Welcome to this edition of our school newsletter. This week marks the start of Black History Month across the country. In our assembly on Monday, Mr Bailey introduced the value of Curiosity and explained that our School Vision is a crucial statement about what we value in school. The first sentence says: “At Victoria Park Primary School, we celebrate our differences and teach our children to find their place in the world through respect, curiosity and kindness.” Black history is British history and will be embedded within the curriculum all year round, but Black History Month is a chance to celebrate the accomplishments of Black Britons throughout history and uncover perspectives and narratives that have long been ignored. We do that in school by being Curious about all other people. We also thought about our brilliant city, and how everyone who lives in Bristol came here for an important reason, and has their skills and experiences to contribute. Parents and carers may be interested to read this poem by Professor Laura Serrant OBE, entitled “You Called and We Came” which was read to the children as part of National Poetry Day (also this week!).

Healthier Playground Snacks

Some parents have requested some additional guidance about playground snacks. You can provide your child with a snack to eat during morning breaktime (10:20am), and in line with our food policy we aim to discourage the consumption of snacks high in fat and sugar at break-time. The following is not an exhaustive list, but is provided to help you come up with ideas for appropriate snacks. We have also created a new page on the school website containing this information.

Good choices:

• Fresh fruit
• Dried fruit
• Vegetable sticks (carrot, pepper, etc.)
• Breadsticks
• Oaty bars
• Pitta bread
• Crackers
• Plain brioche

To discourage:

• Crisps
• Chocolate bars
• Biscuits
• Processed cheese i.e. Dairylea dunkers (these can be high in fat and salt)
• Cheese strings
• Sweets
• Cake
• Doughnuts

If in doubt, you can look at the nutritional information on the back of all packaging to determine whether a product is high in sugar, salt or fat.

Could you be a school governor?

We currently have a vacancy on our Local Governing Body (LGB) for a member of the parent/carer community. A letter was emailed out to everyone at the start of the week - in the letter you find more information about the role of the local governing body, the role of a parent governor, and how to apply. Here it is again in case you missed it.

SEND parent forum

Come along to our SEND coffee morning hosted in partnership with Bristol Parent Carer Forum where you can find out more information on what support is available locally for your child with special educational needs and disabilities.

• Date: Tuesday 11th October 
• Time: 9:00am - 10:30am
• Location: Victoria Park Primary School in the Community Room (Middle Playground) - please enter at the gate on St John's Lane. 
   

Cross Country

On Thursday 13th October, Ashton Park Sports Partnership are hosting a Primary Schools Cross Country Festival at Ashton Park School (BS3 2JL) from 4 - 6pm. Mrs Casling will be taking a minibus but, unfortunately, only has capacity for 16 children. These children have been selected following trials in both Year 3 and Year 4. Many other children were also keen to run, but please don’t worry if your child was not chosen this time as there will be many many more opportunities throughout the school year to represent the school and participate in internal and external sporting events. 
You may be interested in the Windmill Hill junior “parkrun” which takes place in Victoria Park every Sunday at 9am. Click here for details. The PTFA will also be running a sponsored walk or run in the springtime which all children will be able to take part in, so look out for details on the PTFA newsletters and website.

Other information

We are occasionally contacted by outside organisations wishing to pass on information via our school newsletter. This information is included because we think it might be of interest, although we are not responsible for the content.

Research on Fatherhood and Covid - call for participants To assist in a University of Bristol study about Fatherhood during COVID, click on the document below.

Free Brass instrument lessons are available from The Salvation Army for children aged 6yrs or older. Click the image below for more detail.

We will continue our assembly focus on Black History Month next week in our whole school assembly, when the school value will be Respect. Below is a link to a Bristol City Council webpage which contains details of BHM events taking place across the city which you may like ot attend. Have a lovely weekend!

Bristol.gov.uk/BHM