Latest News
Keep up to date with all the news happening in school
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Blogging and Emailing Guidance
Thu 30 Apr 2020Guidance for blogging and emailing.
Thank you so much for your messages. We enjoy hearing what you are all doing at home. You can share your child’s learning or send us a message through the blog, or through your year group email.
The email addresses for the 3 year groups are:
yearr@bishopswaltham.hants.sch.uk
Year1@bishopswaltham.hants.sch.uk
Year2@HCCLA850SCH2019.onmicrosoft.com
Blogging - https://bishops-waltham-infant-school.primarysite.blog
You do not need to log in in order to leave a comment or reply to a post. Simply, click on MENU on the blogging home page, select which blog you wish to view, and then the post you want to read. At the bottom of the post, an "add a comment" section will appear where you can write your reply, and add your name. Don't forget - it will not show up until a teacher has approved it.
If you wish to post a photo - you will need to log in.
On the Blogging Page
1.Press Menu.
2. Press Log in.
3. Select your year group.
4. Type in your 'class name' followed by a dot and then 'class'.
e.g. fox.class rabbit.class hedgehog.class
5. Enter the password - Bwis2020
6. From here you can select the blog you wish to reply to, either by clicking on the teacher’s name and then the post, or clicking on a post on the main home page.
7. Scroll down and you will find a photo icon in the "add comment" section of the post.
8. Please log out afterwards.
We look forward to hearing from you.
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One of the eggs has hatched!
Thu 30 Apr 2020Whilst watching the bird box this morning, one of the eggs has hatched, how exciting. How many eggs do you think will hatch by the end of today? Check out the website:
http://www.seenature.org.uk/schools/bishops-waltham-infant-school/
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Friday 8th May -VE Day
Wed 29 Apr 2020Dear Parents and Carers
Friday 8th May was due to be a big celebration in our country, as it is the 75th Anniversary of VE Day. You would have already seen the poster from the Parish Council promoting a celebration at home party, in your gardens. Although our children are very young, we would have celebrated with our children through an assembly and activities. Please follow the link to our VE activities on our 'Learning Links' page. Please send us any photographs of your celebrations and we will upload them to our VE page.
We hope you have a lovely day.
https://www.bwis.org.uk/ve-day-activities-and-resources/
Best Wishes
Mrs Riches and everyone at BWIS
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School Update 28th April 2020
Tue 28 Apr 2020Dear Parents and Carers
Hopefully everyone is now using our year group emailing system and finding it easier to upload things to. We have all loved seeing your home learning on the blogs and teachers have passed on to me some of the super learning photographs from home! Well done everyone. I am very proud of you all.
We have been asked by a few parents about having books from school. Unfortunately, due to unknown factors about the virus and how long it stays on surfaces, we will be unable to do this at the moment. There are links to online books on our site, if you would like to practice reading. At the moment, we are putting activities on daily, instead of in one big bundle. This is to encourage children to do something daily and not to overwhelm parents. BBC Bitesize is also up and running if parents would like more, and there are lots of links to fun games to reinforce learning and practise skills
The majority of parents have now had at least one telephone call home from their teacher. Some parents are not answering, and we will keep trying to contact you. We currently have 4 ways for children to keep in touch with us:
Our Blog
Our videos
Telephone calls
Year Group emails
I am very proud of the teachers who are upskilling their technology knowledge very quickly. We held our first Zoom staff meeting with everyone last week, and we will also be interviewing for a teacher in Frog Class and Maternity Cover for Bat Class at the end of this month via Zoom. We will also be having our first remote governor meeting and myself and Mrs Palmer set our yearly budget remotely with Hampshire's Education Financial Services last week. It is a steep learning curve for us all, but a challenge we are rising to. For parents struggling to blog, look back through our 'Latest News' section for blogging instructions)
We have now sent a welcome letter to all new parents of Year R children, using the email addresses they provided us, outlining our transition process for Year R children as it currently stands. If you know of anyone who has not received this email, please can you tell them to email the school office and we will resend to them.
We have had no further news of reopening, although there is lots of speculation on when this will be and what it will look like. I have no idea when it will be, but I do know that even with greatly reduced numbers, social distancing at infant level will be impossible to put into practice. We would obviously try our best if this is what we are instructed to do, but I, as an experienced headteacher, could not guarantee it.
Keeping up to date with current events takes a large part of my time at the moment, with lots of reading about how children's education will be affected and how to fill in gaps. I can speak a little from experience on this. When I was six years old, in Year 2, I had a major operation on my feet. I had the operation in the February and did not attend school again until I went to the Juniors in September, missing a lot of school. As well as a lot of physiotherapy, my mum and dad had to take over my learning. There was no internet and only a few channels on the television (yes I am that old!). My mum left school at 16 and had me when she was 19, so a young mum like many of you. With little direction from the school, she said she felt a bit overwhelmed, but concentrated on reading lots of stories and non fiction, writing anything: shopping lists, stories, labels, captions, instructions. She said she concentrated on things I wanted to write about and keyed into my interests. I used to love comics and wrote stories for the characters in them. My dad, when he came home from work, concentrated on setting me lots of number problems and learning my times tables.
When I returned to school, I hadn't fallen behind, in fact I was ahead. I slotted back in with my friends. I had really missed them, and talked non stop at school from that moment on (I am still a chatterbox now). I am sharing this story to try to help any parent who is feeling overwhelmed, to try not to worry. Whatever school looks like when we reopen, we will be there to support all of the children in what they need.
On that note, for anyone who is interested, I found an article about the children who live in Christchurch, New Zealand. For many months after the earthquake, they were unable to attend school. This article explores the effect on them and their education.
One last website-my son has recently taken to reading 'Beano' (obviously taking after me and his dad and our love of comics). I came across this website, which has lots of things to read and do on it. We are currently in the process of writing a new adventure for Bananaman. I am taking a leaf out of my mum's book: we are concentrating on writing things he wants to write about.
(I will also add the link to the the children's page)
With Best Wishes
Mrs Riches
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Chess Link
Fri 24 Apr 2020Dear Parents and Carers
I know many of the Year 2 children (and some Year 1s) were starting to play chess at morning club and during lunchtimes, and we were going to start a chess club up in the summer term. As we now cannot do that, I have found a great free website to sign up to to play. It is for children just starting out or children who know nothing about chess. Please follow the link below to find out more
https://www.chessinschools.co.uk/forms/chesskid-for-schools-form
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School Update 20th April
Mon 20 Apr 2020Dear Parents and Carers
I hope you have all been enjoying the sunshine this week. I can't believe how quickly the trees in my garden have grown in this lovely sunshine! BBC Bitesize launched properly this week, where parents can find age related lessons for the children. Have a look using our link on the children's page.
Over the next few weeks we will be exploring using emails from the teachers as a way to upload learning from the children. We are in the process of setting this up as a Year Group email. Please have a look out for this in your inbox at home. Hopefully, it will provide an easier way to upload, as we know some people were finding the blog page tricky to upload to. We are all on an IT learning curve.
Our first lot of picnic hamper bags were collected by parents today. Remember to click the 'Free School Meal' link to see if you are eligible. Personal circumstances for many are rapidly changing and as soon as you are accepted we will receive a letter at school. We can then order your hamper the following week.
Active 360 reported a great success for the second week of Easter break and I would like to thank Will and his team for continuing the provision at Swanmore College. The handover with the team was excellent at the start and the finish.
There have been lots of speculation about when schools will reopen, and the truth is, we don't know. We found out we were closing at the same time that everyone found out from the government briefing on the television. We are hoping that the reopening will be better planned out with more notice. We are planning for September to be normal at the moment, but this will obviously depend on the government's directive. Hopefully everyone successfully accepted their children's places that were offered for Year 3 and Year R this week. We will be sending our Year R information about what to do next, and what will happen before children will start in September. We have 63 successful applications, which means we will have 27 spaces in September in Year R. Due to the rapid expansion of houses in Bishops Waltham, not being as rapid as first predicted, we will also have space in Year 1 and Year 2. If you are aware of any parent unhappy with their allocated place, please tell them to get in touch with us via; adminoffice@bishopswaltham.hants.sch.uk
Lastly there has been some updated information for parents and carers at home from the government. Please follow the link below to find out more:
Remember, if you need advice or help, there is somebody at the end of the telephone 9-3 every week day, or email our admin office and you will be put in touch with somebody who can answer you.
Best wishes
Ginene Riches
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Accepting School Places
Thu 16 Apr 2020Dear Parents and Carers
Places have been offered today (Thursday 16th April) for places in Year R 2020 and Year 3 2020. Please check your emails and accept your places ASAP. As explained in the email sent offering the places, schools will get in touch regarding what happens next over the coming weeks. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, please do not turn up in person to your child’s new school.
Best wishes
Mrs Riches
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Bishops Waltham Parish Party
Thu 16 Apr 2020This poster is highlighting a national initiative that the Parish Council and Town Team are supporting, in accordance with relevant Government guidance on social distancing.
Let's hope we can still mark this special VE Day commemoration on Friday 8th May
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Easter Egg Hunt
Thu 09 Apr 2020Hi to all the children of Bishops Waltham Infant School!
I have been hiding Easter Eggs all over your website. I wonder if you can find them all. There are 15 to find in total! Happy Easter.
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Happy Easter
Thu 09 Apr 2020Dear Parents, Carers and Children
I hope you have all been enjoying the lovely sunshine in your gardens or on your daily exercise. We have all been excited to read your blogs to your teachers and see what you have been doing at home.
Next week, if you are in Year 2, you will be receiving an email confirming your junior school place, so please look out for it in your inbox and follow any instructions in the email. Mr Campbell and his team will be contacting you in the next few weeks to welcome you to the juniors. We don't know what transition is going to look like yet, and a lot will depend on when we are going to reopen. The Department For Education made it clear yesterday that schools will open when the scientists say it is safe to do so, despite what some newspaper headlines might say.
If you have a Year R child starting school in September 2020, you too will be informed next week about your child's school place next week. We will be contacting you over the next few weeks with the next steps you need to take to accept your place. Miss Turner, our Early Years Leader, and myself are working on a welcome pack for you, to introduce you to our school. Again, we don't know what transition will look like, and a lot will depend on when we can reopen. We will keep in touch with you when we know something different.
We also have some good news to share with you. Mrs Wombell is expecting her first baby in October. I am sure you will all join me in wishing Mrs Wombell congratulations. She said everything is going well so far, but she is missing Bat class lots and lots.
We hope you have all enjoyed speaking to your teachers on the telephone over the last few weeks. They have enjoyed talking to you. I know some of you have missed their call, and they want you to know that they will try again to chat. We are looking into ways we can keep in touch with you more.
Now for more important things. The Easter Bunny. I have been asked if the Easter Bunny is self isolating. I have also been asked if the Tooth Fairy is self isolating. I don't think they are. They might not be able to do their jobs as well as they normally do, but I think they are still about. I know the tooth fairy has managed to visit our house twice over the last few weeks, so I think it is business as usual. For everyone who likes looking for eggs, keep an eye on our website. Miss Apsey is working on a virtual egg hunt. Will you be able to find them all?
This week our school has been open for keyworkers, and we have had very low numbers. Next week, we are moving our provision from 13th April-17th April to Activeme 360 CIC at Swanmore College, with the other schools in the Swanmore Cluster. The parents who have been using our provision have let us know their days for next week. If you need emergency provision, please either email our school office or telephone/email Activeme 360 CIC directly on 02392 007523/ hello@activeme360.com.
Children attending will need to be dropped at the Community entrance to the college. Active360 is open from 8am until 6pm and a packed lunch and a drink is needed for the session. If your child takes any regular medication, this will also need to be taken with them.
Our provision for keyworker's children will be back at BWIS on the week starting 20th April at the later time of 8am. We will still be open until 6pm.
Children who are on our Free School Meal register should have received their first vouchercards from Mrs Palmer at the end of the second week of closure. We have now managed (after 3 frustrating days) to log in to the government Edenred voucher scheme for the Easter holiday period (You would have received an email yesterday/today with instructions on how to access the voucher). From Monday 20th April, from 10am-1pm we will be distributing the HC3S hamper from school. They will be freshly prepared by our brilliant cook, Gabi. This will continue every Monday between those times. We ask for social distancing to be observed when picking up your hampers.
Remember, if your circumstances have changed then you may me eligible for Free School Meals at school. Some people are being refused, because they are not meeting the criteria. Please read the application form carefully. The decision is instant on the government website here:
https://www.gov.uk/apply-free-school-meals
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the amazing staff at Bishops Waltham Infant School. Our teachers been busy keeping in touch with you, looking after keyworker children and making sure there is learning on our site, if you want to access it, as well as continuing to do all their planning and assessments.. Our LSAs and reception team have been coming in on rota to also do fun activities with keyworker children. Mrs Palmer and myself have had lots of sorting out to do, keeping up to date daily, including coordinating all our resources and our kitchen staff have continued to do lunches. Mrs Ely and Miss Ely have been looking after children before and after school and also cleaning alongside Mr Ely. Our governors have kept in touch too, to make sure everything is being done correctly. It has all been a very steep learning curve for us IT wise, but everyone has been trying their best and I am very proud of everyone. At the moment, we have all stayed well and I would like to reassure parents and children that we will continue to do our best for you all. We have been very grateful for your kind words of support.
We wish you all well and please get in touch if you need us. We will try to get back to you as soon as we can.
Best Wishes
Mrs Riches
