This week at Bentley...
Today we had our annual School Inspection day with our Hampshire Inspector, Carol Koerner. She praised the behaviour, quality of teaching and leadership demonstrated by our super teaching staff. She reviewed our safeguarding practice, looked at our School Development Plan focus areas and reviewed support for all children. She agreed with our judgements and had lots of great suggestions making it a very useful day. She said that her observation of our Reception children in their PE lesson was “The highlight of her week”. As ever I am very proud of our terrific staff team who work so very hard to provide high quality learning for all of our children.
I was delighted to take four of our Year 6 ambassadors along to All Saints School in Fleet to deliver ALL of our lovely donations for Sitahuma School in the Gambia. They represented our school brilliantly and very much enjoyed seeing what a four form entry Junior School looks like. We loved the DJ booth for playtimes and the children have given me some great suggestions to bring to the PTFA for ideas for the future!
Thank you so much for all the pencils, knitted baby hats and toys, books and the financial donations which will help to support so many children in the Gambia. I know that the Sitahuma community will be so appreciative and it has been great to see the generosity and thoughtfulness of our own community in supporting another. Our own pupils have really benefitted in learning and thinking about others and this was demonstrated through our partnership work with sending postcards. We are excited to hear the news from Marion Christmas and the group going out to Kaira Konko this half term.
If anyone else has pencils or other donations please pass them into school and we will keep them aside for future Gambia linked visits.
I wish you a lovely weekend – only one week until half term! Don’t forget to book in with CMSports for childcare if you need it for the INSET day as it will be running in the school hall on Friday 14th.
Mrs Katy Pinchess, Headteacher
MESSAGE FROM THE JUNIOR ROAD SAFETY OFFICERS
We are holding a competition to get a new banner for our school to remind people not to park on the yellow zigzag lines. You need to come up with a catchy slogan and enter it at the office before Thursday 13th February. Three runners up will receive a prize and the winning entry will be professionally printed and hung up outside our school for everyone to see. They do not need to rhyme but here are a couple of examples we wrote:
- Be a kind fellow, stay off the yellow!
- Please be kind, stay off the lines!
Road safety is an important issue at our school so we hope everyone will give it a go!
Rose and Archie, Year 4
THANK YOU TO…
… everyone who has kindly donated tissues – they are VERY much appreciated
… the Hawkes family for the photocopier paper
... Anne Shelley for all the collage materials
... the Proud family for the donation of books
... the Sarling family for the lovely phonic readers
WELL DONE TO...
…Miss Wiggins who competed in the Alton Synchro Trampolining Competition at the weekend and, with her teammate, beat nine other pairs to win GOLD! Wow!
... Miss Kirby and Mrs Wellstead who passed their MiDAS tests last week. They are now qualified to drive our shiny new minibus! Congratulations and many thanks to both of you
SPORTS NEWS
We have had another super week for sport!
On Tuesday the Hockey team, led by Clive Harder who teaches at our after school hockey club took nine children to play a friendly match against Long Sutton School up at Lord Wandsworth College. It was the first time the children had all played in match together and Clive couldn’t have been more impressed. Thank you to Eliza Bell for her support and for driving the minibus. They won the game 16-0! Many of the children who played will be representing the school at the Hampshire Games in June, so this was a super opportunity to practise. Go Bentley!
Boys from Years 5 & 6 entered the Boy’s Football Tournament at Anstey Park on Thursday, against 16 other schools in the Alton Cluster. They won all the matches in their league and came in fourth overall. 
Miss Kirby, who accompanied the boys, said “I couldn’t be more proud of our boys. They played so well together. Their sportsmanship was, as ever, superb. Huge thanks to all the parents who came along to support the children, and to Mandy Lanning for all the super pictures.”
Year 2 wowed everyone at the Amery Hill Dance Festival this week, performing their version of 'Eye of the Tiger'.
Miss Kirby was very impressed with the confidence of all the children. Their dance moves were amazing and every child seemed to enjoy the opportunity to showcase the routine they have worked very hard to perfect. Many thanks to Cress Mizen who accomapnied Miss Kirby.
Many of our children have braved the chill and are running at the cross country event at Perrins this afternoon – we look forward to seeing how they get on. Thank you to Abi Jackson for being our designated adult this afternoon. Good luck everyone!
This coming Tuesday (11th) sees the third in the four race series of the Alton Schools’ Cross Country event. We have been delighted by the ‘have a go’ attitude of so many members of the school and wish everyone who takes part good luck. All the details for the event can be found by clicking here.
RESILIENCE GROUP
We had a lovely group of staff and parents for our first Resilience group. If you were unable to join us for the first event please do come along next time on Wednesday 26th February 8-9pm here at school. Please let us know if you are joining the group so we can bring you up to speed by clicking here. After this second session it will not be possible to join the group as the continuity would be difficult to catch up with the rest of the group. You are welcome to speak to Mrs Pinchess if you would like to know more. There will be refreshments and a warm welcome – come along and join us!
