Headteacher’s Update — Mr Kevin Day - APRIL 2016

Summer is finally on its way! This term has been packed full of learning experiences, trips and sporting events several highlight's have included: The whole school Easter Service, Careers Week, College Link days for Year 11, World Book Day, Dancefest, Class 4 visit to Slimbridge, Sports Leaders event, Choir Practice event at The Shrubberies, Red Nose Day, Football match Belmont Vs The Peake Academy and not forgetting our Belbucks event at School tomorrow. Can I thank all the staff, governors and families who have helped with all these activities that really enrich the experiences for the students at Belmont. As part of the KS4 careers programme Belmont Year 11 students undertake two work expe-rience placements with local employers. Above is Olivia who previously attended a place-ment at GL1 Leisure Centre in Gloucester. She did so very well on her placement that the centre manager has highlighted he would really welcome her onto the team in the future once she leaves school or college. This term all students have been learning about jobs and opportunities via National Careers week. Please ask the children what they have learned. Staffing News The children and staff have loved having Mrs Petrova, Miss Record and Miss Essex back in school this term, we have kept them very busy indeed! Mrs Hall is next in line to continue the Belmont baby boom! I am delighted to confirm that Mrs Farrer-Grove was appointed to cover her maternity leave due to start after the May half term holiday and has already had opportunities to get to know Class 2 to help with the transition.

Belmont join forces with Pied Piper to secure better Facilities for the children Pied Piper is the leading children's charity in Gloucestershire, heling to transform the lives of sick and disabled children. We have linked with the charity as we have wanted to im-prove the facilities for primary play and recreation, I am delighted that the charity have been able to support our request and we are currently working on plans for new play facilities for primary children that should be in place ready for the new school year. Can I please extend my thanks to the Pied Piper team who are wonderful and Mrs Hughes for leading the work with them. Safeguarding at Belmont Belmont has a strong reputation for care and safety and the gov-ernors and I are keen to keep doing even better in this important area of our work. In addi-tion to class teachers and our Key Stage Leaders Belmont has a team of specially trained staff. As a team we always welcome feedback to help us improve our work with children and families and the school environment, please contact the below staff if you ever have con-cerns; Kevin Day Designated Safeguarding Lead (if concerns for the safety/wellbeing of children or concerns for adults with children) Rachel Carroll (Operational Safeguarding Lead) (Advice or guidance on keeping children safe, links to health and social care and parental support) Lisa Hughes Business Manger Health & Safety, Site Safety Richard Lyons and Julie Godwin Safeguarding School Governors

Autism Month This term Belmont supported World Autism Awareness Week. Although at Belmont we work hard all year around to support and challenge our young Autistic children to always be the best they can be, we continue to look for ways to improve what we do. As a school we have just started working towards the Gloucestershire Autism Quality Mark; this involves staff training to ensure all our team are skilled and inclusive in our work. We are also working with all our children to raise awareness of Autism and how it can affect us in school so our children who have different challenges and are not on the autistic spectrum can play their part in helping our Autistic children be happy and learn here at Belmont. We have found out children really value learning about what makes each of our children unique and special here. Please continue these discussions at home and there are links on our website for more information. Thank you.

Can you help us? Belmont has plans for an onsite forest school from Sept 17.

To support this development the school has been donated a large wooden outdoor classroom and also a large pagoda. We hope to dismantle and rebuild here at some point in the next few months, but it’s a big job! If any adults who are linked to the school would be willing to help us please contact Lisa Hughes and we hope to build a small project team to help with this exciting opportunity.

Cycling & Push Scooters In term 5 we will be introducing some cycling as

a primary enrichment activity. In addition to this we hope to develop more opportunities for riding and scootering. If families have good quality scooters or small bikes or trikes that they can donate we would hope to put them to good use here.

Thank you Recently the staff and I have noticed how increasingly careful and responsible drivers are when on site. The slow speeds help reduce risks of accidents and reduce noise and stress in some of our children. If all drivers could also remember to turn off engines when stationary this would also be helpful. Thank you.

School Attendance - Every day count Belmont continues to have high levels of school attendance, however as excellent attendance is recognised as the biggest influencing factor on positive outcomes for the children we want to do even better in the future. Every single day really does count and make a difference. Please continue to make every effort to make medical appointments outside school hours when possible and avoid any family holiday in term time. If

you ever want to discuss improving your child's school attendance please link with the class teacher or Key Stage Leader.

Summer Fayre Saturday 17th June; Bigger and Better this year! The Belmont and Bettridge joint Summer Fayre was a huge success last summer and we have now fixed the date for this year. Please save the date and bring your family and friends to this fun event raising money for both schools.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all our families a very happy Easter break and we look forward

to seeing you again on Monday 24th April.

Thank you all for your ongoing support for Belmont and our children.

Kevin Day (Head teacher)

Headteacher’s Update (Cont’d) PAGE 2

NNEWSEWS FROMFROM CCLASSLASS 11 PAGE 3

It’s been a fantastic term in Class 1. In Literacy we have enjoyed the stories ‘Knuffle Bunny’

and ‘Dogger’ in a topic all about lost toys. The children have been learning to identify and

compare the story settings and the main characters. Lots of the children have made pro-

gress with their reading and writing skills during this term. In Maths we have been comparing

and ordering lengths, and also densifying and describing 2d and 3d shapes. We have start-

ed to learn about sharing amounts/numbers fairly between each other. The children have

continued to work on their number recognition, counting and adding/ subtracting to 20. Our

topic this term has been on our local area, the children have loved looking more closely at

the things that surround them. They have named and photographed places around our

school. They have also learnt about and sorted things that we have at home. The children

did really well when we went swimming and we hope to continue this next term. We have

been learning about Spring and have been looking for signs around the school. In R.E. with

have been learning about new life and linked this with Easter time. We hope you all have a

lovely Easter break from Class 1 staff.

News from Class 2 PAGE 4

Class 2 have been busy this term in English. We have been reading stories written by Beatrix

Potter. We have looked at using adjectives to describe characters such as Jeremy Fisher, Mrs

Tiggy-winkle and Peter Rabbit. We have also been working on writing our own sentences with

capital letters and full stops.

Seb described Mrs Tiggy-Winkle as having a long snout and spiky

hair!

In Numeracy we have been looking at height, 2D shapes, 3D shapes, data collection and place

value. We enjoyed creating pictograms after asking the Primary classes their favourite fruit.

In other subjects we have been learning about plants, our local area, The Easter story and LS

Lowry.

This week Emily is leaving class 2 to join Bettridge, we will miss here very much the class will

be much quitter without her……

Pic of Emily???

We hope you have a lovely Easter break with your family and friends and manage to get out

and enjoy some sunshine.

Mrs Hall and Mr Langton

News from Class 3 PAGE 5

As we approach the end of a busy, long term it is nice

to reflect on how the pupils have progressed with both

their academic progress and their efforts with positive

behaviours and attitude to learning.

This term the class have been introduced to Messy

Science with Miss Stanley where they have been

exploring the world of experiments to learn about the

properties and changes of materials.

In ‘our world’ the boys have been learning about the

Mayan civilization, their way of life, beliefs and

traditional costumes. They have created their own

Mayan masks to represent the traditional costume the

rulers wore to help them become gods in the afterlife.

In Numeracy the focus has been shape, time and measure with a lot of practical tasks to support

their learning. Literacy focus has been on traditional stories around the world which linked nicely

with World Book Day. A very successful day where both staff and pupils made a great effort to

dress up as their favourite character.

For the final week of term we will be keeping the

momentum going with our Easter Assembly and

evaluating the topics we have been learning about.

We look forward to a well-earned break full of lots of

sunshine and Easter treats!

News from Class 4 PAGE 6

World Book Day in Class 4

Mr Willy Wonka, Sleeping Beauty and a Cat called Noir

SpongeBob Square Pants visits Class 4 Ethan Milsom wins the Class prize for dressing up as Mr Frank, based on ‘The diary of Anne Frank’ which Class 4 have been studying. Well done Ethan!

News from Class 4 (Cont’d) PAGE 7

Class 4 had a fantastic visit to Slimbridge Wetland Centre. The day started with an educational

session which involved pupils preening feathers, handling bird wings and feet. Then we went

outside to see the swans, ducks and geese wearing special sound detectors to hear the different

noises the birds made. Harry reports that at 11:30am we went to see the otters being fed fish.

Then we went for a walk to see the different kinds of birds. We had lunch in Welly boot land.

Then we fed the birds grain. Everybody really enjoyed their day at Slimbridge. Ethan liked

seeing the ducks swimming for their food. Tilly, Kieran, Calvin, Brooklyn and Jamie liked feeding

the ducks. Mrs Nelmes loved seeing her class having a great time.

Ground control to Class 3.1!

Pupils in 3.1 are having a blast, learning about Space in their science lessons. We've travelled through the solar system to find out about the planets. We've figured out the reasons we have seasons and day & night. Gravity is our hero as now we know, without it our feet wouldn't touch

the ground and Earth would drift away from it's loyal companion the Sun. Without the sun life could not exist it is the provider of all energy. We still have a little bit of our journey to travel and our main question now is.... How long would it take to travel to the furthest planet in our solar system? Over and out!

News from 3.1

News from 3.2 PAGE 8

3.2 have been working so hard over the year on improving personally, socially and emotion-ally. We have been playing games, making sandwiches, sand and water play to name just a few things.

* Frankie has become so much more independent in and around school.

* Paige has been learning to speak up and communicate her thoughts with her peers, rather than relying on adults.

* Hayden has been learning how to play with others and make friends during unstructured times.

* Jacob has been learning how to communicate how he is feeling and express this to others.

To further support and aid this learning we now have set up a class 'toast and chat' session on a Monday morning. Between the class they set up the table with cutlery, drinks, help make the toast and spread their own butter/jam. Proud of themselves they finally get to eat whilst hearing about each other's weekend news. Mrs Greenwood and I are feeling pretty lazy as we simply monitor the toaster as the class pretty much organise everything else amongst themselves!

Have a good Easter!

News from Year 3.3 Page 9

His body was as big as a house and he ate scrap metal. 3.3 have been reading the ‘Iron Man’ by

Ted Hughes. They have been working hard on their adjective and their similes. They have also

been taking part in a mock court room case. They had the tricky scenario of deciding whether

the Iron Man should stay in a deep pit made by the local farmers to stop the Iron Man from de-

stroying future machines and lives.

They took the parts of the judge, prosecution and defence, with pre-prepared arguments from

both sides of the case. They then had to argue their case before the jury made their decision. Ul-

timately the judge had the final decision. It was a close run debate with all pupils participating in

many different roles.

News from Year 3.4 Page 10

In Our World we have been finding out about the Industrial Revolu-

tion. We were allowed to use anything in the classroom to make our

map of the land between Liverpool and Manchester. We then needed

to show the train line built between them.

News from 3.5 PAGE 11

This term has been an ab-

solutely brilliant in 3.5, lots

of exciting things have

been going on. Most excit-

ing is the addition of two

new members Tyler and

Jamie. Both of the boys

have fitted in extremely

well and are having a real-

ly positive impact in the

tutor group.

Another really exciting event

from this term, was our trip to

Cheltenham leisure centre

for a sports leadership

course. We listened to a

number of speakers including

a former professional foot-

baller and took part in vari-

ous activities. It was a fantas-

tic day and the students real-

ly were a credit to the school.

Along with all these exciting events

3.5 have really been making great

progress in their lessons. Teachers

are often commenting on how im-

pressed they are with the level of

work and conversation in lessons.

A real standout lesson though for

the tutor group is undoubtedly food

tech, I’m sure if you’ve sampled

any of the food that we’ve made in

lessons

As we enter the last term were not

quite sure where the time has gone.

But one thing were are sure of is if

we continue working hard on the are-

as we know we need to work on and

carry on all the positives from this

term we’re in for an absolute cracker.

News from 3.6 PAGE 12

News from 4.1

This newsletter we have de-cided to showcase the tutor group’s work in science. Miss Lentel is a skilled teacher who is able to offer practical science lessons which meet the specific needs of the science curric-ulum and are beautifully differentiated to enable the class to maximise their po-tential through investiga-tions.

Over the last few weeks the pupils have been learning about how their bodies respond to sensory stimuli, for example, how they react to light and temperature. A particular practical of note was to explore reaction time. This in-volved trying to grab a dropped ruler. It was great fun. The results varied because the pu-pils had to use one hand and then the other. Hopefully they can tell you more about how well they did!

It was great to see 3.6 approach World Book Day in such an enthusiastic fashion earlier in the month. We had some great costumes and I would like to say thank you again to parents for sup-porting the day. Across the curriculum, stu-dents have been working hard and are continuing to impress as the year pro-gresses. It has been a busy month as we also had our class assembly recent-ly. Every member of the tutor group read beautifully and contributed maturely in our preparation for the top-ic of 'The power of positive thoughts and positive ac-tions'. Keep up the excel-lent work 3.6!

PAGE 13

News from 4.3

It's all been go go go in 4/3 with preparing for the up and coming exams. Some are laid

back, while others are showing signs of stress and others are quietly panicking, it's all a bit

crazy!

After the Easter break it all starts properly and we are hop-

ing that everyone does the best they can and stay focused

on what needs to be done.

Good luck to all the year 11s at this important time.

In preparation for leaving school 4.4 are making

a big effort to consolidate their money skills.

They have been working on money-related top-

ics in BSSG. We had a lesson about budgeting

in their first accommodation and they were

shocked to discover how many costs were in-

volved such as rent, electricity, gas, water, food,

transport to work and leisure activities. They

have tried to work out how much it would cost to

feed their family for one day - another 'eye

opener'. They are doing a lot of practice with

shopping situations where they have to give the

correct change. Hopefully, this will make them

rather more aware of the importance of under-

standing money!

News from 4.4

PAGE 14 BELMONT SCHOOL

TERM DATES FOR PUPILS

2016/2017

Term 4 Term Begins Tuesday 21

st February

Term Ends Friday 7th April

Summer Term 2017 Term 5 Term Begins Monday 24th April

Bank Holiday Monday 1st May

Term Ends Friday 26th May

Term 6 Term Begins Monday 5

th June

Term Ends Friday 21st July

Attendance - Term Time Holidays

A reminder to all parents/carers that any requests submitted to take

pupils out of school for a family holiday will not be authorised unless

there are “exceptional circumstances”. All requests should be made

in writing to Mr Day.

BELMONT SCHOOL

TERM DATES FOR PUPILS

2017/2018

Autumn Term 2017 Term 1 Term Begins Tuesday 5

th September

Term Ends Friday 20th October

Term 2 Term Begins Monday 30th October

INSET DAY Friday 1st

December (no school for pupils)

Term Ends Friday 15th December

Spring Term 2018 Term 3 Term Begins Tuesday 2nd January

Term Ends Friday 9th February

Term 4 Term Begins Monday 19th February

Term Ends Thursday 29th March

Summer Term 2018 Term 5 Term Begins Monday 16th April

Bank Holiday Monday 7th May

Term Ends Friday 25th May

Term 6 Term Begins Monday 4

th June

Term Ends Friday 20th July

PAGE 15

NATIONAL CAREERS WEEK PAGE 16

Belmont pupils participated in different activities as part of National careers week 2017. In pri-

mary pupils looked at different jobs and talked about what they wanted to do in the future.

Somebody wanted to be a Mayor!

In secondary pupils had guest speakers from Red Cross, GL3 hub (which is one of our work ex-

perience placements) and a specialist electrician. Pupils found out about the skills and qualities

people need to work in these areas. In lessons pupils explored different jobs in Cheltenham; cre-

ated a job alphabet; looked at their own learning styles and about discrimination in the work-

place. Staff also shared their many varied jobs with pupils with the most unusual being a rat

catcher – from Mr. Fry! The team work challenge was shared by Miss Stanley and Mr. Fry.

Mr Yeates sharing his electrical skills.

Volunteering with the Red Cross

Year 10's are currently doing a project with Whole Foods/ School Food

Matters within school

Schools to Market: Competition for parents

_______________________________________________

Good news. Your school has a place on the Schools to Market programme devised by

School Food Matters for the Whole Kids Foundation.

Schools to Market takes children on a journey from seed to supermarket, teaching them

some useful life skills along the way; growing, harvesting, cooking, marketing and selling

products at your local Whole Food Market store. All money raised on Market Day goes

straight back to your school to fund more food education fun!

To celebrate the fifth year of this wonderful programme, we’re inviting parents to get

involved with a simple competition to encourage you to cook with your children. We’re

setting you the same challenge as the children at your school - to create a tasty chutney,

relish or sauce.

To enter this competition, there are just three simple steps:

1. Take two photos:

a. one of you and your child cooking your favourite chutney, relish or sauce togeth er.

b. One of the finished product – in a pan, in a jar or being tasted!

2. Ask your child to taste, write a short review and rate your recipe with1-5 stars

3. Submit the photo along with your recipe and your child’s review to

gaby@schoolfoodmatters.org by Monday 19 June.

The winner will receive a lovely prize courtesy of Whole Foods Market and each of the

winning entries will be posted on the School Food Matters website.

And don’t forget to support your school by coming along to Market Day on

Wednesday 12 July from at your local Whole Foods Market!

Please note:

By submitting your entry, you are giving permission to School Food Matters and its projects

partners to use your photographs to promote our work on a range of materials, both in

print and on line.

Year 10 Food Technology PAGE 17

Keep Dancing!Keep Dancing!

On 7 March Belmont Primary pupils from Classes 2,3

and 4 took part in the Primary Dance Festival ‘Feet

First’ at Cheltenham Town Hall. Children and staff

learnt a tap dance routine to the song ‘I like to Boo-

gie’ by T-Rex which features in the film Billy Elliot.

Everybody showed great enthusiasm and effort into

learning the tap steps needed for the routine espe-

cially Harry Palmer who was Belmont’s very own Bil-

ly Elliot. At the end of the dance routine Harry per-

formed his own solo.

Wow it just goes to show anybody can learn to

dance!

Harry Palmer designed this

amazing poster for the event

PRIMARY PE NEWS PAGE 18

Friends@Belmont PTA are pleased to announce that we are now a registered charity. This

will help greatly with our fund-raising activities, as it makes it easier for us to get funding or

other donations (such as raffle prizes) from charitable organisations. The school are also able

to use the PTA charity registration to apply for funding for things which their budget wouldn’t

otherwise stretch to – such as extra sports and playground equipment. F@B have recently

donated £200 to the school for toys for the primary playground and £100 for books for the

secondary library, from our fund-raising activities last year. (See photo attached.)

F@B’s biggest fund-raising event this year will be the Summer Fayre, which we will be hold-

ing jointly with Bettridge School on Saturday 17th June (exact times to be confirmed). This

event will also be the ‘grand opening’ of the new Bettridge VI form centre and will be held on

the Bettridge school site. It will be a fun-packed event with stalls and games, a hog-roast and

cake stall, pony rides and live music and lots lots more… A surprise celebrity guest will be

opening the Fayre and Local MP Alex Chalk has agreed to officially open the new VI form

centre. We hope to raise at least £1,000 for Belmont, which will go towards some new play

equipment for the primary school playground. So please come along and bring friends, family,

neighbours, and anyone else who might enjoy it!

Meanwhile, we will be holding our first Belbucks of the year on Friday 7th April – with an East-

er theme. As usual, we will be serving hot drinks, milkshakes, non-alcoholic fruit punch and a

variety of cakes and biscuits, to students and staff. Any donations of cakes or biscuits

(homemade or shop bought) will be gratefully received. Could you please bring or send them

in on the Friday morning or the day before. Could parents/carers also make sure that each

student has a pound to buy a drink and a snack (they can bring more if they wish to buy

more). A text reminder will be sent out later.

Finally, we are sorry to say that the online shop Yellow Moon no longer exists, so you will not

be able to donate to F@B by purchasing goods from them. However, we are looking into a

similar scheme where you will be able to donate to F@B by purchasing goods online from

various different retailers. We will let you know the details in due course.

Friends @ Belmont PAGE 19

Further to our special World Book Day Newsletter we thought it worth a mention

and pictures for the following:

Big ears feature in ‘The BFG’ by Roald Dahl. What a great way for Jack Pockett to celebrate his 13

th birthday!

Star War fans ‘May the force be with you Belmont’

PAGE 18

World Book Day PAGE 20

A truly wonderful time was had by all pupils and staff who had dressed up as their favourite

characters. This event was led by Mrs Nelmes, International Co-ordinator and Mr Grosvenor,

English Co-ordinator. Prizes of books were given out to all pupils who had dressed up and

the winning pupil from each class chose a book for their prize. The costume parade was a

big success and again a great big thank you has to go to parents who made an enormous ef-

fort supporting this event

PAGE 21

"Thank you to pupils and staff across the school who braved the cold this winter and went out to plant cro-cus bulbs. They were kindly donated by a school governor and are now in full bloom"

Spring Planting

On Friday 24 March the school celebrated Comic Relief. Everyone came in wearing something red. The School Council ran a crazy hat competition and there were some very mad hats indeed.

School Council PAGE 22

We had winners from Primary, Key stage 3, Key stage 4 and staff and it was all very

close. The School Council carried out the judging and found it a bit tricky to pick the win-

ners, but they all managed to agree and the winners were picked.

Thank you for all donations re-ceived, we raised

£159.83!