It has been another busy week here at Bentley and, after the glorious sunshine and warmer temperatures of last week, it has been a bit of a shock to see a return to coats, gloves and hats over the last few days. The snow flurries yesterday provided a lot of excitement for the children however! Now that the evenings are becoming lighter, let’s hope the warmer temperatures return soon.
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.
It has been wonderful to see the sunshine back after the torrential rain of Wednesday! We know there will have been many shoes, school bags and uniforms drying out that evening. Our intrepid Year 6 cyclists experienced every kind of weather and the trainers were impressed with their resilience.
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.
I attended Yann’s final ‘Live at 5’ at St Mary’s last Sunday evening and he asked me to say a huge thank you to all the children, staff, governors and parents for the special cards, school video and messages to wish him and his family well as they move to their next adventure. They will be much missed but Gemma is holding the fort and we have great plans for this Easter to continue the strong links between Bentley CE Primary and St Mary’s.
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.
Over the last few weeks I have managed to squeeze in attendance at some local and national meetings with other headteachers. At each meeting we have, unsurprisingly, discussed the ongoing issues with Covid and the well-being of our pupils and staff teams. At Bentley, like all good schools, we are very mindful to support children make much needed catch up progress in their learning, but this is a careful balance, keeping well-being in mind. What we have noticed across the nation in the last month is;
It has been wonderful to see some first signs of spring shooting up this week, as we have moved into February, and our pupils have noticed spring flowers starting to blossom, which is such a joy.
In school today we have had such a lot of fun with each class having an amazing drumming session using the steel pans and Japanese Taiko drums. There has been a lot of booming music, team work and concentration! A super day to celebrate our ongoing ‘2022 Year of Music at Bentley’ and a big thank you to our PTFA for funding this.
I am pleased to say we seem to have moved past the peak of our Covid cases this week. That being said some people have experienced a range of symptoms and some adults do seem to have been more unwell. We send our love to those at home and hope to see you back at school soon when you are better.
It has been a tricky week at school where we have had high staff and pupil absence due to Covid and other illnesses. To throw into the mix we had an unexplained fire alarm and the water was turned off. In a typical week these would have been the ‘big news’ but keeping school open and running from 8.55am until 3.15pm has been the much bigger challenge and it felt very close to having to shut down school at several moments. A huge thank you the marvellous Bentley staff team who have worked so hard to cover and ensure children have been learning and safe. It feels quite miraculous we finally got to Friday without a hoard of locusts or a blizzard…I think a glass of wine may be called for this weekend!
I personally find January a tough month with the post-Christmas blues, bills arriving and the grey days and dark nights. Illness and Covid worries seem so common at this time of year for many of us, and I sadly have a family funeral to attend today. I am also well aware of the current emotional loads for several other people in our wider Bentley school family. Our thoughts and best wishes are very much with you.
We are delighted to welcome everyone back to school for the Spring Term. We hope you were able to enjoy a restful break.
We know many staff and families had disrupted Christmas plans and the current news suggests we are very much in the difficult time of year for Covid and flu. We have been reviewing our Risk Assessments and will continue with all current arrangements but continue to review. We have made plans in case of staff absence and of course will always endeavour to offer face to face for all pupils where it remains safe, and we are able to. Parents and carers will be very aware of the risks and also the required expectations if we have positive Covid cases. The worst case risks for us are;