Next week we will have some special PE lessons starting and a guest star adult to speak about their interesting job on Friday afternoon at 2.30pm. Send in any questions on SEESAW about being an archaeologist and we will pick three of the best ones to ask.

We are planning to run daily Zooms all of next week and Collective Worship will be at 11.30am every day to save any confusion with times changing. We do not want to overload with Zooms but have had brilliant feedback from many of you to say how this is supporting well-being. It is certainly helping us all to feel ‘back to school’ and connected.

It has been a horrendous week of news. There has been a 27% rise in COVID cases. COVID deaths in the UK are rising rapidly towards 80,000. Scientists estimate that 1 in 43 people in the South East has COVID today. Hospitals are reaching capacity. We have parents and staff family with positive COVID cases and are under no illusions that a complete school closure is highly likely in the next few weeks should we have a positive case for a child or staff member who is in school. We are taking scrupulous care to keep those pupils and staff who have to be on site safe, but we also know we have not yet seen the outcome of Christmas day.

I am incredibly proud of our staff team for being brave, and supporting one another with understandable anxieties and fears in order to come into work to support all our children. Having isolated all holiday it seemed counter intuitive to come to school this week but our school community has benefited from the entire team all working hard together. Thank you Bentley staff and HC3S team. 

For children who have to come into school we are following the government guidance that only vulnerable and CRITICAL Key Worker children should be on site. “Parents and carers who are critical workers should keep their children at home if they can.” We really appreciate that many parents have worked according to this expectation and are juggling to ensure that children stay at home wherever possible. Even if you do not intend to use the Critical Key Worker place, we need to know by next Tuesday who is eligible. Please could you complete our online form as soon as possible.

All children are following exactly the same curriculum and we expect children in school to work as independently as those at home, due to staff splitting their time to support all learners. For those children in school please ensure that they have a vest/tights on under their school uniform as it is very cold due to the requirements to have windows open. We would recommend a hot school lunch if this is possible to keep children going through the day.

As I said to the children in our Celebration Assembly today, I hope everyone can enjoy some rest this weekend after a great week of school work. We will all be staying safe at home and whether that is with a good book, a movie afternoon, a jigsaw challenge or a socially distanced family walk, I hope you can enjoy it and relax together.

Our thoughts and prayers are with those who are unwell and with our medical practitioners working such long hours to support the COVID emergency. We are so very grateful as a community.

Keep safe,

Mrs Katy Pinchess, Headteacher

 

COVID

The government advice from Monday evening has been that we should all stay at home where possible with a huge national push to reduce face the face contact wherever we can.

In line with this expectation, we do not want any children into school on days when their Key Worker parent are not working. We are protecting our staff and families by continuing with all COVID expectations in coming onto site and expect ALL parents to wear face masks when lining up and being within two metre contact.

National lockdown rules - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/national-lockdown-stay-at-home

Childcare bubble - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/making-a-childcare-bubble-with-another-household

 

Class Topics

Information about the topics covered in each class this term can be found on the individual class pages - click on the links on the Learning tab at the top of this page.

 

School Lunches

For those children in school next week, there is a change of menu.  Please download the menu from the foot of this page.

 

Winter Reading Challenge

On Monday 11 January Hampshire Library Service will be launching their Winter Reading Challenge! All you need to do is read four books and you have until 27 February.  Click here to sign up.

This can include books you read or listen to together, bedtime stories, non-fiction books, ebooks and audiobooks.  This year’s Winter Reading Challenge is all about getting cosy together to share the love of reading. 

You’ll automatically be sent a completer’s certificate when you’ve reached a total of four books in your Winter Reading Challenge reading record.

You’ll find thousands of children’s ebooks and audiobooks free to download using the BorrowBox service with lots of titles always available without a wait. You’ll find links to some of our recommendations on this webpage and information about downloading ebooks and audiobooks.

 

Resources to support your child’s mental health

As you are hopefully aware, we have LOTS of great resources available for every member of the family on our COVID section on the website. Do not struggle at home, have a look at resources and people who can help and please let us know in school if things are still really tough. link

• There is a new resource with some good suggestions which can benefit you at home.  https://happiful.com/6-ways-to-support-childrens-mental-health-this-winter/

• There is a brilliant FREE resource from Maureen Bowes to support adults. This could be adapted to done a family but is a great well-being refresher for anyone to enjoy (and keep the resilience topped up in these dark winter months). https://people-intelligence.mykajabi.com/sales-page