Happy New Year! 2025 is upon us and we are looking forward to another busy term ahead.
All the staff team would like to say a huge thank you for all the lovely gifts that were received at Christmas. You are all very kind and generous and they are greatly appreciated – thank you.
This term's newsletter is packed full of information about up and coming events as well as a few ‘house-keeping’ reminders, which are as much for our new parents as anyone else. Please do take the time to check the dates for your diary.
Let's hope for a happy and healthy 2025!
We are really looking forward to taking the children to see the 11:00am Matinee performance of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ at the Nottingham Playhouse on Tuesday 14th January 2025. Children will have a late lunch that day and will also be provided with an ice cream during the interval. We are confident everybody will have a wonderful time – ‘Oh yes they will!’
On Thursday 16th January 2025, we are delighted to be welcoming Cazzie Phillips, the author of the contemporary children’s story 'The Rotters', into school. Cazzie began her career as a broadcast journalist at the BBC and she has spent nearly thirty years in multimedia production, business and communications. She is passionate about optimising children’s health, education and well-being, and is honoured to be the Chair of the Peter Le Marchant Trust. Her book 'The Rotters' is about a boy who hates cleaning his teeth and meets a gang of grime-loving tooth fiends, where he finds himself trapped in an irresistible world of snacks and sweets! Since the book’s publication in September 2023, many schools across the East Midlands have used a workshop about 'The Rotters' as a springboard for discussing dental health. Cazzie will be running a one-hour workshop about oral hygiene for the whole school, with interactive memes about how tooth decay happens, how to prevent it, accompanying music, a live performance of the book, and a Q&A. Each child will also be provided with their own copy of 'The Rotters', the cost of which will be included along with the workshop at a total price of £10.00 per family. A letter with further details will be sent out next week but in the meantime, for more information about Cazzie Phillips and 'The Rotters', please visit www.instagram.com/cazziephillips or www.therotters.club.
Finally, we are currently in the process of arranging some visitors and activities to tie in with our topic week on China. More information about these visits will follow after half term once everything is finalised.
Parents appointments will be available around the February half term. Further information will be sent out closer to the time. We hope that we can provide mutually convenient times for these meetings. Please note that attendance at these meetings is not compulsory, but is an opportunity to discuss your child’s progress if you wish to do so. We continue to have an ‘open door’ policy for meetings if you have a specific issue to discuss.
We would like to congratulate the children for all their hard work preparing for the Nativity and Carol Concert last term. ‘Lights, Camel, Action!’ had so many funky songs and dances and in ‘Strictly’ style our judges critiqued the performances! The children looked amazing in their fabulous costumes and loved being funky camels and heavenly angels. The Carol Concert was such a lovely way to end the term as always and the children performed a range of traditional carols and readings beautifully to a packed congregation in St John the Divine Church. A big well done to everyone involved for two wonderful productions!
Thank you so much to the parents and staff who attended our school Quiz Night before Christmas. Everyone enjoyed a challenging quiz presented by Mr Miller, our Quiz Master for the evening. Mrs Newcombe’s unique bingo calling also went down a treat! As the night wore on, the level of high-spirited competition increased and climaxed in a win for team ‘Church Goers’.
Along with the funds raised at the school ‘Games Morning’ in November, we have so far managed to raise a total of £309.00 for our School Council. Thank you to everyone for your support. The Council are already thinking of further fundraising activities for this term – watch this space!
This term the pupils in Years 5 and 6 will take part in the DAaRT (Drug, Alcohol and Resilience Training) Programme. This is a refreshed and updated version of the DARE Primary programme, evaluated by Nottingham University.
DAaRT aims to equip children with essential knowledge and tools to navigate life’s challenges confidently. It focuses on enabling young individuals to make informed decisions in various risky situations, promoting resilience and independence. By instilling confidence and arming them with problem-solving skills, it enables children to tackle uncertainties with a sense of self-assurance. The age-appropriate materials are shaped by feedback from customers, partners and those with real-life experience. We believe this is the best programme to meet the new curriculum requirements and it links to a broad range of cross-curricular subjects.
Sara Carter, a fully qualified DAaRT Officer, will be introducing the programme to the children on Monday 13th January 2025 and she will return to school at the end of term to award their ‘graduation certificates’ once they have completed the course. This should be a valuable opportunity for our older pupils and help prepare them for the transition to secondary school.
On Thursday 16th January 2025, we will be having a ‘No Pens’ Day, an annual day dedicated to talking and understanding words that takes place in schools across the country. The purpose of ‘No Pens’ Day is to enable all children to engage in activities that do not require writing and to explore other ways of showing knowledge and learning. This really supports our dyslexia friendly learning environment. The dental workshop with Cazzie Phillips will be taking place on the same day.
World Book Day is taking place on Thursday 6th March this year. This is an opportunity to promote a love of books and reading and have some fun! It will be a Non-Uniform/Dressing-Up Day and the theme will be ‘your child’s favourite character from a book’. More information will follow in our next newsletter.
For parents newer to the school, each year in the Spring Term we always hold a ‘topic week’, where we spend a week off timetable learning all about a specific country or continent. These weeks always prove to be valuable educational experiences for the children with the many and varied activities that take place. This year we will spend a week looking at China and hope to bring the children a wealth of cultural experiences. The week will be held the week commencing Monday 17th March 2025 – more information will be provided after half term.
For your information, please see below for all the ‘Show and Tell’ assembly dates for the coming term. These will continue to take place in assembly on Thursday afternoons.
Thursday 9th January | Year 4 |
Thursday 16th January | Year 5/6 |
Thursday 23rd January | Reception/Year 1 |
Thursday 30th January | Year 2/3 |
Thursday 6th February | Year 4 |
Thursday 13th February | Year 5/6 |
Thursday 27th February | Reception/Year 1 |
Thursday 6th March | Year 2/3 |
Thursday 13th March | Year 4 |
Thursday 20th March | Year 5/6 |
Thursday 27th March | Reception/Year 1 |
Mrs Margaret Crooks, our Teaching Assistant and Midday Supervisor, has recently been collecting for a couple (plus their friends) who distribute to the homeless in Nottingham. They take adult’s clothing, toiletries, hats, scarves, sleeping bags, socks, blankets etc. Mrs Crooks will be collecting during the month of January and all donations are welcome – please bring any items to the school office by the end of the month. Thank you in advance for your contributions.
Thank you to all those that donated a shoe box full of treats and gifts for the Chrysalis school in Uganda, for which Mrs Newcombe is a Trustee.
The boxes left the UK back in October and made their way to Africa. You can see from the happy faces that they were all very greatly appreciated. Ben Parkinson (Director, founder and winner of the Gandhi Foundation 2023 Peace Award) said:
"Thanks so much for sending over the boxes. It was really an amazing experience for the kids to receive such lovely presents and it was amazing how excited the children were after receiving them. Most of them abandoned the rest of the day's activities and went home, as they wanted to share the experience with the other members of their family."
We would like to reiterate our school policy when a different person is collecting your child/ren. Many of you inform us in the morning if someone else is collecting but ideally it would help us if you could notify the office in writing, in the form of a quick text or an email – this way there is no doubt over your wishes and instructions. If someone completely new is collecting, then we are happy to use a ‘safe word’ to ensure that we release your child/ren to the correct person.
This procedure also applies to our sickness policy – if your child is unwell and unable to attend school, please telephone the office before 8:45am or advise in writing via email. The children should not be given the responsibility of letting us know who is picking them up, or whether a sibling or a fellow peer is poorly and not coming to school.
Thank you for your co-operation.
We are able to administer medicines children may need, but may we politely remind parents about our medical procedure. All prescription and over-the-counter medicines must be left in the school office in their original containers and must be clearly labelled with the child’s name and the dosage required. The instructions from the parent should match the instructions on the pharmacy label or packaging. The staff member will record the exact time and dosage when they give the medication and parents will be required to read and sign this when they collect their child. We also need to record the batch/lot number and the expiry date of any medicines. We must follow these guidelines as they are an Ofsted health and safety requirement. Thank you.
Just a reminder that during spells of snow/icy/rainy weather, we always try to ensure that school remains open if possible. However, if the weather turns particularly severe during the operational school day, we may at our discretion contact parents and suggest an earlier pick up time to ensure that everyone can travel home safely. We may also consider a later opening time if need be.
As an isolated village, we always have to rely on our local authority (Rushcliffe Borough Council) making the roads in the area as safe as possible, but if you have any concerns about the access roads during periods of bad weather, you are more than welcome to keep your child at home or collect earlier – just let us know.
Our Spring production this year will be our annual Talent Show and it will take place on Thursday 3rd April 2025 at 2:00pm at Colston Bassett Village Hall.
For newer parents, all the children will be taking part in the Talent Show. They can work either in groups, in pairs or on their own to showcase their many individual talents – magic, comedy/telling jokes, singing, dancing, karate demonstration, poetry recital or story extract, play a musical instrument – any other ideas? We will also need a Master of Ceremonies. The acts are judged by Liz Miller and John Miller and two trophies are awarded to the best act from each Key Stage. The children will be working on the Talent Show in their class Drama/Music lessons, so they will have plenty of time to rehearse their acts.
We will send a letter with further details about the Talent Show before half term but if you have any questions or ideas in the meantime, please get in touch.
On Friday 4th April 2025, we will be holding a Spring Fayre and Easter Bonnet Parade at school. The fayre will commence at 9:00am in the school building straight after morning drop-off and the School Council will be organising and managing the stalls. The children can design their own Easter bonnets at home and there will be a prize for the best entry. More information will follow closer to the time.
Please see below for some details of upcoming events in Colston Bassett village, should any parents be interested in attending.
Live and Local
The next Live and Local event will be on Friday 7th February 2025 at 7:30pm in Colston Bassett Village Hall, with live music from Leon Hunt and Jason Titley. Playing guitar, banjo, gourd banjo and percussion, these old friends will most likely confound any pre-conceived ideas you may be harbouring as to what these instruments can (and should) do. As well as leaning heavily on traditional roots, blues and folk music from the US and The British Isles, their own compositions take on musical references from just about everywhere else. These events are sponsored by the Arts Council and Nottinghamshire councils and allow Colston Bassett Parish Council to stage shows in the village at a subsidised price. They have been hosting these events for over 15 years and the standard of entertainment is invariably good. There will be a bar and light refreshments (hot dogs) in the interval. Tickets are £15.00, please email cbvvevents@hotmail.com to make a booking.
Village Breakfasts
The monthly Sunday morning village breakfasts will be recommencing this month, with the first on Sunday 26th January 2025 from 10:00am – 12:00pm. The intention is to then run these on a regular basis throughout the year, on the last Sunday of the month, with the following one being Sunday 23rd February 2025. There will be a very reasonably priced full English breakfast on offer, or lighter bites of a bacon or sausage bap or just toast, if you prefer. All accompanied by orange juice, tea or coffee. If you haven’t been before, please come along to see what you have been missing.
Class 1 |
Animals Including Humans (Science) Our Local Area (Geography) Caring For Others (RE) Health and Wellbeing (PSHCE) |
Class 2 |
Gardens and Allotments (Science) Significant Explorers (Geography) Christianity and Judaism (RE) Exploring Our Local Area (PSHCE) |
Class 3 |
Science Safety - A Review (Science) Ancient Greece (History) International Figures (RE) DAaRT / Social Interactions (PSHCE) |
Please refer to the ‘Calendar’ on the school website:
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