Byfleet Primary Newsletter

• This week's newsletter is jam-packed, just like the Autumn term has been for everyone at BPS.....

• It was wonderful to see so many of our families and extended families attend the Reception and KS 1 Nativity - didn't they do well! What a lovely way to start the Christmas festivities...

• The children (and staff) tucked into a delicious Christmas dinner yesterday and enjoyed wearing their festive jumpers. A big thank your to Mrs Scott, Nadine (our terrific chef) and Tracey for the hearty festive meal.

• Thank you to the Year 6 parents who attended the additional parent progress meeting; we're very proud of the tremendous progress this cohort has made and with your help, look forward to seeing them plugging their gaps in their learning to help them reach their full potential. 

• Well done to our xmas raffle ticket winners. See the photos below. 

• Find out more about Year 3's annual trip to see Stonehenge below. 

• It was lovely to see the Rocksteady show this week. Thank you to our Rockstars and Colin for sharing your music learning with us.

• Mr Gillani and his music students put on an amazing show for us on Thursday. Well done everyone who took part! If you are interested in your child learning how to play the guitar, ukulele or keyboard, speak to the admin team who will put you in touch with Mr Gilani.

• Well done to Eagles House for earning the most House Points this Autumn Term - we hope you enjoyed your MUFTI Day today.

• Year 2 have been introduced to Doodle Maths since the end of Year 1. We're impressed with the impact this is having with 96% of Year 2 children remaining on track with their Doodle practice. Doodle provides an excellent way of embedding previously taught strategies and understanding. Year 2 continue to impress with their maths skills with 8 children already joining our 144 Club (whole school times table competition). Read more about the 144 Club below.

• Mr Boyd enjoyed sharing feedback with the children this week following his recent Online Safety Pupil Survey in his assembly. He reiterated rules about not sharing passwords or talking to strangers online. Click here for advice for parents to help keep children safe online. 

• We'd like to wish all our families, children and staff a wonderful Christmas break. Relax and enjoy spending time with your loved ones. We'll welcome you back on Tuesday 2nd January...

Thank you to the Friends of Byfleet and our local estate agents Wingate & Withers for the kind donations for our Christmas Raffle this year. 

Well done to our winners: Daphne (Year 1), Mara (Year 1) & Ana (Year 4) and Evie (Year 1). We hope your families enjoy their treats!

Well done to the following children for being recognised for doing something brilliant this fortnight......

Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 worked hard to put on an excellent 'big little Nativity show'. It was lovely hearing the children sing so beautifully and learn their lines off by heart. We were very impressed with how well rehearsed they were, knowing when to come on and off for different scenes.

A tremendous well done to all the staff for pulling this show together: the outfits, lights, backdrops and script was wonderful! What excellent team work!

Year 1 have been doing some lovely writing based around the story of Cinderella. As part of our writing we have put on a fairy-tale ball. We enjoyed some lovely dancing. We have since written some amazing pieces of writing about our ball. The children enjoyed posting writing invitations and posting them to arrive at home!

At BPS, we do more than just excel at Reading, Writing and Maths. We enjoy many fun activities and engage our children in a range of different way.....

On the 1st of December the staff surprised their classes with a special Christmas door!

Here are a selection of the festive displays... 

On Wednesday 13th December, we were lucky to have a super performance from our very own Rocksteady learners! The whole school and excited parent's gathered to see the show finally come together after lots of practising behind the scenes. 

We loved listening to the different songs and hearing the tremendous talent. Thank you to Colin for putting on an amazing show and including a live teaching of Year 6 (how amazing!). Well done to all the children who took part... we loved it!

Mr Gillani and his fantastic students put on an amazing music concert for us this week. We were treated to a mix of:  solo guitar, an ensemble of guitarists, singing and ukulele. The musicians all performed really well and a great time was had by all. 

Mr Gillani teaches ukulele to all the key stage two children and offers private lessons throughout the school day. His hard work with the children is definitely paying off.  

Let's give the gift of singing this Christmas. Thank you to Miss Vallins for organising our KS 1 children to visit our local Care Home to share some of their Nativity songs.

On Tuesday, year 3 braved the rain and cold and went to Stonehenge. We were able to go inside replica stone houses, look at a 5000 year old skeleton that was found in one of the burial mounds, with perfect teeth! We explored ideas on how they moved the stones and placed them into the ground and what they might have eaten.

We had another lovely Book Buddies session this term where children from different classes share reading books with one another. Reception and Year 5 shared Christmas themed stories together... what a great opportunity for the children to share their love of reading! 

Sports Crew have been working hard this term to put their training into practice! In October, the Sports Crew attended training where they learnt how to deliver physical activities in an informative, supportive and successful way. 

Since then, they have delivered warm-up activities to Year 6, Year 5, Year 4 and Year 3.  They have been improving with every delivery and should be proud of the independence and maturity they are showing.  Bring on next term!

PE at Byfleet Primary School

At Byfleet Primary School, we believe that children should, where possible, lead healthy and active lives.  The benefits of physical exercise extend further than acquiring a new skill set; the physical and mental health benefits of regular exercise are unparalleled therefore we believe that access to regular exercise will support our children’s overall development before they move onto Secondary School.  

As part of our yearly provision, we provide two hours of Physical Education each week, weekly swimming lessons for 6 weeks of the Summer Term, a variety of activities that encourage children to be active at playtime, extra-curricular clubs as well as the opportunity to take part in intra and inter school sports.  We are hoping to increase Byfleet Primary School’s participation in inter school activities, which we are doing partly through our partnership with Active Surrey. 

Active Surrey runs events based around three Competition Levels - Inspire, Aspire, Higher - which we wanted to let our parents/carers know about so that any key words used in further communication make sense. 

These Competition Levels, listed on the next page with a breakdown of the ‘measure of success’ and ‘suitable young people’, have been created to help assist with:

• Understanding the type of event, level of challenge and how success is measured.

• Understand types of pupils being targeted for each level. 

• Identify the right pupil for the right event. 

Our aim at Byfleet Primary School is for all children to enjoy being active, whilst developing a physical skill set, so that they can foster a positive relationship with physical activity to maintain throughout their lives. 

Autumn 100% Attendance Winners!

Reception: Taym  Evana  (2)

Year 1: Reuel  Erin  Nathan  Alisha  Izu  Evie  Emily  Louis (8)

Year 2: Eva  Frankie-Lee  Ralph  Edward  Ryan  Luna  Freddie  Lucas  Poppy  Aurora  Sienna  Willow  Peggy  Holly-May  Tom (15)

Year 3: Ayesha  Rachel  Eleanor  Aston  Amelie P  Oscar  Muskan  (7)

Year 4: Shanzay  Faith  Dalia  Dominik  James  Andrew   Isabelle  Darren  (8)

Year 5: Poppy  Theo  Rose  Connor  Carter  (5)

Year 6: Florrie  Johal  Katie  Matthew Mc  Keke (5)

A huge thank you to this fabulous charity for gifting each Year 2 child a new book to take home.

To find out more about this wonderful local Woking charity, click here.

Do you know how to earn house points???

Be kind               Be polite            Be helpful            Do your best     Show confidence/resilience     Use great manners                            Hold the door                         Share                                Involve others in your games         Do extra learning at home

"Reading for pleasure gives children the opportunity to use their imagination to explore new ideas, visit new places and meet new characters. Interestingly, reading for pleasure also improves children's well-being and empathy. It helps them to understand their own identity, and gives them an insight into the world and the views of others." -Oxford Owl

Here are some book recommendations for Reception!

Courses for Parents - Support to Understand Young People's Needs

There are a range of fully funded (Free) CACHE accredited Level 2 qualifications available to help better understand some key issues around young people's mental health and wellbeing, along with a range of other qualifications that may help with developing careers.

Please see below information on structure, criteria and how to express interest:

Course Information/Structure:

- Online E Learning Platform.

- Have a full 6-20 weeks to complete the course

- Assigned your own login details, can log in and out when you please

- Assigned your own tutor who will support you throughout and mark your work

- No Exams or Essays. All Q&A based. 

- Can complete as many as you would like, just one at a time. 

- Gain a Level 2 awarded certificate upon completion (GCSE Grade C equivalent)

Minimum Requirements to access the course:

- Aged 19 or above

- Not currently on a Government funded course (inc Apprenticeships) 

- Has been in EU/UK for the past 3 years

Subjects Available:

• Understanding Autism 

• Neuroscience In The Early Years (0-7)

• Understanding Children and Young Peoples Mental Health 

• Distressed Behaviour In Children 

• Adverse Childhood Experiences 

• Counselling 

• Understanding Specific Learning Difficulties (ADHD, ADD, Dyslexia and Dyscalculia)

More Subjects Available: theaimgroup.co.uk/courses 

If you wish to find out more, please complete the following link and they'll be able to give you a call and talk you through how it works: 

theaimgroup.co.uk/booking-form/001Q5000003exAR 

If you would like a phone call regarding these Free Online Courses, please make contact with the following details:

sofie.rogers@theaimgroup.co.uk - 020 3923 4014