THIS WEEK AT BENTLEY...

I hope that everyone had a good half-term break and that you managed to have some time together as a family. In the Hallett household, we had lots of fun and laughter over the week.

This week, we held Bentley's first Inter-House Bentley Benchball competition. Thank you to Sarah Forbes, who came to support some of the sessions. We were both very impressed with the children's teamwork, and they had a great attitude, getting fully involved. There was some fantastic passing, receiving, and intercepting. It was wonderful to see the children putting their PE lessons into practice. At the end of the day, it was very close between two houses, but Nightingale won the cup by just one point! Well done, everyone.

I was sad to have missed Year 3's class assembly this week about the Iron Age. I have heard from both parents and staff that the children were brilliant and shared their learning in wonderful detail. Well done, Year 3, and I am sorry to have missed it. We look forward to Year 4's class assembly next week.

Last term, Year 6 wrote letters to different people and companies about their use of plastic. It is always a joy when the children receive a response. This week, Year 6 received replies from the sweet company Haribo and also a letter from Queen Camilla. Well done, Year 6; your letters were clearly well received.

It has been wonderful to see the children playing with all the playtime equipment at lunchtimes now that we have had some drier weather. The children have loved drawing with chalks, playing giant Jenga, and being creative with Lego – thank you to everyone who donated towards this. In the words of a Year 2 child, 'The best lunchtime EVER!'. A huge thank you to Miss Smith, who is in charge of putting all the equipment out each day. I have been incredibly impressed with how the children have been working together to tidy up the equipment at the end of lunch.

This week, I have been on a bit of a lost property mission. We have had discussions with the children about being responsible for their belongings. If they go outside with a jumper on, they need to bring that jumper back in at the end of playtime. Can I ask that, in order to help us return your children's belongings to them, all items are clearly named?

Thank you for your continued support, have a good weekend.

Mrs Hallett

Headteacher

ATTENDANCE

Governors have set the attendance target for the school at 97%. Last week the attendance rate for the whole school was 93.92%.

Attendance figures for each class last week are below:

HOUSEPOINTS

This week’s housepoints totals:

176

223

267

260

SAFEGUARDING – EVERYBODY’S BUSINESS

This week: Attendance has the same importance as safeguarding. Absenteeism, a sudden change in attendance patterns, lateness or consistent blocks of absence is a key indication that something is wrong. Also it is only in school that children can talk to our team and be given support.

TT ROCKSTARS

Well done to Year 6! This week, they won the Battle of the Bands competition. Excellent work for practising your times tables and helping your class win this week!

Battle of the Bands will run again this Friday 28^th February to Thursday 6^th March but as a house competition. Good luck everybody!

MATHS WORKSHOP

Please join us on Wednesday 5^th March at 2pm for a Maths Workshop. Mrs Blake, our Maths Leader, will discuss the content you child learns in their year group as well as sharing practical ideas and resources to help you support your child at home. We will also have some live maths learning going on with some of the children. If you are able to attend, please email the office. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible.

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

Young ACAN Conference

You may remember that our Eco-Leaders attended the Young ACAN Conference recently. Please do look at the video to see a little of what happened on the day! Eco-Conference video

Butterfly Garden Ground Force Day – Sunday 9^th March – 1-4pm

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!

Young ACAN Animation Competition

There are only a few days left to enter the exciting Young ACAN Animation Competition. So this weekend why not get creative and design a waste-busting superhero to defeat the waste beast and then feature your characters in a comic strip story. The competition is open to Key Stage Two children and the winner(s) will see their story come alive as an animation by professional animator, Flo Waters. See poster for details – closing date March 3^rd. For inspiration, the children have been read the book ‘The Rubbish Monster Thing’ by Simon Chadwick which is full of great ways to reduce waste from composting to repairing. For more details, click here.

PTFA

Halfway through the year, so here’s our PTFA halfway highlights

So far this academic year… one new shed, hundreds of apples picked, 10 events done, lots of memories made and we’re nearly at £15,000 raised already!

Bonfire night and the Christmas fair were the biggest fundraisers so far, but with lots of our smaller events adding up, it all counts. We have taken nearly £1k from fun club alone!

And thanks to all our additional generous donations for the laptops and iPads, this year is looking to be the best year yet.

Woah, we’re half way there!!

Let’s keep it going! With some amazing events planned for the rest of this academic year, we can’t wait to see what’s in store.

We’d like to thank everyone who has helped in any way over the first 1.5 terms. We couldn’t have done any of it without you! Please keep volunteering with us!