It’s been another busy week here at Bentley and everyone has been commenting on how quickly the time seems to go! The children have told me how much they have been enjoying getting back to all their usual routines and spending time with their friends.
Dear parents, carers and friends of the school,
Happy New Year and welcome back to school 2023! I hope you all had a good Christmas even if you were fighting off one (or several) of the nasty bugs that were around. It has been lovely to welcome all the children back to school this week and hear their stories of their Christmas activities and family gatherings; it sounds as though lots of fun was had by many!
It has been a chilly week, where defrosting the car has become a new pass time for many of us! It has felt as though the weather has matched the Christmassy mood in school and the children have had a brilliant time, despite all the seasonal bugs going around. We have a few poorly pupils and members of staff and we wish them all a speedy recovery for Christmas. Our advice is to keep up your vitamins and hand-washing to try and fend off the bugs! Do refer to the NHS advice we have shared with you if you are concerned about any symptoms.
Thank you for all the lovely comments to say what a brilliant event the PTFA Christmas Fair was last Friday. There was a great range of pocket money activities for children, amazing Christmas shopping opportunities and delicious things to eat and drink. A big thank you to everyone who volunteered and supported this fun event. An extra big thank you to our PTFA Chairs; Sarah C, Sarah F, Molly and all their families, for all the hard work and organisation they put into making this happen.
Between the festive ‘Jingles Bells’ played by choir, decorations going up and the rehearsals underway for the two school performances, we are starting to feel very Christmassy in school this week! Thank you for all your support at home with costumes, lines being learnt and with keeping bedtimes and reading going smoothly throughout.
I don’t think it could have been more rainy this week! Well done to everyone surviving soggy drops offs and to the staff who have driven through monsoon like weather in the dark to get to and from school. Let’s hope things are going to get dryer next week.
What a terrific event the Bentley Bonfire was last week. We were enormously lucky with the weather and it was a brilliant show. Well done to our super children who helped the economy by donating their Bentley coins to set the bonfire off! Thank you to the Parish team involved, to Mr Turk for his super fireworks display and to all the PTFA team who organised and sold the food, drink and fun goodies. Please see below for our PTFA thank you’s.
There is a great sense of Bentley Bonfire excitement at school this week! Our PTFA have been working really hard behind the scenes and a huge thank you in advance to everyone who has stepped forward to volunteer or has been already helped in the preparations. This event is partnered with the Bentley Parish Council who run the bonfire, fireworks and take responsibility for the insurance and set up. The money you pay at the gate goes towards funding this significant part of the event. Bentley PTFA has been providing the refreshments for many years and we benefit from the funds raised through this.
It has certainly been a busy week in UK politics as well as at school…who knows who will be Prime Minister by our return to school on Tuesday 1st November? Year 6 certainly had some great solutions in their discussion yesterday afternoon so perhaps it is time to consult with the children for some sensible ideas!
We enjoyed our Harvest Assemblies this week and it was wonderful to have so many parents and grandparents along. Thank you so much for all the food donations for the Alton Food bank which Mr Lucas has already delivered.
It has been a super week of learning in school. All the hard work from the start of term is really paying off and the staff team have been commenting on some great learning going on. Well done everyone!
We are most certainly in autumn cold season. A typical cold should not keep children off school, but TLC and plenty of fluids are in order. Stock up on the honey and lemon and teach little children how to blow their nose then put their own tissue straight in the bin and wash their hands. We also ask each child to provide a box of tissues over the autumn and winter seasons (Year 6 and R in October, Year 1 and Year 5 in November, Year 2 and Year 4 in December and Year 3 in January). Please pick up a box of tissues and pop them in the Office messages box, as it will help us to try and keep the germs at bay! Thank you in advance.
We are in full on apple harvest mode here at school. A big thank you to all the PTFA involved with this. The children have enjoyed their apple picking fun walks in beautiful autumnal Bentley. The juice making is underway and sales will be available soon.
We have our first sports competition of the year after school. Good luck to all the Year 5 and 6 hockey players!
In class news this week…
Year R are continuing with our phonics sounds and numbers. Having fun with numbers, for example, spotting when there are 1, 2 or 3 dots without counting them.
Year 1 have had lots of fun learning about the part-whole model using a giant version on the school playground.
Year 2 have enjoyed learning about 'greater than' and 'less than' symbols in Maths, as well as starting a new learning journey in English (The Gingerbread Man).
Year 3 have had lots of fun learning about the skeleton and bones in our body. We enjoyed our apple picking this week.
Year 4 have worked hard in English to include exciting and effective new words in our writing.
Year 5 and 6 have enjoyed watching the performance of Macbeth by The Young Shakespeare Company today.
Enjoy a super weekend. I recommend getting out the warmer clothes (vests, hats and winter coats for school) this weekend as the weather has taken a chilly turn, especially in the mornings! Please do a check on labels, as the Lost Property cupboard already seems rather full and our team of helpers cannot return unnamed items.