This week at Bentley
It has been good to see so many of you this week for Parents Evening appointments. It is a great opportunity for you to have insight into your child’s progress so far this year and it shows your commitment to education for your child that our take up for these important meetings is so very high. We all appreciate that life is very busy, and emergencies occur, but if you did have to postpone for any reason, please ensure that you do get in touch to make a new booking as soon as possible. This helps us at school to continue to work in partnership with you at home.
Thank you to everyone for getting involved with our World Book Day celebrations. The children and staff all looked amazing, I am sure you will agree. Thank you to Mrs Miffling our English Leader for setting up the super story swap and to everyone who donated second hand books for the sale. This will continue on Friday so if you missed out please continue to shop until the end of the day on Friday putting a donation in the pot for any books you select.
This week in the classes…
Year R had an amazing trip to the Winchester Science Museum where they learnt all about space. Awe and wonder in the Planetarium
Year 1 enjoyed their first orienteering lesson with Mr Maliphant, working together in teams
Year 2 have been puzzling their way successfully through some very tricky fraction problems
Year 3 have been finding out more about earthquakes and how devastating they can be for people.
Year 4's English work has centred on The Iron Man by Ted Hughes and they have written about being stared at by an iron giant
Year 5 loved learning about how chocolate is made as part of their Fairtrade geography work
Year 6 have been applying their knowledge of algebra in problem solving
I hope to see some of you at our site tidy up day on Saturday 9th March from 9-11am. Everyone is welcome and Mr Lucas will be on hand in directing work and I will be there to make the refreshments! Come in weather appropriate clothes and please bring gloves and tools if you have them for cutting back the weeds and roots in the woods as we are getting ready for lots of fun play this spring. Children are welcome but sorry no dogs on site.
A full list of reminders for the coming week can be found by clicking here
Have a great weekend,
Katy Pinchess, Headteacher
Staff news
As many of you are aware we have some staff absence currently and we are all missing the poorly people very much. Mrs Gallagher sends her thanks for the lovely cards and messages she has received. Mrs Siers and Mrs Scott-Bromley are both unwell and I know that you join me in wishing them both our very best wishes at this time.
We have been incredibly lucky in having Mrs Drew cover in the office at this time but please be aware that she is not in over the next few days. Whilst we have cover in place there may be some technical aspects or information that are not as easy for us to access so please bear with us. Thank you to Mrs Cox, Mr Lucas and Mrs Tewkesbury for their cover time to ensure that the school continues to run as smoothly as possible in our very busy office.
Online Safety
Whether it is ‘fake news’ or not, some of the coverage in the news about the Momo phenomenon has alerted us again to the importance of ensuring we know what our children are viewing and participating in.
Children are often very much better at finding things, both useful and otherwise, than we are; and those who use the Internet with evil intent are very clever, too, in getting inappropriate material to a receptive audience. To ensure our children are as safe as they can be:
- Make full use of filters through the parental controls available
- Be interested and open about what your child is accessing – furtiveness on their part is not healthy
- Keep an eye on what they are accessing – avoid use of technology in isolated spaces where you cannot check what they are doing
- Encourage your child to tell you about anything that makes them uncomfortable
Mr Goddard, Computing Lead