Byfleet Primary Newsletter

Dear Parents/Carers

• Our whole school target for attendance is 97% and unfortunately we are below this at 95.02%. We currently have 92 (39%) children who have 100% attendance so far.

• Attendance:

Reception: 95.8% Year 1: 93.3% Year 2: 95.7% Year 3: 94.6%

Year 4: 96.6% Year 5 Indigo: 91.9% Year 5 Blue: 96.7% Year 6: 95%

• Exciting competition time at Byfleet - we have signed up to Quiz Club where our children will take part against other schools nationally to share general knowledge and science knowledge. Year 5/6 start off with their first competition on 25th November. We'll keep you updated. Miss Forde has also arranged our first ever 'Spelling Bee' competition - please see the details in this newsletter.

• A reminder that if parents/carers take their children out of school without authorisation for 5 or more days (which do not need to be consecutive), they will be liable to receive a penalty notice. Currently the amount payable under a penalty notice is £60 per parent/carer per child if paid within 21 days. Thereafter the amount increases to £120 per child, per parent/carer, if paid within 21 days. If the penalty notice remains unpaid after 28 days, the Local Authority (Surrey) will consider a prosecution in the Magistrates Court. Please note that this decision is not influenced by the Headteacher or any member of staff - it is a national arrangement.

• If you have not yet booked a parent/carer meeting for after half term, bookings can be made using our online system. Teachers will add your Google Hangout link to Google Classroom for you to access the meeting on the day so please look out for it.

• We welcome Mr Ney to our teaching team in Year 4 when we return after half term. Please look out for him at the end of the school day and say hello.

• We send our Congratulations to Mr Bostock, our Year 6 teacher, who will be getting married over half term. We hope the happy couple have a wonderful day and a very happy life together.

After half term, we will be launching our Spelling Bee Competition for 2021!

As part of our continued efforts to promote and improve the standard of spelling across the school, we will launch our spelling competition, which we hope will be an annual event. Every child in Y1-6 has the chance to learn a list of spellings and earn house points and prizes in the process. We are hoping this will be a fun and motivating way to encourage learning spellings and to celebrate the achievements of the children.

Competition Timeline

Week beginning 8th November

The children will have two weeks to make sure that they know their spelling lists well. We recommend that all children start learning them over the half term break, the spellings have been sent home today and they are on Google Classroom.

Week beginning 15th November - Preliminary round!

Class teachers from Years 1 - 6 will test their classes with a sample of words from the word list for their year group. Each word will be read aloud for the children to spell on paper. The children will be able to win house points for words spelt correctly. Each year group will then enter their top speller from each house, four spellers in total, into the semi-final.

Week beginning 22th November - Semi-final!

All semi-finalists will be able to earn house points for correctly spelt words. They will spell words from their year group lists. Words will be spelt out loud - a whiteboard and pen will be provided.

Week beginning 29th November - Second preliminary round!

Class teachers will once again test their class in the same way as the previous preliminary round, using different words from the list. This will be another chance for all children to earn house points and, as before, the top spellers will be entered into the next round. The finalists will be chosen from this second preliminary round and so these may be different children from the semi-final!

Week beginning 6th December - Final

This will take place in the same way as the semi-final round and the winners will be announced!

What words should my child be learning?

​Please check Google Classroom, the spelling lists have been uploaded. These words have been taken from the National Curriculum statutory word lists.

How can I help my child?

Spellings can be learnt in limitless ways, although traditionally spellings are learnt by memorising them using a "Look, Cover, Say, Write and Check" approach. While this is effective, it isn't always the best or the most fun way to learn. We encourage you to also think creatively - the more fun it is, the more spellings your child is likely to learn. Here are a few suggestions for ways that you could make learning spellings fun, engaging and memorable:

• First, help your child to practise reading the words. It is very hard to spell a word you can't read confidently

• Use the words on the list to write a rhyme, song, poem or rap

• Assign letters or word chunks to sound, music or rhythm

• Write tricky words on post-it notes and display them in visible places around your home: on the fridge, on the bathroom mirror, next to light switches, on TV remotes, on laptops/tables, PlayStation controllers - wherever your child is most likely to see them

• Draw the words in bubble writing or in colourful patterns

• Write out each word and then trace over it again and again. This will help with muscle memory when writing the spellings down.

• Make posters or pictures of your word for display

• Don't forget to practise spelling the words out loud!

• This is not an exhaustive list so do come up with your own fun ways to learn them too

Story time online is a great website for free access to many stories at home. The QR codes below will link to YouTube where you will be able to listen to the stories being read.

You can also access the stories below:

https://www.booksfortopics.com/storytime-online?fbclid=IwAR0w51i3mAv0bQTZ7WWUTUgSQfSLrIWXQjX3DiLYPoFLmquqQULJfhAgKvM

This Term, Year 4 has been learning all about the Digestive System and Healthy Eating and produced some wonderful work. We finished off the topic with an afternoon of preparing healthy snacks and smoothies which they consumed with relish! It was lovely to see the children try some new foods, like houmous, and their surprise when they liked it! Much fun was had by all.

We want to say a huge and heartfelt thank you to Robbie and Julie at Wingate & Withers for kindly fund matching our exciting Christmas cards and personalised gifts. This is such a lovely opportunity to have your child’s festive artwork captured professionally so please don’t miss the deadline - simply place your order by the end of the school day today Thursday 21st October. www.wingateandwithers.co.uk

It's been a while since we've been able to invite you into school. We can't wait to invite you back into school to see your child's class assembly. We will continue to reduce the number of children we have together in the hall so will only move to 'whole school' assemblies once it is safe to do so. In the meanwhile, each class will host their class assembly to their parents and one or two other classes in the school hall. These will start at 8.55 - 9.20ish so please join us in the school hall on the day that your child's class assembly has been scheduled.

Reception - Wednesday 29th June Year 1 - Wednesday 16th March - London

Year 2 - Wednesday 23rd February Year 3 - Wednesday 30th March - Stone Age

Year 4 - Wednesday 22nd June Year 5 Indigo - Wednesday 2nd March - The Pharaohs

Year 5 Blue - Wednesday 25th May - Greeks Year 6 - Wednesday 9th March - The Heart

On Friday 15th October, 10 Year 6 children were selected to represent Byfleet at a football tournament held at St Peter's Rec in Old Woking. The 6 boys and 4 girls represented our school fantastically well, showing all the sporting values towards their opponents and team mates. The team won 1, drew 1 and lost 1, which meant that although we didn't make it into the semi-finals, we finished with a very respectable 4 points. We are looking forward to organising some more fixtures after half term.

Byfleet's team - Charlie, Leon, Henry, Verity, Lily S, Daisy, Cairon, Teddy, Kai and Seren.

On Tuesday, last week, we were thrilled to welcome two members of the South East Coast Ambulance service into our school. There were here as part of the 'Restart a Heart' initiative which aims to improve the nations CPR skills. The session was very informative and covered a wide range of practical activities, such as the recovery position, practising CPR on the dummies and using a defibrillator.