Byfleet Primary Newsletter

Dear Parents/Carers

• Our whole school target for attendance is 97% and unfortunately we are below this at 94.9%. We currently have 61 (27%%) children who have 100% attendance so far.

• Attendance:

Reception: 95.6% Year 1: 93.8% Year 2: 94.8% Year3: 95.6%

Year 4: 95.6% Year 5 Indigo: 92.2% Year 5 Blue: 96.1% Year 6: 94.7%

• As part of the government's School Led Tutoring initiative, Mrs Sharkey-Yun, our Inclusion Lead, will be tutoring 21 children from Year 3 and 4 to support their reading during this year, to ensure they reach their full potential. Mrs Sharkey-Yun has already been in touch with the families of these children so you will be aware if your child is one of these children.

• Well done to Miss Lloyd who has now passed her Level 1 Football Coaching course. We are delighted that our children are going to benefit from the skills Miss Lloyd brings to the team.

• Miss Hurn has recently carried out pupil surveys with our children to see how much they have learnt in the Autumn term about Online Safety as part of their Computing lessons. It is pleasing to see that our children have a strong understanding and know what to do to keep themselves safe online.

• We routinely carry out fire drills to ensure that we prepare our children for any emergencies which could occur. Our children and staff did exceptionally well in our recent practise last week and managed to leave our school building safely, in good time. In the coming weeks, we will be practising a 'lock down' procedure, which will be carried out in an age-appropriate way, to ensure that we can prepare our children and staff for any unexpected emergencies that could occur.

• Staffing update: Mrs Elliott, our deputy head, will sadly be moving on at the end of this term. Mrs Elliott has recently relocated and commutes up to 2 hours each way on her journey to and from Byfleet. Mrs Elliott has contributed greatly to the development of Byfleet Primary over the years and we wish to thank her for her hardwork and dedication. We will keep you updated on our new DHT appointment once this has been finalised.

• We are recruiting for an additional Midday Supervisor to work on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 11.30am - 1.15pm.

The role involves setting up the dining hall, supervising and supporting the children whilst they eat their lunch and afterwards in the playground. At the end of lunchtime cleaning and packing away the hall.

If you are a positive, approachable, flexible and adaptable person, with a good sense of humour who can use your initiative in order so that the children to have a good experience at lunchtime and would like to join our team, please contact the school office for an application form.

• We've noticed a rise in children bringing in toys from home which we would like to discourage. Please could you remind your child that no toys from home should be brought in to school.

• There were many great learning experiences over the past fortnight and we're delighted that our trips are now up and running. Find out more about what we've been doing below.....

Spelling Bee Competition for 2021!

Well done to all our children who participated in our spelling bee competition so far. Everyone was able to participate and score points for their house. The results so far are:

Eagles: 564 points

Hawks: 432 points

Kestrels: 553 points

Falcons: 507 points

Next week (beginning 29th November) will be the second preliminary round!

Class teachers will once again test their class in the same way as the previous preliminary round (a written test of 20 words), 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 - The final will take place in the same way as the semi-final round.

They will spell words from their year group lists, words will be spelt out loud - a whiteboard and pen will be provided. For children who are not in the final, they will be tested on 10 of the words from the list via a written list, this means everyone has an opportunity to earn house points.

The individual winner and the winning house will be announced. Good luck!

On Wednesday 23rd March 2022 our Key Stage Two pupils have the opportunity to take part in a music event at the SSE Arena, Wembley.

Now celebrating its 12th year, Voice in a Million presents an opportunity of a lifetime for school children from all backgrounds throughout the UK to come together united in song and perform in front of their own family and friends in what has been billed as ‘The World’s most spectacular school concert.’ Voice in a Million inspires pupils with an important message that raises awareness of the plight of children in care and the importance of Adoption and Fostering. For further information please follow this link Voice in a Million .

For pupils to attend the event there is a small registration fee plus a cost for transport to the arema. A parent/carer would need to attend the event and be responsible for transporting their child home. Tickets for family members are £26.50. T’shirts are also available for the children to buy at a cost of £12.99, purchase of these is optional.

Pupils who wish to take part would need to commit to rehearsing regularly leading up to the concert.

If your child would like to participate but has not already registered please contact Mrs Sopp at info@byfleet.surrey.sch.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 Monday, Year 1 had a exciting day visiting the Rural Life Centre. Children enjoyed experiencing Victorian School Life and learning about how schools have changed over time. Children discovered what jobs were completed around the house before electricity and they worked together to make an amazing wheel!

Year 5 enjoyed a topic day, learning about space. They had a virtual reality session where they were able to travel to various planets and learn more about our solar system. The children really impressed us with their knowledge, well done everyone!