This week at Bentley...

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a restful and enjoyable Christmas break. It has been wonderful to welcome everyone back, and we are all looking forward to a productive and exciting spring term ahead. While it is shorter than the autumn term, it is packed full of amazing events, trips, and, of course, lots of learning!

This week, it has been a joy to welcome parents into our celebration worship. Celebration worship is one of my favourite moments of the week, as we come together as a school community to rejoice in the successes of all our children. It has also been lovely to share and celebrate achievements from outside of school—thank you to those who have contributed these.

I would also like to take this opportunity to ask if any parents or carers have spare time during the day. We would love to extend our reader volunteer list and would be very grateful for any help you can offer. If you are interested, please contact the school office for more information.

As we start the new year, a quick reminder to ensure that all items of clothing, as well as snack pots and water bottles, are clearly named. Our lost property cupboard can fill up quickly, but named items are much easier to return to their owners.

Finally, thank you for taking the time to read my recent letter regarding snow. While we always aim to keep the school open, closures may occasionally be unavoidable. Let’s hope that was the last of the weather warnings for this winter!

THANK YOU…

…to Syreeta Mansfield for the kind donation. We really appreciate your generosity!

ATTENDANCE

At Bentley CE Primary School, we believe that good attendance ensures children have the best educational start in life and that arriving on time builds good habits for the future and starts each day positively.

The Government sets a standard of 95% attendance for primary schools. Our Governors have set a school target of 97%. Achieving an attendance rate of 95% means that your child would have had approximately ten days of absence throughout the year.

To support your child to have good attendance, please avoid making routine doctor or dentist appointments during school hours and only request a leave of absence if it is for an exceptional circumstance. Please be aware that there are very few reasons for which the school is able to authorise absence. To promote good attendance in school, we will announce the class with the best weekly attendance in our collective worship on a Friday as well as displaying this in our newsletter. We understand that sometimes children do get poorly and absence from school is therefore unavoidable. In these circumstances, please inform the school office as soon as possible so they can make a note that your child will be absent.

Attendance figures from the week before Christmas are below:

Year Group	Present Marks
Year R	90.77%
Year Y1	97.86%
Year Y2	92.23%
Year Y3	93.75%
Year Y4	92.33%
Year Y5	88.8%
Year Y6	88.48%

MENU CHANGE FOR TASTER DAY

We are having a taster day would like to encourage all children in Year R, 1 and 2 to have a school meal next Thursday, 16^th January. The menus for Wednesday and Thursday will be swapping next week only:

Wednesday 15^th January – Roast Pork and Yorkshire Pudding (red) or Quorn and leek pastry crown (Green)

Thursday 16^th January – BBQ chicken pizza (Red) or cheese and tomato pizza (Green)

SCHOOL APPLICATION DEADLINE

Year R applications for new starters in September 2024 close at midnight on Wednesday 15^th January and all applications need to be submitted by then. If you (or anyone you know) needs support in applying for a school place for their child, please contact the school office.

CATERING ASSISTANT VACANCY

Are you looking for a new career in 2025? There is currently a vacancy for a Catering Assistant at Bentley. Please click here for more information and to apply.

A REQUEST FOR TISSUES

It’s that time of year again when noses seem to become extra sniffly and it would be great if every family could help keep those germs at bay by donating a box of tissues, so we can ‘Catch It, Bin It, Kill It’! We would really appreciate your donations this year in:

January – Year R, Year 2, Year 4 and Year 6

February – Year 1, Year 3 and Year 5

Please give your box of tissues to your child’s class teacher or hand them in at the office. Thank you!

ECO UPDATE

Exciting News from Eco Council

We are excited to announce that we have been successful in receiving a grant of £1000 from the South Downs National Park Renature Fund to create our school’s butterfly and bee garden. During this week’s Eco lessons, all of the children were invited to enter a competition to design the garden, which will be outside the Year 3 classroom. The closing date for the competition is Monday 10^th February and winning entries will be invited to help create the garden. See the poster for more information and also check out the internet for inspiration such as the BBC's guide or Nestle's Guide to a pollinator-friendly garden. If you are interested in helping us create our paradise for bees and butterflies, please do get in touch with Madame Jones via the school office.