Latest News | Bishops Waltham Infant School

PTA QUIZ NIGHT FRIDAY 21st MARCH

Fri 28 Feb 2025

Weekly Update Friday 28th February

Fri 28 Feb 2025

Welcome back to Spring Term 2!

The children have been very excited to come back to school this week with lots of chatter with their friends. Our Year 2 children have come back full of historical facts from their school visit to Portsmouth Dockyard. Thank you to all staff and parents who went on the trip-the children had a day(albeit soggy) that they will never forget. Year 1 are continuing their Victorian project, and the roleplay I have observed this week has been amazing-the children are fully immersed in character as Victorians, with an understanding and empathy of what it was like in Victorian times being demonstrated. Year R children have started their new project, with 'Growing' as their main theme. They will be visiting Hilliers' Arboretum for a day of activities regarding growth of plants in the grounds.

On Monday our teachers joined staff from several of the cluster schools as part of our teachers ongoing professional development, with a focus on writing. It was good to share ideas, and keep up to date with fellow colleagues. Our writing is of a very high standard, and our teachers were very proud to share our approach.

Next week we have our Parent /Teacher meetings. Please note your appointment time down, and arrive 5/10 minutes prior to our appointment, so that you can look through your children's work. If you are unable to make the appointment, please let school know, and rearrange a time with your class teacher.

On Thursday 6th March, it is World Book Day. Children are invited to come to school as a book character, and we would like them to bring the book with their character in it. It can be a character in school uniform (for those who are not keen on dressing up). We have a lot of costumes in school, so please let your child's class teacher know if you would like to borrow one of these before the day. All children will be given a £1 book token on the day, and we will be having an Usborne Book Stall in our lobby, where the token can be used to part pay for a book. Each class will have the chance to visit, and the book stand will also be open after school. Please see below for more details:

· Parents can shop online using the link below until Thursday 6th March at 10pm

https://usborne.com/gb/uevent?event=9f54a3c9f0d03f6c84e188eea6655b37

· The book fair will be in school on Thursday 6th March for the children to browse – all children will have a chance to visit with their class during the day.

· Children can bring money in a named envelope to buy books on the day when they visit the fair with their class. Most books start from £5.99.

· Children can use their £1 world book day voucher to get £1 off any book at the fair.

· Books will be ordered and delivered to the school 2 weeks after the event.

· Books will NOT be available to take home on the day – this allows every child to get the book they want without stock running out and the school to get the maximum amount of free books.

· The book fair will also be open after school until 4pm if you would rather purchase books with your child. Card payments can also be taken then too.

· Every book purchased will enable the school to choose free books for the school library and classrooms!

Our PTA Quiz night has been confirmed and it is to be held on Friday 21st March. We are very excited to be holding this again, and the night always proves to be lots of fun. There will be a bar, and it is an adults only evening. Please see the poster above for more details!

We hope everyone makes the most of this lovely spring weather this weekend.

Best wishes

Mrs Riches

Weekly Update Friday 14th February

Thu 13 Feb 2025

Happy Valentine's Day!

This half term has bee very busy. Year 1 went on a trip to Manor Farm and had an experience of what life was like in Victorian times. They practised using their time openers to start their recount sentences later in the week. Year 2 have been exploring the theme of 'Belonging' in their RE week with some thoughtful observations and discussions.. They also had a fantastic folk dancing and board stomping afternoon with Folk Active. The fiddle was playing and the children had a whale of a time! The most delicious smell of gingerbread wafted up the corridor from Year R and one little gingerbread man escaped to my office! (Thank you! Year R).

We had a very productive PTA meeting, discussing all forthcoming events. We are hoping to hold a Quiz Night for staff and Parents on Friday 21st March. There will also be our annual Easter Egg Hunt on Thursday 3rd April. We will be getting a volunteer list out to all parents to sign up and help at future events, and support is always gratefully received.

We had our annual Learning Leadership Partner (LLP) meeting this week with Hampshire County Council. This involved looking at our school in detail, meeting with myself, staff, children and governors to discuss the school's strengths, and what our priorities are for the future. We were highly praised during the day, and we had robust conversations about all aspects of our school. Our curriculum is very strong, and the children showed that their learning was of high quality, with their retrieval of facts and knowledge. We were very pleased that we could celebrate our happy school, where children love their learning.

Our Year 2 Lunchtime Clubs have been running all half term. The new painters in Painting Club have painted some beautiful spring flowers and these are on display before you walk into the hall. They have all enjoyed mixing colour and layering the paint. You can have a look here:https://www.bwis.org.uk/painting-club/

Hopefully, everyone has seen the latest flyer from 'Southampton Rocks' letting you know things to do this half term. Take a look on our leaflets page here, if you missed it:https://www.bwis.org.uk/information-letterspamphlets/

We played ‘pass the baby’ with baby Emilia in our staffroom this week, when Mrs Labram popped in to see us. She slept through the whole thing, but we all had a lovely snuggle time. She then went to visit Fox Class and had the children were all delighted to meet her.

Love has definitely been the theme for our last week of term, starting with our St Valentine assembly on Monday, which you can find out about on our learning links page. We talked about what we loved about ourself and our school. Today, we made our 'I Love BWIS' display, and the children's thoughts and ideas have been amazing. Take a peek at some of the comments, and check out the display in our corridor, the next time you come in. This afternoon, to finish our day, our PTA have a Valentine Sweet Sale in the turning circle, so remember to bring some pennies for some sweets.

That is all from us. We hope you have a lovely half term break and will see you back in school on Tuesday 25th February.

Best wishes

Mrs Riches

Headteacher

Weekly Update Friday 7th February

Fri 07 Feb 2025

The Year 2 children have all been enjoying their clubs this week, run by the teachers at lunchtime. Sewing club have made the most beautiful embroidered mats with their bead letters in the middle. Mrs Campone is so proud of them. Please check out the club pages for updates of the next few weeks.

We had a full Governor Body meeting this week, where we discussed our vision for the school, and how we are going to get there. The governors asked challenging questions whilst offering support to the school. They particularly wanted to thank the PTA and their fundraising for the corridor area learning revamp. Some governors are very new, but have already received training and getting to grips with the complexity of school organisation and strategies. It had robust dialogue throughout, enabling a clear snapshot of school was understood. Thank you to all who attended.

Year R have proudly been showing me their writing thee past few weeks and they are now amazing themselves when they read their writing back. We think the mums and dads are going to be amazed in our parents' evenings in a few weeks. Year 1 cannot wait to go on their trip next week to see Victorian living first hand. They are particularly enjoying the roleplay areas, and we can hear some strict teachers in there! Year 2's Wacky Wheels testing was lots of fun and everyone in Year 2 had a fantastic time. There are some fantastic displays around our school at the moment, which really showcases our children's learning at school and at home. The children love seeing their learning on display, and it is lovely to hear them talk about the ideas they like on the display.

Please can we send a gentle reminder to all parents to log on and contribute to their child's school trips. School budgets cannot sustain covering the cost of parents who do not contribute if they are able to. We also urge parents to log on to the portal if they have a low income, so that some extra costs for trips etc can be funded. The money that comes into school does not just cover lunch, and will help towards the funding to support children's learning and wellbeing. To find out if you are eligible, please click below:

https://www.gov.uk/apply-free-school-meals

Our January Newsletter is now live, with contributions from our school community. Please click on and have a look here:

Newsletters | Bishops Waltham Infant School

Wishing you all a lovely weekend.

Best wishes

Mrs Riches

Headteacher