Latest News
Keep up to date with all the news happening in school
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Weekly Update Friday 26th April
Fri 26 Apr 2024This week saw our Year 2 children having a visit from the Hampshire River Trust as part of their project. They learned about the different animals that live in the river in our area, and learned about a salmon's journey. They cannot wait to go and visit the river in Bishops Waltham with the experts.
Year R have been busy learning to ride the balance bikes. They managed to get outside on the couple of hours of fine weather we had this week. They were all busy concentrating and the collecting game looked great fun!
Year 1 have been out and about on the scooters, learning safety rules and how to balance. Lots of children at our school scoot to school and we hope that parents will also talk about safety when they are scooting too.
Our PTA quiz is tonight and we are looking forward to having a night of fun with staff and parents. This week the PTA let us know the final figure raised from the Easter event which was an impressive £585.00. The sweet stall events raised £188 and when our PTA heard about a local appeal for Easter Eggs at the Children's Neurosurgical Ward at Southampton General Hospital, they donated 30 leftover eggs to them at Easter time. A huge thank you you to Claire and her team for all the fundraising support. After our upcoming summer fayre, we will be looking at the funds available to transform our corridor space into our learning/wellbeing communal area, following the theme of our 'Wonder Wood' library.
Please remember to bring chocolate donations on 3rd May for our Summer Fayre Chocolate Tombola. Friday 3rd May will be non-uniform day in exchange for a donation.
Our Whole School Sculpture Day exhibition is now open, if you would like to come and see it. It is in the entrance area, and the area outside my office. It is truly magical and the children are talking about the different sculptures they can see every time they pass it.
Wishing you all a lovely weekend
Best wishes
Mrs Riches
Headteacher
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Weekly Update Friday 19th April
Fri 19 Apr 2024Welcome back to everybody. We hope everyone had a restful break over the Easter period. The children were a little quiet coming back on Monday, but back to their usual, excited-to learn-selves by today!
Summer term is always a busy one at school. All parents with siblings starting in September should now have their offer letters at home, and Mrs Palmer has emailed everybody with regards to documentation to send in.
We had a detailed PTA meeting on the first day back to school. They have been really busy organising our next events. We have a quiz night on the 26th April. This is a great way to meet other parents and have a bit of fun. We then have our Summer Fayre on Friday 17th May. We need parent helpers for this event, so if you can give a few hours to support it will be gratefully received. To support the event, we have 2 donation days for the chocolate stall and the bottle stall. These are;
Friday 3rd May-bottle donations please. Only consumable ingredients, and preferably something parents would like to drink.
Friday 10th May- chocolate donations please-these can be bars or boxes
On both of these days children can wear NON-UNIFORM in exchange for their donation.
The children have been busily finishing off their sculptures and our whole school sculpture display is nearly finished. We will send an email out to each year group to invite parents and carers in to come and see the display, when it is completed.
There are currently a lot of children running into school ahead of their parents, but particularly grandparents. This is a gentle reminder to make sure your children are walking with you, as they get distressed if they cannot see you if they have fallen over. It also means our coming to school times are a calm time, which helps all the children who find large crowds overwhelming. Your cooperation in this is greatly appreciated.
We have had our hanging baskets delivered for the Bishops Waltham in Bloom competition. If we have any greenfingered parents/grandparents who would like to help, please let your class teachers know. We would also like flower donations for the baskets and the boxes on the way into school, so if this is something that you could possibly help us with, please talk to us.
Wishing everybody a lovely weekend
Best wishes
Mrs Riches
Headteacher
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Weekly Update Thursday 28th March
Thu 28 Mar 2024We were really happy the sun stayed out this week for our annual Easter Egg Hunt. The children had a great time hunting for the eggs and found our giant rabbit at the end! Thank you to all the PTA, Teachers and Office staff who worked so hard behind the scenes and on the day. The children had the biggest smiles and we could hear their laughter around the whole school.
Thank you to Miss Whitehead, our Art Leader, who organised our sculpture day this week. The finished pieces are still drying out and we will be putting together our art exhibit when they are all finished.
Please look at Tapestry this week as I know the teachers have been putting lots of pictures on for you to see. We would like to put more pictures of Year groups on our Latest news Updates, and currently we can only put our whole Year 1 group pictures on, due to the number of parents who have said no to this option when their children started school in Year R and Year 2. If you are happy for your child to appear in a large group photograph, such as the one below of Year 1, please can you let the office know next half term and we will update your preferences.
Our newsletter goes out today, with lots of information about what is coming up in the next few weeks. We hope everybody has a lovely Easter break.
Best wishes
Mrs Riches
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Weekly Update Friday 22nd March
Fri 22 Mar 2024Year 2 had a dance filled afternoon this week with our Ceildih step dancing se-shanty work shop run by Folk Active, Hampshire. They were great and Tom who lead the workshop praised them on their listening and following instruction skills.
Year 1 have been busy testing food combinations for their 'Handa's Surprise' food outcome. We have some interesting choices (Pea dip and pineapple!) and I think we have some budding chefs in our midst with their ambitious choices!
The whole school looks blooming lovely with the gardens the children have been designing in Home Learning. They are all so different, they have been lovely to see. Thank you to all the parents who helped on this task-it looks like a lot of fun has happened.
We had our Full Governor Body meeting this week, where we have updates from the term. The governors were very impressed with the learning that is happening in the school and how dedicated all staff members are to creating our culture for learning. Our school really is a super place to learn!
Our PTA Easter Egg Hunt and Quiz night have both been on sale to parents. Please do not turn up on the day of the Easter Egg Hunt without a ticket, and each child participating needs a ticket. Our Quiz Night is on 26th April, and it is always a night where parents and staff have some fun together. Please contact the PTA to purchase tickets for these events.
Next week we will be having our grand 'Decorate an Egg' Competition. Please bring your eggs to school on Thursday 28th March, clearly labelled and put them on the correct Year Group table. If parents would like to donate eggs for extra prizes, we would be very grateful. There will be a little prize for everybody who enters, so please have a 'crack' at it!
We will be having our whole school Sculpture day on Tuesday 26th March. It will be a non school uniform day-please wear old clothes that you will not mind getting messy. We are looking forward to having a lot of fun!
Lastly, I cannot stress enough how important it is that we all work together, and for the majority of time, everything works really well in our school. Occasionally some little things are brought up by more than one teacher, and we need to send a little reminder out, which is what the next few sentences are about:
Firstly, please DO NOT use book bags to carry water bottles. We have had some leakage and books are getting ruined.
Secondly, our Year R team have been disheartened to see equipment moved and played with by children after they have spent time tidying away at the end of the day. We do not have insurance for children to play on the equipment after school, and would appreciate it if parents leave school after pick up with their children. Lastly, there seems to be a lot of large cuddly toys coming to school at the moment, with teachers having to be the people saying 'no' to them coming into class, despite our no toy policy. For a small number of children, who have a need, a 'transition' toy has been agreed with the class teacher. For everyone else, please do not bring toys to school. We would really appreciate your support in all of the above areas.
Finally, our staff attended 'Simon Says' Bereavement Training this week in school. We have worked closely with the charity for many years and they do amazing things around Hampshire and the Isle of Wight with children, at tricky times in their life. Please let us know if we can support you further through any time you may need support.
I hope you all have a lovely weekend
Best wishes
Mrs Riches
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Weekly Update Friday 15th March 2024
Fri 15 Mar 2024What a great week we had this week, and we would like to thank all the parents and children for joining in the fun!
Today was Red Nose Day 2024 and we painted the town red! The children looked fantastic and had a great time. Miss McIntyre has set up an online donation page, that is in your inbox, and any cash will be put towards the final total. At the moment this stands at £167 If you would like to donate to our RND page, please do so here BWIS Red Nose Day Link
Our Bounce and Boogie was energetic and fantastic! Who knew we had such groovy dancers and bouncers! We have raised an amazing £2428 so far, which will go towards purchasing our materials and resources for Art, PE and Play. The children had an amazing time, and the hall of full of smiles and giggles. Thank you to everyone for your generosity-it is greatly appreciated.
Our Parent workshop around anxiety ran this week and was very well attended. Thank you to Mrs Charles for organising this, and more information about it is on an earlier 'News' section on this page.
This week our Year 2 teachers had Ceilidh training, along with other local Year 2 teachers, in our school hall. We will betaking part in the schools folk festival this summer and have learnt every dance as teachers-we now need to teach it to the children! There will be more information for families about the date and the time of the family ceilidh evening when they are released. Tom the teacher will be coming to school on Tuesday to teach us hornpipe and step dancing, which would have been the style of dancing on HMS Victory. There is a fiddle player accompanying the dancing and we cannot wait for this first time event at our school.
Wishing you all a lovely weekend.
Best wishes
Mrs Riches
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PTA Quiz Night
Thu 14 Mar 2024
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Anxiety Workshop
Thu 14 Mar 2024This morning we held a workshop for parents/carers about anxiety in young children. It was led by Kristina and Eleanor who are Educational Mental Health Practitioners from the Mental Health Support Team. They talked about how to recognise signs of anxiety and how to support your child and encourage them to build confidence and resilience. It was lovely to see so many of you there, Kristina said it was the best attended session she has run! We are hoping to run more workshops with the Mental Health Support Team in the future. There is also really useful information at www.hampshirecamhs.nhs.uk including ‘Hampshire CAMHS How To Beat Anxiety Workbook’.
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Bounce and Boogie is here!!!
Wed 13 Mar 2024We are all ready for our Bounce and Boogie today!!! The children and teachers can’t wait!
Thank you to everyone who has sent their sponsorship in already. We will give you the total when final pennies are collected.
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Weekly Update-Friday 8th March
Fri 08 Mar 2024This Wednesday, our Year 1 children, their classrooms and their teachers looked very different as they were transported back to Victorian times. The children had a great day in role and all were glad to change back to normal the next day. It culminated in their Victorian learning outcome and it was lovely to see so many relatives joining in with the activities the children had planned.
Year R had the sunniest day of the week for their trip to Hillier's Arboretum. They learned lots about the plants at the Arboretum and how they grew. All had a lovely time and were ready for bed on their way home on the coach.
Year 2 had their workshop with the NSPCC volunteers this week too. They have enjoyed the interactive sessions in school and have been super sensible, understanding how to keep themselves safe. Both volunteers commended the children and staff on how much knowledge the Year 2s had about keeping themselves safe.
We all enjoyed World Book Day together where we discussed and read favourite stories. Our children have a love for reading and stories at our school and it is really special to see. They particularly liked Story Swap, where they voted which story they wanted to listen to at the end of the day, but didn't know which teacher would be reading it-then they all swapped around. Please read Miss Turner's write up on World Book day 2024.
On Wednesday next week we have our sponsored 'Boogie and Bounce' day. Please make sure your children are in PE/Active clothes that day (it doesn't have to be school PE kits. Donations for this event can be brought in or paid through Arbor APP under 'Donations'.
On Friday next week, it is Red Nose Day 2024. This year we are 'Painting the Town Red' and children can dress in their red clothes/have red hair/red face paint for the charity. We are accepting both monetary donations and donations online. We hope everybody is 'Reddy' and waiting for this day!
Lastly, Mrs Kate Charles has let us know that this year will be her last year at BWIS, and she will be retiring at the end of August. Mrs Charles started in our school in 1993 and is our longest serving staff member, becoming the Deputy Headteacher in 2004, after acting in the role for a few years. I started at BWIS the same time as Ben, Kate's son, fourteen and a half years ago, and have loved both working with and getting to know Kate, her husband Shane and watching her family grow up. We have been through two OFSTEDs together, leading the school from strength to strength. I am sure you will all join me in wishing Kate all the best in her retirement, and we will make sure she has a lovely send off from her BWIS family.
I am not going to mention the weather this week, in case I jinx it again! Wishing all our Mums and Grandmas a lovely Mothering Sunday (remember our choir is singing in the church for Sunday's service).
Best wishes
Mrs Riches
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World Book Day
Thu 07 Mar 2024Today was World Book Day! The children enjoyed bringing in books from home to share with their friends and teachers. We had a range of book-related activities going on this afternoon, too. The children took part in a 'Book Switcheroo!' where each teacher chose a book to read and the children selected the one they wanted to hear. What fun!
