BELMONT SCHOOL NEWS

21st December 2018

Dear Parents, Governors and Friends of the School,

Well, here we are, welcome to a special Christmas edition and the last newsletter of 2018! It has been a truly

fabulous first 2 terms and this newsletter is a celebration of the last few weeks. All our children have worked

incredibly hard since September and I will be congratulating them all on their efforts in our final assembly.

As the song goes, ‘It’s the most wonderful time of the year’ and it really has been in school recently. Our primary

children did a super Nativity play with the help of some secondary performers and the choir. Many thanks to the

army of parents and carers who came to watch and who, I am sure, loved it as much as we did. A fantastic effort

from numerous staff, but special thanks to our director Mrs Awcock and senior choreography & technical director

Mrs Hall.

Our annual Christmas Service was once again excellent and the show went on despite the relocation, and we

squeezed into a packed hall and were treated to wonderful readings from students, staff and governors, brilliant

singing and valuable messages from Reverend Grady who joined us. Many thanks to Miss Lentel and Mr Copley

for all the hard work preparing for the service.

The long term seems to have flown past so fast. The teachers and learning support staff are currently ensuring

that the children are learning and making the best progress possible, whilst balancing this with the inevitable

Christmas practices and managing a school full of children who seem to get more excited every day!

As I reflect on 2018 I am full of pride for what has been achieved for our students by working together with

families and others. During 2018 our school has grown to support more children, we have improved facilities and

ICT across the school and gained one of the very best Ofsted inspection reports in the country! I want to reassure

the Belmont community our leaders and governors have no intentions on relaxing next year, we will be improving

emotional support for our students and staff, focusing on further improvements on the parking and access to the

school, reviewing the effectiveness of class Dojo and continuing to listen to our families and students to ensure

we move beyond outstanding in the future. To help ensure this, I am delighted to share that we will have

additional staff on the team from January; Mrs Sue Jordan will be an LSW joining Busy Bees and Mrs Lyndsey

Daniels will be an LSW into Hippos.

Christmas is traditionally a time for showing gratitude and appreciation, so I want to not only wish you a very

Merry Christmas, but also to say thank you. Thank you for all your support towards my colleagues at Belmont and

joining us on this journey of discovery to make the most of the talents that exists in all our brilliant young people.

This last year, there has been much for me personally to appreciate and be grateful for and I have a wonderful

team of staff, I am really excited about what next year will bring.

I wish you a magical Christmas and exciting start to 2019.

Best wishes

Kevin Day and the Team at Belmont

THOUGHT FOR THE

WEEK

Self-control

Nativity Play

What a fabulous performance from all of the cast. The hosts Tomas, Abbie and Harry were amazing remembering their lines and holding the whole show together.

Great dance moves too Tomas!

The judges Ezra, Nicola and Hugo gave their scores like true professionals and a special mention has to go to

Caesar for his enthusiasm and energy.

Mary and Joseph played by Jasmine and Brogan sang the most fabulous duet, and the appearance of the angels

and sheep in their costumes brought smiles to all of our faces. A definite mascara warning moment.

And the dancing …the Nazareth Towns People performed their line dance , the camels and wise men provided the

funk, Kianna , Mrs Hall and Mrs Hanna shone as disco stars, and the innkeepers dazzled with their brooms.

It was lovely for us to showcase our talents with so many parents, thanks for coming to support us and helping

with costume contributions.

We look forward to performing next year.

Mrs Awcock

Santa’s Marvellous Magic Toy shop- Bacon Theatre The Ants, Alligators and Busy Bees had a fantastic trip to the Bacon theatre to

watch their Christmas Show.

All the children behaved so well and thoroughly enjoyed the show as they smiled,

giggled and joined in throughout Santa’s Magic Toy Shop.

They loved hearing Santa’s voice and Helping Ernie the Elf find a new Elf in

training so he could have Christmas day off with his wife.

The children were very sensible when waiting and walking for the bus and

everyone made sure they sat nicely and kept their seatbelts on.

Mrs Hanna was so impressed with all the children she gave them all a silver card.

It was a fantastic way to kick off our Christmas activities and the children cannot wait for Santa to arrive now!

A Pantomime visit at the Everyman Theatre As a part of the school run up to Christmas we were pleased to offer the pupils in Cheetahs, Dolphins and all year

7 pupils the opportunity to attend a morning performance of the pantomime Aladdin at the Everyman Theatre in

Cheltenham. The performance took place on Monday 17th December.

The tickets for the pantomime performance were kindly donated to Belmont by one of our Governors, Mrs A

Wilson.

All children and staff had an amazing time. Here are some of the pupils’ comments after the performance:

“It’s the best one I’ve seen. Tweedy was very funny"

“I liked the scary bad guy the best!”

“The princess was very pretty.”

“The singing and songs were amazing.”

“Aladdin was brilliant!”

“It was really good we loved it!”

A Christmas Feast Staff and pupils enjoyed a delicious Christmas lunch cooked by our catering staff Alex & Pat and

served by staff on Wednesday. Christmas jumpers were the dress of the day and looked faboulous

on pupils.

Riding for the Disabled (RDA)

It has been a very busy and enjoyable Term 1 & 2 for the RDA enrichment

group who have all completed their Horse Care Grade 1 Riding and Grade

1 in Horse Care Programmes. The whole group have worked very hard

and all have shown progression throughout the sessions. The pupil’s

certificates will be issued and celebrated during the end of term awards

assembly on Friday. The sensory programme has been extremely

beneficial and the pupils have thoroughly enjoyed the experience and

have to say a little reluctant not to

be heading back to the racecourse

next term. However we have a fresh bunch of eager pupils to take their

place in January where we continue to offer the programme as part of the

ongoing enrichment interventions.

On the alternative weeks where the group remain in school we have been

busy with community cafes and Christingle making.

Many thanks to all staff volunteers and of course the ponies for their time,

patience and support.

Christmas Belbucks - F@B Thank you so much to all who made and donated cakes on Friday 14th December for Belbucks. The children had a

wonderful choice of festive treats and Hot Chocolate with cream and Marshmallows proved very popular. It was

lovely to be able to share the experience with parents as well.

Rumour has it that Father Christmas was spotted around school and a number of cakes mysteriously disappeared…..

Belbucks raised £81 so far and the raffle £85 THANK YOU; all of which helps towards our fundraising target for a

stage for school. Look out for the final figures for our years fundraising and progress towards our target in the

newsletter in January.

F@B are meeting Friday 11th January at 1.30pm at school please do come along if you can and hear what we do.

We will also have our AGM on Friday 15th February, which is open to all, more information to follow in January.

F@B is finalising with school some really exciting fundraising ideas – see the first newsletter in January for more

details on how F@B is adding to the very special experience of life at Belmont School.

Do you fancy doing something F@B-ulous a couple of times a term? We would love to meet you – we are a friendly

group of parents, staff and governors and have a great laugh while raising money and providing fun experiences for

the school. Contact F@B at thefabpta@gmail.com or leave a message at Reception if you would like any more

information.

Sue Newport – Chair – The F@B PTA Registered Charity 1172082

Pantomime Workshop at Belmont School Prior to our visit to the Everyman’s Theatre, the pupils in classes Cheetahs, Dolphins and all year 7

attended a Pantomime Workshop. During the one hour, pupils learnt how to look for clues and when to

get fully interactive when watching a pantomime performance. They practised their cheering and

booing techniques. Claire, who delivered to workshop, told the pupils the Aladdin story and got them to

act on stage some of the scenes wearing some of the props she brought along.

Carol Service

Christmas Cake Competition As part of their ASDAN Challenges the Koalas class had to design, make and decorate a cake for a celebration.

After a lot of deliberating the winning designs are …......

1st Prize 2nd Prize 3rd Prize

Well done Harley! Well done Hayden! Well done Jack!

Meet the judges … Mrs Davies and Mr Shand with the Koalas.

Mrs Davies and Mr Shand found the job of judging very tough and they were very impressed with all the designs.

Chloe, Sydney, Elliott and Josh have received highly commended certificates

Well done Koalas!

Congratulations to our winners! Class Attendance Award

Class Dolphins were the winners for this term’s attendance award achieving an outstanding 97%

They all enjoyed pizzas to celebrate their success.

WOW Winners

Each week students that have excelled are recognised with a WOW certificate praising their achievements

and efforts.

Congratulations to all our winners who were awarded their certificates w/c 17th December:

Reece S, Orlando, Luke S, Daniel G, Glyn, Jack, James , Oliver J, Faraz, Oliver H

Elephants - amazing behaviour during the visit to the Church

llamas - for being amazing role models during the Church visits twice.

County Community projects (CCP) – Christmas Hampers A huge thank you to CCP a registered charity who kindly donated some Hamper Scampers (presents and

treats) to our school community, they are very much appreciated at this time of year.

Mr Freeman with the Christmas Hampers

Mince Pies and Thank yous for our transports teams Year 11’s were busy on Thursday making cakes and mince pies ready for our afternoon visitors. As a huge thank

you our taxi drivers, escorts, shire hall transport staff and parents were invited in to enjoy refreshments in the

decorated hall . A huge thank you to all for their support and patience throughout the year