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This week at Bentley...

What a hot week it has been and I hope that you are reading this with a nice cool drink in hand! I know at school we are all melting and are dreaming of paddling pools and ice lollies later on today. Hopefully home schooling has allowed for some water play!

Our Virtual School staff have been enjoying the musical offerings from the Bfest theme and hopefully next week we can share with you some of the highlights. Keep sending in any clips...who needs Glastonbury?

We can’t quite believe it is July next week already. There is still lots of fun learning planned and some nice end of year celebrations being worked on (more news to follow).

I know the weather may change tomorrow but let’s enjoy the sunshine whilst we can. Have a great weekend,

Mrs Pinchess, Headteacher

 

Are you doing your bit to keep our bubble groups safe?

We know how much the children are missing friends who may be in a different ‘Bubble Group’.  We appreciate grown-ups are missing chatting to their friends on the playground, in the car park and on the recreation ground.  We all know how difficult this situation is.  Following several complaints from parents this week, we have to urge again to please respect the safety of the ‘Bubble Groups’ and ensure you and your children maintain social distancing from families in a different ‘Bubble Group’. We want all the children in school and all our staff to remain safe. Thank you. 

 

MOVE UP DAY

Next Friday would usually have been ‘move up’ day when all the children find out who their teacher will be for the next academic year.  Whilst this is not possible this year, we will be sharing the information next Friday.

 

SUMMER READING CHALLENGE 2020

About this time of year representatives from Alton Library visit school to promote the summer reading challenge.  The great news is that the challenge is still going ahead and there are lots of books that are available online for children (and adults) to read.  If you would like to know more about the summer reading challenge please click here or visit the website by clicking here.  Happy reading everyone!

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO…

...Tom, Megan and Alex! We are sorry the whole school couldn’t all sing Happy Birthday in collective worship as we usually would, but Bubble Group 1 have sung it instead :)  You can download the audio file from the foot of this page.

We hope you had a really fabulous birthday!

 

CONGRATULATIONS TO…

…Idan in Year 6 who joined the challenge to set a new world record at TT Rock Stars.  There were over 700 entries to the Guiness Book of World Records attempt, and whilst Idan didn’t take the top spot, he was in the top 10% of entrants.  Great work Idan!  The winning score was 196 in one minute.

 

Summer Holiday Sports Camp

We are very aware many working parents are still struggling for childcare due to the current rules and children in Years 2-6 have not had the opportunity to come back into school this term. We know children are missing the social contact and have been proactively trying to find appropriate holiday clubs to recommend to you. Unfortunately there is very little available so with this is mind we have contacted CMSports to see if they are able to offer a high quality provision at Bentley to support you and your children.

We are delighted to say Governors have approved the site to be used by CMSports for the whole of the summer and have posted the flyer on our community site with the details you need to book. This will, of course, only be possible if enough children sign up to make it financially viable. Places are available for those who have completed Reception and up to Year 8 so siblings can benefit from this too. The children know the CMsports staff very well and they are really looking forward to getting back into school and have a fun programme planned. 

From our conversations with you we anticipate demand will be high. We are really fortunate to have the great coaches at CMSports and hope that this supports you and your children.

The flyer for this can be found at the foot of this page.

 

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES TO HELP PARENTS TO SUPPORT PLAY

If you have used up all the ideas up your sleeve you may find some useful suggestions here from Play Wales who have developed a range of practical resources to support children’s play;

https://www.playfulchildhoods.wales/playing-at-home-guide-indoor-play

https://www.playfulchildhoods.wales/50-indoor-play-ideas

https://www.playfulchildhoods.wales/colouring-in

https://www.playfulchildhoods.wales/play-in-crisis

 

Good news and well done!

A national survey has shown that there has been a significant improvement in the amount of writing being done at home by children. The National Literacy Trust surveyed young people aged 8 to 18 in the UK before and during lockdown. The charity found that more children and young people are writing short stories or fiction (40% increase), letters (39% increase), diaries or journals (27% increase) and poems (21% increase) in lockdown than they did before.

This is also reflected in our Bentley observations. On Seesaw teachers have highlighted some very good progress and noted several children have made fantastic progress with handwriting and quality of writing. Having adult feedback and support with writing makes a huge difference to support children. We know babies learn to talk with lots of encouragement from parents at the babbling stage. Infants at school learn to read with a big home focus moving to reading. Having your support at home is making a brilliant difference so THANK YOU and well done.

Many children do struggle with getting their ideas down so don’t despair if this reflects your own experience at home. Things which can help;

  • Having a journal
  • Writing a family diary – great to model making mistakes and talking through the process of writing. Also great to value the writing from each member of the family.
  • Writing a postcard or letter
  • Writing lists
  • Using different types of pens and pencils 
  • It can be a great idea to scribe or type for your child so that they can get their ideas down without having to focus on the physical aspects of writing