a pack that you donate whatever funds you think are reasonable to FACS at
 https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/14459 If you want more information please email Elaiza McHale on
 protectyournest@outlook.com or contact us at facsaston@gmail.com Please share with your friends
 and family too if they are interested.

3. Rags2Riches4Schools - Please help us by donating your good quality unwanted, re-useable (clean, dry
4. and wearable) clothes and accessories. FACS receive 40p for each kilo. Date of collection is Thursday
 22nd April. For the last collection we raised over £200 so please do find all those unwanted clothes!

5. Online shopping, please don’t forget you can easily donate by doing your shopping through Amazon
 Smiling and Easy Fundraising
 https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/friendsofastonandcoteschool
 https://smile.amazon.co.uk/ch/1032385-0

6. Donations – If you simply want to donate or have any family members that would like to donate to the
 school, this can always be done through our CAF link - https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/14459

We are continuing to raise money for playground markings for the children to enjoy once they are all back
at school. Each marking set costs around £1000 each so the more money we can raise the more exciting we
can make those playgrounds look! So please if you can help or any family members want to help support
FACS please do 

Thanks again to all for your support so far this school year.

Best wishes
FACS Team

News from Windmill 1

 For the past 2 weeks Windmill 1 have been
 exploring all things DINOSAUR related!
 We have become palaeontologists and
 discovered some real fossils and had a go at
 making our
 own out of salt dough. We found out how
 big a t rex footprint was by comparing it to
 our foot sizes – we could fit 20 pairs of
 shoes inside
 one footprint! In the craft area we have
 been making our own dinosaurs out of junk
 modelling, learning about how to attach
 different materials together.
 During a forest school session, we went on a
 dinosaur egg hunt and had a huge discussion
 about who the eggs belong to and how we
 could look after the eggs.

 What an amazing end of Term!

 News from Windmill 2

Windmill 2 have loved being back at school , learning and playing with our friends. We have settled back
into school life well.

We are consolidating Set 2 sounds in our phonics lessons, started our Read Write
Inc lessons and have been learning about the numbers 9 and 10 in maths. We are
beginning to learn our number bonds to 10 with Farmer Pete. If you would like to
listen to Farmer Pete here is the link
 Farmer Pete song with animation by Sunshine Class (pupils aged 5 years) -
YouTube

 In topic we have been learning about Spring and lifecycles. We loved planting our
 runner beans and telling our learning buddies the life cycle of a bean. R.E we have been
 learning about the Easter Story and how parts of it are happy and parts of it are
 sad. In English we have continues to learn The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. We
 have independently written sentences to sequence the
 story.

World Book Week in Windmill 2

We studied the book ‘Mirror’ by Jeanie Baker page by page, we experienced a day in the lives of two boys
and their families – one from inner city Sydney, Australia and the other from a small, remote village in
Morocco, North Africa.

We located Morocco, Sydney and England on a world map or globe. We can explain
that Morocco is in Africa, Sydney in Australasia and England in Europe.

 We noticed that there was Arabic script in the
 story and learnt to write our names in Arabic,
 writing right to left.

 We created our own magic carpets by weaving
 paper or wool, just as the family in Morocco
 weave the beautiful rugs.

 We watched a traditional Aboriginal dance and then danced like animals we would find in England and
 animals we would find in Australia.
 To finish the week, we dressed as our favourite book characters.
 We had the most wonderful time.

Our Year 6 STEM Ambassadors led us through our week. They set challenges and
demonstrated simple experiments to be tried out at home:

 We also enjoyed learning about the forgotten women of Science in the puppet show:

Science Week in Windmill 2
We studied the book ‘How Do You Make A Rainbow’ by Caroline Crowe. We started the week investigating how
light travels and how it bends through water. We learnt the scientific word refract.

We made a skittles rainbow and then mixed our own rainbow colours using powder paint. To finish the week, we
 created a fizzy rainbow with bicarb and vinegar.

We painted our feet as
rainbows for Mother’s
Day cards.
Experimented with felt
tip pens and blotting
paper to investigate
chromatography.

In Kingsway we followed the theme, MAKE PEACE WITH NATURE, a new global initiative from the
 UNEP. Every day we did a task to try an enable this statement and encourage us to be curious
 environmentalists for the future. Look at all the wonderful things we got up to:
• DAY 1: Watching the UNEP video MAKE PEACE WITH NATURE challenged us to look after our
 planet. We thought how we can help now. Pick up litter, use less plastic, tell people with posters
 or messages, plant more trees, look after our plants and wildlife, were some of our ideas. We
 looked inside a dissected healthy and a rotten daffodil bulb before going on to plant our own bulbs
 in the garden.
• DAY 2: We set up a trail camera to see what animals may sneak into forest school. We had fun
 dissecting a daffodil stem and flower.
• DAY 3: We decorated bird boxes and checked on our camera. Multiple cat and possibly a
 hedgehog sighting were our nocturnal visitors.
• DAY 4: Carefully using hammers and nails, we constructed the bird houses. We became chemists
 for the afternoon making our own bubble mixture formula to create the biggest bubble.
• DAY 5: Thinking about pollution we hunted around school to place items in our time experiment.
 We put 17 different objects like paper, wood, coins, food, plastic, in a big bucket of soil to
 watch the changes that take place over time. We also planted some sunflower seeds to watch how
 they grow over time.

These are some of our thoughts after the week:
“You can make a big bubble and it would explode on everyone”, Oliver.
“I loved planting the sunflower seeds”, Nancy.
“I loved making the bird boxes”, Ivy.
“I loved making my sign to stop people hurting the world”, Lilly.

During STEM week, Oatlands class split into
groups and learnt about a different area of
Science each day.
We learnt about magnetic force, shadows,
chemical reaction and innovations.
I liked the volcano explosion – Clara &
Vanessa
I liked the magnets because we moved the car
using the magnets – Lauren
I liked when we created our own vehicles –
Lily-Mae
I liked the volcano and the shadow puppets.
The shadow puppets were so cool on the white
board – Seb
I liked when we put the mints in the coke and it
exploded - Charlie

March in Holywell Class

We’re so sad to have got to the
end of Charlotte’s Web! This
month we’ve looked at the life
cycle of a spider, written
spider fact files, created our
own webs with secret
messages in (just like Charlotte does!) and we’ve written some lovely stories
about friendship.

 In Maths we’re now focusing on our times tables every
 morning as well as continuing our weekly challenge.
 During lessons we’ve been looking at numbers up to
 1000 and even got to write on the desk with a white
 board pen- that was very exciting!!

 We’re trying really
 hard to have some
relaxation and mindfulness time after our
lunch time play, it turns out that it’s very
tricky to stay still when you’re in Year 3. But
we’re getting there!

Science Week was very fun, we had all sorts of challenges to investigate and
our problem solving skills really improved!!

We have absolutely loved having our classroom full again, please stay safe and
well throughout the Easter break as we can’t wait to see you all again for Term
3 which covers a new topic and new class novel!

 Mrs Gardner, Mrs Farrow & Mrs Brodie

Reedy Class March 2021
 We were all so pleased to come back together in school earlier this month; we had missed seeing
 each other. What superstars Reedy Class have been! They have worked so hard throughout lockdown
 and as demonstrated by all their lovely work on their Dojo portfolios.

 We have been very busy
 since we have been back
 in school, including
 writing our own stories
 based on the beautiful
 picture book, ‘The Tear
 Thief’ by Carol Ann
 Duffy.

In our topic work, after In STEM week, we had lots of
finding out all about Nelson fun developing our skills,
Mandela, we held our own finding and classifying insects,
protest march around the designing and creating bug
school grounds. hotels.

We have also made our own In our Science unit, we have
clay African masks in art. also been learning about
We will be painting them invertebrates and what the
this week. functions of an exoskeleton
 are.