this week at Bentley......

It has been a very musical and sporty week here in school!

On Monday, Year 5 and Year 6 travelled to the O2 arena in London to take part in Young Voices 2024! This is an amazing, once in a lifetime opportunity for our children to come together to sing with thousands of other children from across the country and is an event which will be remembered for a very long time. See the article below written by Darcy in Year 6 to find out more information. Taking the children to a big event like this takes a lot of organisation. A huge thank you must go to Mrs Blake for coordinating the event which not only included supporting the children to learn the songs but purchasing tickets and t-shirts, booking the coach, organising seating plans and writing the risk assessments too! A big thank you must also go to all the staff who supported the children at the event – Mrs Rhodes, Mrs Patey, Mrs Ashby, Mrs Hansen and Miss Grainger. We hope you have a well-earned rest over the weekend as it was a very late night!

On Tuesday, Year 4 visited Eggar’s to watch their students perform A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. This was a fantastic chance for the children to hear some Shakespearean language, which was explained to them as the story was told. The children also enjoyed learning a dance, which they performed within the play. Mrs Matthews said she was very proud of how well the children engaged with the story and how the children conducted themselves whilst at Eggar’s – well done Year 4!

On Wednesday, I took a team of gymnasts to Rowledge CE Primary School to compete in the local schools’ gymnastics competition. The team of eight had to learn and perform a floor routine as well as two vaults in front of four judges! Our team did us proud, coming second with only 0.6 of a mark between us and the winning team! Thank you to Sophie Ince from Springbox Gymnastics for teaching the children the routine and putting on extra practices at lunchtime to prepare the children for the event.

Mrs Miffling

Acting head Teacher

On Monday, Year Five and Six went to Young Voices at the O2 Arena in London. Young Voices was an amazing experience with incredible performances from Urban Strides, awesome musicians and more. We all enjoyed the dancing and singing and we especially enjoyed the young, 13 year old drummer, Nandy Bushell. She was unbelievable and a real inspiration! The song I think we enjoyed the most was Pop Medley because we all got to dance as much as we could and it was so much fun. The arena was humungous with thousands of people’s voices filling it. All I can say is that it was the best experience I have ever had!

Darcy – Year 6

Last Friday, we went to Butser Ancient farm where we learnt all about Anglo-Saxons. When we arrived, we went into an Anglo-Saxon house, which was very different to our homes now. Saxon homes only had one room and a lot of their food was cooked on an open fire. Our first activity involved digging in sandpits to find artefacts and bones from different eras i.e Roman and Saxon. Our second activity was wool spinning, followed by chalk carving. Saxons wrote using runes which were only straight lines – we got to try and write our own using charcoal on white chalk. Yummy hot blackcurrant was also enjoyed by all! It was very exciting to see the homes of Saxons and also where Horrible Histories was filmed! One interesting fact we found out about Anglo-Saxons is that they came over to Britain because their lands had flooded and they thought that Britain had better farming land and a nicer climate for farming.

By Max and Mollie, year 4.

Eggars – performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream

On Tuesday, we went to Eggar's School to watch a play. The play was called A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It was about some people trying to get married, but they were all getting mixed up with each other. “I really liked Bottom because I think he did some really good acting and he didn’t forget any words. I found it funny when he was dressed as a donkey,” said Bertie. “My favourite character was Lysander because he was always everywhere and he was really funny in the fight against Demetrius,” said Otto. Towards the end of the play, we were taught a dance so that we could join in with the actors. We danced to “Rasputin” and it was tricky but fun because we had to make sure our arms and legs were moving at the correct times!

By Bertie and Otto, year 4

Attendance

Well done to everyone for their super attendance in school since the beginning of term. Keep up the good work!

The class with the best attendance this week is…Year 4!

Eco Council is delighted to finally be able to launch our exciting new Litter Picker Backpack scheme! Each class has a small number of the bags available for hire each Friday for the weekend. Inside the bag (kindly donated by Mrs Hall) is all the equipment for a family litter pick: a large re-usable sack and pair of gloves (donated by Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free School); a foldable litter pick (donated by Young ACAN thanks to a grant from EHDC Cllr Ginny Boxall) and a hi-viz jacket. Also enclosed in the bag is a notebook in which to record your litter pick – Eco Council will be monitoring this information for our Eco Schools Award.

If your child comes home with a litter picker backpack, we ask you to be aware of safe litter picking. Please note that participation in a litter pick, using the litter picker backpack, is entirely at your own risk and that children must be supervised by an adult. The school does not provide insurance for this activity. Please click here for a Beginner’s Guide to Litter Picking produced by Keep Britain Tidy. You may wish to watch this short video by Picker Pals before you embark on your litter picking!

Happy Litter Picking!

MIDAS DRIVERS

Could you drive one of our minibuses for us and make sure the children can continue to go on outings and trips? Please see the letter from Mr Goddard sent today for more information.

Dog Fouling

A polite reminder that if you exercise your dog on the recreation ground, please pick up after it. Our children frequently use the rec for sporting activities and there have been some occasions recently where they have stepped in dog mess! It is the owner's responsibility to clear up after their dog so please help us to keep our children safe by supporting us with this. Thank you!