Whole School Events

7th March 2024 - World Book Day!

We all celebrated our love of reading during World Book Day on Thursday 7^th March - children and adults dressed in a variety of creative literary costumes (thank you to all our parents and carers for your support with these!). Our children enjoyed a whole school assembly, a visit to the 'Blind Date Book Swap' at lunchtime and all took home a voucher which they can use to get a free book with! 

18th December 2023 - Whole school bouncing win!

Our fabulous school community - parents, carers, families, friends of families - all voted to help us to win a whole day 'total bounce' with fantastic inflatables! All classes had a slot throughout the day to have fun with the equipment that was gifted to us for the day. Thank you all!

  

13th December 2023 - Year 5 & 6 Christmas Performance

Years 5 and 6 gave an outstanding performance to a great number of parents, carers and families! It was clear how much effort had gone into learning the songs.

  

13th December 2023 - Christmas dinner (and Christmas jumpers) 

There was a lovely atmosphere in the hall for our Christmas dinner. The staff enjoyed sitting with the children and singing along to the Christmas music.

    

13th - 15th December 2023 - EYFS & KS1 nativities

Children from EYFS and KS1 did a fabulous job with their nativities. They worked so hard to learn speaking lines and the song words. The audience absolutely loved watching. 

 

11th December 2023 - Year 3 & Year 4 Carol Performance

Year 3 and 4 sang their hearts out for the parents/carers to enjoy. They worked really hard to learn the songs and it really showed during their performance.

5th-11th December 2023 - Destination Bethlehem

How fantastic was Destination Bethlehem from Clevedon Baptist Church this year?! Every year they surpass themselves and we are so lucky to be invited! 

First, the shepherds had a problem because they had a hole in their bucket but they sang us a song to that tune to help us to understand more about Christmas. 

Then, Dai Woolridge, a storyteller and award winning spoken word poet, told us about Festive Fred and how he discovered the ‘greatest gift’. We also had a dance with the Cheeky Pandas’ before visiting the stable with the wise men.

The children visited the ‘Bethlehem game zone’ where they were challenged to count the sheep with the shepherds, see who could score the highest points in the flying angels zone and learn how to transport gold without dropping any.

In the bakery, the children decorated gingerbread men - with each element added having a meaning.

16th November 2023 - Children in Need

There was a great array of Pudsey and 'spotacular' outfits across the school today to raise money for Children in Need. 

10th November 2023 - Remembrance Commemorations

At 11am, we all gathered on the playground to listen to the last post and to pay our respects through a 1 minute silence. Keeley then read us a beautiful and poignant poem. 

  

28th September 2023 - 40th Birthday Celebrations

Over the week that included Mary Elton's 40th Birthday, we celebrated across the school. We had an 80s theme dress up, a cake for all and an 80s dance party! 

 

 

2022 - 2023

23rd June 2023 - Mini Police

PCSO Caroline Harris came into our celebration assembly to award our 2022-2023 Mini Police cohort with their certificates and badges. They told us some of the things they had learned over the year and experiences they had as part of the scheme. 

17th/18th May 2023 - Roller Skating Workshop

The children had a blast taking part in the roller-skating workshop run by Super Funk Roller Disco. For some children, this was their first-time roller- skating and they quickly picked up the skills. For others, who have roller-skated before, they were able to advance their skills. I am sure we will be seeing many children skating around the local area now!

 

5th May 2023 - King's Coronation celebrations

Across the whole school, a variety of activities were completed to mark the King's Coronation. There were cards, flags, crowns, group pictures, learning of the national anthem and so much more. We all came together in the afternoon to share our learning and our fantastic outfits!  

 

4th & 5th May 2023 - Gymnastics workshops

The children from all year groups took part in a gymnastics workshop run by Gymclub, which was AMAZING. They got the opportunity to try different flips and landings and even do a backflip! We have some talented gymnasts at our school and we could be seeing some in the Olympics soon!

 

25th April 2023 - Y3/Y4 Athletics

Some children from Year 3 and 4 took part in 'Run for Fun' festival where they were able to show off their Athletics skils. The children had to some long distance running and a team relay which was great fun! The children did fantastic and never gave up. We managed to finish on the podium claiming second and third place in some of the races which was an incredible achievement. 

31st March 2023 - Goodbye Mrs Sharp!

Sadly, we said goodbye to Mrs Sharp in our celebration assembly this morning and were able to thank her for all the incredible work that she has done whilst at Mary Elton. She is going to be greatly missed by the staff, children and parents/carers. We wish her all the very best for her future! 

30th/31st March 2023 - Skate Boarding Workshops

WOW! The Mary Elton children have great fun in the skateboarding workshop which was run by Skateboard Academy UK. The rain did not stop the children from learning the skills needed to be a top skateboarder! We're sure those who do not have a skateboard will be asking for one now.

Skateboarding Workshop March 23

 

13th March 2023 - British Science Week Assembly

As part of British Science Week we thought about all the different work we do at Mary Elton when we are being SCIENTISTS. Each class shared some of their fantastic learning – we found out about healthy food, classification, evolution, animals, electricity, sound vibrations; we saw demonstrations and simple experiments; we looked at Explorify  and thought about the odd one out as well as zooming out to find out what the mystery object was. Most of all we agreed that science is FUN!!!

1st March 2023 - Healthy Living Trail

As part of the inter-house competition this term, all year groups will be completing the healthy living trail around the school. There are numerous questions about fitness and healthy eating around the school for the children to find and answer. 

 

1st March 2023 - Careers Event

Years 4 and 5 were lucky enough to attend a careers event where they had the opportunity to ask people from different careers about the work they do to give them more ideas for what they would like to do when they are older. 

Careers Event March 23

 

27th February 2023 - Musician Assembly

Years 3 and 5 WOWED us all with presenting their learning from term 3. They all sang beautifully and showed great precision whilst using the glockenspiels.

 

27th February 2023 - Tillie's Workshops

After being successful with a competition Tillie's had previously run, we were all invited to take part in a free workshop. The Tillie's teachers were absolutely phenomenal with all of our children whilst teaching them a mix of singing/dancing - they must have been very tired by the last group!. Thank you so much Tillie's! 

 

8th February 2023 - Well Being Conference

The children from Mary Elton School Council attended ‘Clevedon Schools' Wellbeing Conference 2023’ this week and what a great time they all had. The children learnt lots of ways to look after our bodies and minds. They enjoyed taking part in small group activities as well as hearing advice from Dr Smarty Pants. The children all agreed “It was the best morning ever” and look forward to presenting what they learnt in assembly next term.  

 

7th February 2023 - Safer Internet Day!

The theme this year was 'Want to talk about it?' and it was an absolute pleasure to move around the school and hear all of the different online safety conversations that were happening.

Safer Internet Day 7th Feb 23

 

3rd February 2023 - Y5 Austin visits Austria!

Austin from Y5 was lucky enough to have a trip to Austria with his football club! They watched the first team on Friday night and then played the Redbull Salzburg Academy on Saturday and SUD on Sunday - they won all of their fixtures.

It was snowing for part of the trip so they had some free time to have snow ball fights too! What a great experience for Austin - we are all very proud of him being able to stay away from home and be a bit independent as no parents were allowed on the same flight or hotel!

 

Term 3 - Inter-House Dodgeball Competition!

The children have been ducking, diving, jumping and sliding to help their House in the inter-house competition.  There were different throwing techniques on show to get their opponents out. WOW - there were some FANTASTIC games.

 

18th January 2023 - Y2 child is a published author!

We are very proud of our Author Reader, Max, in year 2 who has just had his book review published in the National Geographic for Kids (February 2023) - look out for it when the magazine is released next month. Amazing work Max!

15th December 2022 - Christmas Jumper Day and Christmas Dinner!

What a lovely Christmas jumper day AND Christmas dinner! It was such a lovely atmosphere in the hall during lunch time. A huge thank you to our wonderful kitchen staff for a yummy Christmas dinner and to all the helper elves who set up the hall and put out the numerous crackers.

  

14th December 2022 - KS2 Christmas Carols

Years 3-6 gathered after school to sing carols they had been learning to the parents/carers - the HSA provided yummy hot chocolate and it was a lovely 'Christmassy' atmosphere.

December 2022 - EYFS/KS1 Christmas Events

EYFS were philosophers as they learned about the Christmas story. They then brought the story to life through their Nativity ‘Busy, Busy Bethlehem’. The children became musicians when they performed the songs with confidence and enthusiasm to an audience. 

Y1 worked with their Y4 partners to find out all about Christingles. They found out what each part represented and why they are important to Christians. They celebrated with their own Christingle service and sang by candle light.

Y2 gave a festive performance to demonstrate their enquiry question: “How are schools the same?” They also showed how they had been philosophers by learning the Christmas Story and thinking about why Christians believe God gave Jesus to the world. Parents were invited into the classrooms after the show to see some of the fantastic work.

Term 2 - Inter-house Benchball Competition!

This term was our benchball inter-house competition and the children put in a valiant effort which they should be proud of.  The matches showcased how much the children have developed in their game play, awareness, skills and using the 5Cs throughout. Take a bow!

29th and 30th November 2022 - Destination Bethlehem!

This week EYFS - Year 5 had the pleasure of visiting Clevedon Baptist Church. The volunteers created a fun, thought-provoking Nativity experience, which followed the story of the Wise Men, for all year groups. It was so lovely to watch the children engage with the activities and thoroughly enjoy the experience. If you would like to go along yourselves, it is open Friday 2nd - Sunday 4th December. Pre-booking is essential. Please contact or pop into the church office if you'd like to book a space. 

Destination Bethlehem 2022

18th November 2022 - Children in Need 

18th October 2022 - Summer Reading Challenge Tea Party!

Thank you to all those who took part in the Summer Reading Challenge. We had a lovely afternoon eating cake, drinking squash and sharing a love of reading.

 

4th October 2022 - Fencing Workshops

Year 1, 2 and 3 took part in a Fencing workshop which was AMAZING! The children got to learn the different techniques and have a duel against their partner. The Fencing workshop was run by Annie who runs her fencing club called Littlemusketeer and is based locally so if you want to take up fencing her email address is: annie@littlemusketeer.com

 

2021-2022

July 2022 - Sports Days

We were so glad to be able to welcome parents/carers back to watch our sports days this year. Lots of fun and collaboration seen across all of the year groups. Well done to all! 

15th July 2022 - Swimathon update

In March, children from Mary Elton participated in the Annual Portishead Swimathon. This week, Mr Knox-Little, a former Headteacher of Mary Elton and member of Portishead Rotary who organises the event, presented the school with a cheque for £210. We were delighted!

17th June 2022 - Quidditch Workshops

Mary Elton entered the wizarding world of Harry Potter today courtesy of Jack Ward and Dominic Wright from Enrich Education. It started with a house captain from each house being chosen to wear the sorting hat to see which Hogwarts house their house would be in. The classes then had the opportunity to learn the rules and take part in a quidditch match which they loved. The children had chances to take on various roles and play games such as the 'beater game' and the 'chaser game' before a final quidditch show down where those chosen as the 'golden snitch' had to run fast as they could! There were some very close matches and no spells were used. The winning house was ... Pier house (Gryffindor) Thank you to Enrich Education for providing such fantastic training and to Mr Hughes for organising!

Quidditch June 22

 

7th June 2022 - Queen's Platinum Jubilee Celebrations

We had a fabulous day at Mary Elton celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubliee. Our day started with a costume and ‘Hat fit for a Queen’ parade. There were some incredibly creative designs and it was very difficult to choose the winning hats! We enjoyed a whole school picnic at lunchtime and lots of learning activities in our classrooms. Special thanks go to our catering team who produced a picnic school lunch which was even served outside! 

 

Term 5 - Well being and self esteem workshops Y4/Y5

It was great for children in Y4 and Y5 to meet Adele, from 'revealed projects', this term who worked on the importance of self-esteem. We heard all about the different types of self esteem and which are healthy/unhealthy. Using a balloon, the children learned how what we say and do to people can literally 'deflate' or 'inflate' them. It was fun using the 'shield of positivity' to see how to defend ourselves from unpleasant comments and to create our own shield based on the positive things we can say about ourselves.

Y4 Y5 Self Esteem Workshops

 

25th April 2022 - Year 3/4 Raise the Roof singing festival. 

Year 3 and 4 did a fabulous job of hosting St Johns for the first singing festival in 2 years! It was such a joy to be able to collaborate again and to hear the many voices of children singing the songs they had learned.

28th March 2022 - Standing with Ukraine

Children at Mary Elton were keen to raise some money for the people of Ukraine, so we held a non-uniform day with a blue and yellow theme. The House Captains and School Council also worked incredibly hard to prepare pots of compost and sunflower seeds to sell. Thanks to the generous donations of local businesses for compost, pots and seeds we raised over £630 for the DEC and are very much looking forward to growing our sunflowers.

  

24th March 2022 - Football Freestyler!

Mary Elton took part in a football freestyle workshop where everybody got to see Jamie Knight showcase his fantastic football skills. KS2 then had a go at learning and practising various football tricks and skills and had an amazing time!

Jamie had this to say - "My name is Jamie Knight, one of the World’s Top Football Freestylers and I recently visited Mary Elton! I spent the day showcasing and teaching many of my best tricks to the whole school and I hope everyone enjoyed the day as much as I did.

The key to succeeding in freestyle is perseverance, resilience and always adopting a growth mindset approach when learning the tricks. I use the teaching of the tricks as a tool to get these lessons across to the children. I saw some real good talent over the course of the day - definitely a few future professional freestylers at Mary Elton!

Thanks for having me and hope to see you all again soon.”

Football Freestyle March 2022

 

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10th March 2022 - Technology donated to Africa

Since our new set of teacher laptops, the DFE / ASDA donated laptops and the arrival of windows 10, there has been what looked like a cemetery of old laptops (and one old projector) in one corner of our ICT suite. These laptops were unsuitable for use for what we need and some even 10 + years old. We would have used a recycling firm in the past but we were approached and asked if we would be happy for them to be donated elsewhere where they could be of use to those less fortunate than ourselves - they have now arrived at a school in Kenya. 

We had this message from their Headteacher; 
The young people at the school here in Kenya were very excited when they opened the boxes this morning and were delighted to see all of the laptops and the projector that you have donated. The projector is working perfectly and will be used in lessons linked up to the laptops. The whole school would like to thank you for your donations. 

9th March 2022 - Y4/5 Girls Football Festival

Year 4 and 5 girls took part in a North Somerset Football Festival on Wednesday at Weston Super Mare FC. The girls did fantastic and had loads of fun and they won every game they played!

3rd March 2022 - World Book Day!

We had a wonderful time celebrating World Book Day. The children spent the day enjoying activities within their classrooms and swapped books at lunch at Blind Book Date. There was such a lovely feel around the school all day. Thank you to Gill and Julie who came to visit EYFS/KS1 and Mr Hudd for sharing his favourite book with KS2. All of the costumes were fantastic - each class voted for their favourite who then won a prize! 

World Book Day 2022

 

7th-11th February 2022 - Children's Mental Health Week

We have been taking part in Children's Mental Health Week at Mary Elton, and talked about the importance of a support network. Every child made their own 'support balloon' and added names of the people around them that lift them up when they need it. We looked at emotional growth and ways we can help each other if we ever get 'stuck', thank you to Place2Be for the fantastic resources and informationˆ

 

8th February 2022 - Safer Internet Day 2022!

This year’s theme was ‘All fun and games? Exploring respect and relationships online’.

EYFS and KS1 took part in a live online event where they were lucky enough to listen to the fourth story in the Digiduck series being read by author Lindsay Buck. This year’s story focusses on playing games online with other themes including peer pressure, password sharing, and in-app purchasing. The aim of this story is to help start conversations between children and adults about many aspects of online gaming, such as; the types of games that young children enjoy playing online and why, how to tell if real money can be spent, the social elements of gaming with others (e.g., keeping personal information safe) and what to do if someone is pressuring you to do something that you are unsure about. 

KS2 all took part in the official safer internet day assembly as well as had their own specific activities as outlined below;

Y3 thought about what they would do in certain gaming scenarios as when something happens online that is frustrating or upsetting, it can be easy for young people to react ‘in the moment’, without pausing to fully consider the consequences of a response.

Y4 helped an alien who had come to Earth as a tourist because they’ve heard so much about our incredible internet, and especially the games you can play online. The alien wanted to experience online gaming and Y4 was their guide.

Y5 wrote a recipe for respectful and healthy relationships online. They thought about the  ‘ingredients’ for happy and healthy relationships offline and applied these to recipes that will help make the internet a kinder, happier, healthier place for everyone.  

Y6 imagined they work for a gaming company and were asked to design a character who will act as a gaming guide, or mascot, to people chatting online. The character they create will help make gaming chats more respectful and safe.

 Monday 7th February 2022 - Elsie's visit to London!

Elsie, Y3, finally had her day out in London following her getting runner up in the Google UK / Parent Zone ‘a day in my digital life’ competition. Elsie had a tea party in the House of Lords and got to meet both Liam Fox MP and Giovanna Fletcher. Elsie said she loved it and that she felt like a celebrity being asked for photos by everyone. On the day, she also took part in a quiz about staying safe online – she said that it was really fun and interactive. Well done Elsie, you did MEPS proud!

   

27th and 28th January 2022 - KS2 Fencing Workshops

KS2 have been taking part in taster fencing sessions with Annie from 'Little Musketeer' this week and have had loads of fun! We predict we could soon be seeing some future fencing Olympians representing the sport from Mary Elton.

KS2 Fencing Workshop Jan 22

 

13th January 2022 - Duke of Edinburgh Challenges

We have our very first DoE Gold Champions! A huge congratulations to Jonty and Elliot, from Year 2, for completing the Duke of Edinburgh challenges and receiving their certificate and gold badge this week.

30th Nov & 1st Dec 2021 - Destination Bethlehem!

It was great to be able to return to Bethlehem this year after visiting only virtually in 2020! Each class toured around three zones, exploring the theme of light in the Christmas story. We met Mary, some shepherds, the prophet Isaiah and many other characters whilst also being reminded about how the Christmas and Easter stories are linked. We will not forget the beautiful light show in a hurry, either!

 

22nd October 2021 - Harvest

Wow! Thank you so much to you all for your wonderful donations for Harvest to go to the Foodbank. We are completely overwhelmed by your generosity and we know what a difference this will make to so many people. We had a Harvest Service with a difference this morning as each class performed their story, song, poem or rap from their classroom while the rest of us watched on a screen! It didn't dampen our spirits though, the children were all wonderful.

Harvest Oct 2021

 

14th October 2021 - Chick update!

Our solo chick will be going to a new home to join a group of quail chicks and a group of chicks which will be hatching out later today or tomorrow.

11th October 2021 - Baby Chick!

The newest addition to Mary Elton- a Buff Orpington Chick! Fingers crossed we have others hatch out- we will have to wait and see.

 

10th October 2021 - Wheelchair donation in Tanzania

Peter (headteacher from Kikoboga School) sent this photo of a secondary pupil called Sabrina who needed a wheelchair and has just received it. It was financed with our generous support at the end of last term. Without this wheelchair, Sabrina's outcomes in life would be significantly limited and she sends her thanks to us.

As a school, we have financed close to 20 wheelchairs for those in need in Tanzania. They are made in the north of the country in Arusha by a local company called 'Mobility Care' - some of our teachers have been to visit the workshop on previous trips. They are then transported down to Peter in Kikiboga school and then sent off to the recipient.