Trips and Visitors

Just one look at the school calendar will illustrate how important it is for us to enrich the curriculum with a wide range of exciting trips and visitors. We aim to ensure that there is at least one visit or visitor to enhance each term and bring learning to life - and there are many other trips that we organise besides.

Every child at our school is taken to the theatre each year; recent visits have been to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, the Old Vic in Bristol, the Bristol Hippodrome and The Wyvern Theatre in Swindon.

Each term we organise trips or visitors for every class. These may be cultural experiences, such as visiting a museum or art gallery; historical trips, like visiting the local mills in Nailsworth (the Owls even walk there - just like children in Victorian times); field trips, like following the stream outside the school on its course to the River Severn or visiting a local farm; or trips to promote healthy lifestyles such as our visits to Forest Green Rovers Football Club for their Fit2Last programme and other sporting events. Visitors have included authors, Jonathon's Jungle Roadshow with his incredible creatures, the Explorer Dome and the Life Education Bus. A highlight of the year is also our participation in the Young Voices concert at the Birmingham NEC.

Our local PSCO and Schools Beat Officer PC Leah Davis are regular visitors. The Schools Beat programme is an excellent supplement to our PSHE lessons and covers many aspects of keeping safe, supporting children during the important period of secondary school transition.

As part of The Athelstan Trust, we also benefit from our links with our colleagues in other schools. During 2023-2024, Mrs Gibbons, head of Art at Malmesbury School, came to support our art work. The Owls class made planets from clay. The Hawks class produced some beautiful water colour paintings of the church which they sold to parents at the FOAS Summer fair.

We get involved in lots of events too which take us out and about. Each year every child from Year 1 to Year 6 has the opportunity to take part in the Gloucestershire Oracy competition which sees winners from each phase taking part in the local heats.

We take part in community events such as the Tetbury Woolsack Races which take place on Bank Holiday Monday in May, as well as the Village Fiesta which is a time to show off our musical talents, and the bi-annual Pig Face Day village celebrations which commemorate the incredible connection of Avening with William the Conqueror and Queen Matilda!

We are grateful to the support of FOAS who help raise funds to support the school and parents with transport and other costs.