Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to week 4 of the final summer term of the academic year.

• A formal EEEa Teaching and Learning Review was carried out last week to help us with our own quality assurance. Different lessons were observed, children and staff were spoken to and governance and safeguarding were reviewed. A big thanks to the staff and children involved who showcased our school in the best light.

• A big thank you for supporting our PTA Friends fundsraiser at our sportsday. They continue to raise funds for the school and we appreciate your support. A whopping £605 was raised - thank you so much!

• Thanks to our EEEA Chief Operations Officer, Mrs Bark (COO), we recently won a bid to help fund replacing our school roof, which BPS partially funds. A large sum has been offered to help us replace our roof and building works are due to take place over the summer holiday. It is likely that some scaffolding will still be in place when we return to school in September, which we will prepare families for in September by sending out communication.

• Our SBM, Mrs Frampton, is currently working behind the scenes with Chartwells, our new school catering company and our new school kitchen will also be installed over the summer holiday. Further information about the Autumn menu and ordering school dinners will be sent out at the end of term. We can't wait to finally have our own kitchen on site!

• We have announced the classes that children will be in next year so you are aware which staff will be working directly with your child(ren) in the coming year. It's that time of year when we say goodbye to staff: Miss Mills is delighted to be starting her teacher-training and will be starting a SKITT in September. Miss Lloyd moves on to be a Sports Coach in a neighbouring school. Mrs Wolniewicz, who has been an esteemed HLTA at BPS for a very very long time, is starting her retirement and is looking forward to mid-week rambling - we hope to see her return to us in a volunteering capacity if she has any spare time. Mr Bostock is moving to a school closer to home and we thank Mr Ney for his hard work with the Year 4s this year. We wish everyone the best as they move on to their new adventures.

• Reception Rainbows swimming lessons start next week on Friday 9th July. It's not too late to sign up if you haven't consented yet.

• We will be sending out our End of Year Pupil Reports on Friday 8th July. The following Monday (11th July), we will open our classrooms up at 3.00 - 4.30 for our final 'Tray Day' of the year. You're welcome to come along and let your child show you their books and learning and you can have an informal discussion with the class teacher. If you have any queries about your child's report, this will be an opportunity for you to informal discuss this. We have arranged for Chartwells (our new catering company) to showcase some of their food to you in the school hall at the same time, so please make your way to the school hall after the 'Tray Day' to meet the new catering staff and see what delicious food will be offered to our children from September. Please note: Year 6 Violet's 'Tray Day' will be on Tuesday 12th July 3.00 - 4.30.

• We currently have two Learning Support Assistant (LSA) vacancies available. Please find the job advert here if you are interested in applying to work with us.

• Our Year 6s had a wonderful time visiting their new secondary schools for two days this week in preparation for them moving up.

• Reception to Year 5 children enjoyed their Transition Day on Wednesday, getting to know their new teachers and learning support assistants.

• This week we welcomed Mr Bowman (DHT), Mrs Sherlock (Reading Lead and SLT), Mr Boyd (Year 1 - previously in Reception - welcome back!), Mrs McIntyre (Year 5), Mr Tredger (Year 6), Mrs Keynes (Year 2 LSA) and Mrs Bateman (1-1 SEND LSA). We have started their induction programme to ensure they are ready to deliver their best for September.

• Miss Vallins in Rainbow class has been liaising with King's Nursery to kickstart the new Reception children's transition. Online virtual home visits will be carried out next week between our Reception staff and our new Reception parents to help us prepare for September.

• Reception had their first whole school class assembly on Wednesday 29th June, where they shared their learning all about the seaside. Not only did they sing songs and perform a poem by heart, all of the children took part and said 2 lines.

• Rainbows shared some of their brilliant writing, seaside art work, their favourite class story books, and sang some songs confidently for the school and parents/carers.

• We are so proud of all the hard work that Reception has been doing, especially all the practising of lines! Thank you to the support the children had from home, you could see how confident they were! Well done Rainbows!

• Monitoring attendance and 'lateness' continues to be a priority for us - our school target is 97% and our current whole school attendance is 94%.

• When absence drops below 92%, we will heighten our communication with you to see how we can help improve your child's attendance. Similarly, if a trend is spotted with your child arriving late, we will work with you to see how we can improve this.

• Once attendance drops below 90%, Surrey Local Authority become involved and an Inclusion Officer will work with us to see what else we can do to support you.

• Persistent Absence is defined as 'having 5 or more absences in a half term'; this is regardless of the 90% threshold that triggers the LA Inclusion Officer.

• In Summer 1, we had 25 child who fell into the Persistent Absence category - this is well above the national average. We completely understand that illness and covid etc. cannot be helped and there may be occasions where the best place for your child is staying at home if they are not feeling well, however there has been an increase in families requesting to take their children out of school for holidays etc, which unfortunately cannot be authorised.

• If your child is going to be absent for any scheduled reason, please inquire with the admin team for a 'Request for Absence Form', which can also be downloaded from our website, which will allow us to report your child's absence accurately.

• As previously shared, the headteacher is unable to authorise absence unless in extenuating circumstances. It is also the Local Authority who issues penalty fines for unauthorised holidays of 5 days of more, resulting in a £60 fine per parent per child.

• If there is any information you wish to share with us that is impacting on your child's attendance, please speak to Mrs Byrne or Mrs Meyrick in the office so we can work together to help.

• We currently have 6 children with 100% attendance for this year.

• It has also been great to see the improvements for the families we have been supporting with several who are no longer below 90% or within the Persistent Absence category - this is terrific news!

There is a midday supervisor position is available at Byfleet Primary. Here is a link to the advert via eteach : Midday Supervisor position available

Mike Wagstaff will be at the school on Tuesday 12th July 2022

Any orders can be made in advance by emailing him: mikewagstaff56@gmail.com

Summer Term Inclusion feedback and meetings

• Following the graduated approach of assess, plan, do review, all children on the SEND register have an SSA (Send Support Arrangements Plan)

• The SSA sets out their strengths and needs, details the support they are receiving and targets they have been working on. The targets are reviewed and updated each term (3 times a year)

• In Autumn term and Spring term the SSAs were shared with parents at parents evening.

• In Summer term, teachers have written the end of term reports for all parents which will be sent home on July 8th. This will give information about their progress, support and targets.

• In addition to this, for parents who would like to speak in more detail there is the opportunity to book a 20 minute meeting with Mrs Sharkey-Yun the Inclusion Lead.

• These meetings will take place on Wednesday 13th, Thursday 14th and Friday 15th of July. We will endeavour to schedule appointments for all parents who require them in these 3 days.

• Appointments will be available to book via scopay from Wednesday the 6th of July and an email reminder about this will be sent out.

We will be celebrating Diversity week from July 11th to July 15th 2022, and learning about the follow topics:

What does Diversity mean?

Different Families

Race and Culture

Embracing Disabilities

We will be sending out information about a home learning project linked to this, so remember to look at google classroom for information about the diversity poster competition!