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Posted on: June 17th 2021

Castle - Bringing learning to life through arts and culture.

Castle Primary School – Are delighted to be bringing learning to life through arts and culture.

Castle Primary School’s staff and pupils are delighted to have been successful in securing £1500 funding from Artsmark SPARK for developing their arts and cultural learning at the school. Castle will be using the funds to support their arts and culture curriculum to boost teaching, learning and creativity and to increase the wellbeing of staff and pupils, especially during these challenging times.


Artsmark SPARK is an opportunity for Somerset schools to access additional funding, CPD and support. Other schools that are part of The Redstart Learning Partnership will also be applying and hopefully benefitting from the scheme.


Ethne Staniland, the Trust Lead for Art isn’t stopping there, she has also submitted a bid for £360K from the Arts Council National Lottery Development Fund. This is for a Creative Collaboration pilot project: Teaching for creativity. Ethne has submitted the
eligibility questionnaire and an expression of interest application. If this is successful the school will progress to the full application stage and she will have 4 weeks to submit a full application for the Trust. 


Ethne Staniland from Castle said:
“We are delighted to have been successful in our application to Artsmark spark to secure the match funding of £1500. We will be using this to help organise and enhance our current approach to our teaching and learning of the arts. The Artsmark award and the match funding will play an important part in enhancing Castle Primary School's exciting journey.”


A spokesperson from The Redstart Learning Partnership said:
“This is absolutely fantastic news for Castle Primary school. We are delighted that they have secured £1500 for the school to develop their arts and culture provision at the school. We will be fully supporting their application to the Arts Council and will be keeping everything crossed that their application is a success. We can’t wait to see the impact this will have on the school, the pupils and the staff.”


 

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A message from Mr Morton Posted on: 17/12/2024

A message from Mr Morton

We have been full speed ahead with Christmas here at Castle Primary School over the last few weeks. But before we celebrate all things festive, let’s remember all the other fantastic experiences and learning opportunities that our children have engaged with earlier in the term.  Our Year 6 peers, Harriet, Thomas, Mia, and Lucy proudly represented our school on the top of Ham Hill on Remembrance Sunday. They spoke with clarity, conviction, and pride as they read the names of the brave soldiers who lost their lives in service to our country. It was a beautiful service well attended, and it was a privilege to be a part of it.  Well done to all.   Now on to the main events! Everyone enjoyed our flying visit from Father Christmas and his elf. The children were very patient as we all waited for Father Christmas to refuel his helicopter. The children all gave over their letters and cards, and Father Christmas promised to read them all. A special mention to all the children in our school nativity. Each year it does not fail to fill everyone with the joys of Christmas. The children were brilliant actors, narrators, and storytellers. They really did all shine and gallop! As I write this, we keep our fingers crossed for an outdoor venue for our carols by candlelight. Hearing all the children practise their carols each week has been an absolute delight, and we can’t wait to bring them all together for our choral extravaganza!    Finally, it has been heartwarming to work with our Year 6 members of parliament this term. Their courageous advocacy has risen to new heights. A big thank you to Mia, Zachary, Jemima, and Amelia for working hard to arrange the Christmas present swap. Their kindness and community spirit have ensured that lots of children across our school will have extra toys under the tree and that families will not have needed to spend a penny to do so. Our peers have also been getting involved and have coordinated the parent/carer present collection that has enabled all children in our school to choose a gift and wrap it for a family member to open on the big day.    Thank you to all of them and to all of you for supporting our efforts to give back to our families. You are all amazing. Have a well-deserved break, and we look forward to welcoming you all back for 2025 on January 7th.   Merry Christmas, everyone.   Categories: 1 CategorySchool News
A Message from Mr Morton Posted on: 18/10/2024

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A message from Mr Morton Posted on: 19/07/2024

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I can’t believe it’s this time of year again so soon! What a marvellous year we have all had here at Castle Primary School. The summer term is always a whirlwind of busy and exciting activities, trips and school-based events. Thank you to everyone who has been able to join us to support the children in all their endeavours. As always, we strive to offer the children a diet of educational experiences that enhance and enrich their curriculum. We see each experience as an opportunity to feed into each child’s wider experiences of the world as well as to offer real-life experiences linked to their curriculum. We appreciate that the current economic climate brings with it challenges for all families and we have looked to maximise every contribution to our trips to ensure the children get the most out of everything we have offered. As I look back over the experiences this year, I am astounded as to how we managed to fit it all in! Here are just a few of the trips this year: Fleet Air Arm, Longleat Wildlife Park, Weymouth Sealife Centre, Bristol Aquarium, ROAM and our Year 6 Bristol Residential.  Thank you to all the members of FoCS for helping to coordinate and fundraise throughout the school year. It is through your support that so many of these events are made more accessible to all families. You are all amazing!  We also look to bring experiences into school for the children too. These have ranged from talks from firefighters and vets to local and famous authors. The children have participated in a judging panel for a national shortlisting for new books for children. They have competed in, and won, a regional bake-off held between local schools and held our own, in-school version run by two of our fantastic Year 5 students. They have learnt to ride their bikes safely through Bikeability and have even met a duckling and a gosling! All in all, we have loved teaching your children and we are grateful that you share their learning and development with us every day.  To our Year 6 children, we are so very proud of you for all your achievements and your growth as learners towards becoming young adults. If you multiply the above activities over 7 years and add in all the daily experiences and lessons that you have devoured over your time with us, then it becomes clear why you leave Castle Primary School so ready and prepared for the wider world. We know that you will make the right choices, be a voice for positive change, and make our world a better place because you are in it just being you! We will miss you all very much.  We also say a big thank you to Mrs Gosney who has decided to hand over lunch duty and leading our after-school care. We are very grateful for everything that you have done for our children over the years. From September Mrs Newman will lead our after-school provision.  Finally, to you all. Thank you for making me smile each and every day as you greet me at the gates. You brighten up the greyest of skies with your beaming smiles. Have an amazing break. Do marvellous things and come back to us safe and sound in September, ready for our next adventure together.   Categories: 1 CategorySchool News
A message from Mr Morton Posted on: 25/03/2024

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My goodness, this term has flown by! So many exciting experiences have been had and wonderful adventures the children have been part of, inside and outside of the classroom. Despite the weather seeming determined to rain on every single Forest School session, our spirits have remained high and where others would see grey skies, we saw an opportunity to splash in the puddles.     It is always a privilege to speak with our children about the activities and experiences that they are offered throughout each term. I have thoroughly enjoyed spending my lunchtime dining experiences with Sophie, Olivia and their guests, as part of our Charlie Castle ‘Wonka Bar’ golden ticket prizes. The dinner table conversations have been delightful.     We have been able offer trips to the top of Ham Hill to experience iron age living, visits to the tank museum followed by VE Day experiences. Live writing webcasts with Micheal Rosen to enhance our creative writing and opportunities to join a national celebration of new books for children as part of the judging panel. Also, not forgetting that our team representing the school in the ‘Big Bake’ won their heat (pardon the pun). The team were so highly motivated by their experience that they have agreed to create our own ‘in -school’ version of the competition next term. Watch this space for how to take part and hopefully eat some delicious cakes!    We are also proud of how our teachers drive to find new ways to enhance our school offer and experiences to the children. Mrs Abbott is now part of a programme set up by Westminster to bring a better understanding of government, democracy and how our voices and actions can make a powerful difference for change. We are already working together to build a new parliament in our school setting. There is a strong possibility that we may have a future PM in our school!    Finally, a huge thank you to FoCS and all of you for the amazing support and energy that you bring to our school every day. Greeting you all at the gate each morning is a real treat and a wonderful start to my day. Thank you for your support and kindness for all that we do. Have a restful Easter and we look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday 16th of April.    Categories: 1 CategorySchool News
Castle teacher privileged to join Parliamentary ambassador programme Posted on: 9/02/2024

Castle teacher privileged to join Parliamentary ambassador programme

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A message from Mr Morton Posted on: 11/12/2023

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How else could I start my newsletter other than to wish you all a Merry Christmas and to thank you all for the support, kindness and goodwill that you have shown to us here at Castle Primary School. A huge thank you to Castle Farm for, once again, donating our beautiful Christmas tree and also for kindly donating the cider to make the mulled cider that I hope you had an opportunity to sample? A massive thank you must also be given to FoCS for everything that they do to enhance and enrich our school experience for all of the children and staff. You are amazing!!! Despite the floods and relentless rain we have managed to keep up our high Christmas spirits and to share most of our celebrations with you in person (Seesaw carols coming to a small screen near you soon!). I challenge anyone to have not felt overwhelmingly Christmassy after meeting Humph and the rest of the cast of the Drogo/Corfe nativity. Who knew that the story of Christmas could be told from the perspective of a grumpy camel! I can’t wait to experience the Dunster/Tintagel debut performance of ‘One more sleep’. A play that has been written and directed by our very own Mr Penn. Sadly, we couldn’t persuade him to also star in it too. Stoke today Holywood tomorrow!!! Speaking of Holywood, we are so proud of our school council and head girls and boys as they represented our school on BBC1 Spotlight news. They spoke eloquently about how we, as a school, can make a big difference to our local and global communities. If you missed it or want to share it with friends and family then please click on or share this link: Castle children on BBC1 Spotlight News As we ready ourselves for a new chapter in our school’s history, we say a fond farewell to The Redstart Learning Partnership and welcome our alliance with The Cabot Learning Federation. We would like to say thank you to Mrs Suzanne Flack and all of the team that have worked tirelessly over the past 9 years to ensure that our children have been able to access the highest educational standards with love and equity for all.  All that is left for me to say is stay safe, have a merry Christmas and we look forward to welcoming you all back on January the 3rd 2024.  Categories: 1 CategorySchool News
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