Dear Parents and Carers,
How lovely it is to see the sun out and warmer weather for a change, and what a difference it makes to one and all in school! Please read on to find out what we have been up to this week.
Our Curriculum in Focus this week is Art.
NOTICES
A reminder about picnic lunch boxes
The school has a new food rubbish collection approach led by Dorset Council. The school will now be ‘bagging’ food waste from our school lunches. All children with picnic lunches will be asked to take any packaging or uneaten food home, for disposal or reuse. It is hoped this will also help parents monitor what they children have and have not eaten within their packed lunches.
PE Days
Children should wear their school PE kits into school on the following days:
| Class | ||
| Hazel | Monday – swim & gym | Tuesday – games |
| Beech | Monday – swim & gym | Tuesday – games |
| Chestnuts | Thursday – games | Friday – gymnastics |
| Oak | Thursday – games | Friday – gymnastics |
CANCELLED – JUMBLE SALE
Unfortunately, the Jumble Sale planned for Saturday 1st March, run by the Friends of Stower Provost has had to be cancelled. Further details about future events will follow.
Friends of Stower Provost Meeting
A meeting to discuss future events will be held on the 10th March at 3.30pm in the school library. All are welcome to attend.
Training Therapy Dog
The school are looking to bring in a trained and certified therapy dog to support some of our pupils.
Curriculum in Focus – Art
Children generally enjoy an art or DT lesson each week. DT and art projects rotate.
Currently Chestnut class have been focusing on landscapes, considering warm and cool colours, colour mixing, atmospheric perspective and how to draw in perspective.
Beech Class have focused on DT projects to date.
THIS WEEK
Gym & Swim Hazel and Beech classes
Both classes experienced their first gym and swim session at Port Regis
Transport and the gym experience are supported through the sports premium payment, however swimming is not, therefore a voluntary contribution of £25 is requested to cover the cost of the swimming pool and swimming teachers. If you have not yet made a contribution, yet intend to do so please would you hand your £25 (or contribution) to cover the 6 week block of swimming into the school office – thank you.
Ready, Steady, Read
To celebrate World Book Day and to encourage a lifelong love of reading at home and school, children were encouraged to get involved in a sponsored read between the 14th and the 24th of February 2025.
The project was organised in conjunction with our Usborne Partner, Hayley Lazell, with all money raised going towards brand new books for our school. In addition to the sponsorship money, Usborne will also donate up to 60% of the total raised in EXTRA FREE BOOKS to the school.
My thanks to all those who involved themselves with the sponsored read – reading books, comics, magazines, newspapers, menus, websites, recipes, poems, leaflets and/or instructions!
Assemblies
Our Monday assembly this week focused again on e-safety and how children should ensure they consider others if uploading images OR what information they are sharing about themselves, e.g. if there are sharing photographs of themselves and are wearing a school jumper, they are inadvertently sharing information about themselves. (Mrs B)
In our Tuesday assembly this week, we chatted about the PSHE curriculum. The children were encouraged to think of PSHE as a toolkit to help them navigate their lives for the rest of their lives. Mrs Clasby asked the children for things that could be useful in the PSHE toolbox and they made lots of fab suggestions including resilience, tolerance and positive self-talk and respect. Useful for all of us! (Mrs Clasby)
Hazel Class trip
Our Reception children really enjoyed their trip to XXX Farm, where they explored the farm and saw day old calves. Please see the class write up for further information.
Lego Club
This week’s challenge was to build a Jester. Our Monday winner was Jasper and Thursday winners were Amelia and Lily-Mae.
Clubs
Lego Club for the second half of term
Please find a direct booking link below should you wish your child to attend Lego Club after half term.
Monday Club: https://kwbclubs.ecwid.com/Stower-Provost-Community-School-Monday-Dorset-Spring-Term-2-2025-Monday-p624603022
Thursday Club: https://kwbclubs.ecwid.com/Stower-Provost-Community-School-Dorset-Spring-Term-2-2025-Thursday-p632155811
Breakfast Club
Please see the link below to Prime Sports Coaching breakfast club. Children coming to the breakfast club should be booked through this link please.
https://primesportscoaching.classforkids.io/camp/96
| Stower Provost – Early Morning Club – Spring Term 2 (5 – 11yrs) at Stower Provost Primary School, Gillingham
A Primary School Sports Coaching Company providing PE Lessons, After-school Clubs, Extra-curricular Activities, 1-2-1 Coaching, Holiday Activities and Birthday Parties in Dorset and the surrounding counties. primesportscoaching.classforkids.io |
NEXT WEEK and BEYOND
6th March – World Book Day
World Book Day takes place on Thursday 6th March and we hope you’ll join us as we come together to celebrate our World Book Day in school. Framing changes to your celebrations around the cost of living crisis Every year on World Book Day we are overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of our school community. We know that this year many families will find themselves in a difficult financial situation – we don’t want our celebrations to be an additional burden. Dressing up or bringing books into school can be a big part of the celebrations and what families particularly enjoy about World Book Day. We will have lots of fun activities taking place throughout the day including:
- Reading to them: We’d love to invite you along to our share a story session at 9am.
- Access to books at home We’ll be hosting a book swap. Please drop off your unwanted books in the box outside the school by Monday 3rd March. Whether or not you’ve got a book to bring along to swap, come and browse and find something you might like to read on Thursday 6th March
- Use your £1 World Book Day book token to get a FREE book!
- Getting a free £1 book for your child is easy – simply take your £1 book token to your nearest bookseller and swap it for a World Book Day £1 book OR get £1 off any book or audiobook costing £2.99 or more. You can find your nearest bookseller at worldbookday.com/participating-retailers
We will be dressing up this year, we would like the children to use their costumes to share their favourite professions and we encourage you to use things you already have at home.
Check out the World Book Day Family Hub for more things to do at home. We’re very much looking forward to celebrating World Book Day, which could not happen without the support of parents and carers – thank you. (Miss Buxton)
18th – 25th March – Scholastic book fair
FRIENDS OF STOWER PROVOST
Save the dates:
| 3rd April | 15.30 – 17.00 | Friends Friendship Disco – bounce and spring!
15.30 – 16.15 Hazel and Beech Class disco 16.15 – 17.00 Chestnuts and Oak Class disco |
COMMUNITY AND OTHER NEWS
The 6 weeks between 5th March and 17th April marks the season of Lent when Gillingham Foodbank will provide emergency food parcels for local individuals and families facing hardship.
The soaring cost of living is driving record numbers of people on the lowest incomes to the foodbank and the amount of help needed is outstripping the donations they are receiving.
The foodbank is calling on the local community to donate food, if they can, to ensure that they can continue to support everyone who needs help.
Please see the attached poster with a shopping list of the foodbank’s urgent needs and another for anyone who would like to give a donation of money.
Please help if you can, by dropping off any food donations:
Monday and Thursday 10-12am
6 Station Road
Gillingham
SP8 4PY
(With thanks from Helen Weaver, Project Manager at Gillingham Foodbank)
CLASS OVERVIEWS
Oak Class
The children have worked well this week. We have been embracing the concept of decimals and putting them in order. In English we have been looking at a story called Varmints which is also in video form; it is a story of environmental destruction followed by regeneration. In history, we have been discussing the causes of the First World War, and decided that there were four factors – allies, imperialism, militarism and nationalism. In PSHE, we have been looking at working with others in the context of ‘ Me and My Relationships’. Next week, we are looking forward to starting our Science project about light. (Mrs Clasby)
Chestnut Class
In Maths, we have been learning about unit and non-unit fractions, comparing and identifying these as part of our journey into understanding fractions better. Our new topic in Science is focused on grouping and classifying living and non-living things, helping us make sense of the natural world around us. In Geography, we continued learning about different types of mountains, the role of magma and tectonic plates in their formation, and how we can identify them by their unique physical features. It’s been a week full of discovery and curiosity! (Mrs Sanda)
Beech Class
This week in Beech Class, the children have been learning about Malala Yousafzai in order to write a biographical piece about her. In Maths, the children have been looking at times tables and division – specifically the two times tables this week.
During the afternoons, Beech Class have been looking at key things to look out for to stay safe at the coast. In computing, the children have started to look at tally charts ready to start creating their own on iPads next week. In addition to all this, the children thoroughly enjoyed their first session of swim and gym at Port Regis. (Mrs Whelan)
Hazel Class
We started this week off with a brilliant trip to New House Farm where the children fed cows, stroked calves, and learnt all about looking after cows. This memorable experience was the beginning of our new topic Ready Steady Grow. Using the story the Gigantic Turnip, the children have begun to learn about harvesting vegetables and the machinery involved. We also taste tested some root vegetables! We visited preschool to meet a farm vet and learn all her job; the children also got to practise their bandage skills on some very poorly toy animals. (Miss Buxton)
Diary Dates
| 1st March | 09.30 – 11.30 | CANCELLED – Friends Jumble Sale |
| 6th March | All day | World Book Day – Dress up as your favourite profession |
| 12th March | All day | London Trip for Year 6 pupils – 11.15 depart and return 01.00 approx |
| 18th 25th March | All week | Scholastic book fair |
| 2nd April | Morning | Tennis Roadshow experience for each class |
| 3rd April | 15.30 – 17.00 | Friends Friendship Disco – bounce and spring!
15.30 – 16.15 Hazel and Beech Class disco 16.15 – 17.00 Chestnuts and Oak Class disco |
| 1st April | 10 – 11:30am | Autism Central Coffee Morning at RiversMeet, Gillingham |
| 4th April | 15.20 | Second half of term ends – no after school club |
Best wishes,
Mrs B