Latest News
Keep up to date with all the news happening in school
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Bereavement support for families and children
Thu 29 Jun 2023Dear Parents and Carers
We have created a page on our wellbeing page with a link to bereavement support organisations in Hampshire. Losing a close loved one can be very confusing for young children. At BWIS we give personalised support to families who reach out to us, often with some of the organisations listed. Sometimes, having somebody to talk to through the weeks and months ahead can help.
Often, we don't talk about bereavement and grief. My mum died last year, very soon after a cancer diagnosis. Only now do I feel able to share this. With bereavement counselling and the care of my family and friends I eventually felt able to return to the challenging role of leading a school.
The page is a growing list and we hope it can be of help to families in our BWIS community.
Best wishes
Mrs Riches
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Family First
Mon 26 Jun 2023Please find a link to a bi annual magazine aimed at parents with children under 16. Family First Magazine is a bi-annual magazine specifically designed to improve the health of over 6,000,000 families across England, Wales & Scotland. The link below contains lots of information for parents
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Industrial Action
Mon 26 Jun 2023Dear Parents and Carers
You may have seen on the news that the NEU have called for 2 further days of industrial action in July.
As always, the teachers have kindly given notice of their intention in advance, as we know how many parents are affected regarding childcare.
The teachers are not taking part in the industrial action planned in July and school will be open to all (normal school days).
Kind regards
Mrs Riches
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Weekly Update Friday 23rd June
Fri 23 Jun 2023What another lovely week we have had at school.
The Year 2 children have been busy designing their pirate puppets and learning their parts for the Leavers’ Assembly. Year 1 were doing some tricky maths this week, and were amazing their teachers with their number facts and Year R have been introducing all the new September entrants to our school in the ‘Stay and Play’ sessions.
We also had our annual visit from our Hampshire Learning Leadership Partner.(LLP). He spent a day at our school observing phonics with our Phonics leaders, meeting with our Senior Leadership Team, looking at standards and attainment for all children and discussing attendance and safeguarding. He also met with children to talk about their learning, and fed back to Mr Cleminson our Chair of Governors.
He was very impressed with all aspects of our school. Our phonic teaching was excellent, and we know our children really well. Our leadership and management is very strong and we all work together really well as a team, with strong processes in school. He was also really impressed with our children, our curriculum and learning, and our whole school values and ethos.
The visit was a real lift for all our staff. Report writing and the end of the year is a really busy time for us, and having an expert recognise how special our school is, is really lovely for everybody to hear. Everybody cares a lot for the children and each other at BWIS, with lots of happy children and laughter, and it really is a special place to learn. I would like to say thank you to all our staff and children to celebrate their achievements for the year. Well done to everybody!
Our last school trip for the year took place today, and there were very tired, but excited, children talking about all the creatures they found on the beach today. Thank you again to all the parents who helped on all our trips and with Year 2 swimming- we are very grateful to be able to run these so successfully with your help.
On that note, wehope you all have a lovely weekend. It really does feel like summer has arrived!Best wishes
Mrs Riches
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SAFEGUARDING UPDATE FOR PARENTS-SUMMER TERM 2023
Wed 21 Jun 2023Dear Parents and Carers
BWIS has an excellent safeguarding culture, where all staff receive regular training, that is updated every year. Our policies for our safeguarding culture can be found under our 'Key Information' policies page.
As part of our safeguarding culture, our children are regularly taught how to keep themselves safe, which includes when they are online. Our two SAFETY pages are routinely updated and we will alert you via latest news, when there is new information on these pages.
With the summer fast approaching, we have updated our parent factsheets to help parents feel confident on ensuring their children can be as safe as possible when online. Please see our June factsheets on 'Snapchat' and 'Fortnite' here (scroll to the bottom of the page).
We hope that we can help you to be confident in your knowledge in keeping your children safe in this fast paced technological world. If there is a specific site you would like more information on, then please contact myself as the school's Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL), and I will be very happy to help.
Best wishes
Mrs Riches
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Weekly Update Friday 16th June
Fri 16 Jun 2023What a super week we have had in school this week. Year R had great fun on their school trip to the farm (Thank you to all the volunteer helpers), Year 2 had great fun swimming and starting to rehearse their pirate leavers' show, and Year 1 have been busy using their geography skills in class and around the school.
Thank you to everybody who came to our sports day today. the children had great fun and so did all the grown ups. Thank you to the staff who made and donated cakes for refreshments too, and CM Sports for coming to run one of the events.
We sent some 'sun safety' information out this week, letting parents know all the kinds of things we do when the UV is high. If you missed it you can find it here:
If you would like to see some of our Year 2's fantastic 'Wild World' videos, which they worked interdependently to produce, please click on the link below. They are a great watch!
Year 2 are still looking for parent volunteers for their trip to Stubbington, so please come and let your child's classteacher know if you can help.
Our Year 2 teachers had a great moderation visit from Hampshire County Moderators on Thursday. The moderators were impressed with all the super learning the children have been doing and how well our teachers knew their children. They also commented on how high the standards were in our school, and the quality of the learning in the children's books. Well done to the whole Year 2 team led by Miss Apsey.
That brings my update to a close. We hope you have a lovely weekend. Wishing all our dads and grandads a 'Happy Father's day' on Sunday.
Best wishes
Mrs Riches
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Weekly Update Friday 9th June
Thu 08 Jun 2023What a lovely sunny week we have had in school this week. Year 1 thoroughly enjoyed their geography field trip to Southsea on Wednesday, and came back with lots of exciting information they had found out.
Our governors came to school this week to talk to the children about our learning values and our knowledge retrieval quizzes. We went on a learning walk around the school and they were very impressed by our children's confidence when talking about their learning. They also talked to some of our subject leaders, and were amazed by all we do. During work scrutiny with the children, they commented about our high standard of learning in the books. Thank you to all the teachers and children who talked to the governors-you all had a lot to say!
Mrs Charles has also been very busy working on uniting all the excellent strategies we have in place in school for our 'healthy minds and body' leaflet. This will be coming out to everybody very soon, but she has sent an email to all parents with a brief summary of the things we have in place to support children if they display anxiety or anything else that affects their wellbeing when at school. We have also have signposted many parents to agencies that can support with anxiety at home too. The important thing is to take action at home, and not to do nothing-as by making changes, no matter how small, can have a bigger impact over time. Please see below for the link for home self help and the anxiety booklet on our website:
Directory of services for Hampshire
The Primary Behaviour Support Service also brought out excellent resources to help parents with a range of issues-from sleep to anxiety. It is titled 'Parenting Support Pack' and you will find it on the link below:
https://www.bwis.org.uk/information-letterspamphlets/
Sports Day
This year we are celebrating our sports in Year Groups on Friday 16th June. Children will be sent home with their PE bags on Thursday 15th June. Please can you send them in to school on Friday 16th June, wearing their PE clothes, with a hat and sunscreen.
The timings are as follows:
Year R Sports 9.15-10.25
Year 1 Sports 10.45-11.55
Year 2 Sports 1.15-2.55
CM Sports will be helping us on the day and there will be refreshments served for cash donations. We look forward to seeing you and celebrating their super sport with you.
INSET DAY
Monday 12th June is our last INSET Day this year. We will see you back in school on Tuesday 12th June.
Phonics Screening
Year 1 will be doing the statutory phonics screening with their children next week. This consists of reading 40 words, some nonsense words, using the phonics they have learned in school. Our children have been little superstars learning their phonics in Year R, 1 and 2 and our staff are really pleased with their progression when tackling unfamiliar words in their reading.
Moderation of SATs
Every four years or so, schools are picked to have a moderation visit from Hampshire's moderating team. The team look at the assessments the teachers have made, and agree/disagree with their assessments. A robust discussion takes place, and I know how well our staff know the children they teach, because we have robust discussions about where a child needs to gain a better understanding, in our school inhouse moderations each term. I moderated with the Hampshire team for several years and sharing children's learning with teachers was always the best part of the role. This will be the first time we have had a moderation session since pre 2020, so we are looking forward to showing all our children's amazing learning.
Bishops Waltham Family Fun Day
The Rotary Club are running their annual Family Fun Day at Hoe Road recreation ground tomorrow. The fun starts at 12.30. To find out more, click the link below:
We hope everybody has a lovely weekend in the sunshine!
Best wishes
Mrs Riches
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CAMHS event
Thu 08 Jun 2023
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Weekly Update Friday 26th May
Fri 26 May 2023What a busy week we have had this week! Year 1 and Year R had their Learning Outcomes and it was lovely to see so many parents and carers coming to see everything they had been learning in class. Year 2 are busy editing their videos and they will be on our video resource centre soon-they wrote some exciting scripts for them!
In celebration assembly we were all amazed by the super learning the children shared-they all had a well deserved certificate and clap! Our lucky book winner was Ethan from Robins, and he chose a funny book to make himself laugh.
This time last week we were getting ready for our Summer Fayre-just before the heavens opened. Our School Governors were very impressed by everybody's 'we can carry on' spirit, and polite children. Thank you to our PTA and all the volunteers who came to help. BWIS Men Shed ran a stall and gave us the proceeds, there were performances by Dance Kidz and Roynon Dance, with lots of other stalls and fun to be had. We have made a little video from some of the photographs taken, and there are more to see on the PTA social media page. The total funds raised amounted to £1,559.49, and we will put it to good use when we further develop our outdoor area, so THANK YOU.
Our new Year R Parents' Evening took place this week, and our new parents had the chance to meet key staff and people from our school community. We had a lovely evening and look forward to seeing our new children in our stay and play sessions.
We also had a visit from Nigel Hyde MBE, who founded a charity Home Leone in Sierra Leone. Nigel is also grandfather to Esther and Zara, who were really pleased that he came to share his story. If you would like to find out more, please click the charity link below:
We had our Full Governing Body meeting yesterday, where we agreed the budget for next year and looked at the forecast for future years. There will be no surprise when I tell you that future years show a deficit budget, due to the cuts in school funds and rising living costs. We hope that there will be a resolution forthcoming soon, as the majority of headteachers at my recent headteacher meeting were also in this situation.
We also agreed our INSET days for next year (the same as BWJS) and they are as below:
Friday 1st September 2023
Monday 4th September 2023
Tuesday 2nd January 2024
Monday 19th February 2024
Monday 3rd June 2024
And on that note, we wish you all a lovely sunny half term.
Best wishes
Mrs Riches
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Nigel Hyde - Home Leone
Fri 26 May 2023On Tuesday, Nigel Hyde, the founder of the charity Home Leone came to school to speak to the children about his work in Sierra Leone. The children loved his assembly and his granddaughters, Esther and Zara were especially proud to show off their granddad’s MBE!
https://homeleone.org
