Byfleet Primary Newsletter
Twitter: @Byfleetprimary
We hope you had a wonderful half term break and welcome back. Spring has sprung and it's great to see some daffodils popping their heads through the ground remind us that warmer weather is around the corner. It's great to have our field back open for our children to play on, now that the risk of mud being trampled into school is gone.
A big thank you to Mrs Cosentino who lovingly tended to our gardens - we hope you've spotted the beautiful potted flowers she's planted for us all to enjoy.
The children have an exciting Annual Spelling Bee Competition starting this week, which will run until week 5's finals. Find further information about this below.
This is the third year that we've hosted Schools' National Football Week as we know how much the children enjoy playing football. See the section below for further information. A big thanks to Mr Bowman for arranging this for our children! It was great to see them all in their football kits and playing for their house teams.
Thank you for supporting our teachers during this week's strike. Three further strikes are planned for Thursday 2nd March, Wednesday 15th and Thursday 16th March. Our arrangements for the next strikes can be found here.
Reception, Year 5I and Year 6B's Tray day will take place on Monday 6th March, where parents will have the chance to meet Mr Bowman and Miss La Rocca.
After half term, on Friday 3rd March (week 2) is World Book Day. Children and staff can dress up as their favourite book character. We're looking forward to seeing some wonderful designs!
As part of World Book Day celebration, on Friday, 3rd March, there will be a Friends of Byfleet Book Sale in the school hall at the end of the day. Please come and have a browse. Cash will be accepted on the day. There will also be a stand with Phonics second-hand books that are available for purchase from the school.
Following the success of our recent Careers Week, we are excited to be launching a new addition to our curriculum and will be teaching Financial Education over the 6 weeks of Spring 2 to all children from Reception to Year 6. Learning about money, where it comes from, the importance of working hard and getting a job, learning how to barter and save and gaining a better understanding of interest rates and banking are just a few of the skills we'll be teaching our children. This is a real investment for their future! We look forward to working with Young Enterprise. More information can be found here.
This week we introduced a new system for daily assemblies to take place, with a different focus each day. It's very important to be able to share current information about what's going on in the world (this week we discussed the earthquake in Turkey and Syria), sharing religious stories, focusing on 'safety' online and in person and also sharing our usual Celebration Assembly. Please ask your child what they've been learning about in our daily assembly.
Attendance
Attendance Winners:
September: Year 5 97.41%
October: Year 3 96.81%
November: Year 1 98.12%
December: Year 5 95.17%
January: Year 6V 97.58%
Which class will be February's highest attenders? Who will be next to sit on the benches during assembly?
Our whole-school attendance target is 96%.
By the end of December, we were at 94.89%.
By the end of January, we were at 94.82%
Our attendance for the year so far is 94.51%.
Please can you help us raise this. Whilst we understand some children are prone to illness, mild illness can be managed in school by liaising with Admin Team. The Admin team can only administer prescribed medication.
If your child is well enough to attend school but requires Calpol during the day, you can arrange with the office for you to administer this yourself.
Thank you for continuing to report your child's absence each day if they are away from school. This needs to be reported by no later than 9am on the morning of the absence.
Please remember that if your child is ill for more than 2 days, we require medical evidence from day 3 for this absence to be authorised as sickness. When medical evidence isn't provided, this will be unauthorised absence unfortunately.
Schools National Football Week
National Schools' Football Week was a very busy week which gave the children across the school an opportunity to compete against the different houses in their class.
There was a superb attitude shown by the children all week. They helped and supported each other and tried their best whilst remaining respectful to their team mates and opponents. At the end of the week the scores were added up and the winning house was Falcons! Well done to Falcons.
safer internet day - tuesday 7th february
Safer Internet Day was a great opportunity for the children to talk about how to build meaningful relationships online. The children also took part in a series of activities and lessons to explore why it is important to find time to talk about our experiences online. Throughout the day we delivered an assembly to KS1 and an assembly to KS2, both of which provided key messages which were later explored throughout the day.
We are currently in the process of updating our Online Safety offer and will be putting on some parent workshops to support people with helping their children stay safe online.
The NSPCC has produced some great resources here for you to use to address Online Safety discussions with your child(ren) at home.
If you need any further support or have any questions around Online Safety please get in touch with Mr Bowman via the school office.
Teacher Strike Day - Thursday, 2nd March 2023
On the day of the teachers' strike action , the following classes will be attending school on Thursday, 2nd March 2023 : Year 4 Green, Year 5 Indigo and Year 6 Blue
World Book Day - Friday 3rd March
Today we launched our World Book Day competition. Each class will read a pair of books from the same 'theme'. The children will then vote for their favourite book from the pair. We wonder if judging a book by its cover is a wise idea?! The children are eagerly waiting to read these books over the next few days to find out more...
Don't forget it's dress up day on Friday 3rd March so please help your child dress up as a book or a book character. No movie or football stars please.
World Book Day - Special lunch menu Friday, 3rd March 2023
Friends of Byfleet PRE-loved Book SALE
Dough Disco in rainbows class
Over the last half term, Reception began their new whole class fine motor activity, Dough Disco! It is a high energy session where all children can strengthen their important hand and finger muscles to aid their pencil grip, mark making, and writing.
Each finger has its own special name, and the different movements with the 'dough' allow different characters to 'go to the dough disco'. Some moves include: squeezing, patting, squashing, pinching and rolling. We all love to see the children getting involved and having a go... keep it up Rainbows!
bREAKFAST & afTERSCHOOL cLUB
Breakfast club begins everyday at 7:30am. Please note that the buzzer will not be manned until this time.
If your child is not booked into breakfast club for a particular day, they will not be accepted as staff ratios will have already been allocated.
For both breakfast and afterschool club, all bookings need to be made 48 hours in advance. If there is an emergency requirement for your child to be placed in either club and there are spaces available then a late booking fee will be charged.
Year 6 Learning
Year 6 have had a brilliant start to Spring 2 with lots of exciting learning happening. Continuing with our 'Against the Odds' topic, we have begun 'The Explorer' by Katherine Rundell as our class text and will be basing our reading skills and writing around this in the upcoming weeks.
This week in geography, we have learned how to use four-figure and six-figure grid references and applied this to what we've already discovered about Ernest Shackleton's journey. The children did a great job at using the grid references!
LGBT+ History Month
One of our special books that features in our World Book Day Competition is called King and King, which has an LGBT focus and celebrates the theme 'Love is Love'. We can't wait to share this message with the children.
Watch the fascinating story about the trailblazing LGBT footballer Lily Parr - what an inspiration.
We continue to teach our children about the 9 Protected Characteristics each week in assembly, helping make our world a better place.
Plea from Reception Rainbows
Do you have any spare baskets laying around at home?
We would love these for our Reception classroom. Any shape or size please.
We're also looking for old tyres.
If you know of anyone who would like to get rid of any, please drop them off at BPS.
We love reading @ BPS!
Has your child earned their BRONZE reading award yet for 50 reads?
Well, we've made it to the 100 day mark in school...so it's time to celebrate and hand out some SILVER reading awards for 100 reads.
A big well done to 39 children for being awarded their SILVER award today in assembly! You're right on track!
Red Nose Day - 17th March 2023
Stars of the Week
Well done to the following children for being recognised for doing something brilliant this fortnight......
Reception Rainbow Aima, Lexi
Year 1 Red Holly
Year 2 Orange Liam
Year 3 Yellow Hari Darren
Year 4 Green Connor Alby Jack
Year 5 Indigo Olivia
Year 6 Blue Darcy George
Year 6 Violet Cace Alex
Sports for School - Athlete visit
In May, Byfleet Primary School will be having a visit from a GB athlete. This will include an assembly on the 2nd May where the athlete will be revealed and then an sporting event on the 16th May.
Further details will be provided to parents in due course.
Doodle Maths
Well done to these children for scoring the highest Doodle Stars in their class for the past two weeks!
Year 2 Orange Oscar 264 Zara 194
Year 3 Yellow Ana 1090
Year 4 Green Albie 245 Dixie 815
Year 5 Indigo Ella 790 Fiona 95
Year 6 Violet Clarisse 321
Year 6 Blue Charlotte 96 George 72
Our top spot winner is Ana in Year 3 with 1090 stars!
INCLUSION COFFEE MORNING - March 9th 2023
It isn't long until our Spring Term Inclusion Coffee Morning, please save the date and attend, there will be a range of guests at the session to share information about what is on offer within the local area:
DATE: Thursday 9th March 2023
TIME: 8.50am-9.50am
WHERE: School Hall
This term we are inviting guests to come and share information with parents. Each guest will share a short five minute presentation and will then be available for parents to speak to if they would like to find out more. This is open to all parents, and it about the services and support offered within the local areas for families to access.
We will have representatives from the following teams and organsiations:
-Primary Mental Health Team
-Educational Psychologist (local offer)
-Papyrus Charity
-Surrey Family Infomation Service
We are still recruiting more guests, and will keep updating you as they confirm their attendance. It will be a great chance for all parents to find out more about the support and services available in the local community.
Inclusion
During our staff inset before half term (February 10th), all teachers participated in a three hour session run by ADHD awareness trainers from the charity Barnardo's. The session looked in detail at what ADHD is, considering how it impacts on executive functions. It also provided teachers with lots of useful strategies to use to support children within the classroom.
Barnado's also run courses for parents of children (6-18 years old) who have a diagnosis of, or who are awaiting a diagnosis of ADHD. This support and advice is delivered in an 8 week programme within the local community or online via zoom, during school hours, or in the evenings.
To find out more about the course for parents please visit their website: Surrey Positive Parenting Service
pre-ordering school Lunches
Another reminder that parents must pre-order their child's school lunches for the week (or even month in advance). There are still instances where a number of pupils do not have a school lunch ordered on the day.
Please note that any Keystage 2 pupil following the Easter holidays, who does not have a lunch pre-ordered on the day, the parent will be called to bring in a packed lunch before 11:30am that morning.
Little Wandle Phonics
Can you spare a few hours a week to become a reading helper at our school?
We are working with a charity called Coram Beanstalk to recruit and train volunteer reading helpers who can commit to an afternoon or two a week to come in to school.
As a reading helper you will support at least 3 children on a one to one basis outside of the classroom environment. It’s a fun role that’s about much more than just listening to children read. As a reading helper you will support children to become readers; helping children to switch onto reading, learn to read and become confident independent readers.
You will be trained in a proven approach and will lead sessions for each child that bring fun and enjoyment to the reading experience, ultimately wanting the child to choose to read and be enthusiastic about it! Reading helpers read to the child, talk about what they have read, check understanding and encourage thinking and conversation based on a book.
They use fun book based activities to reinforce understanding, develop vocabulary and further cement enjoyment through a positive reading experience. We know this approach works and raises reading attainment, with one to one sessions bringing additional benefits of improving confidence, self-esteem and attitude to learning.
If you would like to become a reading helper at our school, or you know someone, perhaps a grandparent or a neighbour who would like to join our friendly school community please do consider this role. For more information or if you wish to apply, visit the website at www.corambeanstalk.org.uk or call 0207 729 4087.
Family Learning - Free ONLINE COURsES FOR PARENTS AND CARErS
Surrey Education Services provided free family learning online courses for parents, carers and families:
SHOUT OUT - Ethan WIggins GRADE 1 CLASSICAL GUITAR
A big shout out to Ethan in Year 4, with his Trinity College certificate for his Grade 1 classical guitar which he received recently with merit. Congratulations!!
Class Assemblies
Class Assemblies for 22/23 will take place on the dates below from 8.55 - 9.20 in main hall. Please come along and see what your child has been learning about:
10th March - Year 4 5th May - Year 2
19th May - Year 1 NEW DATE DUE TO KS2 SATs DATE CHANGE
9th June - Year 5 23rd June - Reception
Diary Dates
New dates in red
Between 20th February - Friday 20th March - Spelling Bee Competition
Thursday 2nd March - Teachers Strike Action
Friday 3rd March - World Book Day Dress up (as your favourite book character)
Friday 3rd March - Friends of Byfleet Second-hand book sale & Phonics Second-hand book sale School Hall 3:05pm - 4:05pm
Thursday 9th March - SEND Parent workshop 8.50 - 9.50am. Parents from all year groups are welcome.
Friday 10th March - British Science Day whole school event
Wednesday 15th and Thursday 16th March - Teachers Strike Action
Friday 17th March - Red Nose Day (this is BPS's chosen charity of the year)
Tuesday 21st March - Parents' Evening 2.30 - 5.30pm (excluding Year 5/6)
Thursday 23rd March - Parents' Evening 3.05 - 6pm (excluding Year 5/6)
Friday 31st March - Last day of term - 1pm finish
Monday 8th May - Additional Bank Holiday
Monday 17th April - INSET 4
Thursday 18th May - SEND Parent Workshop 8.50 - 9.50. Parents from all year groups are welcome.
Thursday 25th May - Byfleet Annual Family Picnic on the field - everyone welcome.
Thursday 25th May - Diversity Week
Friday 26th May - INSET 5
Tuesday 26th June - Year 6 Transition Days at secondary schools
Wednesday 27th June - Year 6 Transition Days at secondary schools
Thursday 29th June - Reception and KS 1 Sports Day (contingency 6th July)
Friday 30th June - KS 2 Sports Day (contingency 7th July)
Friday 7th July - End of year pupil reports sent home
Monday 10th July - Whole School Tray Day 3 - 3.05 - 4.30pm
Friday 21st July - Last day of term 1pm finish
To view our 2022/23 term dates, please click here.
To view our 2023/24 term dates, please click here.