Latest News

Weekly Update Friday 1st December

Tue 28 Nov 2023

Well this week turned out a little more eventful for us all with our OFSTED visit on Tuesday and Wednesday. The children really enjoyed sharing their learning with the inspectors and our staff are all relieved that the wait is over. We cannot let anybody know what our grading is at the moment, but we can let you know how much our children loved sharing their learning with the inspectors, how proud they were of their books and how brilliant the inspectors thought the behaviour was in our school. This inspection used a different framework to our previous inspection and over half of our teachers had not had an inspection before, so were understandably a little nervous. Everybody wanted to show how special our little school is, and what a lovely nurturing place it is for children to learn in, and adults to work in. We look forward to sharing our report with you all and the wider community in January.

Our Post Box is now up for any Christmas Cards that are being sent. Please remember to put the child's name and class on the envelope. Our LSAs (or Christmas Elves as we know them), have done an amazing job of making our school all Christmassy today, and I would like to thank them for all their hard work doing this. Thank you also to the PTA elves who worked together to make our Christmas tree happen and look beautiful in the front of our school.

Next week will be our Christmas Bazaar Shopping Day for all children. Thank you to everyone who volunteered. We can't wait to get started! Everybody has a shopping list in their bookbags this week. The key things to remember on Tuesday is:

Correct money (in labelled purse/secure envelope)

Shopping carrier bag with name on

Shopping list

And we will all take care of the rest!

I also was lucky enough to come to Year 2s fabulous New Zealand outcome this week. Our children were amazing geographers, sharing their skills and knowledge with their parents and grandparents. One of our governors who came along was very impressed, especially with the facts the children could recall and tell him, and of course with their Hakas. Well done to the Year 2 team for another successful project!

Year 1 have started their angel project and have been busy looking at how angels are depicted in art. I can't wait to see their finished, unique designs!

Year R had amazing fun on their Gruffalo trail through our grounds. Luckily, the rain help off for us to be able to go outside a lot more than the past few weeks!

Lastly, I would like to thank all the parents who wrote us kind messages and gave us chocolates and cake during the inspection. We have lots of parents who work in education and understand the pressure of the two days. We also thank the parents who filled in the 'Parent View'. We really appreciate you taking the time to do this too, and remember our door is always open f there is something you would like to let us know (which many of you already do).

Wishing everybody a lovely peaceful weekend-somehow I think it may be slightly noisier due to elves and advent calendars!

Best wishes

Mrs Riches

Weekly Update Friday 24th November

Fri 24 Nov 2023

This week we have had several new Year R parent showrounds and it has been lovely walking around our school and seeing the children enjoying their learning in school. We found Gruffalo Crumble and lots of Julia Donaldson role play and writing activities. In Year 1, we could see all the amazing theatres the children have made, and observed some children making their 'Wanted' fairytale characters using I.T, and in Year 2, we could see all their fabulous learning about New Zealand. There was so much to see, and everywhere we went the children were following our BADGER values. I am always a very proud headteacher of BWIS and believe it is a special place to learn.

Next week we have the library service coming in to bring some new titles to support our projects and interests in school This happens 3 times a year under the watchful eye of Mrs McIntyre who liaises with staff about the books we would like. We then have our army of library parents and LSAs who help children check each book out individually and put them straight in their book bags. the children love their special time in our Wonder Wood library, and we would like to thank all parents who help us run this part of day for us.

We also have the 1st December next week, which is when we decorate our school for Christmas and put our Christmas post box up. All class Christmas cards are posted into the postbox -please put child's name and class that it would like to be sent to, and our Postbox Helpers will sort the cards into the correct pile. The following two weeks fly by very quickly and we have lots of events planned in for the children.

On the 5th December is our school shopping Bazaar day. This is a lot of our helpers' favourite day to help in school! It is a time for helpers to get their Christmas jumpers on and get properly into the Christmas spirit! Each helper will help 2 children to shop at a time, or help at one of the shopping tables. The tables are set up for Dad/Grandad/Men, Mum/Grandma/Women, Boys, Girls and babies. These are only a guide, so the children can pick from any table. Once all the shopping is done, the wrapping begins! We get our Christmas tunes on, each child is collected 1 at a time with their gifts and they stick their label on as you wrap their gifts. The children then bring their gifts home in their bag and put it under the tree.

We will send a list home next week, to be filled in and brought back on the day. Children can buy up to 6 gifts on the day. This is a cash only event, as part of the shopping experience for the children is giving money to buy something for other people. Please send in the correct amount for the presents, in a purse or envelope that is securely sealed. They will also need a carrier bag with their name on it. This year the gifts will cost £3.50 each. We have lots of lovely things to choose from, and there is a sneak peak at some of the gifts below (Please do not put money in for the children to buy something for themselves. We do not have enough age appropriate stock for children to do this).

We have also added an extra event into the Christmas Calendar for Grandparents this week. It is the return of our Christmas service for Grandparents only at St Peter's church. This event is an event for grandparents of children at our school only and will take place on Thursday 14th December at 1.30pm. Door will be open to grandparents from 1pm to arrive. There will be mince pies and teas and coffees afterwards. The songs we will sing will be from our Christmas performances. Due to numbers, this event is for grandparents only. If a grandparent needs a helper to get to the church/sit, then helpers will then be asked to come back at the end, so that grandparents can have a seat. We are really looking forward to doing this event again, and hope to see lots of grandparents at the church.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend

Best wishes

Mrs Riches

Free skill training offered by Hampshire for people aged 19+

Sat 18 Nov 2023

Free skills boost for Hampshire and Surrey

Free, fast-track training is now being offered to Hampshire and Surrey residents and employers, enabling both those in work and job seekers to gain further training and secure higher paid roles, with employers benefitting from upskilled employees

Please click link below to find out more

Free Skills Training

Weekly Update Friday 17th November

Fri 17 Nov 2023

Thank you to everybody who supported our School Council's fundraising today for 'Children in Need' day. Our whole school had spottyitis, and we saw lots of spots before our eyes! A whopping £320 was raised in total, with our 'Guess the Marbles' competition and spotty donations. There were 333 marbles in total in the jar and the winner was Lois in Hedgehogs with 332! What a great guess Lois! A huge thank you to Mrs Charles and the School Council for advertising and organising the event.

Some of you may have noticed our new art installation at the front of our school. This has kindly been organised by HIWFRS (Hampshire, Isle of Wight Fire Rescue Service) and Morgan Sindall. It is a replica of the piece we were asked to do as part of the new Fire Station in Bishops Waltham building hoarding, which the Fire Station liked so much, they kept it and hung it inside where the fire engines are! We have now been given our own copy of the work and we are very proud to see it hanging at the entrance to our school.

We are very busy practising songs for our Christmas performances, and words/costume letters will be coming home soon. If you are unable to provide a costume, please your child's teacher know as soon as possible, so that we can help. If you have a costume at home that is too small and you would like to donate it to the school, please bring them in! We had a lovely pirate costume and king costume donated last week and will be put to good use!

Our PTA have been very busy collecting donations for their Christmas Raffle which will be drawn in Christmas week. If anybody works for a company that would like to make a charitable donation to our PTA directly, our BWIS PTA charity number is 1091894. Subsequently, donations to the school can also be made directly via ARBOR and titled DONATION.

This week our English and Maths lead teachers monitored reading, writing and mathematics across the school. It was brilliant to see the way learning was adapted or modified depending on the needs of the children, to give both support and offer challenge. The standards across the school were consistently high and the quality of the learning and high expectations from the teachers was evident to see. Lots of parents commented on these aspects after parents' evening last week too, and there is always an excited buzz for learning in our school. Learning doesn't just take place in school and we were also really pleased to see how many children were reading at least 3 times at home every week too, practising all the early learning skills that are so essential to unlocking the curriculum. We celebrate all learning in our Friday assembly, including achievements at home, and it is a really lovely end to our week.

On that note, and whilst the sun is shining, I would like to wish you all a lovely weekend.

Best wishes

Mrs Riches

Scholastic Book Fair

Wed 15 Nov 2023

Thank you to everyone who bought books at the book fair over the last week. It raised over £200 to spend on books for the school.

The picture below is some of the new books we have chosen.

Weekly Update Friday 10th November

Fri 10 Nov 2023

Thank you to all the parents and carers who came along to parent teacher meetings this week. The teachers enjoyed sharing your children’s successes with you and discussing the next steps in learning. We are now in the throes of our next learning projects, and starting our preparations for Christmas.

Our PTA have done a grand job of selling sweets on the stall in the firework event and after school this week. Thank you to all involved and lots of parents have commented about how great it was. I know they are now getting the Christmas Raffke Prizes ready.if you, or your company would like to raise funds for our PTA, please get in touch. This year, we are looking to develop and improve a new learning area, where children can read, research and have space to explore their learning, in the curved corridor outside Year R and Year 1. Our book boxes were first here when the school was built and the whole area is ready for an uplift, to make it a lovely place for children to learn.

Lots of parents have visited our book fair and pre loved uniform stall in the main lobby. These are going on Tuesday, so if you haven’t managed to come along, please make sure it is before the 14th.

We have been finding that some of the addresses and contacts are not correct on our site, where people have moved or changed telephones. All parents can alter this themselves using their Arvbor App, so please make sure you keep us updated.

Our new school council have been busy planning ‘Children in Need’ day for the 17th November. Please see their announcement on this page for details on what to wear and where to donate on the day.

Hopefully, this weekend will be slightly less soggy, and we can all some fresh air and get out and about.

Best wishes

Mrs Riches

Children in Need

Thu 09 Nov 2023 Kate Charles

Today we helped Mrs Charles introduce what we are doing to fundraise for this very important charity. The School Council wore their 'Spotacular' outfits to show the rest of the school the sort of things they could wear.

DON'T FORGET - next Friday, the 17th. Come to school wearing spots and bring a donation, have a go at guessing the number of marbles in the jar for £1 (from 13th Nov) and you might win a Pudsey Bear and be ready for a Joe Wicks workout!