Latest News | Bishops Waltham Infant School

Before/After/Rocksteady School Clubs - week commencing 20th September

Thu 09 Sep 2021

Dear Parents/Carers,

Before/After/Rocksteady School Clubs will recommence week commencing 20th September as follows:

Monday (IN SCHOOL TIME) - Rocksteady - Please book via their website https://www.rocksteadymusicschool.com/

Tuesday (Year 1 & 2 Only) - CM Sports - Football 3.20pm-4.20pm (see flyer on school website under the tab Parents, Clubs for booking details) https://www.cm-sports.co.uk/

Wednesday - Yoga For Learning - 8am start - Please contact Emma on 07843271599/emmawhewell@yahoo.co

Wednesday - Dance Kidz - 3.20pm-4.20pm (see flyer on school website under the tab Parents, Clubs for booking details)

Thursday - Tae Kwon Do - 3.20pm-4.20pm Please book via the website: https://phoenixsma.co.uk/after-school-clubs-asc/

Kind regards

School Office, Bishops Waltham Infant School

PTA Meeting and AGM

Thu 09 Sep 2021

This is to let everyone know that our first PTA (Parent Teachers Association) meeting of the year will be held next Thursday on 16th September at 7.30pm at the school. This meeting will be our AGM but we will also be discussing ideas for fundraisers and the events that we usually run in the Autumn term.

This meeting is open to all parents and carers, it'd be lovely to have as many people there as possible to set us up for a fab year of supporting and fundraising for the school. If you are new to the school please feel free to come along and find out more about what we do. This will be our first meeting in person for some time which will be lovely, we hope to see you there!

Bishop's Waltham Infant School PTA

What a lovely start back

Tue 07 Sep 2021

Dear Parents and Carers

What a lovely start back we have had in school. It has been lovely to see so many happy faces and hear the children all around the school again. They have had a lovely time catching up with their friends and getting used to their new teachers and classroom.

We have a few reminders below for all adults:

One adult per family/group of children

As you are aware, we have new arrangements for picking up and dropping off, which seem to be working so far. We are still asking that only one parent/grown up comes onto the school site, as we are trying to limit the number of contacts coming to the classroom and on site at any time, as part of our covid risk assessment to keep staff safe. Please also continue to socially distance when talking to staff members in school and drop off and pick up quickly, leaving any catchups with friends when you are off the school site.

School Shoes and uniform labelling

All children should now be wearing school shoes. We relaxed this during our lockdown disruption. Now we are back in school, please make sure they are wearing their school shoes every day. Please also make sure uniforms are labelled, as things often get mixed up when changing for PE.

PE Bags

PE bags should now be in school ready for their PE. Trainers will need to be inside their bags

Welcome Meetings

You will be invited to an online welcome meeting for your Year group. The date and time for these are as follows:

Year 2.

9.30am 14/9/2021

Year 1

9.30am 15/9/21

Year R

9.30am 22/9/21

These meetings will cover all arrangements and information for the year. If you have any questions or queries, please email the year group beforehand, and they will try to answer them in the talk.

Packed Lunch

If your child is having a packed lunch, please do not put too many items in. Please make the choice about what is going in the night before. One box had 10 items in it today, which was overwhelming for the child, as they didn't know what to choose.

School Lunch

Children are provided with water at school lunch time, but if you would like your child to bring a non fizzy drink at this time then they can. It needs to be clearly labelled and kept on the lunch trolley with the lunchboxes (not in the water bottle holder).

Clubs

The school office will send out information about joining our after school clubs tomorrow, so please keep a look out for their email.

We know the sunshine isn't going to last much longer, but we are making sure we are making the most of these few days.

Best wishes

Mrs Riches

Welcome Back!

Fri 03 Sep 2021

Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome back after the summer break. We hope you have had a lovely summer and cannot wait to see you all again on Monday morning.

As you are aware, schools being covid resilient is now a priority from our government, and there have been a lot of changes since we last saw each other. Please see the changes for our school and what this means for you and your child on our information page here:

https://www.bwis.org.uk/information-letterspamphlets/

In light of the changes, and a greater return to normality, we have adjusted our school day accordingly. We are still keeping in place some measures, as advised at our schools' briefing from Hampshire and Public Health England yesterday.

School Timings

Year R (Rabbits and Owls) Week 1 only.

Monday 6th September

Drop off 9.30am-9.40am (2 adults can accompany), Pick up 12 o' clock

Tuesday 7th September-Friday 10th September

Drop off 8.50-9am, Pick up 12 o'clock

Week 2 onwards see timings below.

Year 1 and 2

Drop off 8.50-9 am, pick up 3.10pm

Arrangements at Pick up and Drop off

Year R and 1

Enter and exit through main gate at path to school, or gate by the swimming pool.

Year 2

Enter and exit through large blue gates on driveway, then through smaller wooden gate, or pool gate and walk around the school through the playgrounds.

Please note, there is no longer a one way system. People can walk around the school though the playgrounds to do multiple pick ups and drop offs (avoiding the more crowded area)

We request that only it remains at one adult per family/child/grouping at drop off and pick up, as the areas are very crowded, apart from Year R on their first day.

We also ask that drop off and pick ups are done quickly, and please telephone the school to make an appointment with the teacher, if a longer time is needed to discuss information.

Lunchtimes

Year R will be eating in their classroom until October half term, when we will review our arrangements.

Year 1 and Year 2 will eat in the hall at 2 sittings. Children will have 30 minutes to eat their lunch and 30 minutes play time on the playground

School lunches for infant children are free, and a fruit snack is provided free every day. If bringing a lunchbox, nut products are not allowed (including peanut butter), due o the high number of allergies in the school. We suggest no more than 4/5 items as children are overwhelmed with too much choice.

Assemblies

Our assemblies will be a mixture of Year group, Key Stage, and whole school, delivered in the hall and online

Library

Children will be using the library weekly. Each year group will be allocated their library day.

Playtimes

We are continuing to have playtimes in year groups.

Clubs

Clubs are starting in Week 3 (from September 20th). Information will be sent out about this next week.

Treetops and Early Bird Club (wraparound care)

This will operate from the Forest Room

PE

We will be changing into our PE kits in school. PE kits in school colours (white t shirt and navy shorts) need to be brought into school. They can be taken home to wash weekly/half termly and brought back. Please make sure your child has trainers in their kit and blue/black/grey jogging bottoms and sweatshirt in case the weather is cold.

There is an online welcome meeting for each year group over the next few weeks and the Year group leaders will be getting in touch with you with the link for this, which day is PE day and much more.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call us and we will try to answer them. At the moment, we will continue to limit visitors inside the building, and we have a drop off letterbox, if anything is needed to be given in to the office, or it can be done via the teacher.

Over the next few weeks, we will continue with our high hygiene implementation (hand washing/sanitising, toilet wipe downs, room fogging) and keep our classroom windows and doors open to ventilate the rooms.

Best wishes

Mrs Riches

Thank You

Thu 22 Jul 2021

Dear Parents and Carers

We are finally saying goodbye and starting our summer break. Our leavers are all partied out, and the rest of our children are showing end of term tiredness. We had our book giving ceremony and also had sweets and lollies from our PTA. All of our other children have met their new teachers and know where they will be in September. Our rooms are overflowing with gifts, and thank you so much for your kindness. On behalf of the staff and myself I would like to thank everybody for your ongoing support and understanding, which has made our changing roles much easier to navigate (broadcasting assemblies and lessons to many homes has been a learning curve for us all!).

We would like to wish everybody a restful break and hope you get time to see your family and friends. Please remember to squeeze a little 'you' time in too, because you certainly deserve it!

We will see most of you back in September and for others, we wish you well.

With vey best wishes

Mrs Riches and Everyone at BWIS

https://bishops-waltham-infant-school.primarysite.media/media/goodbye-1

Year 2 Leavers

Wed 21 Jul 2021

To all the Year 2 Leavers and Parents

I watched your amazing films, with proud tears in my eyes. it was lovely to hear all the the things you loved about our school and also hear your fantastic singing. it is currently on Tapestry for all leavers to view.

Tomorrow we will be having our leavers picnic and party. We will be in school uniform, and you can bring your own packed lunch/have a school lunch in a bag/bring extra bits to go with your school lunch. Our PTA are bringing sweets and lollies and we cannot wait to celebrate with you. We will have a special leavers banner up for you to take photos next to on your way home too.

We look forward to seeing you tomorrow!

Best wishes

Mrs Riches

Bag2School Collection

Tue 20 Jul 2021

Thank you to everyone who donated to the Bag2School collection. There was 532kg of donations which has given the school a donation of £319.20.

Walk to School

Fri 16 Jul 2021

Last Friday marked the end of the WOW Walk of Fame Challenge and what a fantastic week. There was 14,296 pupils taking part across Hampshire County Council and more than 30,892 active travel journeys recorded on Travel Tracker.

The top ten schools in the Hampshire County Council are in picture below and well done to everyone at BWIS as we came 4th!

Dear Parents and Carers

Fri 16 Jul 2021

We finished our last Friday Celebration Assembly with Elton John's 'I'm Still Standing' today, and it seemed a fitting last Friday dance for us at Bishops Waltham Infants. We have all 9 classes in today (welcome back Hedgehogs), and the majority of our children in school. Understandably, many parents are anxious regarding the recent rise in cases in Bishops Waltham, and the government advice from Monday 19th July. We have been issued with guidance for Hampshire schools for our last few days of term. This was emailed to everybody today, and links are also in there to national guidance. A copy is also on our Parent Information page.

I just wanted to reflect a little on our successes this year. Despite our disruptions to learning, the teachers, Classroom Assistants, Office Staff, Site Team, Kitchen Staff and Sports Coaches have all pulled together to teach an inspiring curriculum, have amazing first hand experiences, be fed healthy food and keep everybody informed to the best of our knowledge. Our children have been brilliant at adapting to changes in their place of learning and constantly striving to develop their skills and knowledge through our integrated curriculum. Our governors have supported the school, offering welcomed chats when needed. However, we also wanted to recognise the fantastic effort that all our parents and carers made this year too.

There have been many times that times have got tough, either financially, timewise, organisation wise or work wise. You have been expected to help your child learn a lot more at home, many of you more than once. Lots of you are juggling many 'hats' when trying to do this. It has been a testing and trying time for everybody. We have been blown away by the support you have shown your child, us and our school. This has made such a difference to our experience of the ever changing landscape we have worked through.

Bishops Waltham Infant School has always been a special place to teach and learn in. From the moment we come in in the morning, to the time we leave, we have one of the happiest schools I have ever known. It still is, and at the time of writing this we are 'still standing'.

Next week we will be saying goodbye to our leavers, and I can't wait to see their special leavers video. We will also be saying goodbye to Miss Harper, who will be going to follow her main degree and become a Psychology Assistant.,Mrs Blackwell will be leaving us to become a Human Resources assistant and Mrs Aiello is going to pursue her dream of a class role with children. We wish all our leaving staff the best of luck in their new ventures, and they will be missed.

I hope you all get to enjoy the sunshine this weekend.

Best wishes

Mrs Riches

Isolation. What this means and why it is important

Sat 10 Jul 2021

We have just been sent a photograph of a child, who should be isolating at home, at a campsite, that was posted on social media by their parent today.

For everybody’s guidance, here is the guidance and law regarding rules of isolating if you have been identified as a contact of somebody with a positive coronavirus. Due to the age of infants and social distancing expectations, all children in class are identified as coming into close contact

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-for-contacts-of-people-with-possible-or-confirmed-coronavirus-covid-19-infection-who-do-not-live-with-the-person/guidance-for-contacts-of-people-with-possible-or-confirmed-coronavirus-covid-19-infection-who-do-not-live-with-the-person#:~:text=If%20you%20have%20been%20informed,hrs%20on%20the%2025th.

In the south-east, anybody identified to self isolate have also been advised to take a PCR test to try to limit the spread of the new Delta variant.

Please abide by isolation rules. Many schools are finding that when their child has taken a PCR test, they have COVID but may be presenting as asymptomatic. We are hoping that no more of our bubbles are sent home. Unfortunately, our hope is becoming less, when photographs such as this are sent to us.

Bishops Waltham Infant School