Latest News

Keep up to date with all the news happening in school

• Weekly Update Friday 26th January

  Fri 26 Jan 2024

  Storm Isha certainly made its presence felt in BWIS this week, with us losing one of our trees. The children were very interested in how the tree came down and lots asked 'why that tree?'. We didn't have any answers, and neither did the tree people who came out to help dispose of it. It was certainly a talking point for a few days! We are now waiting for our fence to be replaced, and have made sure the children are kept away from the area at lunch time.

   

  Bishops Waltham Town team

  There was an email sent out this week from Bishops Waltham Town Team. In case you missed it, please see the invite from them to attend their open meeting on the 16th March;

   

  The Town Team, which has organised many events and activities in Bishop’s Waltham over the past 10 years, will be holding an Open Forum on Saturday 15th March at 10:30 in the United Free Church, Basingwell Street.   You can see a summary of what has been achieved in a 2-minute video if you click: BW Town Team

   

  To learn more about the Town Team and the Open Forum, visit the website www.lovebishopswaltham.com/ideas.  This includes an on-line form to offer your ideas on what you would like to see organised in the future, particularly events and activities for children.

   

  Measles

  We sent an urgent health email out this week from the government regarding the rise of the cases of measles in other parts of the country.

   

  UKHSA have stated that measles is not currently circulating in the south-east, there are cases in London and a sustained outbreak in the West Midlands (specifically Coventry and Birmingham but now in all local authority areas in the region) but at the moment in the SE, rashes are more than likely to be for other reasons (particularly in children). However being prepared is important.

   

  At a national level UKHSA are working on an outbreak pack for, similar to the packs for scarlet fever and gastric illness. We will cascade this when it is published.

  In case you missed the link regarding measles' please click on below;

   

  What to do if your child has measles

   

  Winter Warmer

  Thank you to all the parents and children who attended our 'Winter Warmer' evening this week. It was lovely to share the importance of reading and tips to help at home. A big thank you to Mrs Labram and all the teachers who came to make the evening's activities so successful. Thank you also to Mrs Palmer for making all the goodie bags to take home. Despite the storm we had a really full hall, full of parents and children with big smiles!

   

  Parliamentary Teacher Ambassador

  I am delighted to tell you that I was accepted on the Parliamentary Teacher Ambassador Course, which takes place in London next week. A little more about this is below. I look forward to bringing more knowledge about the parliament into BWIS on my return and I promise to take lots of pictures to share!

   

  UK Parliament Teacher Ambassador Programme 29-31 January 2024

  Teachers from across the United Kingdom are set to discover more about how UK Parliament works - and how they can engage their students in politics.

  Participants on the UK Parliament Teacher Ambassador programme will watch debates in the House of Commons and House of Lords, and learn more about the role of MPs and Lords, doorkeepers and select committees.

  They will also tour the palace, meet fellow teachers, and have an opportunity to quiz Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the House of Commons, and his counterpart in the Lords, Lord McFall of Alcluith.

  Sir Lindsay said the three-day programme ‘offers a great opportunity for politicians and teachers to share experiences’.

  ‘In my view, you are never too young to get involved in democracy and to make things happen - so giving teachers an insight into our world is a great way to pass that message back to the classroom,’ he said.

  ‘We also appreciate having the chance to talk to teachers about their experiences, to thank them for their hard work - and to see how we can work together to get children interested in politics."

  Lord McFall, the Lord Speaker, said: ‘The Teacher Ambassador Programme is exceptionally well-regarded by the participants each year, and I welcome the opportunity to explore the work of the House of Lords with such a dedicated audience.

  ‘As a former teacher and one who has a continuing engagement with young people, I know how keen they are to understand how politics works in practice. This successful initiative is a great opportunity to encourage that interest.’

  70 teachers from across the UK are set to take part in the programme, which runs 29-31 January 2024.

   

  On that note, I wish you a peaceful weekend. Hopefully , it will not be as windy we can all get out for some fresh air!

   

  Best wishes

   

  Mrs Riches

   

   

   

   

   

  

• Weekly Update Friday 19th January

  Wed 17 Jan 2024

  Brrrrrrr, it has been a cold week this week in Bishops Waltham! We have made sure children are wearing the gloves, hats and scarves they have been bringing , when they go out to play, to ensure maximum warmth. Year 1 and 2 have been monitoring the temperature every morning and were excited to see a minus figure in the day. The concept of a 'minus' figure can be really tricky for children to understand, so it is a great opportunity to see one on our thermometers and explore what this means.

   

  Just before Christmas, we were asked to send in our Nativity photographs to the Hampshire Chronicle. I was in Wales when they were published, so didn't manage to buy a newspaper with them in. I had a little check this week, and found them. The link is below if anybody would like to see them:

   

  Hampshire Chronicle Nativity Photographs

   

  On my learning walk around the school this week, I have seen some superb phonics teaching from all our staff. Our children love their phonics sessions in school. We teach these sessions in smaller groups and they achieve success. In the afternoon, our highly skilled Learning Support Assistants (LSAs), continue to reinforce the teaching from the morning, and teach individual and small group sessions, so that all children achieve success. One of the Year 1 children proudly came to show me the progress she has made since September, and how many words she can now read. Our English leads are Mrs Labram and Miss Turner and together with our Year Leaders they ensure continuity and progression in English across the school.

   

  On Tuesday evening we had a governor training evening, with a focus on 'Inclusion, Attendance and Wellbeing'. These areas were very strong in our OFSTED report, and as a school we are always striving to to better. There were some excellent links to articles for the governors shared, with lots of bedtime reading and food for thought.

   

  We have a date for our sponsored event this year. It will be on Wednesday 13th March, so please watch out for sponsor forms which will come home soon. This year we will be having a sponsored bounce!

   

  Our Parent Teacher Meeting dates for this term are on Tuesday 27th February and Thursday 29th February. This is an opportunity to come and talk to your child's class teacher about their learning, and look at their books. Appointment booking will be open from 5pm this evening. (NB Robin class may need to be postponed due to a staff member's jury service. We will know more nearer to the time and will keep you updated. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause).

   

  Our 'Winter Warmer' event for Year 1 children is on Tuesday 23rd January. Please fill in the form for this if you are intending to come along for this special evening with your child.

   

  We wish you all a relaxing weekend.

   

  Best wishes

   

  Mrs Riches

   

   

   

• Weekly Update Friday 12th January

  Fri 12 Jan 2024

  This is a very short update this week, as we have given you so much to read already. The children have delighted in the frozen water in the trays that the teacher left out to freeze this week. With the drop in temperatures, it was lovely to see our children wrapped up so warm and snuggly. If we have an extreme weather warning, we will let you know. It doesn’t look like there will be any snow for us, but as our last ‘big’ snow was 2018, I think all the children are hoping for it!

   

  Our Regular Reading Raffle continues to be popular and the children look forward to seeing who will be picked out every Friday. Remember, they have to be in it, to win it- entry is by reading 3 times at home in the week, so everybody has a chance to enter every week. 
   

  Our PTA have been very busy planning their next events and are looking forward to putting them in motion, so please watch this space. 
   

  We had our Learning Leadership Partner visit this week from the local authority, and he was again very impressed with all aspects of our school. His visit consisted of a learning walk, talking to pupils, talking to leaders and talking to governors. It was very thorough and a good partnership visit where we looked at what are the next steps for our school.

   

  Lastly, thank you to all the families who have written to our school to offer congratulations regarding our report.  Thank you to everyone, and your kind words mean a lot to all of our staff. 
   

  Wishing you all a lovely weekend

   

  Mrs Riches
   

   

• Ofsted Report

  Wed 10 Jan 2024

   

  Dear Parents and Carers

   

  On behalf of the staff, pupils and governors, I am delighted to share our latest OFSTED report with you, where we have been graded ‘Outstanding’ in all areas inspected and therefore maintained our overall grade of ‘Outstanding’. The official report will appear on the OFSTED site within 8 working days, but you will have received a paper copy and email copy today.

   

  Due to the limited number of words that can be used, some of the amazing feedback that we received hasn’t been included. I would like to include a few extra comments from the feedback for you to read. I would also like to again let you know how brilliant your children were throughout the inspection. They acted as they normally do, demonstrating our BADGER and LEARNING values throughout. Both inspectors were wowed by them and they were a credit to you and the school. Our proudest moment in the feedback was when an inspector said they wish their son could attend BWIS

  • High Ambition for all pupils
  • Highly inclusive for all learners with high quality of education for all
  • Excellent rigour within the subjects led to success for all
  • Consistent high quality of teaching led to clear secure learning, where children were proud of their achievements
  • Exceptional outcomes at the end of Year R and KS1 ready for the next stage in their education
  • Transition from Year R to Year 1 was excellent, with the strongest model of integration between YR and YR 1 they had seen-highly consistent with no ‘disconnect’
  • Our curriculum had breadth and ambition in the ‘truest sense’
  • In each of the deep dives (Reading, Maths, Geography and Art), the inspectors praised the subject leaders for their knowledge and passion about the subjects, including their clear understanding of children’s start points.
  • All subject leaders share common understanding of consistency, and openness amongst staff develops confidence and competence.
  • The curriculum is taught with pace and expectations for behaviours of learning are high
  • Our Early Years is highly ambitious, providing a strong start and excellent pedagogy and expertise, within a rich learning environment, strength in teaching and learning and high engagement. The inspectors called it an ‘exceptional offer’.
  • There are shared policies, values and practice embedded across the school and 100% of the staff are proud to work in the school. There is expertise in the governors with different layers of rigour across the whole school.
  • Strong leadership ensures high quality of education and ambition for all, in an open and transparent culture with wellbeing of staff well led. ‘The school cannot do any more’.

   

  There were many more comments which have been shared with governors and staff. We do not have any actions to work on from this inspection (under ‘what do we need to do better?’). The inspectors said at the end of the governor and leader feedback ‘keep doing what you’re doing’. We recognise, however, that education never stands still and it is timely that we now revisit our school vision and what we need to do to equip our children for the future they will grow up in, and for jobs that haven’t even been invented yet!

  I am extremely proud to be the headteacher of BWIS, and the last fourteen and a half years of working with the fantastic, caring, highly skilled staff team, many of whom have been with me from the start, has been a pleasure. I hope you enjoy reading the report, and if you would like to let us know your thoughts about the report via email to adminoffice@bishopswaltham.hants.sch.uk, we would be happy to receive them.

  Best wishes

  Mrs Riches

   

  https://www.bwis.org.uk/ofsted/

• Big Ambition Survey

  Wed 10 Jan 2024

  Please find a link to the 'Big Ambition' survey from Dame Rachel de Souza, the Children's Commissioner for England. She would like every child to let her know their views and the survey closes on the 19th January 2024. Parents can help fill in with younger children. Please click the link below to start:

  http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/thebigambition

• Weekly Update Friday 5th January

  Fri 05 Jan 2024

  It has been lovely being back in school this week and the children have been really excited to share their Christmas break stories with us. It was great to see so many tickets in our weekly 'Regular Reading Raffle' and congratulations to Walter in Year 1 for winning for the first time. Some of the children found it really tiring being back and I think some were ready for their beds by Friday afternoon. The teachers have been delighted with the children's phonic assessments and the children have been very proud to show how many words they can read. There has also been some interesting discussions in Year 1 about what we could measure in-I still don't think they believed Mrs Moth about hands for horses-they didn't look convinced!

   

  INSET day Staff Training

  We  had a great  INSET day with a guest speaker Laura Kerbey who is an expert on working with neuro-divergent children, especially children with PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance). The day was filled with strategies that can be used with all children and it was reassuring that many of the strategies we were already using. Head teachers and teachers from other schools joined us and it was a good opportunity to engage in professional dialogue with fellow colleagues too.

   

  M and M Productions

  Our pantomime this year saw a magic beanstalk, a pantomime cow, a villain and a hero with clever scenery and quick costume changes. M and M theatre did a fantastic job of engaging all our children in a great production of Jack and the Beanstalk. Our children sat beautifully throughout and joined in with the songs, clapping and booing!

   

  OFSTED

  We received our draft OFSTED report this week to fact check, and we hope to have our final copy to share with the community soon. There is a pause in inspections at the moment, following the recent enquiry, which I am sure many of you have read about in the news. We had 2 inspectors who inspected professionally with rigour, but also put staff at ease. They were also really lovely with our children, who couldn't wait to talk to them. This helped all staff and governors to relax and be as 'normal' as possible when being interviewed and observed. We will send out the final report as soon as we receive it. 

   

  Attendance

  Part of our school role is to regularly let parents know what their child's attendance figure is in school. We follow the DFE guidance, that also classifies any child who has attendance less than 90% as being a 'persistent absentee'. We fulfill this role termly, and all parents and guardians will have an email about this today. We know that a lot of attendance is due to illness and we have had some nasty bugs doing the rounds. We need to stress, please do not bring your child to school if they are too ill to attend. If you would like to discuss your child's attendance or need support, please telephone the school office to make an appointment.

   

  Pick up and Drop off

  We have had a telephone call from a local resident today who said a parent from our school 'screamed, shouted and continually blasted his horn' at the Sainsbury's delivery driver delivering to her home. Please can I remind all parents to behave courteously to local residents when dropping off and picking up children at school. Existing harmoniously in society can only be for the better for us all, and demonstrating kind, polite behaviour (especially in front of children) is a key part of this. Frustrations will come our way, concerning lots of things through the day, but screaming and shouting will never help the situation. It isn't the first call I have received from the resident, and I said I would pass it on to you all. I have made the suggestion to the resident that a note re school times is added to delivery times when booking a slot to ease congestion and possible frustration during this busy time.

   

  Applications for Year R and Year 3 (juniors)

  Lastly, we still have few first choice spaces on our application list for September 2024 entrants. The closing date is on the 15th January, so please make sure you put your application in promptly, to be considered in the first round. Late applicants and their choices are considered afterwards. The closing date for Year 2 applicants for Year 3 is also on the 15th January. From our list, we can see that many parents have not yet applied for a junior school. Please can all Year 2 parents make sure they apply promptly by the 15th January.

   

   

  Wishing everyone a peaceful weekend (hopefully a lot drier than this week!)

   

  Best wishes

   

  Mrs Riches

   

   

   

• Welcome Back and Happy New Year

  Wed 03 Jan 2024

  What a great first day back the children had today; they were excited to see their classmates and teachers to tell them about their Christmas holidays. 
   

  The excitement carried on through the day, when we had our theatre visit from M And M productions. They performed a brilliant version of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’  pantomime. There were lots of songs to join in with and the children clapped and cheered along. 
   

  Mrs Labram and Miss Meek helped with some great dancing, and lots of fun was had by all. 
   

  We would like to thank the PTA for raising funds so that we can have this fantastic experience every year. 
   

  Happy New Year to you all