Latest News
Keep up to date with all the news happening in school
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Hampshire Healthy Families
Wed 23 Sep 2020There is now a great new website for families in Hampshire. We have put the link on our 'Keeping Fit and Healthy' Page under the children tab. There are also other links for parents in here, with fun activities for work outs at home and strategies for wellbeing.
Some parents have sent some brilliant links for wellbeing following our Monday assembly. We will put all links and documents on this page and it is worth having a little look there, as there are some great ideas.
Please click to our web page where there are all links here:
https://www.bwis.org.uk/keeping-fit-and-healthy/
or a direct link to Hampshire Healthy Families can be found here (as well as on our page)
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Relationships and Health Education Policy
Mon 21 Sep 2020Dear Parents and Carers
I have put our new Relationships and Health Education Policy in the Curriculum section under the PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education). Please see link below.
In July I invited a small group of parents to have a look at it and ask questions or comment, thank you so much to all of you who got back to me with your thoughts! I am now giving all parents and carers the opportunity to comment or ask any questions. Please contact me via the Year 1 email.
Please note we are unable to make changes to the content of the curriculum in the appendix as this is statutory.
Many Thanks
Kate Charles
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Congratulations on becoming a 2020/21 Music Mark School
Tue 15 Sep 2020Dear Parents,
It is with great pride that we announce that Bishops Waltham Infant School has been nominated and financially supported by our local Music Service/Hub to become a Music Mark School. They have recognised the value that we place on music and asked to add the school to the growing number of Music Mark Schools.
Our school has been thanked for all the hard work we do to ensure that pupils are able to access and engage with a high-quality music education. Our dedication to offering and delivering a broad and balanced curriculum is both welcomed and celebrated.
The school has also been awarded with a Music Mark School certificate which we will share on the website in our curriculum section.
Congratulations once again to all the children and staff at our wonderful school.
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Our First Day
Thu 03 Sep 2020Dear Parents and Carers
What a fantastic school of children we have! They have been AMAZING! We have had a lovely first day back to school with 99% attendance. The children were excited to meet their new teachers and see their friends. Well done to all our new parents who dropped their children off so quickly. It really helped your children to settle in. Thank you all for bearing with us during these first few days. There will be some bumps for us to iron out, and we will do the best that we can to get them sorted.
To maintain social distancing for children and grown ups and for our 218 children, can we please ask parents to only come on site when it is their allotted drop off and pick up time. Due to the amount of adults and children coming onto site at this time, only 1 adult per family is allowed. This is to make our site as safe as we can and for adults and children to socially distance.
We also ask that children walk with their parents and are not allowed to run ahead whilst on our site. The majority of our parents were brilliant at this today and we thank you. A lot of organisation has gone into making our school as safe as we can for all users, whilst following guidelines from the government.
We ask that anyone dropping off at Year 2 use the ramp. Please do not go back against the one way system as this will make it impossible for parents to socially distance.
We had brilliant news that Infant School's free fruit snacks will be delivered on Monday, so from Monday onwards no fruit snacks are to be brought in from home (we know this was different in the summer term when fruit deliveries were stopped).
A couple of reminders:
Year R: 8.50am-9am. 12 o'clock (until fulltime). 3-3.10pm when full time.
Year 1 and 2. 8.40-8.50am. 2.50-3.00pm
Early Bird: 8-8.30am
Treetops: Up until 5.50pm.
The car park is not to be used by anybody other than staff.
Waterbottles need to be brought everyday.
The class teachers have been taking lots of photographs today and will be uploading them to the site asap. Look out on our Year Group pages for some pics.
We look forward to seeing you all tomorrow!
Best wishes
Mrs Riches
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Welcome Back
Wed 02 Sep 2020Dear Parents and Carers
Welcome back to our new year. The last few weeks seemed to speed by and I hope you have all had a relaxing summer holiday. Hopefully everybody has read the guidance for coming back to school and our risk assessments.
We held our first team meeting today to go through all our plans in light of the new guidance being issued on Friday evening. We have decided to make one change to our organisation and this is regarding PE. We will now be doing 1 session per week where full kit will need to be worn, and on this day we request that your child comes to school in PE kit. This will reduce the need for storing and washing kits. We do request that all children keep a pair of trainers in school for the whole week. These can stay in school until half term (if you wish) and will be used frequently for games and other outdoor PE times. Starting next week (no PE this week), your child's PE day is as follows;
Year R: Thursday
Year 1: Monday
Year 2: Tuesday
We will also be holding 'Meet the Teacher' wellbeing individual zoom calls early this term. You will be able to sign up on our website over the next week (a link will be sent out) and zoom invitations will then be sent. With less time to talk at our class doors, this will be an opportunity to talk about how your child is settling in, what they like to do, any worries you or they have and how we can support you. We will hold Parent Teacher meetings to discuss progress and learning in November.
Our Meet the Teacher 1-1 weeks will be held on the following weeks:
Week Beginning 21/9/2020: Year 2
Week Beginning 28/9/2020: Year R
Week Beginning 5/10/2020: Year 1
Timings will be 3.20pm-5pm. If you are unable to make these times, please contact your class teacher to arrange an alternative time.
We have also had a few people querying lunch provision. ALL children are entitled to a free school lunch every day in the infant school. They are varied and the children were excited to eat in their rooms when we trialed this in June. We encourage children to eat as much as we can, in the limited time they have. If providing your own lunch, please do not overfill the lunchboxes. We suggested 4 items plus a drink, as this is a common figure that features in lunchbags when eating out. It also doesn't overwhelm children and our lunch staff can encourage the children to eat what you have provided. Children will have a limited time to eat and rooms will need to be cleaned in between too. If you want to provide more, this is entirely up to you, but we cannot guarantee everything in the box will be eaten, if overfull.
We are doing our very best to make our school as safe and welcoming for you and your children, within the guidelines and restrictions provided by the government. We understand there will be anxiousness and hope that you work together with us during these unprecedented times. We will not always get it right, as we tread this unknown path, and sometimes we may need to inform you quickly of a change. We will try to give you as much notice as we can. We ask that you follow the guidelines on our information page on what to do if you think your child or your family is showing symptoms of Covid and help us all to be as safe as we can.
We look forward to seeing you all tomorrow morning.
Best wishes
Mrs Riches
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Ready for September
Wed 26 Aug 2020Dear Parents and Carers
With a week to go until the start of term, I am writing to you to remind you of some of the things we have had to put in place due to COVID guidelines from the government.
Firstly, we are continuing with our online learning. Staff will introduce the learning via a recorded video and will post this on the Friday. It will then be updated the following week with resources, in case a family or bubble are isolating.
If you have recently travelled back from a country that is on the government quarantine list, please observe the government's quarantine period before bringing your child back to school.
Unfortunately, we can no longer have teacher chats at the door during pick up and drop off time. These times need to be as quick as possible and timings need to be adhered to. If you need to speak to a teacher, please telephone/email and a teacher will telephone you back as soon as possible. We will also be unable to have face to face meetings in the Autumn term and will be using technology for Parents' Evening and and other Parent/Visitor Meetings.
Our one way system is still in place, to avoid 'pinch points' and enable social distancing. This also means only one adult per family can attend drop off and pick up, to limit the amount of adults onsite at one time. It also means that unfortunately our adjoining gate to the junior school is also currently unavailable, so that everybody exits the school through the double blue gates.
Lunches will be served in the classroom, with choices being sent out the week before. There will be vegetarian and meat options, hot and cold, including a jacket potato option every day. All infant children are entitled to a universal free school lunch. Your child can bring a lunchbox instead if they would like to, but we ask that you limit contents to 4 items, as young children will try to eat the whole thing otherwise, and not get a run around. If you put lots of items in children can get overwhelmed and think they have to eat it all. We also need to clean the classroom ready for the afternoon session, so the classroom will need to be empty of children for this to happen. We allow a juice carton to be brought for lunch and at all other times, children will have access to water. We are unable to provide water bottles at the start of this year, due to production issues.
Remember to name everything-including shoes!. PE kits and footwear need to stay in school and be suitable for outdoor weather as there will be no indoor PE in the Autumn Term. Children will be in their class bubbles inside the school and Year bubbles in the playground.
Please read our current risk assessment and our FAQ sheet for September. we have also put the link from the government with guidance for all schools here too
https://www.bwis.org.uk/information-letterspamphlets/
I hope you have a lovely last week at home, and look froward to seeing everybody next Thursday.
Best wishes
Mrs Riches
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Enjoy your Summer Break
Fri 24 Jul 2020Dear Parents and Carers
What an emotional end of term that was for all of us. I am really pleased that I got to see every Year 2 leaver and tell you how amazing you have been. This was never the end of your time we envisaged with you but I hope you found it special and liked your books. We loved your video- it is beautiful. Thank you also for all your lovely cards and gifts and our bench for outside the classroom. We really have been spoiled!
Thank you also to all the Year 1 parents and children who came to say goodbye to your teachers too. I know many of you joined in your zoom story time with your new teachers. Everyone knows Miss Salter and Miss Apsey from assembly time, who are looking forward to getting to know you properly in September. Miss Whitehead stayed with Mrs Charles for the day, so children could meet her. Mrs Moth sends her best wishes to Otter class and hopefully you all managed to chat to Mrs Belton and Mrs Campone our Year 1 Leader. I would like to say a special thank you to Mrs Campone as she collated the Otter reports and made sure you all had well being zoom calls.
Thank you, also, to our Year R parents who came to say goodbye to our Year R team on your last day. It was also Mrs Wombell’s last day for now, as she is going on maternity leave from the beginning of September. She has been overwhelmed by your kind wishes.
We also bade Mrs Anderson farewell, with a socially distanced tea party at the end of the day. She has been a brilliant team member at BWIS and is one of the happiest, hardworking members of staff I have ever known in my teaching career. We wish her all the best for her retirement, and hope she manages to go away for a holiday in a term time soon!
It has been the strangest of times, and we all, children and staff, got used to our new way of working in school pretty quickly. We cannot wait to see you all again and to welcome our new children in September. We will keep you updated with any guidance, but will try not to overload you with information during this break. All your children were happy and we will continue to build on this when we come back. Their well being, setting in to new classrooms and changes, will be our priority. Although we cannot have long discussions at the door, with our new staggered drop offs and closed to visitors office, we are still available by email in September or call and we will get back to you. Please read the large FAQ document posted last week and the summary sheet as many of you asked questions about the new arrangements. Everything is in those 2 documents and Mrs Charles has also posted a risk assessment with them too.
We would all like to thank the many parents and children for the kind words and gifts you gave us at the end of term. We were quite overwhelmed and grateful. I would also like to thank my amazing staff. Every single member played an important part during our time working with keyworkers and opening wider. Mrs Palmer answered every query along with her office team, Mrs Ely, Miss Ely and team made sure the school was clean and looked after our wraparound care, our Senior Leadership Team, Mrs Charles, Miss Salter, Miss Turner, Mrs Campone and Miss Turner helped make decisions and organised their teams. Our younger members of staff helped teach everybody new IT skills (quickly). Every single member of staff have all been amazing. I cannot praise them enough and they were all superstars, putting our children first in every decision. They also surprised me (and made me cry) with a gardening gift card and a beautiful card with very kind words for leading them through the last few months. I have said it many times, but I do not mind saying it again. I am very lucky to work with such a brilliant staff, amazing inquisitive children and supportive parents and governors. BWIS is a unique and special school, where we all learn together, sprinkled with happiness.
On that note, I would like to wish you all a lovely summer.
Best wishes
Mrs Riches
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Goodbye to our Year 2 Leavers
Wed 22 Jul 2020
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Update Monday 19th July
Mon 20 Jul 2020Dear Parents and Carers
Our end of term is nearly upon us and will soon be into summer break. It feels wrong calling it a holiday this year as it has, for many, been a stretching time as a parent or in your work, and we now have 6 weeks until we return on Thursday 3rd September. We look forward to welcoming our Year R and Year 1 children back to their new classes and to our new starters, who will start part time on Thursday 3rd.
School will be strange when you start back, either here or at the juniors. In BWIS there is more frequent handwashing and cleaning. We are eating lunches in our rooms. We are not mixing outside in different year groups and we will not be using the hall. Our clubs will not be starting back, only wraparound care. We will be continuing to use technology for our classes and for our meetings. We will continue to keep you updated with any changes or expectations as we transition through these different times.
I am pleased to announce that as well as Earlybird club, we will also be welcoming Treetops club back to site. We will therefore be operating wrap around care from 8am-6pm. Year Group bubbles will be separated in both clubs, with risk assessments revised as need arises/government guidance changes. Please see our Treetops page for details on how to book. We are very pleased to announce that we will be accepting childcare vouchers from September, so please contact the school office to ensure we are accepting your vouchers.
On Tuesday we will be saying goodbye to our Year R children. They will be seen out of class with their LSA and need to come to school with a bag for their bits and records of achievement. Your teachers will then be in the turning circle to say goodbye at the end of the day. If your child has not been in, please go to the turning circle after 2,45, where your teacher will have your child's record of achievement and books.
On Wednesday we will be saying good bye yo our Year 2s, who will be leaving for the juniors, and our Year 1s for the summer break. Both Year groups will need to come in through the brown gate by reception and go around the one way system to their class, accompanied by a grown up. Bring a large bag for your books and records of achievement. Year 1 children will then be signposted to exit through the carpark (the large gates by the kitchen), whilst Year 2 parents can exit by the Year 2 gate.Hopefully we will see everybody to say goodbye to. If you don't think you are going to make it and would like someone else to collect, please let us know in writing prior to the day. If you do not have anyone to collect, please let us know asap, so that we can get your belongings to you.
I am also pleased to announce that Mrs Atkinson will still be with us in September in 1-1 capacity part time.
I am sure there will be more updates through the summer and nearer to the start of term, and that there may be questions or worries that will come nearer to that time. I hope that you may be able to have some family time where you aren't trying to juggle life and work. We look forward to seeing many of you again soon.
Best wishes
Ginene Riches
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To Year 2
Fri 17 Jul 2020Hello to all Year 2
We are really sorry that the server crashed during our meeting- we did get to see you all before it did and your singing was amazing! We can’t wait to see you on Wednesday and thank you for the lovely surprise presents this morning- the fruit baskets are gorgeous!
See you soon me hearties!yohoho!
Mrs Riches and year 2 team
