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.

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!

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;

• High numbers of pupils with Covid leading to PHE enforcing a group or whole class to self-isolate
• Staff absence leading to us being unable to provide schooling safely for all year groups and being forced to return to remote learning
• High numbers of unwell staff leading to us having to use our contingency planning for remote learning
• HC3S staff being unwell and unable to offer school dinners

Christmas at school is always really special - and it has been lovely again this year.  From fundraising events for our PTFA like the Christmas Fair and the Elf Run, to Nativity plays, singing Christmas carols around the Christmas Tree and visits to the Church.  Here are some of our treasured memories...

After a fantastic outdoor Christmas Fair we are all excited about our Elf run today. A huge thank you to everyone for getting behind these school PTFA fundraisers, which are bringing so much joy to all of our children! The teachers and support staff have spread some Christmas sparkle around the building with all the Christmas trees and decorations. Yann and Gemma from St Mary’s got us even more excited about Christmas in their weekly Collective Worship yesterday too!

It is certainly starting to feel busy in school with lots of lovely events being planned both nationally and locally for our children to enjoy. Please remember that none of us are superhuman and no one has endless money, so it is up to each family to decide which events to join in with. We try hard to ensure events and costs are spread across the year but a return to ‘normality’ with the residential payments looming on top of Christmas is a lot. Please do get in touch if you would like to set up payment plans for these. We are very clear with children that PTFA events are optional and try to ensure every child can feel involved. We appreciate every donation, no matter how big or small.