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This week at Bentley...

It has been absolutely fantastic to welcome all our children back this week. Our classrooms, halls and playgrounds have been filled with the joyful sound of 191 children and we are very pleased so see how brilliantly the children are adapting back into school routines and expectations. Well done everyone!

On Monday…we were so happy to see everyone and every class enjoyed their time together catching up, playing games and getting back into the swing of things!

On Tuesday…in assembly we launched our ‘Gifts for The Gambia’ charity for Easter. Please get involved if you can – click here for more information and see attached. 

On Wednesday…everyone enjoyed French lessons with Madame Jones and PE with CMSports again.

On Thursday…we had a super Collective Worship with the St Mary’s Team

On Friday…we were all delighted to have completed a full week of ‘normality’! A nice relaxing weekend has certainly been earnt.

Thank you to all parents and carers for your consideration of one another and the community in lining up at home time. We know this is tricky, but our only other option is to return to a staggered drop off and pick up, which we appreciate is very difficult for parents with several children. Hopefully, this current set up will only be required until the Easter holiday but in the meantime please keep doing what you are doing, we appreciate your good humour and patience. 

I hope it is a lovely weekend for everyone and some treats can be enjoyed on Sunday. Thank you so much to Kathleen and Vicky for creating such a thoughtful gift and to staff for some creative card making this week, both planned to help treat all the mums!

Mrs Katy Pinchess, Headteacher

 

KAIRA KONKO FUNDRAISING

We are delighted to announce a special Gift for The Gambia as a new way to link with the community at Sitahuma. The pupils wanted to know more about our friends at the Sitahuma school and voted to support Kaira Konko again as one of our three school charities for the year.

By giving a donation to Kaira Konko you will be making a massive difference to the lives of others and your donation will go towards one of six very special projects.  You will receive one of our super cards, beautifully printed on 100% biodegradable paper made with 100% green energy. These cards would make a lovely Easter or birthday gift - something a little bit different in this time of lockdown.

Simply complete the order form at the foot of the page and return it to school.  You can make your donation in cash, by cheque made payable to Kaira Konko or go online at  https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Sitahuma. 

The cards will be collated and sent home on Tuesday 23rd March when the whole school will be having a special Kaira Konko celebration day (more details to follow soon!). A big thank you to everyone who has donated so far!

 

Thank you….

…to the Hunt family for the delivery of wine – hugely appreciated and earmarked for a staff party as soon as we are able!

… to everyone who has already donated to A Gift for The Gambia fundraiser – we are already almost half way towards our target

… to the Hawkes family for all the fabulous board games

.. to the Bingham family for the lovely phonics books

… to the Stuart-Bruges family for the huge bags of lovely books, toys and tissues

… to Kathleen Proud and Vicky Coombs for all their hard work in preparing the Mothering Sunday gifts for the PTFA sale today – we raised £308 today.  Thank you for your support.

… to everyone who attended the Governor session about finance last night and to super governors Paul, Laura and James for hosting and their helpful information!  

 

Exciting news!

We are very excited to announce that a film crew is due to come to Bentley next Thursday 18th March to film a short piece for The One Show! The piece is being presented by the renowned poet Benjamin Zephaniah and the focus is on reading and the COVID impact on all children. In school we have been using a computer programme called Lexplore to track children’s reading this academic year and the programme will look at how the data reflects against previous years nationally. Of course, this will be anonymised so we do not share any confidential information!

We track carefully your consent about children taking part in media pieces so will not allow any without permission to be filmed. I have contacted several parents already to seek permission for filming on a one to one, but please aware all children with permission may be filmed for class or playground shots of the school day. I have told the children all about this and suggested that hair is carefully brushed, shoes cleaned and fresh uniform put on that day for our ‘big TV moment’!

 

We need monitors, keyboards and mice…

The Day Group Ltd, via the Owen family, have generously donated eight almost new desktop computers to the school, for which we are extremely grateful.  Whilst some of them will be used to replace older desktops in school, we still need to source a few monitors, keyboards and mice to use with them and, before we raid the IT budget, wanted to ask for your help.  Does your business, or one you work for, have surplus IT kit you could donate?  Have you been hankering after a new, bigger monitor for home and would like to donate your old one? Would you like to make a monetary donation towards the purchase price of new ones?  If there is anything you can do to assist, we would be enormously grateful.  Please get in touch with Mr Goddard via the school office.

Likewise, if you have any suitable and unwanted laptops or tables which Alton Parish Council can re-furbish for a disadvantaged young person in our locale then please hand these into school to be collected - more information about this scheme can be found  here

 

 

CHILDREN – We all love taking photographs – selfies, group shots, bits of video footage – all these are easy with the technology we have these days.  Stop and think – what information are you sharing with the world when you post your pictures?  School uniform is a bit of a giveaway… Always think about the pictures you post and be sure to remain safe!

PARENTS - Like the children, we enjoy taking photos as reminders of special events, such as sports day and those wonderful class assemblies.  We always ask you not to share them on social media, especially as we can never assume consent from other children’s parents. 

Think too about what you share in real time – who is at home while your holiday photos are being posted?

Click here for more information about keeping your children safe online.

 

Parish News

You may have noticed some new signs along the zig zags by school. Please ensure you are not stopping during the hours displayed. Please park further down to drop off children coming into school. Not only is this to stop traffic around school at drop off and pick up, but also to reduce carbon emissions near our children.

 

FIRST News

The digital copy of this week’s First News may be downloaded from the foot of this page.

 

As restrictions are still in place, we will be running birthday parties this term for all the children.  Infants may come into school in their party finest for the day and teachers will hold a fun event with lots of party games, a drink and a snack. 

Year R – Monday 15th March

Year 1 – Wednesday 17th March

Year 2 – Tuesday 16th March

The Juniors event is on Friday 19th March.  Children participating may come in home clothes and will be able to enjoy special activities for the afternoon.  These will include a movie, arts and crafts, and outdoor activities (weather permitting) plus a hot chocolate and marshmallows treat!  The cost is £3 per child with all money supporting our PTFA. Consent and payment via www.scopay.com before 5pm on Sunday evening please.

 

Click here to find out what’s happening next week and

here to get more information about what’s going on in the local area