Bentley Weekly Update 23.02.18

Year 5/6 Dodgeball Event - A quick reminder that this event is now due to take place on Wednesday 7^th March. If your child is involved you will have already received an email about this that was sent out on 2^nd Feb. Your child will need a packed lunch, plenty of drinks and snacks, trainers and jogging bottoms on the day. They will be provided with a school kit. We anticipate being back to school by the end of the day but may be held up if there is heavy traffic on the return journey.

Year 1/2 Story Practice – All pupils in years 1 and 2 have been learning a story with actions. A sheet is in bookbags with the story on, along with actions; please help and encourage your child to practice this at home as it will really make a difference to their learning when they come to write their own stories. Thank you.

Lent Challenges – Don’t forget to look at the lent challenges booklet that was sent home at the start of the week. Please tick off and sign any challenges that your child completes. There is a prize for every child who completes 15 or more challenges over the 5 weeks! Please have the booklet in every Friday for checking.

Choir and Ukulele – We have had a very low response for the choir and ukulele clubs this half term. Please get in touch by Monday if your child would like to take part in either of these. Details of the clubs and costs were sent out on an email on Tuesday, do let us know if you need it resent.

Paralympics Enrichment Morning – On Thursday, the children will be taking part in an enrichment morning focussed on the Paralympics. They will have the chance to try sports that feature in the Paralympics such as Boccia and sitting volleyball. Please ensure your child has their PE kit in on the day (pupils need to have their PE kits in every day but it is especially important for this event).

World Book Day – Reminder! This year for World Book Day, we will be having an author focus on Julia Donaldson, writer of many wonderful children’s books. On Friday 2^nd March, we invite all the pupils to dress up as a character from one of Julia Donaldson’s books. This is of course completely optional. We would also like some help from parents, grandparents, other carers and Governors on the day; if you could spare some time to come and read a Julia Donaldson story to a group of children from 2:15pm, we would love to hear from you. Don’t worry if you don’t have any of the author’s books at home, we have plenty at school, but if you do have a favourite that you would like to share, please do bring it along. If you are free to come and help that day, please either let the school office or Mrs Robinson know.

Year 6 SATs preparation – All the homework and practice exercises that need to be completed by next week are in pupils’ homework books. It is vital that children in year 6 focus on these, in particular practicing their arithmetic methods. We have also had a very mixed bag of results when testing the year 6’s on their spellings, so please encourage them to spend just a little bit of time every day practicing them. The support we have had from parents of children in year 6 has always been fantastic so I look forward to working with you all closely in the run up to the assessments. Thank you in anticipation for your on-going support - Mrs Robinson

Year 3/4 Cross Country – The year 3/4 Cross Country Competition at East Bergholt has been rescheduled for Wednesday 28^th March. If your child was selected to take part before (the event was cancelled due to bad weather) they will be on the team again this time.

Reminder! Wolsey Theatre Visit Years 4, 5 and 6 – Wolsey Theatre are coming to visit years 4, 5 and 6 on Monday 5^th March. They will be putting on a performance at Copdock about difference and diversity. Children in these year groups need to be dropped at Copdock School that morning, and will be brought back to Bentley in time for lunch. If they have younger siblings that need to get to Bentley, they can be dropped off at 8:30am to give you time to get over to Copdock.

Gymnastics Years 1-4 – We have entered teams for a gymnastics competition that will take place on Friday 23^rd March at Westbourne Academy. If your child has been selected you will receive an email from Mrs North letting you know. In the run up to the event, those children that are taking part need to commit to a free coaching / practice session after school every Wednesday for 4 weeks to prepare for the competition. If your child can attend these training sessions, they will be transported to Copdock at the end of the day and will need to be collected from Copdock at 4:15pm. More information will be on the email from Mrs North.

Weekly Updates – We are trying to gauge how useful the weekly newsletters are to parents. They take up a lot of time and effort each week in producing them and were started in response to parent requests for all the information to be communicated in one document each week. So we can have an idea of how many parents are actually reading these newsletters, please email the school with your child’s name and any views you have of the weekly updates. If uptake is low we may consider stopping these and the first port of call for parents will be the website without any prompt. Thank you in anticipation for your response.

Years 2-4 Science Trip – On Friday 16^th March, years 2-4 will be travelling to Bury St Edmunds to take part in an exciting science day including a visit to a planetarium and taking part in a Whizz Bang workshop. A letter with more information will be sent home next week.

Easter Service- Our annual Easter Service, including Easter Bonnet Parade, will be at 2:30pm on Wednesday 28^th March at St Mary’s Church. Please come along if you can; in any event, children will need to be collected from the church at 3:15pm.

Library books and working party – We have had a lot of issues round library books and their return. We need to carry out a full audit of the books we physically have in school so please return any library books on Monday please. We also need a group of parents who are willing to form a working party to carry out the audit as this is going to be quite a challenge. If you are willing and are available next Friday afternoon, please, please do get in touch.