Byfleet Primary Newsletter

• It's been a very exciting start to the Fifa Football World Cup in Qatar and the children are enjoying taking part in class competitions related to the different countries taking part. It was great to see everyone dressed up in mufti to celebrate the World Cup.

• We recently received a data summary document from OFSTED (IDSR) and we are really proud our Key Stage 2 progress in Writing in 2021/22 was significantly above national and in the highest 20% of all schools. Well done BPS!

• Thank you to the parents who attended last week's Parent Workshops for reading and a second workshop introducing our new 3Ps Curriculum. Links to the resources shared can be viewed within this week's newsletter. Don't forget to ask your children what the 3Ps stand for...

• We are thrilled with how well our lunch ordering app is working - this has significantly improved our administration of processing lunches and saved the teachers lots of valuable learning time during registration in the morning. Thank you for ordering your child's lunches via the app.

• We will be increasing our school day by about 10 minutes each day in line with new government guidance. We will update you in due course of the new changes.

• Mrs Collins has sent out information about our Christmas Show arrangements. This will be lead by KS 1 however all year groups in KS 2 will be singing as part of this Christmas Show. Tickets are available by EventBrite for each performance.

• Rainbows are busy preparing for their Christmas sing-along performance which is taking place on Friday 9th December in the main hall from 2:30-3:05pm. More details in the Rainbows learning section below and on google classroom.

• As the weather gets colder, just a reminder that your child needs a waterproof coat and a jumper.

• We're half way through this half term and have been monitoring how well the children have been engaging with our new homework matrices. For Year 2 and above, thank you to the parents for helping the children access Doodle, Edshed and Reading Plus at home. We're pleased that most children are logging on at home 'little and often' to develop their skills.

• Our whole school attendance is currently 96.09% - this is improving slowly so a big thank you. We aim for at least 96% so please continue to send your children in to school unless they are unwell. Last week we had 6 children arrive late for school. The week before we had 14 children so we're pleased that this is improving. Please remember that school starts at 8.45. Gates open at 8.35 for a 'slow start' to help everyone arrive on time. We are currently closely monitoring Year Reception, Year 2 and Year 4 to try and increase their attendance to above 96%.

• Our roof work is nearing completion and we are already feeling the benefits of improved insulation in the school. We anticipate everything will be completed and the scaffolding will be removed by Friday 9th December. We can't wait to have our school back to normal again!

Mrs Sharkey-Yun and Senora Wyatt are our qualified Mental Health First Aiders at BPS and work hard to ensure everyone's wellbeing is a top priority by mapping out provision and opportunities. In addition to ELSA, PSHE, Assemblies etc, we also have lunchtime Wellbeing Clubs.

Children are enjoying taking part in our lunchtime Wellbeing Club with Senora Wyatt in KS 1 and KS 2. The sessions focus on turn-taking, collaboration, sharing and regulation, helping our children become the best that they can be!

This week they made some delicious cookies - they look yummy!

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

• Thanks to the parents who joined our 'Reading Comprehension and Reading Skills workshop' where we shared our approaches used in school and provided some top tips to help your child at home.

• If you missed it, please see the slide here. We've also added these to our website under 'Curriculum'.

• It's great to see so many of our Year 3 - 6 children logging on to Reading Plus each week at home. We can't rate this wonderful resource highly enough - it really is terrific and it's having a great impact on our children's reading comprehension and motivation.

Year 6 have had a busy two weeks! In Maths, we finished off our decimal topic by looking at multiplication and division of decimal numbers. We then moved onto measurement and we learnt how to convert units of length, mass and volume and we have now started our new unit, finding percentages of number. In English, we have been planning and writing our own stories based off The War of the Worlds by H.G Wells, we have been using figurative and descriptive language to describe character and setting and we have learnt how to incorporate inverted commas into our stories to denote speech. In Science, we have been exploring how light travels from a source of light to our eyes through different materials and we investigated how different surfaces and colours reflect light. In History, we have been learning about the Edwardian period (1901-1910) and the work of the Suffragettes in that time to get rights for women. We also had our DT day last week! Both classes did some amazing sewing as we created our own WSPU Suffragette badges using fabric and ribbon.

A big well done to Year 6V for their fantastic assembly about the Suffragettes this morning! The acting, singing and reading was absolutely amazing and they should all be very proud of themselves!

Rainbows have an exciting opportunity to show their brilliant learning with the whole school on our new 'Rainbows Gallery' board. Each child has their own named square, where they can showcase their favourite work (there are also spare squares for teacher picks too)! The children can display art and craft, work from home, writing, or drawings... the opportunities are endless! The board is located just outside the Year 2 door, and I know that all of Year 2 are loving the exciting pieces of work from Rainbows. It looks brilliant Rainbows... well done!

Rainbows are also busy preparing for our Christmas sing-along which is taking place in the main hall on Friday 9th December from 2:30-3:05pm. It will be lovely for Rainbows' friends and families to come along and listen to some festive songs and enjoy a mince pie! We will also record a few songs and upload them to our google classroom for those friends/families who cannot attend.

The Year 5 Anti-Bullying Ambassadors went to every class and shared information about what their role is and how they can help. They were great role models, and showed fantastic speaking skills, confidently standing up in front of every class and telling children that they are here to help them. Well done to our Ambassadors!

NSPCC’s Speak out. Stay safe. online programme

I am pleased to tell you that this term we will be participating in the NSPCC’s Speak out. Stay safe. online programme. This consists of an online assembly and supporting classroom based activities. Speak out. Stay safe. is a safeguarding programme available to all primary schools in the UK and Channel Islands. It aims to help children understand abuse in all its forms and to recognise the signs of abuse in a child friendly way. Children are taught to speak out if they are worried, either to a trusted adult or Childline.

In the online assembly, the Speak out. Stay safe. messages are delivered in a fun and interactive way with the help of their mascot Buddy as well as special guest appearances from Ant and Dec.

We have studied the content of the materials and are extremely confident that they are appropriate for primary-school-aged children. By the end of the programme, we’re convinced children will feel empowered – knowing how they can speak out and stay safe.

If you would like to know more about the Speak out. Stay safe. programme you can find information on the NSPCC website www.nspcc.org.uk/speakout

Additional resources

Adapted assembly for home use

The NSPCC has also developed an adapted version of their assembly for parents/carers to use at home with their children. This can be found here: www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/support-for-parents/safety. With the help of celebrities, the film focuses on how a child can get support if they have any worries or concerns.

To complement the assembly, there are some resources that can be used to enable further discussion whilst doing activities with your children. These are hosted on the NSPCC website www.nspcc.org.uk/activities.

Online safety hub

You may also like to visit the NSPCC Online Safety Hub where you will find advice and information on a range of different online safety topics including gaming, social media, sharing nudes, parental controls and more.

You will also find online safety information for families of children with additional needs and disabilities. We have worked with Ambitious about Autism and parents and carers who have children with additional needs and disabilities to create activities to help talk about online safety which you can find at https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/online-safety-families-children-with-send/

Childline Under 12’s Website

Childline also have a website with age appropriate advice for primary school children on topics such as bullying. It also has games and other interactive tools. Your child can visit it at www.childline.org.uk/kids.

If you’d like to know more about the NSPCC’s work, or take a look at the wide range of information and advice which is available for parents and carers, please visit their website www.nspcc.org.uk/parents.

Support the NSPCC

You may be interested in the NSPCC’s new selection of BUDDY goodies available from the NSPCC shop at https://shop.nspcc.org.uk/collections/buddy which make perfect gifts for children - and all profits go to help keep children safe.

Christmas Holiday Club:

Surrey County Council’s ‘Club4’ is a free holiday activity programme, aimed at children in Reception to School Year 11 who are eligible for benefit-related free school meals or known to a key worker (eg because they have an EHCP or if they have a social worker). Please see the flyer below and contact them if you think you are eligible due to receiving free school meals. If your child has a social worker or an EHCP and you would like them to attend, please contact Mrs Sharkey-Yun (Inclusion Lead) who can support with a referral.

Additional details and to book: https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/schools/support-for-parents-and-carers/club4

In science, we've been exploring sound. The children have a brilliant understand of how we hear a sound and what happens when a sound is created. We have been using key vocabulary such as vibrations, air particles and soundwaves.

What is a tricky word?

A ‘tricky’ word is one that cannot be sounded out. They are words that are non-phonetic and if you sound them out and then try to blend the sounds, you will get a word that does not sound right. This means that tricky words must be recognised by sight. Many tricky words are words that we use often, so it's important to teach children how to read and write them.

Autumn term tricky words - Reception

is, I, the, out, pull, full, and, has, her, go, no, into, to, she, push, he, of, we, me, be

Autumn term tricky words - Year 1

Reception tricky words as above + was, you, they, all, are, my, by, sure, pure, said, have, like, so, do, some, come, love, were, there, little, one, when, out, what, says, here, today, their, people, oh, your, Mr, Mrs, Ms, ask, could, would, should, our, house, mouse, water, want

How can you help your child at home?

• Try a little practice every day with your child: 10 minutes at a time should be enough. You might want to focus on one word at a time.

• It’s a good idea to play games to make the learning of phonics more fun for your child: how about bingo or matching up games? You could also use the words as part of a treasure hunt: hide five tricky words around the house and ask your little one to find them from a list, ticking them off as they search.

• Display the tricky words at home, such as on the wall or on the fridge. This can help your child to understand that the words are important. You could take the time to explain this to your little one.

• Encourage your little one to discover tricky words in everyday reading – in signs, food packaging or notices in the supermarket. You can reinforce this during bedtime reading too, asking your child to pick out a specific tricky word that you’ve practising together.

• Why not invest in a whiteboard and marker to make learning the words more enjoyable? It’ll probably be a welcome change for your child from pen and paper.

We have an exciting opportunity for 17.5 hours per week (Monday-Friday) in our Breakfast and After School Club provision.

• Breakfast Club is 07:30 - 08:35 (1hr, 5min)

• After School Club is 15:05 - 17:30 (2hrs, 25min)

Please click here for further details and the Job Description, Person Specification and Application Form.

Daily Reading

We are proud to announce that our first BRONZE reading award was given to Penelope in Year 4! Well done for reading x5 per week!

Each child can earn Reading Awards for reading daily.

Bronze = 50 reads Silver = 100 reads Gold = 150 reads Platinum = 180 reads

We attend school for 190 days a year. We aim for children to read x5 per week to allow them to reach the 180 Platinum mark. This could include the weekend if they can't fit in 5 reads during the busy week.

We will only count one reading 'entry' per day in your child's reading to count towards their award but please feel free to record all the reads completed per day if you wish.

Our policy outlines that children read everyday so please help them achieve this by making time to record their reading in their diaries each night. Children from Year 3 upwards are independent enough to record this themselves so please continue to encourage them to do so!

For Autumn 2 so far, here are our reading award results on track for their Bronze Reading Award:

Reception: 24% on track Year 1: 59% on track Year 2: 27% on track

Year 3: 24% on track Year 4: 41% on track Year 5: 29% on track

Year 6B: 30% on track Year 6V: 59% on track

The Winter Calendar will soon be arriving in Doodle, a seasonal challenge where your child can earn festive rewards by Doodling 'little and often'!

Between the 1st and 24th of December, encourage your child to complete at least one exercise a day in DoodleMaths to open a calendar door.

They'll find seasonal accessories hiding behind each one – and if they open all of the doors on one or both calendars, they'll receive an exclusive virtual badge!

To find out more, please visit doodlelearning.com/post/winter-calendar. Or if you have any questions, visit help.doodlelearning.com and click on the green icon to chat to Doodle's Customer Support team.

Happy Doodling!

Well done to these children for scoring the highest Doodle Stars in their class for the past two weeks!

Year 2 Orange Sienna 298 Liam H 355

Year 3 Yellow Dalia 355 Andrew 335

Year 4 Green Ethan 268 Sophia 184

Year 5 Indigo Ella 250 Ella 342

Year 6 Violet William 250 Oliver 124

Year 6 Blue Callum 310 Callum 308

Our top spot winner is Callum with 618 stars!

The course explores self-confidence, vocal, literacy and team skills. We encourage our young participants to explore their creativity through text, story and play.

Classes are run every day of the week for anyone aged 5-11 (year reception - year six) at our rehearsal spaces in Rose Theatre, Kingston.

The cost of the term is £120, and we also offer a sibling discount and have bursary options available upon request.

https://rosetheatre.org/rose-participate/rose-youth-theatre