I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to all those who participated in the sponsored walk last weekend. The event was a resounding success, with participants covering an impressive distance before being rewarded with a delicious barbecue. Your collective efforts (including some additional donations) have resulted in raising the outstanding sum of £2,425. This achievement would not have been possible without the dedication of those who took part and the hard work of the organisers. Your commitment to our school is truly commendable.

This week, Year R had an amazing Teddy Bears' Picnic. Mrs Scott-Bromley writes:

This week Year R had an amazing time at their Teddy Bears Picnic in the beautiful grounds of Pen's grandparents' house (Mr and Mrs Powell). A tiny bit of drizzle did not dampen their moods as they tucked into food they had prepared themselves: sandwiches, cheese straws and pizzas. Mr and Mrs Powell surprised them all with a lovely ice cream (sprinkles optional) for pudding. After a lot of fun and games, including parachute games and teddy hide and seek, Year R had a hot walk back to school where they each decorated a cupcake to eat while relaxing in the classroom.

Last night, I had the privilege of attending the Year 6 leavers' performance, which was nothing short of extraordinary. The children's talents were on full display, providing a highly entertaining spectacle that left the audience in awe. I must confess to shedding tears of laughter as a giant blue inflatable dinosaur careened around the hall, adding an element of delightful hilarity. The children acted and sang their hearts out! Thanks must go to all the staff who helped make the production possible, from acting support to prop making – you were all a valued and important part.  Following the performance, Mrs Blake and Mrs Rhodes presided over the awards ceremony, where they celebrated the unique qualities of each child. It was a genuine pleasure to be part of such a special event, marking an important milestone in our students' educational journey. We will miss you Year 6!

On a different note, I would like to bring to your attention that we are facing challenges in recruiting a new member for our Breakfast Club team. We are eager to find someone who can contribute to this important aspect of our school day. As an incentive, we are offering a complimentary place for the successful candidate's child in the Breakfast Club. If you are interested in this opportunity but are unable to commit to all five mornings, please do not hesitate to contact the school office. We are more than willing to discuss flexible arrangements to accommodate your needs.

As we enter the final two days of this academic year, I would like to express my sincere appreciation for your continued support and engagement with our school community. It has been a privilege to lead Bentley Primary, and I look forward to the exciting opportunities that lie ahead in the coming year.

I wish you all a wonderful weekend, and I eagerly anticipate seeing you next week as we bring this academic year to a close.

Vicky Hallett

 

Attendance

This week’s whole school attendance is 95.19 %

Although the government sets a target of 95% for primary schools, our governors have set a target of 98% for our school.  This is because an attendance rate of 95% still means that your child would have had approximately ten days of absence throughout the year; this is considered a significant loss to learning.

The class with the best attendance this week is year R with 100%             

Well done year R!!

 

 

Raise money for our school and get £5 off per ticket for the British Motor Show

We have been given an exclusive discount code WOMENDRIVE24 to get £5 off per ticket to the British Motor Show. For each ticket sold, £5 is also donated to our school.

The British Motor Show runs from 15 – 18^th August, and offers a weekend of exciting family fun and amazing experiences at Farnborough International Expo centre, including live entertainment, parachute displays, live music, stunt shows, fairground rides and driving experiences.

For the car fan there is a unique mix of New Cars, Supercars, Classic Cars, Modified cars, and Motorsports and there are under 17 driving experiences, car maintenance for kids, a career zone, slot car racing, BMX displays, Motorbikes and Supercar dream rides.  

With our discount code, a family of 4 can enjoy the whole experience for under £45.

Visit the website here: http://www.thebritishmotorshow.live

Buy tickets here: http://www.thebritishmotorshow.live/tickets

 

ECO UPDATE

This week, the children in years R-5 participated in a special ‘Rivers and Oceans’ Eco Lesson to allow the KS2 Eco Council to give feedback about their recent visit to the Young ACAN Schools’ Eco Conference.  During the lesson, the children explored a series of questions about our rivers and oceans before learning about simple actions to take to protect our watery ecosystems.

Here are the simple actions which the children learnt can have a big impact: 

1. Remember your reusables – bottles, coffee cups, shopping bags etc. Every time you remember them, you avoid using single-use plastic and save money too! 

2. Bring your reusable containers to Fill Up in Alton, where you can buy a range of items from washing up liquid to rice and pasta.  Because you only buy what you need, you save money as well as avoiding single-use plastic. 

3. Be careful what you flush down the toilet and put down the sink as it can often end up in the sea.  The children learnt to only put the 3 ‘ps’ down the toilet – ‘poo, pee and paper (toilet paper!). 

4. Never ever litter and go litter picking when you can – maybe borrow our litter picker backpacks. 

5. Think carefully about how you dispose of plastic items. Depending on the item, can you reuse them or donate them?  We can recycle clean plastic bottles in our black wheelie bins and Sainsburys and Waitrose collect clean and dry soft plastic e.g. bread bags and crisp packets.

Congratulations to ….

Evie and Mollie who performed in ‘Dreamatorium’, the Farnham Dance show at Frensham Heights.  They had an incredibly busy weekend taking part in the rehearsal and then 3 performances!

 

 

 

The children in the school gymnastics club who have all recently passed their gymnastics awards. Mrs Ince says they have had a brilliant term, learning lots of amazing skills and she is very proud of them all.

 

 

And to Ben Heath, an ex-pupil of Bentley who has contacted us to say he is now 2024 ITF JUNIOR U13 1st Kup taekwondo WORLD CHAMPION! 

 

 

Wraparound Childcare Bookings for next academic year

Our Breakfast Club and After School clubs will be running from the first day of term on Tuesday 3^rd September. Bookings will open on Monday 2^nd September (which is an inset day).

 

Clubs

Club information for the Autumn term was released this week. Please submit your choices to the office by 31^st August 2024.  Places will be allocated on Wed 4^th September. Once you have received notification, payment is then due by Sunday 8^th September to secure that place.

 

SCHOOL LUNCH INCREASE – message from Education catering.

The price of school meals will increase on Monday 2 September 2024 by 20p to £3.20 for all pupils and young people across Hampshire who purchase school meals through Hampshire County Council’s Education Catering service. We apologise for the late notice, this was due to communication restrictions during the pre-election period. 

 Why the price is increasing 

The meal price reflects the impact of inflation, including food price rises and associated costs. The current price has been held since June 2023. While we understand that price increases are never welcome, we have done everything we can to restrict the rise, while remaining a National Living Wage employer and therefore offering staff better terms and conditions of employment than some commercial competitors.

Free school meals 
Schools are encouraged to continue to signpost families to the free school meal eligibility checker to ensure those who qualify for this entitlement do claim it. Schools are urged to maximise this funding by ensuring as many eligible pupils as possible take advantage of free school meals in addition to universal infant free school meals so that schools can claim pupil premium.  

Mrs Hallett and the Governors are investigating other school meal suppliers in an attempt to keep lunch costs down.  We will keep you informed about this.  In the meantime, please do check your eligibility for free school meals.

 

RECRUITMENT

We are recruiting for a Breakfast Club supervisor. Please check out the recruitment page if you are interested in joining our fantastic team.

 

ScoPay

A final reminder for all outstanding debts you may have on ScoPay to be cleared by the end of today please - Friday 19^th July 24. We will be chasing you on Monday if not!

......to the wonderful staff team here at Bentley: the teachers, learning support staff, the senior leadership team,  office team, kitchen crew, clubs providers, music teachers, Mr Lucas and everyone else who supports us. Thank you all so much for your hard work and support.  We wish you all a fantastic summer.

… to all our super Governors

… to our amazing PTFA Chairs, Mollie Scotton, Sarah Cordina and Sarah Forbes, treasurer Rob Tagg, secretary Cat Ogden and our PTFA Class Reps – Shelly French, Millie Westlake, Kathy Duckett, Chelsee Anderson Tamryn Evans, Lindsay Hardmen, Jessica Lainchbury Natalie Ryan, Georgie Tagg, Sara Wood, Cat Ogden, Tegan Hansen, Sam Hall Cress Mizen and Jo Phillips.

… to everyone who supported and volunteered at the PTFA events in 2023-24. The events and money raising couldn’t happen without you.

… to all the volunteers who gave up their time to drive the mini-bus, attend trips and help our children with reading, gardening, crafts, baking, apple-picking and all manner of other things! We really appreciate your support.

And finally, to all the Bentley families. Thank you for supporting your children so excellently with their learning. We hope you have enjoyed this year at Bentley and look forward to seeing you in September (8.55 am Tuesday 3^rd). Have a great holiday!

 

We wish a very fond farewell to Mr Goddard, Miss Durrant and Mrs Perring, who will be leaving us at the end of this term and send them off with the best of luck for the next chapter in their lives.

 

We also say goodbye to all our wonderful year 6’s, who leave us to move on to secondary school. We will miss you. On 23rd July the whole school will send them off with a special leavers lunch

PTFA

Wow, what a year! A year filled with bbqs, discos, cake sales, fairs, music, films, walking, breaking the rules and so much more! We’ve loved cramming in as much fun as we can, and thank you for supporting us in raising so much money for the school. The total for the 23/24 school year will be announced at the AGM - please do join us to find next year’s plans. 

A couple of last things before we go….

1) We’re still on the look-out for someone (or a group) to shadow us next year!

2) We’re hoping to have our Uniform Shed grand opening in September. Is there anyone who would like to be a Uniform Volunteer? Someone to help sort donations and keep our new shed tidy for anyone to access when they need? 

3) Talking of uniform… we need trousers/shorts hangers! Please donate if you have any spare. 

4) Welcome BBQ: Friday 6th September, after school. 4.30-7.30pm.  We hope everyone will join us for the PTFA’s first event of the year – it’s a lovely chance to catch up with old friends, meet new ones, and to welcome all our new families to the school.  There will be meat and plant-based burgers, sausages, wine, beer, soft drinks and children’s refreshments.  We look forward to seeing you there!

5) The AGM is Tuesday 24th September (time TBC, but will be evening), via zoom. We hope a lot of you can make it! 

THANK YOU from us. Thank you for supporting the PTFA and helping us raise loads of money for the school AND have fun at the same time. We wish you the best summer holidays, and see you all in September. 

❤️

 

don’t forget ….Bentley Fete and Flower Show - Saturday 20 July.

There is no charge for entries just register your entries online http://www.bentleyfete.co.uk by 6.00pm on Friday 19 July. Then sign in and bring your exhibits to the Flower Show marquee on Saturday 20 July between 8.00-10.45am. Children and families can enter any classes for the flowers and produce. Good luck!

 

Bentley PTFA (Parents, Teachers & Friends association)

Visit the PTFA website by clicking here

 

Click here to get more information about what’s going on in the local area