BPS Newsletter

Please report absences using the absences@byfleet.surrey.sch.uk email by no later than 9am.

This Week

It certainly has been a case of Busy Byfleet over the last couple of weeks with loads of different events taking place involving Indoor Athletics, a visit from The Lifebus, and a fantastic class assembly from Year 5. Popping in and out of classrooms recently has been a pleasure, the children have been working hard and trying their best in all areas of the curriculum. This week we were lucky enough to have a visit from The Lifebus, which is a mobile workshop in which the children have chance to think about lots of different aspects of life and citizenship. Thank you to Miss Taylor our PSHE Lead for organising this.

In the sporting arena children from Year 6 took part in the Woking Schools' Indoor athletics and did the school proud - we might be small but we fight and compete with everything we have, and the Indoor Athletics Team did just that. Their attitude showed respect and resilient, even when things got tough. The team were accompanied by Miss Partridge and Mrs Chandler, thank you to both of these staff members for organising and supervising the event.

Year 5 treated us to a brilliant class assembly looking at last term's topic 'XX'. The children performed brilliantly and conveyed some brilliant messages which are more relevent than ever. This historically-driven topic lays the foundation for the children to further their learning about World War 2 in Year 6, and showed that we can never forget the lessons history teaches us. A big thank you to Mrs Kay and Mrs Burton for all of their hardwork in making it happen.

We are lucky to have a fantastic Friends who organise different events for the school to help raise money to support us. They organise the discos, cake sales and work towards raising money for larger projects which can benefit our children. The money raised by the cake sales has had a significant impact on us being able to bring the cost of trips down and make the more affordable for parents. Although the impact of this money is often unseen, quite simply the cake sales and work of the Friends has allowed certain trips to go ahead which otherwise wouldn't have been financially viable. So a big thank you to them and a big thank you to all of the parents who created, baked or bought cakes for their class - it is having an impact.

Finally, you will have seen our allotment continue to take shape. Our fantastic site manager, Mr Hagen, has been getting creative with pallets and has almost completed the fence surrounding the area which will soon be transformed into a jungle of bulging fruit and veg - hopefully! We need to say a big thank you to the Byfleet Amenities Group for generously donating money towards the project and a big thank you to everyone who has sent in wellies, it is much appreciated. If all goes to plan, we should hopefully begin planting beans very soon!

As always, thank you for your continued support and have a lovely weekend.

Mr Bowman

Over the last two weeks in Reception, we have been very busy and have learned lots of exciting new things. In our topic work, we have been learning all about space. We discovered interesting facts about the moons, stars and the solar system. We learned that the planets move around the sun, and we used the key word orbit to help us understand how this happens. We also learned lots of cool facts about the planets, including that some planets have lots of moons. We really enjoyed talking about space and sharing what we found out.

We have also done some wonderful writing. We practised writing simple sentences using the sentence stem “I can see”, which helped us describe things clearly. We also wrote a non-fiction fact sheet about something in space, using facts we had learned. We are very proud of our writing and how carefully we tried to form our letters.

In maths, we have been learning numbers up to 8. We practised counting, recognising numbers and learning about odd and even numbers. We also enjoyed learning about doubling! In phonics, we have been learning the sounds ar, or, ur and er, and practising reading and writing words with these sounds. 

We also took part in a PSHE workshop all about our bodies. We loved learning with Mark and Harold the giraffe. We revised what we need to do to stay healthy and learned that going to bed between 6.30 and 7.00 pm helps our bodies grow and rest. We have worked very hard and are excited to keep learning more. 

To help resource Reception's learning over the next few weeks we are asking to see if anyone has any of the following they would be happy to donate to the school:

• Dressing up clothes

• Scooters

• A microphone stand

• A Birdhouse

• A bird feeder

• Compost 

• Sand

If you are able to donate any of the items above, we would be very grateful.

Year 2 have been having lots of fun in PE this half-term, working on a dance unit, following our staff dance training last term.  The children have all thrown themselves into the lessons with wonderful enthusiasm, as you can see by the big smiles on their faces in the photographs below!

In year 4, we have been immersing ourselves into ocean life and writing poems about different animals in the ocean. 

On Tuesday 20th January, Year 6 took part in Sportshall Athletics at Guildford Spectrum. For this event, the competed against 11 other local schools in a variety of track and field events. It was a pleasure to see how maturely they represented Byfleet Primary School, showing great teamwork and resilience.  Well done, Year 6!

Just to remind parents/carers that if they take their children out of school without authority for 5 or more days (which do not have to be consecutive), they will be liable to receive a penalty notice. The issue of a Penalty Notice will also be actioned where a pupil has incurred 10 or more unauthorised sessions during the preceding 10 school weeks. These also included 'lates' after the register has closed. 

**Changes to the National framework for Penalty Notices came into force for Penalty Notice Fines on 19th August 2024**

• First offence within a 3 year rolling period will incur a charge of £80 per parent, per child if paid within 21 days, Increasing to £160 per parent, per child if paid within 28 days.

• Second offence within a 3 year rolling period will incur a flat rate of £160 per parent, per child if paid within 28 days. 

• The third time an offence is committed within a 3 year rolling period for term time leave or irregular attendance the case will be presented straight to the Magistrates Court. 

Please view the letter from Surrey Inclusion Services and our Attendance Policy for further information.