BELMONT SCHOOL NEWS 1st April 2021

THOUGHT FOR
 THE WEEK
 Community
 BELMONT SCHOOL NEWS

 1st April 2021
Wishing you all a Happy Easter break
What a term with so very much achieved despite the restrictions.
Can I start with a ‘well done’ to all the young people of Belmont. We
now have 159 amazing children at Belmont and everyone has had a
unique challenge over the past year. However, they have generally
risen up, tried their best and the results in school have been
impressive!
 During the past few weeks we have recorded some of the best
‘whole school’ attendance in the school’s history (daily over 97%).
We have observed some wonderful levels of respect and behaviour particularly from KS3 & 4 who have
shown excellent maturity recently. In our school we place a huge importance on school attendance and
strong, honest and respectful relationships as we know this is the bedrock to both happy and safe
children who make the best possible learning progress. We all know we have lost some ground recently
and need to make this up following the national lockdown easing, be assured we are ready for the
challenge. All children have been assessed so we know exactly where they are and my teaching teams
are implementing class and individual interventions. We are already seeing the children respond
positively as they settle back into the school routine. Please thank your children and allow them a good
rest during this Easter break. On behalf of the school and with the support from F@B we have been able
to send them all home with an Easter egg as a well done from us .

I have so much good news to share it’s hard to know where to start! Firstly, the site and finance team
have been working their socks off as so much is happening here. The foundations for the two new
classrooms have been laid and this big project is on target to be concluded by August 21st. These rooms
will allow for all secondary classes to be based in the secondary block and a number of additional
intervention rooms. In addition, Soft Play is in the final stage, with the internal fit out expected to be
concluded in June. The Soft Play room has full air conditioning too, so can be fully accessed and enjoyed
all year round. Belmont is so very gratetful to the Sedbury Trust who helped us fund the final stages of
the project. Once the project is completed we will hold an official opening to both thank the Sedbury
Trust and also to commerate two of our wonderful school governors who we sadly lost during the last
year.

September 2021 might appear very far away for the children, but for Headteachers we have been
planning already. I am delighetd to report that this week we have employed three teachers who have
been completing their first year of teaching here at Belmont - many congratulations to Molly Macauley,
Beth Alps and Morgan Chappell. These three recently qualified teachers are all very different, but they
share some common values and abilities, including a huge desire to unlock the full learning potential of
every child in their care and to build strong relationships with staff, families and children. Well done!

Can I also pass on my thanks to Emma Hall who has been leading primary and teaching Dolphin class.
She leaves us today to start her maternity leave. Sian Powell has been doing a wonderful job of teaching
the class. Thank you Emma and good luck!

We are also saying goodbye and good luck to our wonderful Mary who has been an important part of
the admin team. She has helped with so many things including attendance monitoring, communications,
general admin and the newsletters! Mary will not be leaving us just yet, and we are departing on very
good terms as she wants more time with her family and traveling after lockdown. She has been an
absolutely perfect employee in every respect, thank you so much Mary and best wishes for your travels.

Partnership work is so important to us here and I’d like to thank lots of people and organisations. F@B
have been wonderul as always, they have agreed to buy us a very large bouncy castle and slide for the
school (you will see photos later in the newsletter). On this theme can I extend a very big thank you to
the Parson’s family who operate BnJ’s Castles https://www.bnjscastles.co.uk/ . They have kindly sold
Belmont a wonderful castle for a very discounted rate and also helped us with the risk assessment and
planning as well. Thank you to James and the family.

Can I also thank Morrisons who have continued to support the school on so many levels from
discounted Easter eggs to providing food for some of our families during recent tough times. The
success of our school is very much based around partnerships with families, children and other
supporters of our work. Thank you all and I hope you have a cracking Easter and an eggcellent holiday.
Just a reminder we return to school on Monday the 19th April.

Kevin & Team Belmont

Red Nose Day Friday 19th March

 A huge thank you for all your
 donations. We raised an
 incredible
 £261.75 for Red Nose Day

Ella and Callum made a wonderful dog Red Nose cake with a colourful
surprise filling for ‘Guess the Weight’. Both Callum and Ella were really
 passionate about raising money
 for Red Nose Day and spent much
 of the day promoting the activity
 and their cake. Everyone was
 grateful for their contribution and
 enthusiastic support on the day.

Kindness Awards
Congratulations to all the pupils who were awarded a kindness certifcate and a hot chocolate treat this week with
Mr Day and Mrs Hanna.

 Tommy, Otis, Gage, Frank, Brandon H,
 Jack-lee, Harvey R, Jamie L, Brooklyn,
 Jocob, Saphire, Harley

Mini Martial Art Sessions
During Term 4, some pupils within their bubbles have been taking part in online Mini Martial Art
sessions delivered by the Allsorts team in the Upper School Hall. This school project was aimed at
helping pupils work on their fitness and also their mental health during these difficult times. The pupils
did enjoy all the actions and had great fun!

3.14 Pi Day π 14th March 2021
Once again Happy Pi Day – 3.14159265359 that never ends!!!!
Pupils turned into explorers for the day. Class Otters found the relationship between
the circumference of a paper plate and its diameter. They used a string to measure
the circumference and discovered that it is three times plus a bit of the diameter. It
works for every circle no matter its size.

 Making “pi” plates was an excellent way to celebrate the
 never-ending number. Using paper plates, pupils started to
 write the number Pi (π) from the center of the plate. They
 used crayons and felt tip pens to write the digits of π out around the border of
 the plate. The challenge was to fit in as many decimal places as they could
 whilst keeping it all legible.
 Everyone was unstoppable and wanted to carry on!

School house Café - thank you!
 We were treated to a surprise visit from Cheryl Lewis recently.
 Cheryl works at the School House café in St. Pauls Cheltenham
 and dropped in a gift of delicious tray bakes for the Belmont
 staff to thank us for all we do. We were very touched by this
 act of kindness and want thank Cheryl and the team. Find more
 about the community-based café at
 https://www.schoolhousecafe.co.uk/our-cafe/

International Women’s Day - whole school project
 The whole school celebrated International
 Woman’s Day by taking part in a whole school
 project led by the No Child Left Behind
 movement. The pupils had the opportunity to
 create either a piece of artwork or written work
 to represent and share which woman or women
 inspires them. The response from the pupils was
 phenomenal! It was lovely to see the whole
 school take part in this project to form a
 sensational whole school display. All of the pupils’
 work has now been sent off to the Public Art
 Panel, led by Cheltenham Borough Council, in the
hope to contribute towards a virtual public display and to later then hopefully be displayed around
Cheltenham when things begin to open back up again.

International Day
On Tuesday 30th March, the Belmont School Community virtually visited Spain. All pupils enjoyed a
fantastically packed full day including; listening to Spanish music, tasting Spanish food, recognising the
Spanish flag, playing a language game, making flamenco fans, watching flamenco dances (pupils tried
them out themselves too!) counting to 10 in Spanish, playing snakes & ladders using the Spanish
numbers and everybody had a go at learning basic Spanish phrases: Hola = Hello
 Adiós = Goodbye
Pupils watched a recorded video by a Spanish lady sharing what
 Por favor = Please
Spanish people do to celebrate their Easter each year. Also, all
 Gracias = Thank you
classes took part in Spanish quiz at the end prepared by our
 Me llamo… = My name is…
Spanish guest speaker.
 Cómo te llamas? = What’s your
 name?
 Cómo estás? = How are you?
 Estoy bien, gracias = I’m well
 thank you

Dolphins Class
 This term, Dolphins class has been learning about Ancient
 Egypt. We have talked a lot about the river Nile and how it
 floods once a year to help fertilise the soil. The children wrote
 their own names in hieroglyphics and learnt about the
 Egyptian Gods. We talked about the kind of food Egyptians
 would have eaten over 3000 years ago and even had a go at
 making some. As a class we have been reading a great book
 called ‘A Mummy ate my homework’ and we are looking
 forward to seeing what happens in the end.
Our favourite lesson this term was when we used toilet roll to turn each other into Mummies.

Bouncy Castle Fun
Everyone at Belmont would like to say a big thank you to F@B for purchasing this wonderful bouncy
castle for us to have fun with. We have so missed having a soft play space so can’t wait to have our new
and exciting soft play room in action. The bouncy castle has been a great boost to us all.
Children have enjoyed using this as reward time, break out time and to practise their gross motor skills
activities. The timetable for this room is getting very busy. Here is just one of our classes having an
amazing time. I am sure the tutors will send some more photos of your class having the best time!

New Staff Profiles
 Miss Nash, Inclusion Learning worker
 ‘I am absolutely passionate about working with unique individuals and supporting them
 to harness their talents and skills. So, I am particularly excited to be working within the
 Inclusion Team helping children to be the best that they can be!’

Thank you Callum
A very BIG thank you to Callum who has been inspired by Max’s Big
Sleepout movement. Callum has built a den under his bed and is “sleeping out”
raising money for Belmont School. You can still donate via our Just Giving page
or send money into school marked Big Sleepout.

OPAL NEWS
All secondary classes are now equipped with OPAL bags with equipment to enrich their play in addition
to scooters and football. They are also now able to listen to music during outside play thanks to new
wireless speakers.

Primary classes continue to play with their loose parts boxes and are timetabled for: scooters, sandpit,
football play, mad kitchen, sensory garden and pirate ship. They enjoy their outside play and always
amaze us with their play creativity, for example changing our Mud Kitchen into a music corner by using
the kitchen equipment as percussion instruments!

During Easter break we will have water taps installed in our primary playgrounds so I hope children can
enjoy water play activities soon.

At the moment we are really hoping to stock our water and sand play
equipment as well as getting ready for summer weather with relaxation outside
spaces. If you think you could help, we are particularly looking for:
 - Blankets and pillows
 - Umbrellas (very popular in primary playground!)
 - Buckets, bowls, jugs, any containers for water play
 - Sandpit toys
If you have any of these that are in a safe and usable condition we would be happy to have them.
Mrs Vida, OPAL coordinator

SPRING is in the air…. quite literally!
 The children are loving this bouncy castle as a temporary
 measure until the soft play equipment arrives. This has
 been purchased by F@B and will be used at our Fun
 Days and also available for groups to hire and use on site
 in the future. It is a commercial grade bouncy castle which has been
 provided by one of our pupil’s family. Thank you to Mr Parson’s for
 his assistance in getting it for us.

Have you seen the new Interventions cabin video and discussion of F@B?
Click on the link below: https://youtu.be/MABXKBut07w

We are looking for people with social media skills, marketing, fundraising, and grant application
experience to help F@B continue to make a difference. In addition, if you have links with a company
that match funds or is looking to put something charitable into the local community please do think of
us and let us know – we are keen to grow our corporate links in the community. Everyone who has a
child at the school is automatically a member of the Friends.
We need new members, new ideas and people to share in continuing the fantastic work
that F@B do.
Please do get in touch either via the Belmont Parents Facebook page or our dedicated email:
thefabpta@gmail.com

Carolyn Jones, Treasurer and Acting Chair

Careers week

In Night Owls our current topic is ‘The World of Work’ and we have been looking at our own skills and
qualities, different jobs and careers, presentational features of job advertisements, CV and letters of
application writing, as well as using Panjango cards to compare different career options.

Jaguars
For Careers Week we did the paper challenge, we worked in teams to build a tower using paper and
teamwork. Once the tower was built it had to be able to hold paper on the top to show it was
successful. It was great fun!

 JAGUARS CAREERS WEEK 2021- PAPER CHALLENGE

Dear Parents and Carers,

 Between the 1st of April and the 30th April, Doodle will be
running the Spring Challenge — the DoodleMaths Challenge!
 The Challenge encourages children to use Doodle for a few
 minutes each day, helping them to rebuild their
 confidence and get back on track in their learning.

 Best of all, those who take part can earn a free pin badge
 and certificate!
 How to take part
 From the 1st of April, visit parents.doodlemaths.com and
 press Register next to your child's name.

 Then, encourage your child to earn 450 stars (or 350 stars if
 they were born on or after 01/09/13) and achieve a 7-day
 streak in DoodleMaths.

 Once they've reached their target, you'll be able to claim
 their reward by logging in to the Dashboard and
 pressing Claim reward
 Mrs I Petrova, Secondary Maths Subject Coordinator

Pied Piper Appeal

Dear Parents and Carers,

I am writing to you today both as the Headteacher from Belmont and also as a
proud Trustee for the Pied Piper Children Charity. As the leading children’s
charity in our county, Pied Piper make a huge impact on the lives of sick and
disabled children across Gloucestershire. During the past few years the charity has invested hundreds of
thousands of pounds in our special schools, at Belmont they have previously funded our primary sensory garden
and more recently our fantastic climbing frame. As a Trustee I see wonderful examples of their work in our
schools and hospitals every month.

Here is a link with more examples of how Pied Piper has helped our schools and children:
https://mailchi.mp/4901b18ca2c5/heres-what-we-do-at-send-schools-in-gloucestershire

The charity wants to keep helping our schools to provide even better opportunities and facilities for our children.
However much of the funds are secured by fund raising events that have been cancelled over the past year, so
how can you help?

Check out the Website and follow Pied Piper on social media
Please pop to the Pied Piper website to learn about our work and maybe see our school
https://www.piedpiperappeal.co.uk/

Please follow Pied Piper Appeal on Facebook and social media
(information on great local events and projects).

Sign up to a Pied Piper event
Please help Pied Piper to help us, sign up to an event or create your own! If you or your children want to walk,
run, swim, roll or even not talk for a day (or week!) we can help contact the Pied Piper team on 0300 422 6119 or
Office@piedpiperappeal.co.uk

Make a donation (every penny helps and goes to support Gloucestershire children)
https://www.piedpiperappeal.co.uk/donate/

Sign up to the 100 club
A great way for you to support The Pied Piper Appeal whilst having a bit of a flutter!
https://www.piedpiperappeal.co.uk/100-club/

Thank you so much in advance for however much or little you can support. If you would like any more
information on this great local charity please ask me or give them a call.

Best wishes

K. Day
Kevin Day
Headteacher & Pied Piper Trustee

Thursday 1st April 2021

Dear pupils, parents, staff and Governors,

Thank you to all of you for your support to the SAND AT schools over the past 12 months. It has
been the most unexpected, strange and stressful time for everyone and I appreciate how much
everyone has pulled together to keep the schools accessible to as many pupils as possible and
support those pupils and staff who needed to work from home.

I would like to say a huge thank you to the staff who have given above and beyond to keep the
children safe and support them to return to school. The transition has been difficult for everyone
and it is a testament to our schools that it has gone so well. Thank you also to the Senior Leadership
Teams of each school who found themselves setting up Lateral Flow Testing stations and recording
the results. This involved fast learning of new skills and tough decisions to be made regarding the
need to close bubbles and departments at times.

We have some excellent news. Our first mainstream primary school joins SAND Academies Trust on
April 1st. We are relaunching Tuffley School as Willow Academy School and welcome the pupils, staff
and families into our Trust. I look forward to post Covid days when staff can meet with each other
and visit each other’s schools to share good practice and innovative ideas. The range of expertise in
the staff team across all 5 schools is phenomenal and ensures that staff can always find peer support
and advice to provide a high quality of education and learning for pupils.

We are currently advertising for more Trustees to join the SAND AT Trust Board. Do please look at
our website www.sandmat.uk to see the advert. Please do consider contacts you may have who
might be interested in supporting us as a Trustee, we would particularly welcome new Trustees with
skills in accountancy and mainstream education.

May I take this opportunity to wish you all a great Easter holiday, may the sun shine and the
chocolate eggs be in abundance!

With regards,

Lyn Dance

CEO

SAND Academies Trust
CEO & Executive Headteacher: Lyn Dance
Registered in England: Company Number 11968610
Registered Office: The Milestone School, Longford Lane, Gloucester, GL2 9EU - Telephone: 01452 874000 – www.sandmat.uk

Battledown Centre for Children & Families: www.battledown.org.uk • The Milestone School: www.themilestoneschool.co.uk
Paternoster School: www.paternosterschool.co.uk • Belmont School: www.belmont.gloucs.sch.uk