Latest News | Bishops Waltham Infant School

SWEET SALE MONDAY 22 JULY

Fri 19 Jul 2024

Weekly Update Friday 19th July

Fri 19 Jul 2024

We have had an amazing week together this week, with lots of exciting events. Rock Steady performed their final concert of the year to Year R and their parents. Our Year 2 children visited the juniors to see their end of Year 6 production, and we had our inhouse Year 2 leavers Dress rehearsal to Year 3, Year 1 and Year R. The children have thoroughly enjoyed all of them! Below, is a round up of the week, and what is happening for the two days we are in school next week.

Standards

We have had AMAZING results again in our school this year at the end of Year 2, in our phonics test and in our 'Good Level of Development'. This year was the first year that year 2 children were not required to sit a test at the end of the year. teachers continued teaching and assessed the children on the learning they were doing in class (as it should be for young children!). formal 'progress for our Year 2 children will be measured when they leave Year 6 (end of primary school). However, we still continue to do teacher assessments. Please click on the link below to read our fantastic academic results in all age groups for 2024. We are so, so proud of our brilliant learners and staff.

Standards at BWIS

Leavers' Performance and Disco

Thank you to all the parents who came to watch our fantastic performance this week. The theme, as always, is about friendship. Something that money cannot buy you, but makes your life much, much richer. The children sang their hearts out, danced like noone was watching, and spoke their words loudly, clearfully and beautifully. The costumes brought in from home were spectacular and I am so glad the purple pirates became the new crew! Thank you to all of the Year 2 staff who have practised, directed, decorated and made it one of the best performances I have ever seen. Thank you to Mrs Moth for helping me find our rhyming mojo to change the story and write the new scenes. So many parents have said how much they enjoyed it, and special memories were made.

Each child had a Leavers book, bought by our PTA, which we are very grateful for. Thank you to Mrs Palmer and Mrs McIntyre for organising these and the inscriptions. The children were very excited to have a special keepsake from school.

We were then on to our Leavers' disco, which our PTA provided the funds for. We had a spectacular time dancing to Crazy M, with some magic and games thrown in. All of us teachers partied too, saying goodbye with a lot of fun.

Thank you to our PTA and the amazing fundraising they have done this year. They have been brilliant and our school has benefited from all their hard work and the volunteers who have helped along the way.

Sweets

Our PTA will be selling sweets in the turning circle on Monday straight after school. Please see the poster on this page for more details.

Break the Rules Day

Remember it is 'Break the Rules' Day on Tuesday, our last day of term. We look forward to having lots of fun! The rules are on the classroom doors, and on this page too. See you there!

Governors

Our governors held a special thank you cream tea for all of our staff this week, to celebrate the end of another successful year at BWIS and our OUTSTANDING Ofsted grade. It was a lovely end for all the staff and we all appreciated the kind thought. We even had a giant cake (which we are still munching our way through)

Parent Survey

We have emailed a Parent Survey out today, which will close at midday on Tuesday. Please fill in with your child. thank you in anticipation.

Staff

We will be saying goodbye to Mrs Charles on Tuesday, after many years service to teaching. Mrs Charles will be retiring, and her first holiday in term time will be to Barcelona with her family! We will be saying goodbye with the children on Tuesday, and I know many people have brought gifts in for her too. We wish you love and happiness for the future Kate, and we hope you enjoy your retirement.

Lastly we had some amazing news today-Blake in Year 2 brought his dad's powerlifting medal in, where he became a British champion this week. Well done to Mr Ejele-Blake, Roman and the whole school are very proud of you!!

Wishing everyone a lovely last weekend of the term!

Best wishes

Mrs Riches

BWIS presents 'Break the Rules Day'

Mon 15 Jul 2024

BREAK THE RULES DAY

When?

Tuesday 23rd July

(Last day of term)

Here's how it works

Pay 50p for every rule you would like to break This can be paid directly on ARBOR under 'DONATIONS' or in cash directly to teachers on the day. Please note no change can be given, so exact money only

Rules to be broken include:

Football kits and other sportswear are not permitted
School uniform must be worn
No sweets or chocolate bars allowed in lunchboxes
Tattoos (temporary) must be hidden under clothing
Hair must be natural hair colours and tied back
Games from home must not be brought into school
Telling jokes in class is never permitted
Children are not allowed squash or juice in their water bottles
There shall be no body/hair glitter anywhere
Children are not allowed to choose music played in class

We will see you there (Remember teachers are not allowed to break the rules either!)

https://sway.cloud.microsoft/FrArhC37v3flWsKV?ref=Link

Weekly Update Friday 12th July

Wed 10 Jul 2024

What a super sports day we had today! The weather held for us all and the children had great fun. We had fantastic footballers, excellent egg and spooners and our first mass Ceilidih with parents in Year 2. A huge thank you to Miss Turner, our PE Lead, and the staff for the organising and practising the events.Also thank you to CM Sports for supporting the event, and staff for providing and serving refreshments. A great day was had by all.

Year 1 have taken over the ramp display with their amazing home learning. What super lighthouses they are, and all completely different. Thank you to everyone for their contributions!

We had an excellent turnout for our Open Afternoon on Wednesday and some really lovely comments on the Response Forms on the Records of Achievement. Thank you to everyone who has filled these in. The children really enjoyed sharing their learning in school and celebrating their achievements.

Next week we have some end of term events in our diary. Please see below:

Monday 15th July

Year 2 will go to Year 6 Performance

2.15pm Rocksteady performance to their parents

Tuesday 16th July

School Governors will be attending school to interview children re the curriculum

Wednesday 17th July

Year R staff will be visiting new Year R children

Thursday 18th July

1.30pm Year 2 Leaver's performance to parents

5-6.30pm Year 2 Leavers' Disco (drop off at the hall doors)

Tuesday 23rd July

Break the Rules Day

We look forward to seeing you at your child's event (especially our Year 2 Leavers).

And lastly, I am sure we will all be having a little wish for Sunday. The Lionesses did it-now let's make it a double-Come on England!

Best wishes

Mrs Riches

Weekly Update Friday 5th July

Fri 05 Jul 2024

It has been an eventful week in the news, where Andy Murray said goodbye to Wimbledon, we found out who will be playing in the quarter finals in the Euros and we have a new Prime Minister at number 10. In BWIS we have some news to share with you too; leading the catering from September 1st will be Cleverchefs caterers. After a rigorous procurement process, which included interviews, business presentations and tasting sessions, we are very excited to be working with Cleverchefs for the future. We will be developing our new menus with them over the next few weeks, so watch our Cleverchefs page under 'Parents' for our new menu choices in September.

Cleverchefs at BWIS

https://cleverfoodhub.com/#home

We also had our Transition Day this week, where all our children met their new teachers. Year 2 came back excited about BWJS, our Year 1 and 2 children felt very grown up and our new Year R children had lots of fun meeting new friends. If you have a child starting in September, please remember to sign up for a home visit, before they start.

We had Laura from our local library visit this week, and she did a special assembly all about the Summer Reading Challenge 2024 called 'Marvellous Makers'. The reading challenge runs from 13th July-7th September 2024. Thank you to Laura for coming in and launching this fantastic challenge with us this year. If you would like to find out more, please visit:

https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/marvellous-makers-books-landing

We also had a special assembly on keep ourselves safe, especially if we had something/someone on our grounds. We talked about the things that have been outside in Bishops Waltham, that we might need to stay inside if they were outside. We had lots of suggestions from a swarm of bees to wild pigs! After our assembly, we set off our special 'Lockdown Alarm' and followed our procedures. The children were fantastic. They were super calm and not a sound could be heard. Please see the email we sent out if you would like any more information about our lockdown procedures. Like all safety drills in school, we hope we never need to do one for real.

Next week we have our fingers crossed for our school sports day on Friday 12th July. Our timings will be the same as before (please see earlier messages on 'Latest News'. the forecast looks good at the moment, but as always please keep an eye on our website for updates.

This year, we had a special whole school photograph taken, where all children and staff who work in the school posed for one giant photo. The last time we took one of these was 12 years ago, and we thought it was a fitting time to do it, with it being Mrs Charles' last year with us and our successful OFSTED. If you would like to order one of these lovely reminders of our lovely school, please look in your inboxes for the ordering link, sent out earlier this week.

On Wednesday 10th July we have our Open Afternoon for our current pupils. It will start at 2pm and finish at 5pm, and our 'Record of Achievement' reports will be given out at the time. The class teacher will be available to answer any questions as you look through your work with your children, or take a tour around the school. We look forward to seeing you all.

On our last day of term this year, we will be having a a bit of fun with a 'Break the Rules' day (staff included!). For a donation, our children can have fun breaking the rules in school. A poster will be going out next week for the rules that cannot be broken at BWIS (unless it is break the rules day!!!). Please look out for details to follow.

Wishing everyone a fun sport watching weekend!

Best wishes

Mrs Riches

Weekly Update Friday 28th June

Fri 28 Jun 2024

Year 2 had a lovely time at the Ceilidh School's festival this afternoon with several other local schools, including the junior school. We were the youngest pupils there, and we impressed everyone with how we have learned the steps to the songs. The children were fantastic and danced their socks off. Thank you to all the parents who helped us to walk down and to Jo Harmer at Folk Active for training the staff and delivering the day with so much fun. It was a memory that will stay with us all for a long time.

We had our final 'Stay and Play' sessions today, and we are looking forward to our transition day next Thursday, where we will see all the children who will be with us from September.

We also have some lovely staff news to share with you. Mrs Labram and her husband Jamie, are expecting their first baby together at Christmas time. I am sure you will join us in wishing them lots of good wishes for the exciting time ahead!

Wishing you all a lovely weekend. Remember the Bishops Waltham Festival is on all weekend, and there are still tickets available for tonight's Ceilidh night, if you fancy going down (there looked like a very nice cider truck there ready for the weekend!). The link to the event is further down this page in last week's latest news.

Best wishes

Mrs Riches

Sun Safety

Tue 25 Jun 2024

We monitor the weather regularly during hot days, and give regular reminders toall children about drinking water, staying in shady areas and wearing sun hats. We will continue to do this, this week, and would like to draw your attention to our 'sun safety' page under 'Keeping Safe' on our children page:

https://www.bwis.org.uk/sun-safety/

Luckily our grounds have extensive shady areas, where children can play. Please can you help us this week by:

remembering to put sun screen on,
bring in hat
also talking to your children about making sure they have shade time
reminding children to drink water

Thank you all for your cooperation.

Best wishes

Mrs Riches

Weekly Update Friday 21st June

Fri 21 Jun 2024

Happy Summer Solstice day, and what a lovely day it is. It feels like summer has finally arrived and the children have had a lovely time, playing in the sunshine. We make sure that the children have shade time and plenty of water to drink too, and we are very lucky with our mature trees giving us lots of shady areas to sit in.

Please make sure that your child has suncream on and a sun hat in school too. They can bring their own named sunscreen to reapply themselves, if you would like to send it in. We would like parents to consider the clothing their children are wearing, and that they can get the items undone on their own. This is particularly pertinent to the playsuits that some of our girls are wearing, where they need help to get them off, and are often dropped to the toilet floor after several young children have been in, and maybe not the best at aiming in the pan!

Our Year 2 children have been trying for their parts in the Leaver's Performance, and are busy learning songs and lines. We cannot wait for it to all come together in a few weeks time, and for our new characters to come on the stage!

What amazing writing is happening in our school at the moment-children seem to be writing everywhere when we walk around the classes-their level of independence and confidence has grown through the year and they enjoy reading their writing to their friends.

Next week Year 2 will be performing with other schools in the Ceilidh Festival in the Palace Ruins. Parents cannot attend the day festival, but are able to purchase tickets for the Friday evening event, where their children will be able to teach them the dances. If you would like to buy tickets, please visit the site here:

https://www.bwfestival.art/events/bw-festival-ceilidh

We had our first two 'Stay and Play' sessions this week, and the children had a lovely time getting used to the Year R surroundings and meeting our Year R grown ups and children. Some even cried to go home! We have two more sessions next week and then our transfer morning is on Thursday July 4th, where all children will meet their new teacher.

On that note, I will leave you to enjoy the sunshine. Have a fabulous weekend!

Best wishes

Mrs Riches

Special Euros lunch

Fri 14 Jun 2024

Weekly Update Friday 14th June

Wed 12 Jun 2024

With the Euros starting tonight, we had a Euro fun in assembly this week, where we looked at where the countries are, and each class drew 3 teams to support. We will be following the competition excitedly as the weeks go by. Our staff had the 3 left over teams to support to. Both our children, and the junior children are excited about the Euros and both schools will be cheering on England and myself and Mr Campbell will be too. We will put our banner up on the roundabout on the weekend, if you would like a photo opportunity.

Thank you to everyone who brought their bags to school on Wednesday. We raised a fantastic £166, which will be joining the PTA funds for our new corridor area.

We haven't managed to hold our Sports Day yet, and have postponed it to Friday 12th July which is a different reserve date to our yellow sheet at the start of the year. This is due to the catering tender meeting needing to happen on a strict timeline, that was out of our control. We apologise for any inconvenience or confusion this has caused.

We had an excellent staff meeting with our school Educational Psychologist this week, discussing anxiety in children. She was really impressed with our Trickbox program that really helps our young children cope with feelings that make them feel uncomfortable. We have lots and lots of resources for parents to access regarding anxiety and other concerns, on our 'healthy hearts, healthy mind' section of our website. If you do have any concerns regarding your child, please make an appointment to come and talk to your child's class teacher after school.

https://www.bwis.org.uk/healthy-heart-and-mind-at-bwis/

Year 2 had their second week of swimming this week and had the biggest smiles again. They are having a lovely time in the pool! They will start rehearsing next week for their Leaver's Production, which is a pirate show with a difference. Thank you to Mrs Moth for helping me rewrite our play and introduce some new characters, with a surprise twist-we can't wait to see it performed now! The children have also been designing their pirate puppets ready to sew, and they have some amazing ideas!

Year 1 had their amazing Southsea Geography trip at the start of this week. Their art work, writing and geography knowledge have been amazing this week and I have really enjoyed talking to them about what they have learned!

Year R have been busy learning about pets and animals and I saw some brilliant pet posters in celebration assembly this week, with fantastic writing-what a clever bunch you are Year R!

Wishing everyone a happy weekend, with fingers crossed for some sunshine!

Best wishes

Mrs Riches