Hello everyone,

I hope everyone is doing ok. As you know some children in certain year groups are starting to come back to school. It is lovely to welcome everyone back but it just makes me miss all the children who are not back even more!

With lots of changes starting to happen around us, we can start to feel anxious. This week I want you to try some mindfulness to help you gain a little control of your inner self when everything around you seems uncertain.

I want you all to try being frogs! Frogs have the amazing ability to take enormous leaps but also to sit very still. They are constantly aware of what is around  them, but they tend not to react straight away. The frog sits very still and breathes, preserving it’s energy. A frog’s tummy rises and falls as it breathes, everything is very controlled.

Take some time this week to be like a frog. Try sitting very still and very quiet. Breathe in and out slowly, feel your tummy rise and fall as you breathe. Let everyone around you know you are ‘doing the frog’ so they can help you stay nice and quiet and still.

Take care, remember to keep being kind to yourself and everyone around you.

Love Miss Ascough x

Hello everyone,

I hope everyone was able to have a nice half term and enjoy a bit of lovely sunshine.

This week has been really exciting in school, as we are starting to welcome back some of our children. Hopefully it won’t be too much longer before we are all back together as our school family.

This week, I want us to think about ‘Being Together’ and how we can be together even when we are apart. In school we are going to make a giant display with pictures and photographs of you all. It will be something you can all look forward to seeing when you are back in September (if not before).

I would like everyone to be part of this display so I am asking you all to send in a photograph of you doing something nice at home. We will take photographs of the children who are in school then add it all together to make our school family. If you don’t want to send in a photograph, please can you draw a picture and send that in instead.

Please send them to photos@allsoulsprimary.co.uk.

Once the display is finished I will post pictures of it on our website.

I will look forward to seeing all your pictures and photographs.

I hope you are all staying safe, well and happy.

Sending lots of love,

Miss Ascough

Hello everyone,

Sorry for the slightly later blog this week. This week we are going to be thinking about the value of hope, to help you with this I have a lovely resource to share with you.

But first the answers to last week’s VE quiz:

VE Quiz and answers

1. What does VE stand for? Victory in Europe
2. What came first VE day or VJ day? (What does VJ stand for) VE day, VJ stands for Victory in Europe
3. Which Prime Minister led Britain through WW2? Winston Churchill

1. Who were Britain’s allies during WW2? France, Russia and the United States
2. Where did crowds in London mainly gather to celebrate the end of the war? Trafalgar Square and up the Mall towards Buckingham Palace

Well done if you got all those answers right.

This week, as I said, we are thinking about hope. When we think about hope, we think about things getting better. All of us have been thinking about hope over the past few months and expressing our thoughts through our lovely rainbow pictures.

Over the next few days, I would like you all to look at an amazing book called the Book of Hope. It is available free on the National Literacy Trust Website (just cut and paste the link below into your search engine). 
The Book of Hopes | National Literacy Trust.  

It is free to download and  full of extraordinary short stories, poems and pictures from more 110 children’s writers and illustrators, including lots of your favourites such as: Lauren Child, Anthony Horowitz, Michael Morpurgo, Axel Scheffler, and Jacqueline Wilson.

I do hope you enjoy it.

Take care of yourselves and your families.

Sending lots of love

Miss Ascough

Hello everyone,

I hope everyone is having a good week so far. Do you know this week is a very special week indeed? Does anyone know why?

Yes that’s right, this Friday all across the country we are celebrating VE day.

VE Day took place on 8^th May 1945. It marked the end of World War II in Europe when the Nazi forces officially surrendered to the Allies.

The day was a public holiday, where people sang and danced outside their homes, and held street parties, although World War II didn’t officially end until 2^nd September 1945, when the Japanese formally surrendered.

This week, I want you to think about our value of Wisdom. Wisdom is not only about knowledge but also about making good choices based upon the knowledge we have learnt.

Your activity is you to find out about VE day (there is lots of information on BBC bitesize, twinkl and BBC newsround) then use the knowledge you have learnt to answer the quiz below:

VE Quiz

1. What does VE stand for?
2. What came first VE day or VJ day? (What does VJ stand for?)
3. Which Prime Minister led Britain through WW2?
4. Who were Britain’s allies during WW2?
5. Where did crowds in London mainly gather to celebrate the end of the war?

I will print the answers in next week’s blog.

Once you have finished the quiz I would like you to think about the impact of war on people’s lives and write a prayer for peace. Please use the comment box to share your prayers with me. I will choose one or two to be published in this week’s newsletter.

Sending lots of love

Miss Ascough

Hello everyone,

I hope everyone is keeping well. It was lovely to see so many of you when I delivered the home learning packs last week. I do miss all your smiley faces.

This week we are going to be thinking about CREATIVITY.  I know creativity isn’t one of our core values, but it is still an important value to have and you all have such a creativity spirit inside of you.

There are two creativity tasks for you this week and they are both competitions!

The first one is set by John Lewis. They would like you to design a “super-bear” cuddly toy that celebrates the spirit and fortitude of the fearless men and women working on the frontline during the Covid-19 crisis. The winning design will be turned into an exclusive Christmas toy and sold by Waitrose and John Lewis from October.  For further details on how to enter please go to the John Lewis website. Money raised from selling the bear will go towards help the NHS. Can you imagine how wonderful it would be to have your winning design turned into a teddy bear that would be on the shelves in time for Christmas as well as raising money for such a good cause!

The second competition is to design a banner to thank the NHS and other key workers. The five winning designs will be made into actual banners that can be displayed outside of our school. Please draw your designs on A4 paper (landscape) and send of photograph of your entry along with your full name, age, school and place where you live to hello@fsedesign.co.uk. The closing date is 5pm on Friday 8th May.

Have a wonderful creative week. Don’t forget to email photographs of your designs to school too so we can see all the amazing things you have been doing. photos@allsoulsprimary.co.uk.

Stay safe and well.

Sending lots of love,

Miss Ascough

You may have spotted that I didn’t blog last week as it was the Easter week so this week is a double blog!

Over the next few weeks I am going to focus on our core Christian values and what better way to start this off than with my favourite value, yes you have guessed it, perseverance.

I can’t think of better example of perseverance to share with you than the story of Captain Tom Moore. Captain Tom Moore is a 99 year old war veteran who has already raised more than 1 million pounds for the NHS by setting himself the challenge of walking 100 lengths of his back garden before his 100^th birthday on the 30^th April. This is no mean feat for anyone but especially for someone who is nearly 100 years old! True perseverance will be needed by Tom to help him complete his challenge. What an incredible person!

Sadly Captain Tom’s birthday celebrations have had to be cancelled because the country is on lockdown. So this week I would like you to help Tom celebrate his birthday by making him a birthday card. This is a great way not only to wish him Happy 100^th Birthday but also thank him for being a national hero.

If you would like to send a birthday card to Tom please send it to the following address

 Captain Tom Moore

C/O Post Office Limited 

67 Bedford Road

Marston Moretaine

MK43 0LA

Bedfordshire, England 

Please don’t forget to put that you are a pupil at All Souls Primary School in Westminster. Let’s work together to send Tom a 100 cards, just from All Souls.

Till next week. Stay safe. Missing you all

Love Miss Ascough x

Wow it’s hard to believe it is only two weeks since we last saw each other. So much has happened since then and our world feels so very different. I hope you are all doing ok and are still being kind to your families. This time is hard for them too.

I am sure lots of you have been busy drawing and painting your rainbow pictures. Don’t forget to take pictures of them.  I really want to see them when we are back at school. Those rainbows not only keep you busy for a little while, but by putting them in your windows they show our love for each other and our hope for our future.

This week, I want you to pop a teddy bear in your window too. A mass teddy bear hunt is currently underway around the world. The idea is to bring smiles to people’s faces (especially children) as the take their daily exercise. The hunt is being inspired by a book we all know and love ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ by Michael Rosen. Why don’t you take time this week to read the book too? If you don’t have a copy there is an audio version on YouTube. Remember to check with your parent or carer before going on YouTube to find it.

Do let me know what the teddy bear in your window looks like. For those of you who know Eli you can surely guess what kind of soft toy is facing out of our window!

While you are putting your teddy bear in the window take a little time to say a prayer for each other.

I miss you all so very much.

Till next week.

Love Miss Ascough x