Latest News
Keep up to date with all the news happening in school
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Supporting Children's Mental Health and Wellbeing
Tue 09 Feb 2021Dear Parents and Carers
Following some initial responses to the survey yesterday, please find the link below to the School Nursing team's website for further support with mental health and wellbeing for children. There are also further strategies on there to help with routines, food, eating etc
We also posted the excellent pack from the Primary Behaviour Support team for help. It is one of the best packs I have seen for parents to try at home with children. It is found on our Parent Information page, or follow link here:
We also have a 'Keeping Fit and Healthy' tab under children on our website. There are lots of different resources available in there to help young children keep both physically fit and mentally fit.
Hampshire County Council have also got a website as a 'one stop shop' for health families. this is under Health' on our community tab or link here:
For anyone who thinks their child is struggling, please look on these sites for support. There are lots of different things to try to help, and ideas to put in place that you (or us) may not have thought of. When the government directed us to close our doors to most children and to provide remote learning and then ask parents to support home learning , it put a huge pressure onto parents. We are very aware of this, which is why we are trying to find a happy medium with you, taking into account all constraints a family may have eg everybody on broadband, sharing devices, different aged children, more than one parent working, single parents. We have tried to put into place a programme that is workable for the majority of families to support you as best as we can.
Our survey is open until Friday lunchtime. Thank you to the 58 parents who have responded so far. The more parents who respond, the more rounded a view we will have-so please respond, even if you have no worries.
Best wishes
Mrs Riches
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Remote Learning Survey
Mon 08 Feb 2021Dear Parents and Carers,
We’ve all had to adapt to new ways of working, so I wanted to take the opportunity to say what an amazing job you’re doing supporting your child’s wellbeing and learning during this time.
To help us make sure we’re providing the right support for you and your child, we’d like to know your thoughts on our approach to home learning.
This will help us to:
- Find out what we’re doing well and where we could do better
- Make sure we’re meeting your needs and the needs of your children
Please take the time to complete this survey, by following the link below. It should take you 10 minutes to complete.
Please fill out the survey by Friday 8th February
Your replies will be treated in the strictest confidence.
Your feedback is very important to us.
Best wishes
Mrs Riches
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Lovely News
Fri 05 Feb 2021Dear Everyone
We are pleased to announce that there is a new member of our BWIS family...Baby Moth decided to come a little bit early and made her appearance on Monday morning. Her name is Nora Georgina Anne and she weighed 5lb 3oz. She is just the scrummiest little baby and on every photograph she is giving us a smile! Mrs Moth says she likes sleeping with her arms in the air like 'she is going on a rollercoaster!'
We would like to wish Mr and Mrs Moth our HUGE congratulations, and cannot wait for our cuddles with her. If anybody would like to send presents/cards for Mrs Moth, you are welcome to leave them at the office. We will post them with our things (that we will be quarantining first).
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We are here to help
Tue 02 Feb 2021
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School Break In
Sat 30 Jan 2021Unfortunately, a local teenager caused a lot of damage to our school late last night, by breaking in, climbing on the roof and kicking the ceiling fans in through the roof. The worst affected areas were Lilypads Pre School, Rabbit Class and Bat Class. A quick thinking local neighbour alerted Mrs Ely, who telephoned the police and went to the school with her husband and son. Our roof is a pre-fabricated construction, that isn’t safe to walk on without the right equipment, and we are relieved nobody was seriously hurt.
The police were called and the teenager was taken home. The holes have been temporarily patched and we are awaiting for the damage to be assessed. Lots of our resources and soft furnishings are being stored in the loft areas and have been ruined.
Thank you to all who helped, especially to Mrs Ely and her family, the neighbour, Mountjoy contractors and the police. If anyone who lives local to the school ever hears a disturbance on the weekend or in the evening, please don’t hesitate to telephone the police and report it.
The classes affected will be operational for critical care workers on Monday.
Mrs Riches
Headteacher
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Weekly Round Up
Fri 29 Jan 2021Dear Parents and Carers
Our newsletter will be posted today without my input as I write so regularly on this section during lockdown instead. We have had our first critical care bubble closure today, and everyone who needed to isolate have been notified. All other children and staff in school have been informed and to be extra vigilant in looking for signs that may require a test. Please can we ask that tests are taken as quickly as possible so that we can contact trace staff and children who need to isolate.
It was lovely seeing everyone's learning this week in assembly. What amazing learning you are sending in. The certificates will be posted to you all today.
I am sure you have heard the government's announcement that they are hoping to start opening schools on the 8th March, if conditions allow it. We will let you know if we hear anything before then and continue with our support through every school week.
We had our annual visit from our LLP (Learning Leadership Partner) from Hampshire County Council this week (remotely). Because of lockdown, it was a slightly different format to usual and offered both robust challenge and support. I shared some of your lovely learning and comments, celebrated our successes and areas we have identified to improve. I will share some of the key points of the report when I receive it.
this week saw all staff at BWIS do our first Lateral Flow covid test in school. All staff have signed up to take part and from now on we will be completing the test twice a week on the weeks we are in school.
I hope you have a lovely weekend and look forward to seeing your exciting learning updates.
Best wishes
Mrs Riches
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Latest Update-Please Read
Tue 26 Jan 2021Dear Parents and Carers
I hope you managed to have some fun in the snow on the weekend-we had nothing in Bursledon, and I was very jealous of everyone's snowy pictures. I don't think we have been forecast any more, but am hopeful!
We have updated our Remote Learning Plan on our Parent Info page, to better reflect what is happening during this Lockdown. We have no news on when we are starting back and headteachers find out the same time as it is announced to everyone. Teachers and school staff are not on the priority list for the vaccine either. We are obviously hoping this may change at some time.
Change for Life have produced some shopping and meal ideas for families who may be budgeting more during this lockdown and the resources for this can be found here:
https://www.nhs.uk/change4life/recipes/lunch/cheap-lockdown-lunch-ideas
There are some good ideas in there, with a costing plan to help. We are now using the Edenred voucher scheme for parents whose children qualify for Free School Meals. if you find your circumstances change during these few months and think you now qualify for the vouchers, please ring the school office and Mrs Palmer/Mrs Greenwood will talk you through how to apply for them from the government. We can then issue the weekly voucher which is worth £15, and the code is sent directly to your telephone.
Active 360, who run from Swanmore College, have secured holiday funding for children to provide activities, breakfast and lunch through the week of February half term. The eligibility for this is as follows:
- FSM.
- Vulnerable children (at schools discretion who they class as vulnerable and in need of funded provision).
- Young Carers.
- Children under help, i.e. with a social worker.
The funding will cover their place on our provision, Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm each day, and include both breakfast and lunch.
The purpose of this funding is to provide access and opportunity to registered holiday activity programmes for low income families (FSM children), this includes provision of food and will be funded by the £220million national funding provided to local authorities to administer. In partnership with Swanmore College we will be applying for this funding when applications open this week, and will be in touch with you along the way to ensure your children can access our provision.
If you are eligible, please let us know if you are interested in this provision as soon as possible by Friday this week, so that we can inform Active 360.
They will be providing information on possibly providing care for critical worker children during this period too. I will let you know the details, when they let us know.
It was lovely to see nearly everybody accessing our assembly on Friday and I hear there are lots of excited children receiving their certificates in the post! Whenever a child demonstrates great learning, it can be in a skill or knowledge, they are awarded a learning star on their class chart. When it gets to 5 learning stars, they earn a certificate. Once a week, one child is picked for 'Star of the Week' and their super learning is also celebrated. Using Tapestry has been a great way of linking remote learning with school and we have even been receiving some videos! Keep them coming- we are really impressed with what many of you are achieving when juggling working at home and siblings.
If your children require more challenge, sum dog and TT Rockstars are designed to work at your child's ability and progress with them. There are also links on the Year Group Learning grid to extra lessons that are relevant to the topic and theme. We suggest, sticking to the timetable and sessions provided to ensure the breadth and consolidation are there. That way, when children return, there will hopefully be no 'gaps' in their learning.
Our 'Lateral Flow' Covid-19 self testing kits for school staff arrived today and all staff who work in our school will be testing themselves twice a week.. There are no plans to test children in primary schools, these are for adults only.
Keep up the fantastic learning-remember to let us know on Friday if a learning pack is required for the next week. Packs can be picked up after 9.10 am on Monday.
Best wishes
Mrs Riches
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Help Pack for all Parents
Thu 21 Jan 2021Dear Parents and Carers
Hampshire County Council, our Local Education Authority, has produced a parenting support pack for use by schools as a resource for parents.
The power point has been put together by the county PSA’s (parent support advisors) who are part of the Primary Behaviour Service. The pack is intended to be easily accessibly to parents, covering a range of topics and questions you may have from sleep to positive parenting routines and beyond. All things familiar to families but which may have been impacted or exacerbated further by the lockdown situation and which in turn may have affected the wellbeing of the parent and child. We have put the resource onto our 'parent information page'
Parent Information Page-click here
Lots of parents are letting us know how difficult they are finding it this time. We understand and we hear you, but until the school is out of lockdown , which has been driven by the high number of deaths and the hospitals being full, we are unable to open to you, even for a morning or afternoon as many have asked. To be clear, we are not a school that has opened to everyone full time. Critical Care workers were asked to confirm hours needed and children are not attending school when care isn't needed. Many are adjusting their hours to help reduce the number attending school. This doesn't mean there is 'more room'. It means that the risk of transmission of the virus to staff and children is reducing further with less children on site every day. We currently see up to 90 children through the week, which is 41% of our school. A staggering rise in the number accessing us from the last lockdown where we were at 20 children.
To help identify staff who are asymptomatic, and further halt the spread of the virus, all staff , working in schools in England, have been invited to test twice a week, using 'lateral flow testing' kits at home. It is not compulsory, and if a staff member does test positive, then the bubble will be closed. This will hopefully help to bring the spread of the disease down further. It isn't a 'safety net' as people carrying a low viral load may not get picked up by a LF test, but we are seeing it as a positive way forward and hopefully a way to opening schools to all sooner. Our first kits are arriving next week, which is when we will start the testing.
Kind regards
Mrs Riches
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Christmas Costumes
Thu 21 Jan 2021I am sure not many people are thinking about Christmas yet but a parent saw some Christmas costumes in a sale and has kindly donated them to the school.
Thank you and we look forward to putting them to use later in the year.
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Reading with your child at home
Thu 21 Jan 2021Dear Parents,
It has been wonderful receiving videos on Tapestry of your children reading at home. Reading is something as a school we are keen for your children to continue to do daily. We understand that resources at home can be limited, however do not fear! The Oak Academy and The National Literacy Trust have a wonderful online resource for you all to access.
Please follow the link below and explore the free books and videos.
https://library.thenational.academy/
Have fun and keep reading!
Miss Salter
English Leader
