We have packed an awful lot into the four day week! Year 3 and 4 have had a brilliant time at their first school residential. One of the children described it to me as “like the best ever sleepover, but with your whole class and you’re all having fun”. I visited earlier this week and can confirm the Gordon Brown Centre remains a child’s paradise with animals to pet, plenty of green space to play, and brilliant instructors to inspire, and our Bentley teachers are on hand to offer support and fairness. A huge thank you to Mrs Rushin, Mrs Rhodes, Mrs Phillips, Miss Hastie and Mr Goddard for juggling home life so they can take the children for this amazing opportunity. We are so lucky to have staff who volunteer to do this. You can read more about what they have been up to by clicking here to read the blog.

It has been lovely to come back into school after being off with Covid – it finally ‘got’ me! It has certainly made this term quite a challenge in staffing but I am so incredibly grateful for our amazing staff team and our regular supply staff too. Everyone has pulled together and we have somehow – miraculously – continued to be open every single day for school except for the terrible storm day just before the half term break. We have continued to offer the children a rich and engaging curriculum, hot school lunches every day, a great offer of clubs and wrap-a-round childcare was only affected once. I am not sure quite how we managed to pull this off but I do know I wish each one of the adults working in school a very restful and re-generating Easter Break!

Many of us have been thinking back to this time in 2020 as we went into the first lockdown and this time in 2021 when we were coming out of the third lockdown. Whilst I am always keen to think of the positives and look at the amazing progress made with vaccines, I have been reflecting upon everything we have all experienced throughout this time. This academic year so far half of our two hundred Bentley pupils have not experienced any time out of school due to Covid, but 98 pupils have a shared 800 days of missing school. This is way beyond our typical patterns of absence. Whilst some children have been off for just a few days, a couple have missed a significant amount of time this year, and others have been in and out more than once. This is something we are very mindful of in our classes and encourage all parents to support any children who are self-isolating to engage with home learning through Seesaw and Tapestry.

This week we spoke to classes about the war in Ukraine as many children had raised questions. We talk impartially and always try to reassure children about their own safety. We all operate differently as families, so some children have a lot of knowledge and others know very little. Part of our teachers’ role is to check on worries, and we will always contact you if we notice any particular anxiety about such matters. Likewise, if your child shows any significant anxiety at home or with family or friends involved, please do let us know, so we can be support where we can and be aware.

Well, the Red Weather Warning was not what we all expected as staff left school last night! We are sorry to end the half term like that, but hope everyone stays safe and the storm passes today. It has been a very long wintery half term and I do know everyone was ready for a break after all the hard work and growth of the last seven weeks. Teachers posted online learning for today. Any school sports kits or belongings in school will now have to wait for collection for the start of next half term...Mr Lucas was kindly checking for perishables this morning before preparing to lock the school before the storm.