Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal 2025

We will once again be supporting the Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal. From Tuesday 4th November, during the school day, children will have the opportunity to purchase poppies and a selection of small commemorative items.

Poppies will be available for a donation of your choice, while other merchandise will be priced at £1.00 each. Our Charity Ministry will be visiting classrooms after lunch each day during the first week back. If your child would like to take part, please ensure they bring coins only, as no change will be available.

Thank you for helping us support this important cause and for encouraging thoughtful remembrance within our school community.

School Photographs

A reminder that Tempest Photographers will be in school on 13th November 2025 to take individual and sibling photographs.

Open Classrooms

Parents are warmly invited to join us for our next ‘Open Classrooms’ which will be held on Monday 24^th November from 8.35am to 8.55am. This is an opportunity for parents to visit the classroom to see some of their child’s work.  On this day, please use your child’s external classroom door to enter and exit the building, if they have one. This reduces congestion at the children’s entrance.

The classrooms with external doors are:

Reception – Ash
Reception – Elm
Reception – Oak
Year 1 – Birch
Year 1 – Hazel
Year 1 – Larch
Year 2 – Holly
Year 2 – Lime
Year 2 – Sycamore
Year 6 – Juniper
Year 6 – Maple
Year 6 – Willow

Lighting of the Christmas Tree

On Friday 28^th November, parents and pupils are welcome to join us for our annual Lighting of the Christmas Tree.  Please come along to the school hall at 3.25pm to enjoy some festive cheer as we sing carols together and officially switch on the Christmas lights. We look forward to sharing this special moment with you.

FOLPS Update

School Disco – Thursday 20^th November

Get those dancing feet ready for the ever-popular school discos! The timings for each year group will be as follows:

• 3:30-4pm: Reception (children will get ready with their class and head straight to the School Hall with their teachers)
• 4-4:30pm: Year 1
• 4:30-5pm: Year 2
• 5-5:45pm: Years 3/4
• 6-6:45pm: Years 5/6

Suggested donation is £3 per child, which can be paid by cash or card on the door. FoLPS will collect payment from Reception parents as children are collected, and all other years as they come into the disco. Entrance to the disco is from the School Hall door in the staff car park. Collection after each disco will be via the playground, accessed via the gate behind the School Hall in the staff car park.

Thank you for your support and we look forward to seeing those fabulous dance moves!

Christmas Fair – 5th December 2025

This year’s FoLPS Christmas Fair is on Friday 5th December 5-7pm. This is one of the highlights of the FoLPS calendar so please do come along to support the school! Below are a few things to note:

What will be there?

A bar, hot dog stand, tombola, tea & cakes stall, glitter tattoos & face painting, sweet & popcorn stall, games and, new for this year, a Christmas “elfie” station! Cotswold Pizza Van will also be returning. Don’t forget your reusable mugs for the mulled wine and hot drinks!

Raffle Prizes and Sponsorship

We are currently looking for local businesses to provide raffle prizes or to sponsor stalls at the Fair. Do you work for a company that might be interested in return for the positive publicity? Please get in touch by emailing chair@folps.com

Non-Uniform Day

On Thursday 4th December children are invited to wear non-uniform to school in return for donating a prize for the tombola. Please bring your donations to the Conference Room (between the Reception classrooms and the Studio) on Thursday 4^th from 8.35am.

Cakes

If you have a child in Reception or KS1, and you or your children are keen bakers, we would be delighted if you could bring in a few homemade cakes or biscuits that we can sell at our tea & cake stall (don’t worry, KS2 get a chance at the Summer Fair!). We always find that the homemade ones sell first, so no need to bring in any shop-bought cakes this year. Please donate these to the Conference Room on the morning of Friday 5th from 8:35am. If you would like your tin/box/container returned please make sure it is labelled with your child’s name and class. If not collected at the Fair we will return to your child’s class on the Monday following.

Volunteers

FoLPS needs you! Events such as this are unable to function without enough volunteers to help run the stalls. We have two time slots: 16:45-18:00 or 18:00-19:15. If you are able to help, please email

chair@folps.com with your time and stall preference if any.

Cheltenham Young Artists 2026

Following the success of our first CYA competition which saw over 600 visitors we are delighted to announce our CHELTENHAM YOUNG ARTIST 2026 to celebrate pupils’ art in the Cheltenham area. Entries are open to both primary and secondary schools. This will culminate in fifty works from Primary and Secondary being framed and displayed in a public exhibition at the Gardens Gallery in Montpellier Gardens, Cheltenham over the weekend of January 17th and 18^th, 2026. Exhibited young artists will be invited to an awards ceremony at the gallery on Sunday 17th January at 3pm. Each artist will receive a certificate and awards announced with art prizes for commended and Cash prizes for the top 3 in each section as chosen by the judges. There is also a trophy for the Best School Entry and a public choice.

The competition is very simple, each pupil can enter ONE art work,

A4 in size on the theme, ’MY FAVOURITE THING.’

Medium 2D: Paint, pencil, crayon, pastels, inks, acrylics (no oil, collage or photography)

On the back, please print

Title, Pupil’s name, Age, School name, Teacher’s contact, School email

Entries close on FRIDAY DECEMBER 12th 2025

Completed entries should be put in a large envelope titled CYA 26 and, on the back, printed with the SCHOOL NAME. They can be delivered to collection boxes at local libraries during open hours, Coffee 1# Montpellier or posted. Please see the accompanying rules for further information and delivery locations.

We are indebted to Cheltenham Round Table, The Paragon Gallery, Art Union and Cheltenham Art Council for their superb sponsorship