Latest News
Keep up to date with all the news happening in school
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Lego Competition
Mon 18 Jan 2021If you are mad about Lego, and think you can design an amazing mythical creature then this competition is for you.
Lego says:
A Once in a Lifetime Competition
We are giving one lucky winner the opportunity to shape the world of LEGO® MYTHICA forever and have their very own mythical creature brought to life on an EPIC scale and featured in our brand new land - the FIRST EVER time a model of this scale has been built in the park, designed by YOU!
This AWESOME prize includes:
- Your mythical creature brought to life as a 6ft tall LEGO model, presented pride of place in the heart of the new land
- Place the final LEGO brick of LEGO® MYTHICA, in a once in a lifetime unveiling ceremony
- Overnight stay at one of our LEGOLAND Windsor Resort Hotels
- Premium LEGOLAND Annual Pass for a family of up to 5
- LEGO Goodie Bag
Closing date is on the 31st January 2020. Click on the link below to find out more!
https://www.legoland.co.uk/explore/theme-park/2021/create-a-creature-competition/
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Thank you
Mon 18 Jan 2021Thank you for this donation of fruit for the children in school. Our usual delivery of fruit for break time has temporarily stopped so this is really appreciated.
Also thank you for the yummy treats that arrived for the staff.
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French and Yoga
Fri 15 Jan 2021Mrs Hewitt has made some french videos and Miss Wherwell has made some yoga videos on our video stream. They are fun activities that can be used as a little break.
click on links below to go to the videos
click on these links for pages mentioned in earlier post -
Successes to Celebrate
Fri 15 Jan 2021Dear Parents and Carers
Well done on surviving another week of Lockdown. You are doing a fantastic job at home and we have loved seeing all the brilliant learning! Teachers are having excited conversations about what they can do next with the children. As always, with the amazing staff at our school, ideas are shared and tips are being swapped. We all love the ease of being able to feedback on learning through the Tapestry App. Your children,s journals on there are looking great,
One thing that is really shining through the remote learning is the individuality and the creativity of the learning taking place at home. You are blowing us away! We have also been really impressed with the quality of the learning taking place and also the improvement in the children’s handwriting,
Our zoom lessons in the morning have been really successful with the children. It is our time to let the children know what is happening in the day and sometimes the teacher will do some teaching immediately afterwards. We take our register in these sessions and they are really important to log into. We have a duty of care to all children at BWIS, whether learning in school or remotely, and it is important for us to see the children and for them to see their friends. We are also enjoying the stories, but understand if you have chosen to exercise with your child then. This ending to the day, will help you to structure the day with your children and an end to their learning.
Well done to everyone who got their pack request in today, They are ready and waiting for collection on Monday.. We do not have the capacity to offer any extra places to what is currently in place, and appreciate everybody juggling hours and using support bubbles to help us keep our school as safe as it can be. We understand how hard it is and for this reason we are working in partnership with you to help as much as we can. We will not be setting up regular 1-1 call/zooms as we are doing the whole class ones. We are here to help when needed however.
Some parents have mentioned their children are missing their friends, which is why the zooms are especially Important to see their friends and their teachers every day. Some parents have set up some separate small zoom sessions too- what a great idea! We would also welcome any videos from our parents who would like to make one, to share with children. We are aware there are some very talented mums, dads, grandads and grandmas out there and if you would like to share an activity, or something interesting please send it in. ( examples of this could be making something art and crafty or a song or even a skill/ job!)
Any interesting general sites we find that are good fun for all ages, we usually add to our ‘Learning Links’ page under the Children tab. There are some great projects and fun things on here. We also have links for children’s well-being and health under ‘Keeping Fit and Healthy’ page also under children. A fun app I recently found is ‘Quiver’ which is free to downlaad and brings colouring and pictures to life- it’s really good fun to use with young children.
We have had three new tablets bought by a family and donated to the school. Parents are also bringing in laptops and iPads that can still connect to the internet. If you are struggling to connect, thanks to the generosity of these families, we can help, so please come and let us know.
The learning certificates are all winging their way to our children as we speak and thank you to everyone who came to our assembly to celebrate our learning and have a boogie today, I won’t take up any more of your time but just wanted to reassure you you are doing great- so WELL DONE!
Have a lovely weekend.
Best wishes
Mrs Riches
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Thank you!
Wed 13 Jan 2021Thank you to all the parents who have sent nice emails - it is really appreciated by the staff.
Also thanks for this lovely box of chocolate bars that arrived for us today!
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Safety when learning remotely
Tue 12 Jan 2021Dear Parents and Carers
it is great to see so many children logging on remotely for our live zoom call, story and lessons this week. We are currently updating our policies to reflect remote learning and when completed these will be sent out to you. In the meantime, please can you abide by a few simple rules that we already use in school, to comply with our safeguarding procedures, GDPR and child protection policy.
1. Please do not allow your child to zoom from their bedroom. There should be no inappropriate objects or words in sight.
2. Zoom calls, screens or lessons should not be recorded in any way. The school has not given permission for this. We regard our online teaching, the same as our class teaching. Videoing, photographing is strictly forbidden to protect the children in our care.
3. Our zoom calls will be made with one other adult in earshot at all times. We will not request 1-1 sessions with children and will have other adults present at all times.4. We do not have a social media platform. We are aware that some parents have made some/joined some. Again, our school has not given permission for images/ videos to be used on these platforms especially zoom screens.
These are just a few points. I know you are all really keen and want to show us what you can do, but the safety of all children is paramount. Thank you so much for your cooperation. I have been amazed by the learning taking place and uploaded to tapestry - I know your teachers have been too. Well done all!
Best wishes
Mrs Riches
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Friday 8th January 2021
Fri 08 Jan 2021Dear Parents and Carers
Thank you to everybody who attended our assembly this morning. I promise I will get better at this-already looking at ways to improve! It is very different to zoom, as I couldn't tell if you could see me or not. The only way is up!
I will start writing to the children on our school blog page. I know the teachers will be able to send you messages directly using tapestry and your children pages, but I had no space to talk to the children, so I will use the blog part of our website. You can find it under the children tab or click the link here:
https://bishops-waltham-infant-school.primarysite.blog/?user=40142
We have had a very kind offer today of some free PPE from a parent, which has been great. We were sent an original box back in September, but nothing since. You may have seen that we have not had any ipads/laptops either, because we are an infant school. Because of this, I have a small plea. If you have old devices hanging around, that can access the internet, or you or your company would like to donate a new device, we would be very grateful. the ones we are currently signing out are our class ones, but with over a third of our children attending under critical care/vulnerable, we haven't got many devices free to loan. You would really be helping us out if you can.
Mrs Palmer has sent everybody's login details to Tapestry-this will now be the place to upload learning. It creates a file for your child's learning and teachers can comment on all. Our Reception Class teachers are teachers our Key Stage one teachers how to use it.
Thank you for all your help and support this week. Although anxious, our whole staff team are also very upbeat and your kind messages and amazing learning is lifting us all higher! Thank you to Mr and Mrs Jones and Mrs Nettles for the yummy cakes-they were a welcome treat today!
Well done to you all at home for doing such a great job. Lots of parents have commented how different it is this time. If we had been given options on how we organised our learning in June last time, this is the approach we would have liked to take, teaching and helping all children and families every day. We hope the routine of starting and finishing the day with your child's teacher is helping to structure the day a little too. We are providing 3 hours of learning per day, as per the guidance from the DFE. Breaks, daily reading and playtime in between are important for the children too, and we suggest the story at the end is when everybody stops their day and enjoys their normal family time.
You have all made it to the end of the first week-I hope you manage to relax this weekend. You have earned it!
Best wishes
Mrs Riches
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First day of Remote Learning
Wed 06 Jan 2021Dear Parents and Carers
It was so lovely to see all the children ready to learn and talking to their teachers on zoom this morning! The teachers can't wait to read their stories to them at 2.45pm. Remember to log back in.
As you can imagine, there are a lot of things to organise at the moment. We have 9 Critical Care bubbles running with 2 adults in each. We are also teaching children at home too. We are reviewing a few things to make learning links clearer for children, including learning for the day. We are also still awaiting our tapestry logins for Year 1 and 2, for individual learning to be sent back to school. Until we have this, please use the Year Group emails. When your child logs in, please can it be their name (we had some funny named children on some zooms today!), and mute your microphone. The teachers will let you know when you can unmute.
We will be having a Celebration Assembly on Friday, and I have asked the teachers to share one child from each Year Group's learning-this includes children attending school and at home. Teachers will also continue to award learning stars for good learning and we will send out learning certificates to home. I will send the link to the zoom before Friday.
Thank you to the majority of parents for helping try to make school safe for our staff and children by only sending your children in, when there is no other option for you at home. This is helping to greatly reduce numbers and risk of spreading coronavirus. The new strain is said to be 50%-70% more transmissible. It is also affecting children. This is a great worry to us all, and I know you will not put our staff members and children at greater risk if you had someone at home who can help your child. I would like to reassure parents who have sent their children to us, that we have a stringent risk assessment and procedures in place to be as safe as we can be.
We are signing out electronic devices if you need them to help at home. We have not been given any devices from the government, so they are our school laptops that we use in class. The availability of devices are limited, and will be given to families who are in the greatest need for them. We also have a limited number of data cards, if your device runs on data. These will be given out to families who email to request them and are in the greatest need for them. If you feel that either of these will be useful, please contact Mrs Palmer.
For children who are attending school during lockdown, please do not bring in anything from home other than outside clothing (coat, hat gloves), a water bottle and trainers if not worn to school. Lunches will be provided, but if you would like to provide one for your child, you can. Please only attend on the days requested, and if your circumstances change (eg you are furloughed), please change your child's attendance at school to reflect this. On the days your child is not attending, please complete the learning for the day at home in their blended learning book. These stay home until the children come back to school at the end of lockdown.
If you require writing pencils/pens please let us know and they can be picked up at the office. We will not be sending any reading books home during this time and book bags should not be brought to school. There are online links for parents who need reading material on our website.
We provided a pack of learning for this week. The majority of learning will be able to be done straight from the computer into the blended learning book, with little being printed out. The current advice for all is 'Stay at Home'. Following this advice we will not be providing learning packs for all every week, as this would encourage everybody to leave their homes. Please contact Year leaders if you are unable to access the learning and we will look at how we can help individuals.
Our brilliant Yoga Teacher, Emma Whewell, is currently videoing some Yoga sessions and Yoga hints and tips. As soon as these are ready to go on our site, we will put them on. We will all be very flexible the next time we meet!
We hope you are all keeping well. Thank you so much for your kind words of support and emails this week. They have really cheered us all up. As I have said in the past, we had very good plans for this. But until a plan becomes a reality, we really couldn't see how it would run. We will continue to make tweaks and changes as we go along and remember we are always on the end of the telephone, or email. If you can give us a couple of weeks to find our feet, we will be very grateful. All staff are working very hard to make this work for all our children and families and appreciate the enormous stress this has put everybody under. We will get through this. Hopefully the vaccine will be forthcoming and we can see you sooner rather than later. We miss you all very much.
Best wishes
Mrs Riches
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Arrangements for Learning-Please Read
Tue 05 Jan 2021Dear Parents and Carers
Your heads are probably spinning with the shock from last night. I know ours certainly are. This time when we are in lockdown, our technology (and our skill) is much better.
All the teachers want to zoom their classes this afternoon to say hello and offer the children reassurance. Your teacher will be sending a zoom invite for this afternoon for the following times:
Year R (Bats, Rabbits, Owls) 2 o'clock
Year 2 (Hedgehogs, Foxes, Frogs) 1.15pm
Year 1 (Squirrels, Robins, Otters) 1.45pm
Between 1 o'clock and 3pm today your child's learning pack will be outside their classroom for you to pick up. Their books are labelled, so please only take your child's book. Please use the one way system and wear a mask to do this. Books will be available in the turning circle to pick up (if you are unable to make today)tomorrow between 9.30am and 2pm.
Free School Meal Food Hampers will be available to pick up from tomorrow, for children eligible for Free School Meals (not universal credit). Please check with Mrs Palmer in the office if you are unsure whether you are eligible for these Hampers.
We are extending 'Tapestry' into Year 1 and 2 so that children can send their learning to their teacher for feedback (instead of using email). This will be ready next week, and we will send each child their individual log in as soon as they have been set up.
We have Sum Dog and TT Rockstars as practise platforms for maths and English skills. All other learning is currently in your child's Year Group Folder, under 'blended learning'.
Remote Learning Timings
All children will have a zoom with their teacher at the start of the day, Monday to Friday. This is to introduce the learning for the day. The timings are as follows:
Year 1 and 2: 9am
Year R 9.30am
All children will have a zoom at the end of the day for story and a song/rhyme. The timing for this will be 2.45pm.
From next week onwards, there will other 'live' sessions through the day to zoom into too. Your child's class teacher will get in touch with you regarding timings for these sessions.
Year Group emails are open for any questions or answers you may have. Critical worker and vulnerable child applications will be replied to within the next hour.
I hope this is clear to all. Please contact us if you are unsure of how to access learning either via the office or your Year Group, and we will be there to help.
Kind regards
Mrs Riches
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National Lockdown Information - January 4th 2021
Mon 04 Jan 2021National Lockdown Information- January 2021
We are now in a national lockdown. Please click on the link to see what this means for you and your family. Where possible, stay at home. This includes your children too.
