THIS WEEK AT BENTLEY...

Another fantastic week here at Bentley, and another amazing class assembly! This time, Year 5 impressed us all with their incredible knowledge about space—well done to everyone involved.

Some of you may have noticed me outside the school in my hi-vis jacket in the mornings. We have received several complaints from local residents about inconsiderate parking. Please be mindful of where you park to ensure the safety of our children and to allow residents access to their roads and driveways. Thank you for your cooperation.

Over the past couple of weeks, we have enjoyed both a coffee morning and a reading workshop, where we have invited parents in. We hope those who attended found them useful and enjoyable. If you were not able to make it, don’t worry—key information will be shared soon. Coming up over the next few months, we have a maths workshop and Mrs Rhodes will be running a workshop on emotions and how we teacher them at Bentley.

Since sending out the email about my new choir, I have had a few questions about the song choices! While I have not finalised the playlist just yet, I can promise that the songs will be fun—and, knowing me, there will definitely be a few musical numbers in the mix! We will be performing at the summer fair, so watch this space.

Today, we have had a fantastic time breaking the rules! The children have embraced it with great enthusiasm, I have loved the different hairstyles and clothing! Understandably, a lot of children chose the extra playtime! At the moment, I can tell you that we have already raised over £460! A huge thank you to everyone who took part and well done for the PTFA for organising.

A special shout out to Mrs Forbes and Mrs Evans, who took a group of our children to a dodgeball competition this week. The team represented our school brilliantly, demonstrating great sportsmanship and following the rules at all times. Well done, everyone!

Finally, I’m pleased to share that, thanks to the hard work of Mrs Hamid, a coffee van will be visiting us again. It will be here on Thursday as a trial, then all being well after half term it will be set up fortnightly on Thursdays—I, for one, am looking forward to it! Thank you, Mrs Hamid.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend ahead.

Mrs Hallett

ATTENDANCE

Governors have set the attendance target for the school at 97%. Last week the attendance rate for the whole school was 94.66%.

Attendance figures for each class last week are below:

HOUSEPOINTS

This week’s housepoints totals:

199

120

186

247

TT ROCKSTARS

Well done to Nightingale house! This week they won the Battle of the Bands competition, which involved all of the key stage two classes. Excellent work for practising your times tables and helping your house to win this week!

Battle of the Bands will run again from Friday 7^th February until Thursday 13^th February. Good luck everyone!

SAFEGUARDING – EVERYBODY’S BUSINESS

This week I am raising awareness of the DSL at Bentley.

The DSL is the Designated Safeguarding Lead. This person is responsible for leading the safeguarding culture of the school, responding to concerns, liaising with parents, staff and other agencies as well as much more.

At Bentley we have 2 DSL’s: Mrs Hallett and Mrs Miffling.

However, all members of staff are trained in safeguarding and will listen to any concerns you may have.

PARKING

Unfortunately we have had some complaints again about parking at the beginning and end of the school day. A reminder to all parents to please park legally and considerately. It is better to park a couple of minutes walk away than to risk causing an accident.

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!

SPRING INTO ACTION WEEK

We are pleased to be supporting Hampshire’s Spring into Action Week 2025!

The event runs from Monday 3^rd to Sunday 9^th March.

To encourage you and your family to walk, wheel, scoot and cycle on the school run and other journeys, the Travel Planning Team at Hampshire County Council has launched the Spring into Action Toolkit for 2025! You are invited to choose an activity from the toolkit to try each day throughout the week. These could be enjoyed on your walk, wheel, scoot or cycle to and from school or in your leisure time, after school and at the weekend. This year’s theme is the weather, with ideas to help us engage with nature and think about how being out in all types of weather can benefit our health and wellbeing. For more information click here.

ECO UPDATE

Design our Bee and Butterfly Garden Competition

There are just a couple more days to enter our fabulous ‘Design our Bee and Butterfly Garden’ competition – the closing date is on Monday 10^th February. 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.

Young ACAN Partner Eco Conference – Treasure Not Trash

Last Friday Mrs Hallett took 6 members of the Eco Council to the Treasure Not Trash conference, organised by Madame Jones with the Young ACAN Partner Schools. The conference was at Alton College and brought together 12 local schools to learn about the problems of waste. Most importantly every student was challenged to become a superhero to defeat the waste beast! Next week the same pupils will lead an assembly to train their peers about waste and what they too can do to defeat the waste beast! They will also launch a brand new and very exciting animation competition – more details next week.

Bee and Butterfly Garden Ground Force Day – Sunday 9^th March – Times to be confirmed

We would like to recruit a small team of willing volunteers to come and clear the garden site on Sunday 9^th March. Due to the nature of the work, we would only like adults please to participate on this occasion. The job will involve removing brambles and clearing the site of rubbish so that it is ready to welcome the children’s garden ideas in the Spring. It would be useful if you could provide your own heavy duty gloves and tools such as secateurs and loppers. We are allocating 3 hours to do the job but if you are only available for a couple of hours, please do let us know. Hot drinks and refreshments will be provided.

If you are interested in helping, please contact Madame Jones via the school office. Thank you in advance!

PTFA

Bingo Night at The Anchor

Hosted by The Anchor, in aid of the PTFA, the bingo night is great fun.

Thursday 13th February, 7:30pm.

Bingo cards are cash only. Food and drink is available too.

No need to book in advance - we have a big table reserved for the PTFA.

The cake sales are back! The first sale of this year is next Friday 14th, straight after school, in the playground. And first to provide cakes are Year 6! Cakes are 50p each - cash or card available (minimum transaction for card is £1)