Byfleet Primary Newsletter

Dear Parents/Carers,

• Welcome back and we hope that you've managed to have a look at your child's homework matrix, curriculum overview and spelling overviews for the summer term. These have been uploaded to the school website and onto Google Classroom.

• We've had an exciting start to term already with Year 2 visiting Painshill Park, Year 5 Bikeability, a visit from the Coram Scarf 'Lifebus' team for PSHE lessons in Year 1 - 6 and a football tournament in Woking for Year 5/6. Thank you to the parents/carers that volunteered their time - without your support, many trips and enrichment opportunities beyond our school gates would not be feasible so we appreciate all the help on offer.

• Thank you for attending parents' evening at the end of term a few weeks ago - it was wonderful having the opportunity to meet face to face and we hope you found the meeting useful and enjoyed looking through your child's work books.

• Have you ever thought about becoming a Parent Governor? An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Parent Governor to serve on our Local Advisory Committee (LAC). For further information on this role and details to apply, please click here.

• Swimming Year 1 - 6: It is unlikely that our pool will reach above 25C over the coming colder nights so swimming will only resume in week 4 if so. We will keep you updated after the bank holiday weekend if anything changes.

• We are looking for a volunteer to help us out with supervising our children during transitions between swimming lessons. This will likely be between 9am - 12pm Monday - Thursday for the summer term. This is a great opportunity to catch a tan or read a book between the swap over of groups of children during their swimming lessons and will really help us out. If you are able to help us, please log your interest here.

• There are many children wearing an assortment of different football kits, bright coloured leggings and a variety of different branded sports tops like Nike and Adidas. Just a polite reminder about appropriate PE kits being worn on PE days. PE kits are a yellow t-shirt and black shorts; a dark tracksuit for colder weather. If you require any items of clothing, please speak to the office staff who will be glad to assist from our second hand stall.

• For our Reception parents, Mr Boyd and Mrs Bray have set up your 'Evidence Me' account. We hope you've had the opportunity to download the app and are enjoying being able to see some of your child's learning online. Here is the link to the letter we sent out to previously.

• As the weather is becoming warmer, please feel free to send you child in to school with their summer uniforms. Please apply sunscreen before hand and hats are welcome!

• We are looking for a lunch time midday supervisor (MDSV) to work 1 or 2 shifts a week between 11.15 - 1.15pm, term time only. If you are interested in this role, please let Mrs Scott in the office know or email info@byfleet.surrey.sch.uk

• Just a reminder that we run a cashless office at Byfleet Primary and therefore unable to accept any cash for after school care, clubs and trips from parents. All payments are to be made via SCOPAY, unless payments are received in a timely manner these extra curricular activities cannot take place.

• Don't forget - Monday is a bank holiday so no school. On Tuesday 3rd May, all Year 6 parents and carers are invited to the residential Parents' info meeting 6pm in school hall

Last term the whole school took part in a Science day during British Science Week. This year's theme was "Growth" and the children undertook activities that saw them designing their own "planet friendly" burger; exploring how to find the age of a shark; creating a life cycle; exploring amino acids; finding out how to survive on Mars; measuring themselves; drawing portraits of their peers and making seed bombs. Throughout the day, the children all travelled to different classes, within their Key Stage, and so got taught by all the teachers.

Last term, we also ran a Science club for our year 3 and 4 children. Another great experience where the children took part in activities that covered a range of scientific areas. They had to design the strongest bridge and make a parachute for an egg before launching it down the stairs. They explored magnets, reactions between acids and alkalies and created there own animation on Scratch.

Thank you to Mrs Potter for organising the exciting Science Day and also running our Science Club.

Expert Advice for Families

My Family Coach is a free website powered by Team Teach. They're leading providers of Positive Behaviour Training in schools and Health and Social Care settings.

With My Family Coach, parents and carers are empowered with the information they need to understand behaviour that challenges. It’s full of helpful support for the families in our school and creates stronger links between school and home.

We hope that everyone found the parents evening before the Easter holidays helpful and informative. If you have any questions or would like to speak to me (Mrs Sharkey-Yun, Inclusion lead) or your child's class teacher about anything discussed please contact the school office.

Please click on the link, this was a letter sent out to all parents about Inclusion support and accessing external specialist provision: Inclusion Letter

Here’s how a Mindful Moment using The Zones Pathway can look:

1) Notice: Check-in with your internal state: What’s going on inside my body (energy, heart rate, breathing, cognition, emotions)? What’s the situation?

2) Think: What Zone am I in?

3) Decide: Do I need to take care of my Zone?

4) Regulate: Use a tool to manage your Zone (i.e., calming tool for your Yellow or Red Zone, alerting tool for your Blue Zone, proactive tool for your Green Zone) or keep moving forward, depending on your answer to step 3.

5) Reflect: How did that work for me? Am I ready to move forward?

When we walk through these steps, we are building a cognitive pathway for self-care, which mirrors what we are trying to impart in our learners. Once we feel comfortable with this practice for our own regulation, we can turn around and model for our learners by “thinking aloud:”

• “I have a nervous feeling in my stomach and I’m breathing fast, I’m in the Yellow Zone.”

• “I feel exhausted in the Blue Zone today.”

• “I am trying to decide if I should stop and use a tool to manage my Zone right now.”

• “I am going to take 3 deep breaths to help me with my Zone, do you want to count for me?”

• “At home I pet my dog to help me with my Zone, but at my job I need a different tool.”

• “I am wondering if I’m ready to move on to _________.”

Engaging in a mindful moment like this gives us grown-ups the opportunity to “practice what we preach” when it comes to modelling regulation for the learners in our lives, with the added benefit of giving us a respite and response to the stress that is all too common in our daily lives.

It's been a while since we've been able to invite you into school. We can't wait to invite you back into school to see your child's class assembly. We will continue to reduce the number of children we have together in the hall so will only move to 'whole school' assemblies once it is safe to do so. In the meanwhile, each class will host their class assembly to their parents and one or two other classes in the school hall. These will start at 8.55 - 9.20ish so please join us in the school hall on the day that your child's class assembly has been scheduled.

Reception - Wednesday 29th June Year 4 - Wednesday 22nd June

Year 5 Blue - Wednesday 25th May - Greeks