Andoversford Primary School

Headspace are offering some FREE workshops to support parents in the local area. 

Sam Stocken is running 3 sessions and parents can come to one or more. Join Sam for a relaxed and welcoming evening where parents come together to share experiences, celebrate what’s working, and explore fresh ways to support children’s wellbeing and behaviour.
Perfect for all school parents with children in years 5 - 9 (ages 9 - 14)  looking to build confidence and connection beyond the school gates.

The dates are 17^th November, 15^th December, and 19^th January 7pm – 8:30 pm at Stow Baptist Church.

Parenting Classes to Help You and Your Child Thrive - FREE — HeadSpace

Our first parent coffee club of the year is being held next week. Join us to talk about what's new in the world of education!

Just before half term, Miss Packer and Mrs Bradley-McKay visited The Cotswold School as part of the secondary transition project the cluster schools have been collaborating on. It was a great chance to see the next steps for our pupils and the skills they need to have by the time they leave us. As a school, we have been working on Independence and Ready for Learning skills for quite a while, but this visit allowed us a sneak peek at those skills in action. This month we have been revisiting our whole school progression of skills so that we can make sure children gain the right level of independence at each stage, so that they are ready to thrive when they leave us. All the little steps we take right from the Early Years all contribute to the overall picture. 

Pop along to the coffee club on Tuesday morning to have a more detailed look. This session will be a great opportunity to discuss how we build executive functioning - or life skills - through a child's time at Andoversford. 

We are also delighted to invite anyone joining us to stay and take part in the Remembrance Assembly. If you have any ideas for future topics we might like to discuss at the parent coffee club let us know!

As you may know, we are a healthy school, which means we do not permit cupcakes, birthday cake or other sugary snacks to be brought in to school on a child's birthday.

We understand that children want to celebrate their birthdays with their peers, so in place of sweet treats, parents are able to buy a birthday book for the whole class to enjoy instead!

How it works

You can purchase a book from your child’s class Amazon Wish List. Each class has its own Wish List and these are updated at regualr intervals by the class teachers.

Your child can have fun by selecting a book from the list that they think their class will enjoy. Once they have chosen, you can buy the book for the school.

When their chosen book arrives, we put a special book plate in it, which tells the class who the book was donated by in celebration of their birthday.

It is a very lovely way to celebrate a child’s birthday in school and it is a lasting memento that can be enjoyed time and again by all the children. 

Wish Lists

To see your child’s class Wish List, click the links below:  

Ash Class Wish List

Oak Class Wish List

Beech Class Wish List

Willow Class Wish List

Thank you for your continued support. 

We wanted to re-share this important message from the Gloucestershire's Local Area SEND and Inclusion Partnership

The Annual Parent Carer Survey is our way of hearing from SEND families.  It is an anonymous questionnaire that asks for feedback about the Education, Health and Care services and support available for children and young people with Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

We encourage SEND families to take this opportunity to share your views and experiences. It is helpful and important for us to hear about the advice, support and information you currently receive, how helpful it is, and how you think support and services can improve. 

The information you share in the survey will help the SEND and Inclusion Partnership (SILAP) to better understand how to make continuous improvement to the services and offer for families.

Last year the survey was completed by 422 parent carers, predominantly from White British communities and with school-aged children between 5-16 years. The data was analysed and provided a baseline set of data for comparison.  Feedback and views received have been responded to via the ‘You Said, We Did’ Annual Report.

This year the survey is easier to complete – it should only take 12 minutes!

How do I complete the survey?

The survey is open from Monday, 6 October and remain open until Friday, 5 December 2025, at 5pm.

By clicking the following link, you can complete the Annual Parent Carer Survey 2025 

Who do I contact if I would like a physical copy of the survey or have any queries?

The survey can also be made available as a hard copy. To request a hard copy of the survey please contact localoffer@gloucestershire.gov.uk

Who can I speak to if I need help with completing my survey?

If you need additional support in completing this survey, you can contact Gloucestershire Parent Carer Forum at info@glosparentcarerforum.org.uk or by messaging their Facebook page.

There are other organisations who are also able to support - you can find their details on 'Support for Families with SEND', Gloucestershire's Local Offer part of Glos Families Directory 

Read more about the survey in the October’s edition of the Families in Partnership newsletter

https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/education-and-learning/families-in-partnership-newsletters/families-in-partnership-newsletter-october-2025/?pageNumber=1

We are really excited to be offering another exciting residential for Willow Class 2026. It may seem like a long way off away but we know it will come around quickly!

Current Year 4 and Year 5 parents, please take a look at the attached letter for all the details. The letter can also be found on the Willow Class Residential page of the school website, where you can find further information and kit list, and also on the Letters and Forms page.

Y5/6 Residential | Andoversford Primary School

Letters & Forms | Andoversford Primary School

Please note, if you child is registered for Free School Meals, or you have any concerns about payment, please do not hesitate to get in touch with the school office.  

We are looking forward to sharing this wonderful opportunity with the children next year!

Welcome back! We are hope you all had a wonderful Half Term break and are feeling rested and ready as we approach the end of 2025.

This term is a busy one so do keep an eye on the calendar to keep up to date with all the exciting things that are going on, such as our Christmas celebrations and Christmas lunch with friends and family. Make sure you keep your Jotter notifications on to avoid missing any deadlines.

Later this month, we will be sending out communication regarding wraparound care for the Spring Term. Please ensure that all wraparound payments for this term are settled on ParentPay. We will not be able to accept any bookings for Spring Term from those with outstanding wraparound debts. If you have any queries regarding this, please do get in touch with the school office.

Please do also make sure that you are up to date with any school lunch payments on ParentPay. We know how easy it is for these charges to build up. Have you considered using the Auto Top-Up feature for school meals? This is a handy way to automatically top up your child’s lunch balance when it falls below a set value.

And finally, we wanted to share November’s Action for Happiness Calendar. “New Ways November” is all about trying something new and features tips such as listening to some new music or trying out a new hobby with a friend. We’ve attached the calendar below for you to take a look at.

As always, if you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the school office: admin@andoversford.gloucs.sch.uk.

Dear Ash Class Families,

Welcome back, we hope you have had a restful half term! This week in Ash, we will begin our new Power of Reading text, Astro Girl by Ken Wilson-Max. We’ll be exploring the illustrations in the story and looking closely at the clues in the main character’s bedroom to find out more about her interests.

To help us prepare, please take a little time to chat with your child about their own interests; what they enjoy playing with, learning about, or doing at home. Next week, the children will have the chance to share these ideas with their friends during our circle times.

If you wish, you can also upload a few photo clues to Tapestry, perhaps pictures of toys, favourite objects, or family outings that show what your child enjoys.

We’ll be using the children’s interests as a fun and meaningful way to introduce them to oracy, helping them develop their speaking and listening skills as part of our EYFS learning.

Thank you for your continued support,
The Ash Class Team

Here at Andoversford we talk about our ASPIRE values as a group quite a lot, but do you know what each letter stands for? In school, children have been discussing what the core values mean to them and whether these values are still the right ones to represent the school. We would love to get your opinion too. 

During the discussions in school, children made it very clear that they love the ASPIRE as a whole and they felt very connected to this word. But they felt the individual meaning of each letter was not always equal - some they felt very strongly about, but we had some good debates about others. Here's what the children thought:

• A for Achieve - most liked this but some felt it could be changed to Ambition
• S for Self Belief - all wanted to keep
• P for Perseverance - all wanted to keep
• I for Innovation - nobody wanted to keep - in fact many thought this was already Independence
• R for Respect - all wanted to keep although Resilience did also get a mention
• E for Enjoyment - a real debate here - some wanted to keep but some thought Equality or Empathy were more important values

Parents, friends and family, over to you. What do you think?

Complete this short survey before Friday - it only has 5 questions! ASPIRE Values 2025 – Fill in form

You can also email us with your thoughts to help us renew the core values to best suit the community now and in the future. Email: admin@andoversford.gloucs.sch.uk

Beezee Families have provided some spooktacular activity inspiration for this half term! Take a look at the attached image for some fa-boo-lous ideas. 

Beezee Families, is a free heathy lifestyle programme that is delivered by family nutritionists across Gloucestershire.

The programme is available online and in person to support families to build healthy habits to last for a lifetime. Visit their website for more details.

The Royal British Legion provides a lifeline for many serving and ex-serving personnel and their families. Members of the Armed Forces can face life-long challenges, they risk injury, and some make the ultimate sacrifice.

Andoversford Primary School is proud to support The Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal. Supporting The Poppy Appeal can help ensure The Royal British Legion is able to continuing providing valuable services to the Armed Forces community.

After Half Term, we will have a selection of items that children are able to purchase to support this year’s Poppy Appeal. 

Our wonderful House Captains will be making these available to each class at various points throughout the day from Monday 3^rd November until 11^th November.

Suggested donations:

Reflective Poppy £2

Snap band £3

Wrist tie band £1

Sticker or paper poppy 50p

Thank you for supporting The Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal.

Dear parents and carers,

Please see the below message from Friends of Andoversford regarding tomorrow's Halloween Mystery Bag sale:

Please note, if the weather is wet we will set up in the hall close to the rear entrance, otherwise we will be located opposite Beech and Willow Class. For those that have already paid, you will be guided to one side so your child can pick a bag.

We will have a cash box for those paying cash on the day.

Those that are in club that have prepaid will have named bags provided to them.

We look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Thank you for your support,

Friends of Andoversvford