This week at Bentley...

This week has flown by—it feels like it was only just Monday! I, for one, am pleased that January is coming to an end, especially as I am starting to notice the lighter mornings and evenings, making the journey into work much more enjoyable.

One of the highlights of the week was the launch of Miss Miles’ Dancing Fun Club at lunchtime! This optional club offers children the chance to enjoy some energetic fun, and it was fantastic to see around 45 children take part in the first session. A huge thank you to Miss Miles for making this happen!

Year 6 truly wowed us with their class assembly this week. Through dance, drama, and singing, the children beautifully shared their learning about World War II. Well done, Year 6! We are already looking forward to Year 5’s class assembly next week.

We also had our annual visit from our Lead Learning Practitioner from County, who was incredibly impressed with our school. At the end of the day, she highlighted many successes, and I could not have been prouder. My favourite comment from her was, ‘I have seen some stonkingly good teaching today,’ which I think perfectly sums up our dedicated teaching staff!

In addition, I had a fantastic meeting with our wonderful PTFA to discuss the exciting events they have planned for the rest of the year. One event I am particularly looking forward to is ‘Break the Rules’ Day, where children can choose which rules they want to break for a donation, more information to follow soon. The PTFA works tirelessly to support the school and raises an incredible amount of money. However, last Friday, they had to cap the number of children attending Fun Club due to a shortage of volunteers. Please do consider offering your time to help ensure these fantastic events and activities can continue.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs Hallett

ATTENDANCE

Governors have set the attendance target for the school at 97%. Last week the attendance rate for the whole school was 93.54%.

Attendance figures for each class last week are below:

Year Group	Present Marks
Year R	90.68%
Year Y1	87.07%
Year Y2	95.77%
Year Y3	96.55%
Year Y4	92.09%
Year Y5	93.7%
Year Y6	95.51%

HOUSEPOINTS

This week’s housepoints totals:

254

332

301

268

SAFEGUARDING - EVERYBODY'S BUSINESS

As part of each newsletter, I have decided to have a regular section about safeguarding. I think this is fundamental to our role in school and so I think sharing more of this can only empower parents and protect our children. This week I am starting with the basics and sharing our school policies:

Each week I will cover something that I think will be useful either as reference or for dealing with current national or local concerns. I hope it is helpful.

DOG’S TRUST VISIT

On Monday and Tuesday we were lucky enough to have workshops run by a representative from the Dogs Trust. Everyone learnt a lot (although some of the children were very disappointed that we weren’t visited by a real life dog!

“On Tuesday Year 3 had a special visitor from a dog’s charity called Dog’s Trust and we learnt about how to be a Dog’s best friend. We learnt the ABC about how to be safe around dogs. A stands for Affection, B stands for Busy and C stands for Choose. Affection, only use snuggles around dogs. Busy, if a dog is busy, leave them alone. Choose, let the dog choose what they want to do. We also made a dog’s promise” Amelie, Y3.

READING WORKSHOP

A reminder that we are holding a reading workshop for parents on Wednesday 5^th February at 2pm. This workshop will offer an opportunity to:

· Learn about the methods and strategies we use in the classroom.

· Understand how your child is learning these critical skills.

· Gain practical tips and ideas to support your child’s learning at home.

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:

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!

MENU CHANGES

The Green option for dinners will be changing every Friday from now on:

Week 3 (next week) – vegetable goujons

Week 1 – tomato pasta

Week 2 – pizza pockets

ADDITIONAL NEEDS COFFEE MORNING

Alton Cluster Family Support are running monthly coffee mornings at Alton Library for parents of children with additional needs. All parents are welcome to attend, regardless of the support you need or where you are on your journey. See the poster for more information:

ECO UPDATE

Design our Bee and Butterfly Garden Competition

There is still time to enter our fabulous ‘Design our Bee and Butterfly Garden’ competition and all children are welcome to enter with the winning entries being 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.

PTFA

Break The Rules Day

On Friday 7th February, children are invited to break the rules! Rule sheets have come home in book bags today. Children are encouraged to use their own pocket money, with a maximum of 10 rules to be broken at 50p each.

This is a firm favourite with the children, I’m not sure it’s quite so popular with the staff…

Bingo Night at The Anchor