THIS WEEK AT BENTLEY...
As we come to the end of this short but busy half term, we’d like to thank everyone for their continued support. The last few weeks have been filled with exciting trips and residentials, all designed to bring learning to life and create lasting memories for our children.
This week, we’ve also had a fantastic time celebrating National Numeracy Day. The children threw themselves into the different activities that Mrs Blake thoughtfully planned, and there was a real buzz around school—especially during the team challenge against the staff! A big thank you to everyone who helped make the day such a success. Congratulations to Nightingale, who were the overall winners!
Looking ahead, parents have been invited to attend a special talk at Amery Hill on 30th June, given by TJ Power. TJ is a neuroscientist, mental health and wellbeing speaker, and founder of The Empowering Minds Institute. He specialises in helping people understand the brain and how to support mental wellbeing in a practical and empowering way. I would highly recommend coming along to hear him speak—he is incredibly informative and always leaves you with lots to think about. A letter was sent out earlier this week to show how to book, please contact the office if you need assistance.
We also want to let you know that the PTFA are currently looking for a new Chair or Co-Chairs to take over. Molly, Sarah F and Sarah C, our current Chairs, have done a fantastic job but feel that it is time to stand down. Molly has kindly offered to support with the handover and throughout the next year. We really hope some keen individuals will step forward to continue this vital work—all of the children at Bentley benefit enormously from the PTFA’s fundraising efforts. If you’re interested or would like to find out more, please do get in touch.
We hope you have a restful break, and we look forward to welcoming the children back for the final half term of the year.
ATTENDANCE
Governors have set the attendance target for the school at 97%. Last week the overall attendance rate for the whole school was 90.75%. The class with the best attendance was Year 6, with 100% attendance. Well done year 6!
Attendance figures for each class for last week are below:
SAFEGUARDING – EVERYBODY’S BUSINESS
Hi I'm Nancy, your local Smartphone Free Childhood volunteer regional leader. My three children were at Bentley for nine fantastic years.
If you feel overwhelmed by how to keep your children safe online, then you're not alone. So do 80% of parents (according to a recent study by Internet Watch Foundation).
I'd love to talk to you about Smartphone Free Childhood, who we are and what we do. We can help you. We are not anti-tech, we're pro-childhood!
All parents and carers are welcome, whether your children already have smartphones, or whether you are delaying. I really hope to see you at 2pm on 18th June at school.
Please contact the school office to book your place.
MENU CHANGES
Hampshire’s School Catering Service is winding down and we are in the process of selecting a new catering company for the school for the next academic year.
In the meantime, our lovely kitchen team are sometimes unable to order the ingredients for the published menus, so there have been several changes. These changes will continue through to the end of term, but we will try to keep you informed.
Until further notice, the menu for every Wednesday will be:
Green – Cheese and tomato pizza
Red – Bubble salmon
EGGARS CREATIVE DAY
Year 5 had a lovely day at Eggars, and we all enjoyed the workshops.
Over the day we created a bot on educational Minecraft, a habitat for our bot using a range of materials.
For most of us, our favourite part of the day was going into the workshop and creating out bot using a range of nails and screws. Thank you as always to our parent and grandparent helpers who drove us there and supported us all day.
NATIONAL NUMERACY DAY
The whole school had a fantastic day for National Numeracy day. By the end of the day the playground was covered in maths – well done everyone!
Year 5 had a great day of Maths. As well as joining in with the whole school planned activities, we particularly enjoyed finding out how far we could jump taking off from one foot and then two feet. We were surprised at how far we could jump and nearly all of us out jumped our estimate. Some of us jumped over 2m!
TJ POWER PARENT TALK
PARENT GOVERNOR
ECO UPDATE
Pollinator Garden
Our school’s pollinator garden is progressing well with a team of children out each Friday morning to work on its creation. This half-term we have planted 5 fruit trees, created a bug hotel, started work on a bug village and started to map out the rest of the garden. The children work hard during their session and are enjoying the process of transforming this area into a paradise for pollinators. We are hugely grateful to Bentley residents, Robin and Catherine for their continued support as well as Elise Cavanough and Georgie Tagg for helping as well. Thank you also to the Moore family for the fabulous donation of cardboard tubes which are perfect for making bug homes!
If you would also like to get involved, we will be continuing the transformation after half-term when we turn our attention to planting hundreds of wildflowers and herbs and creating our wildlife pond. We would especially be interested to hear from anybody who could turn some felled tree trunks into a simple model Bentley village for the bugs! Do contact the school office if you could help us – thank you.
Alton Repair Cafe
Alton Repair Café opens its doors to welcome visitors with broken items on Saturday 31st May at 10.30am at Alton Community Centre. Please see the poster for more information.
PTFA
We hope you all have a lovely half term break!
Frozen Fridays continue after half term. The next one is on Friday 6th June. 🍦
Looking ahead to our two remaining big events of the year - the Sponsored Bike Ride and our Summer Party.
Sponsored bike ride, Saturday 14th June - 25km, family friendly route and pace, organised by Trent Kneller. The ride is to start and finish at Bentley School, ending with a BBQ and refreshments. We plan to leave around 9am, and be back in time for lunch.
Please email bentleyschoolptfa@gmail.com if you’d like to join.
Summer Party, Saturday 5th July, 12-4pm. Add this date to your diaries for a fun, music filled afternoon! With music from Key Lime Pi - a 9 piece band performing at Bentley School! A BBQ, bar, inflatables and stalls will be available all afternoon.
If you’re happy to have a Hampton’s sign advertising the event, please let me know! They generously sponsor us, so I need to provide them with a list of names. 🙂
