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This week at Bentley...

What a very windy, rainy week it has been! A bit of a shock after such a warm February but certainly more seasonal. Fortunately we were very lucky to have a break in the wet weather for the fantastic site tidy up on Saturday morning. A big thank you to; Mr Lucas for coordinating and to the Annible family, the Proud family, Mr Mizen and Sophie, Mr and Mrs Stuart-Bruges, Mrs Shaylor and Sam.  This super group tackled the ever-growing blackberry vines in the woods, they swept up, did a tip run and made our school site look tip top. We are incredibly blessed with the support in order to make our school work effectively and make lunchtime play lots of fun for all the children. I know that every family at Bentley is keen to do their bit to help and everyone’s different contributions make a HUGE difference for all of the pupils.  Thank you everyone!

It is the last chance today to buy tickets for the Bentley Ball. It is going to be a wonderful event and if you having been meaning to buy your ticket don’t miss the deadline today. Everyone is welcome! Click here for more details.

We need to say a big ‘Get well soon’ to super gardening team member and regular volunteer Mr Charlie Shaylor (a.k.a. Grumpy Granddad) who has not been very well. We send you lots of love from everyone at Bentley CE Primary and hope that you are feeling much better soon.

Back in school we have had a couple of weeks of busy staff training. Miss Kirby and Mrs P took part in a great course yesterday for a family programme which we will be introducing next term. Mrs Patey went to a training about supporting attachment. Mrs Rushin and I tested our mental maths skills and picked up some great ideas which Mrs Rushin is already implementing into her maths plans. Mrs Miffling has been getting out and about as a County moderator training other schools as well as our own. 

The Year R, Year 2 and Year 6 staff have all been out on ‘standardisation’ training, which is an important requirement for these year groups as their class data is checked according to end of key stage results. Currently this happens at three points over your child’s career at primary school although this is being reviewed by the DfE with a proposal to use the Year R data as a baseline and only have the Year 6 SATs exams at the end. You can find more out about this if you search online and there is also a consultation underway to develop Ofsted which you may also find of interest and wish to take part in, as it will affect aspects of education for your children now and through their secondary education. Broadly speaking the governors and I are very pleased to see that the wider curriculum is going to be more of a focus as this is something we believe in very wholeheartedly.

On Monday…the School Council represented our school as we heard about two similar charities, both of which deliver Christmas presents to children overseas. The children were interested to hear about the charities and they asked excellent questions to learn more. Thank you to Glenda Powell who came to represent ‘Love in a box’ and to Sabrina and Mr and Mrs McGuire who told us about AMEN charity.

On Tuesday…the amazing volunteers from the Signposts Christian group came and performed two interactive Easter plays. These were fun, well-pitched and thought provoking for all pupils. An excellent afternoon!

On Wednesday…we had a terrific Collective Worship from Mrs Vogel linked to our focus value around ‘Truth’. She played a game based on the programme ‘Would I Lie to You’ which everyone enjoyed.

On Thursday…we sent two teams to the local rugby competition and they aced every match! Mrs Rushin accompanied them and said “Great team work everyone. I was really proud of you all”. Well done to Alfie, Bea, Chloe, George, Hugo, James, Jasmine, Jim, Sam and Zeph (Year 6)  and Alex, Bart, Charlie, Harry, Maddison and Spencer (Year 5), for representing the school so well.  Special thanks to Mr Jackson for stepping in and coaching one of our teams and to Bea, Chloe and Jasmine for joining the team at the last minute to cover illness.  Go Bentley go!

On Friday…it is Red Nose Day! Our theme was designed by the children and is ‘Super Silly, Super Heroes and Sweets’ and the plan is to have fun and get involved to support a very good charity. With donations for wearing fantastic outfits and the sweets sale this morning, we are delighted to have raised over £340 today.  Thank you very much for your generosity, creativity and enthusiasm.

The Eco awareness raising has continued well this week. We enjoyed seeing how many people had a go at filling the plastic bottles last week but please do not send in any more to school now but recycle them at home. The WWF focus for next week is turning off electrical equipment and lights when they are not needed. 

All the information about what's happening in school over the next couple of weeks can be found by clicking here and details of events taking place in the local community by clicking here.

Sorry for the delay in sharing more information about The Gambia. If you would like to come along and hear more I will be running a 30 minute presentation for any parents, governors, friends of the school, grandparents and carers who would like to hear more on Monday 25th March at 2.30pm in the School Hall. Please click here to confirm you would like to come along.

We have updated the Clubs information to include your suggestions for Clubs to be run at school.  Please click here to take a look - there may be something you could help us with!

Have a good weekend.

Katy Pinchess, Headteacher   

 

Thank you to...

…everyone who has handed in their Sponsored Read money. Mrs Miffling will be celebrating all the fantastic reading next week in assembly so pass any last forms/envelopes to the office on Monday!

... Mrs Myers and Harry for their work with Year 6 to run the second hand book sale.  Lots of very happy readers walked away with  new choices, we recycled many second hand books and raised over £35 towards new books for our super library.  Great work! We have now cleared the books stored in the PTFA shed, so no more donations for now please unless they are in near perfect condition and can go in the library. We will collect second hand books again next school year.