Our Year 5 and Year 6 pupils took part in a multi-school athletics sports competition on Wednesday 20th May 2026, facing five other local schools and they returned as champions. The children came running into school, absolutely buzzing with excitement, egar to tell Mrs Black that they had beaten the other schools. Their joy was infectious, and their achievement is something we will all remember. 

Every child received a medal, and we are now proudly displaying a large winners' trophy in school. Events included an obstacle course, relays, the up-and-over race, hurdles, a 6-lap relay, chest push, javelin, vertical jump, standing long jump, standing triple jump and speed bouce. It was a true test of teamwork, determination and resilience. These qualities we value deeply in our school community. 

A huge thankyou to Mr Davis for leading the team so brilliantly, and to all the parents who kindly drove and supported the children. They reported that the pupils were exceptionally well behaved and represented our school beautifully. This is a shining example of celebrating success together. 

Our annual Colour Run was a joyful celebration of energy, teamwork and community spirit and together we raised a whopping £870 for our Library Refurbishment Project. This is a tremendous achievement for our school, and we are so grateful for the generosity shown by our families.

A huge thank you goes to the Friends of Coberley, Mr and Mrs Houghton, Cheryl and Camilla for their fantastic support in preparing for the event. From creating the beautifully colourful raffle hampers to delivering the hay bales, every contribution helped make the day vibrant, memorable and full of fun.

We are also incredibly appreciative of all our parents and children for the wonderful, coloured gifts they donated. The generosity across our school community continues to shine, and it is this spirit that makes events like the Colour Run so special.

Thank you as well to our dedicated staff team, and to Miss Dowdall for leading the raffle with such enthusiasm. This event truly showcased the strength of our community spirit and the power of coming together for a shared goal.

On 29th April 2026 Year 1 and Year 2 pupils took part in a fantastic football festival this week, focusing on learning and developing the fundamental skills of football. Children practised dribbling, tackling and simple team play before putting their new skills into action in a series of friendly round-robin games. It wasn’t a tournament, but a brilliant opportunity for pupils to build confidence, learn the basics of the sport and enjoy playing alongside children from other schools. In total, eight schools attended, and the event was held at Painswick Rugby Club, creating a lively and supportive atmosphere for everyone involved.

A huge thank you to the parents who kindly helped with transport, and to Mr Davis for accompanying and supporting the children throughout the day. 

Coberley Primary School Equestrian (NSEA) team has been recently set up for the keen horse riders in our school. Our team are sponsored by Petways Ltd. Petways is owned and run by Sam and Nigel and was founded in 2020 shortly after Sam recovered from cancer treatment for the second time and realised going back into practice as a veterinary nurse would be too much! The company regularly collect rescue dogs and cats from Europe and unite them with their new owners with the help of several wonderful long term staff members.

Evie and Annabelle represented Coberley at the NSEA competition and both rode a great round, with Annabelle and Munchie winning the class and a rosette for the best horsemanship. Annabelle has also qualified for the Hickstead Eventer's Challenge Championship and Grassroots SJ Championships. Well done team Coberley!

On Friday 13th April 2026, Year 6 were very fortunate to attend Berkeley Green UTC's STEM day. They had practical experience of programming and robotics, and learned a lot about engineering. It was a wonderful day that we shared with Cranham and Sheepscombe schools. The children were engaged and enthused throughout. Thank you Berkeley Green for inviting us and for giving the children such a brilliant experience.

A write up of the event can be read here - https://academytrust.sgscol.ac.uk/news/sgs-berkeley-green-utc/year-6-pupils-explore-engineering-and-technology-at-berkeley-green-utc 

Our annual Easter Service was held at our local church, St Giles Parish Church in Coberley on 27th March 2026. All children in the school had opportunity to contribute to the service, starting with Robins Class who sang and played 'Hot Cross Buns' on recorders. Kingfishers Class spoke about different celebrations of Easter around the World, holding up the relevant flag to the country, which was linked to their recent topic. Owls Class read the Easter Story in parts, with whole school hymns sung at relevant points of the story. Kestrels Class read The Easter Story Poem, which was followed by the End of Term Cups and Awards presented by Mrs Black. The blessing was taken by Rev. Pooley, and the service concluded with a joyful performance from Kingfishers Play of Cinderella. Thank you to all families who attended our Easter Service, and we hope you have a peaceful Easter break. 

This year for World Book Day, we saw a fabulous variety of costumes to celebrate the day. We had an amazing Lorax, who stayed in character all day, a super cute Coco Chanel and a handcrafted F1 car, alongside a huge array of costumes. A big well done to all our children who dressed up for the occasion. World Book Day was held during the National Year of Reading under the theme "Go All In," which focused on helping children dive deeper into the topics and stories they already love. During the day each class had reading themed activities, including Year 6 reading to their Reception buddies, and Kingfishers Class creating their own sticker story. 

To further this, we had Alex, the Travelling Librarian visit our own library and organise our wide range of books to create an excellent, new and easy to use system, providing every child in our school opportunity to regularly borrow books from our library. An enormous thank you to Alex for bringing our library back to life. 

On Friday 13th February 2026, Kingfishers held a model exhibition in the school hall as part of their topic learning for 'The UK and Its History'. For their Design and Technology learning this term, each child was tasked to plan, design and evaluate a human or physical UK landmark model. The children demonstrated their creativity and the designs were amazing, with a London Eye made out of mini plastic glasses, Durdle Door from clay and shells and Giants Causeway out of smartie tubes! As a class, Kingfishers also created a model of Coberley Village, taking inspiration from their walk around the local area, and including types of housing and land use. The exhibition was open to everyone to see the variety of models. A huge thankyou to Kingfishers parents for supporting their children in their learning during this topic. 

Happy Spring Term! We are finishing the first week of term with great news of achieving our Bronze Accreditation with myHappymind. myHappymind is a mental and emotional wellbeing NHS backed programme and we teach it weekly alongside our PSHE Curriculum. We consider the mental health and wellbeing of our Children, Staff, Governors and Parents as one of our top priorities and are proud of our Bronze accreditation. 

Each child at Coberley has access to the myHappymind programme at home through their parent resources, and therefore makes the programme accessible from anywhere - not just in school! Our staff wellbeing is also supported through myHappymind, with mini masterclasses and CPD available.

For more details visit the website - https://myhappymind.org/ 

Collective worship is a central aspect of life at Coberley Primary, and we are fortunate to have strong links with the local village church, St. Giles’. This link enable pupils to participate regularly in acts of worship that are rooted in the schools’ Christian vision and values.

As part of the school’s Christmas celebrations, pupils gathered in the church for a service that provided meaningful opportunities for worship, reflection and spiritual development. The service was well attended by parents, carers, family members and members of the local community, further strengthening the partnership between the school, church and village.

Pupils from across the school contributed with confidence and reverence. Robins delighted the audience with songs from their Nativity play - Whoops A Daisy Angel, while the school choir presented a performance. Kingfishers Class captivated everyone with their Nativity puppet show and Owls Class proudly presented ‘A Visit from St. Nicholas’ By Clement Clarke Moore. The service concluded with thoughtful reflections from Kestrels on what Christmas means to them. Their contributions demonstrated respect for others’ views and an understanding of Christian beliefs and values.

Overall, the service was an act of collective worship that supported pupils’ spiritual, moral and social development, celebrated the Christian story and reinforced the schools’ Christian identity within its community.

Coberley hosted its first Crazy Hair Day where children (and staff!) came to school with the craziest hair they could design.

What a fantastic variety of hairstyles we saw, including coloured hair, glitter, bobbles and even a birds nest bun! The money raised will be put towards our current fundraising for 2 new interactive whiteboards, making all rooms in the school accessible for learning. 

On Friday 14th November, Coberley children and families raised funds for Children in Need. Everyone took on the challenge to dress up in yellow, spots, or both, and what some fabulous outfits we saw! In total we raised a huge £233 for the charity. 

Children in Need support children and their families with mental health struggles, rising levels of poverty, the ongoing pressures of social inequality and the negative impact of family challenges. All of these can present massive barriers to a healthy childhood and our valuable funds raised can support children throughout the country. Thank you to everyone for the hugely generous donations. 

On Tuesday 11th November at 11o'clock, the whole school walked to the war memorial to participate in a moving Remembrance Day service. The event was led by Rev Cliff Pooley and Mrs Duncan McGaw. Year 6 children read the names of the brave individuals who fought and died in conflict and laid a wreath in their honour. 

It was wonderful to see our school community come together to remember and reflect. The respectful silence, the reading of names and the act of laying the wreath helped everyone understand the importance of remembering those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. We are proud of our pupils for their reverence and participation. 

Local Cheltenham based author, Sian Hughes visited Coberley and held two reading sessions, with KS1 and KS2 to read her book 'Cat Wanted', a fabulous rhyming picture book illustrated by Elina Oplakanska. The story book was brought to life with beautiful props and the children had opportunities to ask Sian questions about being an author. The KS1 session read the narrative, where Toff the Cat and mysterious Betty find lots of treasure, which our younger children enjoyed finding in Sian's bag. A huge thank you to Sian for visiting us and sharing your story. We look forward to the next book! 

On 23rd September, every child at Coberley had the opportunity to experience an on-site climbing wall from 270 Climbing Park with instructor Dave. Every pupil had the chance to challenge themselves, support their friends and build confidence. The climbing wall had everyone buzzing with excitement. A huge thank you all the staff who helped make the day both safe and inspiring. We saw determination, courage, and teamwork in action! 

270 Climbing is local to Coberley and has both indoor and outdoor climbing facilities. It is an excellent activity to support children's physical education and their website provides more information - https://www.270climbing.com

On 7th March, Coberley celebrated World Book Day and what an amazing array of costumes we saw this year! This year the theme was 'Read Your Way' and was aimed at bringing the fun of reading to more children, to celebrate their choices and encourage everyone to read their own way. 

Our costumes ranged from Postman Pat to Hermione Grainger, to Alex Ryder, to Mr Bump, to Snail and the Whale (well done to those Year 6 girls for their excellent collaboration) and Danny the Champion of the World! The talent and creativity shown by children, parents and staff alike was so impressive – well done to the Coberley community for displaying creativity like never before.  

For many years, Sylvie Pearce was a great friend to the children and staff of Coberley C of E Primary School. She visited the school weekly for 'Open the Book' until October; during each session she read and acted out bible stories with other members of the Churn Valley Benefice, as well as leading hymn practice with the 70 children of the school. 

In a fitting tribute to Sylvie, following her sad and unexpected passing, we worked with iSingPop to teach the children a number of inspirational songs, in support of collective worship. On 29th January, a concert was held at St Giles Church, Coberley, to celebrate the life of Sylvie. 

The concert was a very well attended event with parents, carers and staff of the school, as well as members of the local community, packing the church to watch the children perform their recently learnt songs and dances beautifully. Sylvie would’ve been so proud of each and every one of them. 

We were thrilled to welcome Mr. Ronnie McGrath to our school on 15^th November. The entire afternoon sparkled with energy as Mr. McGrath lit up the school hall with his simple yet wonderfully rhythmic verses. Not only is he a poet, but he is also a talented visual artist, writer and an educator.

He captivated us with vibrant Ankara fabric patterns, showing how each design can inspire personal interpretation through our five senses. He opened our eyes to the stunning artworks of Black British artists such as Tam Joseph, Yinka Shonibare and Lina Iris Viktor. Mr. McGrath also celebrated the remarkable achievements of author Malorie Blackman, film director Steve Rodney McQueen, rapper and singer Stormzy and footballer Jay Williams.

It was an unforgettable afternoon - rich with creativity, inspiration and learning about the powerful contributions of influential Black figures, including Mr. McGrath himself. A huge thankyou to Ronnie for visiting us and inspiring our children.