HEAD’S VIEW

I write these words the night before the end of term and our Year 6 leavers are arriving for their farewell tea and disco. They are a fabulous group of girls and boys who all deserve a royal send off. Those of us lucky enough to watch the ‘Cinderella Rockerfella’ performances last week were bowled over, not only by their talent and quality of performance, but by the sheer joy and sense of togetherness that filled the hall. Those performances epitomised this year group and what they have brought to the school over the years. Without doubt they have made our school a better place. Tomorrow will be an emotional day for all of us but we know they are ready for the next chapter in their lives. We also know that they will light up their secondary schools and their lives beyond. We wish them all the very best of luck. Those same wishes go to Rachel (3H) and to Jasmin (2C) and their families. Both girls leave to join schools nearer to their homes – I hope both schools appreciate how lucky they are.

Tomorrow is also a sad day for us as we say ‘farewell’ to Mrs Phillips, Mrs Horobin and Mrs Sheldrake. Mrs Phillips has been at Newbridge for five years and taught in both the lower and upper school during that time. She has all the qualities you would look for in a teacher and I have never known her to have anything but the best interests of the children at heart. Her commitment has been huge and she has played a significant part in our development as a primary school. I know I speak for every member of staff when I say that she will be missed as a valued and inspirational colleague, and as a good friend. What will we do without your biscuits too, Mrs Phillips?! Our best wishes go with you to Box Primary School and new challenges ahead. Mrs Horobin leaves after a year teaching French for one day a week to our older children. Not only have the children really enjoyed learning French with her but our staff have picked up loads of good ideas for the future. We wish her all the very best for the future. Merci beaucoup, Madame Horobin! Mrs Sheldrake has been a teaching assistant at Newbridge since 2002 but that only tells a very small part of the story. We have all greatly valued her care for the children, her professionalism and skill over the years and we wish her all the very best in the future.

This has been a very eventful year! There have been so many highlights that I could not even begin to list them. They range from that moment when the light goes on in a child’s eye, the small act of kindness that makes a difference, the effort that is needed to produce one’s best day in and day out, personal goals reached, team achievements, moments of brilliance, pride in who we are and of each other, laughter – lots of that. I speak not only of our children here but all the staff and everyone connected to the school. I cannot thank you all enough or praise your efforts too highly.

I must also mention the fantastic voluntary support we receive – I find it hard to believe that there is a school which is better supported. Of course, with our Year 6 leaving, we are also saying ‘farewell’ to many of our parents and families who have themselves become very much part of the school and given so much support over the years. It is hugely appreciated.

Now, it is time for a rest and a time to draw breath. I would like to finish this final ‘Head’s View’ of the year with comments from two children. The first came from a girl in Year 2 who wrote in her report: ‘My favourite topic is pirates because there’s lots of good stuff to do. You can be rude and you don’t have to brush your teeth.’ The second came from a girl in Year 5 who when asked to speed up with her work replied ‘Mr Cumpson, you can’t hurry perfection!’

I hope you all have a fantastic holiday.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY W/B 01/09/09

Tuesday 01/09/09 and Wednesday 02/09/09

INSET Days – School closed to children

Thursday 03/09/09

First day back at school

PLEASE NOTE

There will be no Crossing Patrol on Newbridge Hill from 3rd – 10th September 2009.

THANK YOU ……

to Emily and Amelia for raising £90 for Oxfam. How was this raised? The very sporting Mr Cumpson is heading off for his summer holidays with purple hair…….

VOLUNTARY SUPPORT

Thank you to all the parents and members of the community who expressed an interest in helping next year. We will come back to you at the beginning of next term. This includes news on the Better Reading Partner programme.

WANTED

Do you have any football boots / trainers/ shin pads/ shirts / shorts etc that you no longer need? All donations gratefully received. Please see Mr Cumpson.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE FOLLOWING ‘STARS OF THE WEEK’

Foundation Stage

Harvey, Ollie, Olivia , Thea

Years 1 and 2

Hanna, Charlie, Leon, Freya, Charlie, Lily, Joshua, Sophie, Elizabeth

Years 3 and 4

Katerina, Bea, Jenny, Poppy, William

Years 5 and 6

John, Shannon, Tom, Amelia, Hannah, Chris, Grace , Jake

PPA Drama

Jacob

PPA Art

Aisha, Ellie

PPA PE

Emelia, Daniel, James, Harrison, Grace

PPA Music

Kyle, Mark, Alex, Eloise

CERTIFICATES OF EXCELLENCE – JULY

At the end of every month each class teacher has a very difficult decision to face. They have to choose the one person from their class to receive a Certificate of Excellence. The person they choose has to consistently be the best that he or she can be. That could be in effort and attitude, achievement, behaviour or citizenship. Sometimes it can be very difficult deciding as all of the children at Newbridge seem to work so hard and behave so well!

The girls and boys with their names here this month deserve congratulating. It is not easy to be awarded a Certificate of Excellence and they have done extremely well.

Lower School

Elm - Leon

Willow - Aisha

1H - Florence

1R - Maddie

2B - William

2C - Katie

Upper School

3B - Lucy

3H - Faisal

4P - Megananne

4W - Joshua

5C - Caitlin

5PB - Ben

6A - Tom

6CS - Jay

6JS - Brandon

CELEBRATING WRITING

Eloise – 4P

I am a calm and quiet feather

I am a delightful butterfly, joyful and friendly.

I am a brightly coloured rainbow, colourful and graceful.

I am a sweet bunny rabbit, cute and relaxed.

I am a chattering chatter-box, noisily talking and chatting loudly.

I am a mad monkey, full of mischief and cheek.

I am a beautiful flower, pretty and kind.

I am a graceful recorder, full of sweet sounding and peaceful music.

I am a pair of warm pyjamas, cosy and nice and warm.

I am a comfy sofa, sleeping in and relaxing through the day.

I am a hilarious joke book, full of funny jokes to tell people to make them laugh.

I am a calm and quiet feather, gracefully floating and drifting towards the ground.

MUSIC

We have had another fantastic busy year of music from the choir singing in the Chronicle Christmas Concert; the school Christmas CD; to the joint schools’ oratorio at the Pavilion to name only a few.

As always, some children have also been hard at work taking their music exams. Good luck to these children who are awaiting their results:

Olivert (Initial Grade guitar); John (Grade 1 guitar); Jake(Grade 1 guitar); Ben (Grade 1 guitar); Tom (Grade 1 guitar); Tom (Grade 1 guitar); Sherilyn(Grade 2 guitar); Isabella(Grade 2 guitar).

A huge well done to the following children for their excellent results:

William (Initial Grade violin); Jenny (Initial Grade violin); Guy (Initial Grade guitar); Isaac (Grade 1 guitar); Daniel (Grade 1 violin); Natasha (Grade 2 piano); Jake (Grade 2 violin).

And especially to these children who gained the highest mark of distinction:

Grace (Initial Grade guitar); Martha (Initial Grade guitar); Joda (Grade 2 guitar); Finlay (Grade 2 guitar); Jack (Grade 2 trombone).

In particular, the following children have been recognised for their outstanding commitment and contribution to music and have received the anuual music cups:

Year 2 Oliver

Year 3 Martha

Year 4 William and Megan

Year 5 John

Year 6 Emma

In addition, this year we have added a final award to those children in year 6 who have shown an exceptional talent for music over the years. This award goes to Helen Marlowe and Finlay Boniface and we hope they continue to excel in music in their next school.

LIFECYCLE UK

All applicants for the cycling proficiency course starting in September have been successful. More information about the course will be sent out in September.

MUSICIANS

As the year comes to an end, I would like to say a huge THANK YOU and WELL DONE to everyone who has worked so hard in all the music groups. You’ve shown real commitment and determination and you are making a fabulous sound.

A special thanks to all the Year 6 musicians, keep up the good work! Mrs Houston

UPPER SCHOOL 6-A-SIDE FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT – Friday 10th July 2009

YEAR 3/4

Winners: Newbridge Cup Kings

Runners Up: Mr C’s All Stars

YEAR 5/6

Winners: Blue Sparx

Runners-Up: Green Goblins

We raised over £100 for the adventure trail. Well done to all the teams who took part. We would like to thank Mrs Lansdown and Mrs Whitson for scoring and general all-round brilliance and Larkhall Youth players for refereeing the matches.

YEAR 5 KWIK CRICKET COUNTY FINALS

On Tuesday 14th July 8 cricketers went to Taunton to play in the BANES County final. The first game was against St Joseph’s, which we lost 191 to 256. The next game was against St George’s and we beat them by 7 runs. We had won one and lost one, which meant we had to play for 5th place. We beat Swanmeed so we were 5th! We would like to thank Mr Cumpson for arranging it and our parents for taking us.

FRUIT SCHEME

Thanks to all the parents and carers who have helped with the fruit scheme this year.

Dawn and Francesca

THANK YOU

A huge thank you to all the people who have helped with the book banding this week.

Sue Woods, Reading Recovery Teacher and Di Rhodes, Literacy Subject Leader.

MESSAGE TO PARENTS OF YEAR 3 CHILDREN IN SEPTEMBER

On the first day of term, Thursday 3rd September, please come with your child to the Upper School hall and Mrs Bradley and Miss Simpson will meet you there at 8.55am when they will let you know about procedures at the beginning and end of the day. The ‘Getting To Know You’ sessions for parents of all age groups, held the following week, will detail all routines, expectations etc. Details of these will be out on Friday 4th September.

CHESS ROUND UP

This has been another excellent year of chess. The club has had numbers of between 40 to 50 players attending and the standard of play has been consistently high. We had a lot of fun too! We did not qualify this year for the semi finals of the national schools competition but there were many individual successes. Congratulations to Will and Joda on being selected to play for the county – that is a first at Newbridge. We also had a group of players qualify from the school competition for the Megafinals at Millfield. They were Jack, Max, Sam, Cameron, Joda, Will, Tom, Alice, Jake and Edward. Well done to Sam, Will, Joda and Jake on going through to the Gigafinals in the summer holidays and good luck! We would also like to thank Mr Knight (Oli and Emily’s Dad) for helping to run the club this year and thank you to all our Year 6 players who have been fantastic members of the club. Keep playing and see you at the club in September!

Mr Croker and the chess club.

NPSA NEWS

Summer Fete

The final figures are now in and we are thrilled to announce that we all raised a fantastic £2700 at the Summer Fete and £3500 from the raffle! These are the numbers after costs have been taken off and we would like to thank you once again for all your help!

By the way, the thanks in last week’s newsletter were from our chair Stephanie Massie and so this week I would just like to say a big thank you to Stephanie for all the hard work and ideas she put into making the fete such a success!

Congratulations to our competition Entrants

A big well done and thank you to all of those, big and small, who took part in the competitions at the fete! Special mention must go to our winners and runners-up:

Elizabeth, Leo, Lily-Marie, Angus, Eleanor, Eve, Kirsty, Lesley, Cherry, Ella , Ava, Emily, Usha and Zubin, Alfie, Maisy, Anna, Ralph, Elise, Ella, Will, Tom, Joseph , Leon and Theo, Fiona, Sally, Becky and Martha.

Lose Your Marbles – League Table

Congratulations to the following children who are expert at getting marbles into a pot!

Reception - Sebastian - 21

Yr 1 - Elliot - 22

Yr 2 - Ben - 22

Yr 3 - Faisal - 24 ( more than Mr H!)

Y r4 - Sam - 8

Yr 5 - Guy - 24 ( more than Mr C!)

Yr 6 - Chris and Bryony tied 6JS - 16

Guess the sweeties in the Jar

One of the happiest children at school last week was Thomas from Elm Class who won an enormous jar full of sweets! Don’t forget to brush your teeth!

Barn Dance – Friday 25th September 2009

We are pleased to announce that we are to host a barn dance at the beginning of the next school year. So, put the date in your diaries – tickets will be on sale from your class reps in September! Tickets will cost £10 and include a ploughman’s supper and glass of wine!

Have a lovely holiday and see you in September!