Headteachers Message

Dear Parents and Friends of Castle Hill,

Another action packed half term with an incredible range of activities and events happening at both campuses.  Huge thanks as always for your ongoing support.  We wish you and your family a relaxing, peaceful and a happy Easter. 

From Ms Willmouth and Mr Martin (Co Headteachers)

• EXCITING NEWS! The Year 6 Leavers hoodies are now available for parents/carers to purchase online (see link below)! Please read the 'important information': the shop closing date is 16th April, delivery is to the school only, add the student's name to help with the distribution, and please choose the size correctly (remember they do like them baggy). With every hoodie ordered, they will also receive a FREE signing t-shirt (see images below)! 

Online Shopping link = https://wintechsports.com/castlehillprimaryschool

Important information:

• • 1. Student Name Required. The online system asks for the student’s full name. This is needed because each hoodie and T-shirt is packed individually and labelled with the student’s name to make distribution easier. Orders without a student name will still be processed, but will only be labelled with the order number.

    2. Delivery to School Only. All hoodies and T-shirts will be delivered to the school on a date agreed with the school, which we expect to be the week commencing 8th June 2026. When ordering, parents will be asked to enter a delivery address; however, regardless of the address entered (home or school), all orders will be delivered to the school, and the school will distribute them to the students.

    3. Ordering Deadline and Production Time. The online shop will remain open until Thursday, 16th April 2026. Once the shop closes, all orders will be sent for printing and embroidery. We can accept late orders, but they will incur an additional charge because they must be produced separately. Parents are therefore encouraged to order before the deadline to avoid extra costs.

• Please be aware that Chartwells has made two amendments to the school menu after the Easter holidays. The changes will be updated on Scopay, and the new version can be found here - https://www.castlehillprimary.net/finance/school-meals

  • 1. West African Rice will now be Savoury Rice

    2. Vegetarian Meat Feast Pizza will be Vegetarian Deluxe Pizza

• School policies are reviewed and updated regularly in accordance with government guidelines. To access our school policies, please visit - https://www.castlehillprimary.net/policies

• Lunchtime Supervisor Vacancy - if you would like to join our Greenbank lunchtime team, please find the vacancy details here

• New School Crossing Patrol Officer - we are still recruiting an SCPO for Winklebury Way. For more information regarding the vacancy, please visit - Job Vacancy

What has Been happening in School?

Year R "When I Grow Up" Day

When I grow up day:

From miniature medics and aspiring astronauts to future firefighters and farmers, the Year R children had a blast dressing up for 'When I grow up' day. It was absolutely heartwarming to watch them beam with pride as they explained how they plan to change the world. They had a lovely time sharing their aspirations with their friends, reminding us all that no dream is too big when you have a little imagination and a lot of heart!  

People who help us topic:

Mr Martin loved hearing all about how firefighters help us in our community. He even put on the uniform to fully embrace the experience! Thank you, Mr Daniel, for sharing with the children the amazing job you do! 

World Book Day

What an exciting day at CHPS celebrating our favourite books and authors and getting involved in lots of fun activities. To view some of the amazing costumes visit our 'Photo Gallery' - https://www.castlehillprimary.net/photo-galleries

Year 1 & 2 Spring Performance

What a fantastic performance from our Year 1 and Year 2 children! We have been practising our songs and our dance moves, and we got to perform for our parents on Wednesday and Thursday. The children were all fantastic, and they have worked so hard to learn their songs and poems. Congratulations to every single child - you have made us all so proud!

Greenbank Mother's Day Baking Competition

On Friday, 20th March, we held our first-ever Mother's Day Bake Sale, which was such a success! The number of amazingly creative cakes was absolutely astonishing, and we cannot believe how many fantastic bakers we have at Castle Hill. We really appreciate the donations given, and there were some spectacular entries in our competition. We are thrilled to say you helped us raise a whopping £625! We wanted to say a huge thank you for all the support, time and effort that went into baking these treats! 

Visit from the HM Lord-Lieutenant of Hampshire

The school was honoured to welcome the Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire, the King’s representative, for a very special visit last week. Our Year 6 pupils proudly guided him around both campuses, sharing highlights of school life and asking thoughtful questions about his role. The visit included the planting of a tree, creating a lasting reminder of the occasion. It was a truly memorable day for everyone involved.  

ManMade Project 2026

Some of our KS2 boys delivered an outstanding performance of their piece 'Mission: Impossible: Algebra' at the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton, captivating an audience of over 300 people. With confidence, energy, and impressive teamwork, the pupils brought Maths to life through a creative and entertaining production. Their clear delivery, expressive acting, and excellent timing kept the audience engaged throughout, earning well-deserved applause. It was a fantastic opportunity for the boys to showcase both their mathematical understanding and their performance skills, and they represented the school with pride. In celebration of their achievement, the boys were later presented with their ManMade T-shirts during a special assembly, marking their success and commitment.

Attendance

Attendance Updates

Thank you for working with us to improve attendance at Castle Hill Primary this year. Our overall attendance is 95% (nationally, 94%). Our persistent absences (those pupils below 90%, equivalent to missing half a day a week) are down to 10% (versus 16% nationally). 

Our pupils with good attendance are making good progress throughout the school, and we look forward to seeing them attend every day in the new term. Thank you again for sending your pupils regularly to school so we can teach and develop them into better learners and future citizens.

Our target for this year is 96% or over; last year’s attendance was 95.23%. 

Our current percentage is 95%.

The classes with the best attendance this half term are:

Rooksdown

KS1 – Year 1 Miss Connor = 96.23%

KS2 – Year 6 Mrs Finn = 97.16%

Greenbank

Year 4 Miss Lancaster = 97.17%

Here is a useful link to the NHS website, which might help you decide if your child is too ill for school - 

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/

Sports Reports & Team Photos

GB Boys Football

GB Tag Rugby 

Trips & Workshops

We have been planning exciting trips and workshops across all year groups this academic year. These trips are intended to complement and reinforce learning on key curriculum topics. We know many families are facing financial challenges, so we have set an annual contribution maximum of £40 per child, and, where possible, lower than that. 

Trip amounts are calculated based on the assumption that every child participates and contributes to help us raise sufficient funds. Please note that the school may cancel or postpone the trip or workshop if there are insufficient voluntary contributions. 

We hope this is helpful to you in your financial planning. We are looking forward to some exciting experiences. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. 

GB Year 3 AWE Visit

We were delighted to welcome AWE into Year 3 this half-term for an amazing workshop on structures, 'Tumbling Towers'. Working collaboratively, we looked at different structures and assessed which would be the strongest against earthquakes! It was then our mission to create the sturdiest structure to withstand our experiment! We had such a fantastic afternoon and were able to ask AWE so many questions about their important role in our community!

RD Year 3 AWE Visit

During Science week, the children were lucky enough to have two lovely team members from AWE come to lead a Science workshop called 'Tumbling towers'. It was super to see our Year 3s showing fantastic collaboration and confidence as they replicated a high building to survive an 'Earthquake', using mini cups, plastic sheets, elastic bands and wooden marbles. The teams used a variety of building shapes and designs during the exploring stage, and as the workshop progressed, the children learned to build structures with three sides, as a triangle shape is the strongest. We were so proud of how hard everyone worked, showing super manners and respect to our visitors

Year 2 African Workshop

On Monday 16th March, Year 2 had a visitor called Kwame come to the school. First, we did some African dancing and practised lots of dance moves until we could perform a whole dance routine.  Then he told us some stories about Anansi the spider. In the afternoon, we got to try some African drumming!  We all had our own djembe drums, and we learnt to play some different rhythms which we performed to the Waka Waka song.  We all had a fantastic time and loved meeting Kwame!

Year 6 MOD Science Day

This half term, Year 6 took part in a MOD Science workshop. The first science activity was to build a small drone on bases, lots of children enjoyed the drone and making it fly. The second activity was gyro sphere which included coding a robot and driving, most children enjoyed the gyro sphere activity. The third activity was building on top of a base a car to control it by iPad to drive around the room. All the children enjoyed the whole day with the three activities. Written by Sofia W

In other News.....

Fundraising Friends NEWS!

eSafety

Last term, we joined with the London Grid for Learning and are now able to offer new resources to support your children's online safety at home.

There many different resources available that are updated all year long. 

Some highlights include:

• Gen AI: The Harms Landscape - a prerecorded webinar about new generative AI tools 

• Online Tutoring Guidance - information about finding a tutor and how to ensure they act safely

• Safe Settings for Devices - information for different types of devices and how you can keep children safe using them

• Screentime Guidance - information about how to regulate children's time online

Busy THINGS RESOURCES

During this term, we have introduced several year groups to the fantastic website BusyThings, which we now have access to. If your child would like to access BusyThings during Easter, they can use the details below to access the website. At present, we use a shared login system, but we will move to named accounts later in the year for Key Stage 2 pupils (Years 3 and up).

Holiday Camps / Clubs

Easter Holiday Clubs - 

• As previously advertised in the weekly noticeboard, ACE Kids, MAGNA, ISIS, GOL!, and HCC are all running holiday clubs. For more information, please visit our 'News' web page - https://www.castlehillprimary.net/news

Rocksteady Club @ Greenbank and Rooksdown

• Learn to play in a band. The children can choose from the electric guitar, keyboard, drums or vocals, and lessons are during school time. For more information about Rocksteady visit:  https://www.rocksteadymusicschool.com/primary/

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