Bentley Weekly Update 01/03/19

Words of the Week – This week’s words are:

Reception – ‘same’ and ‘next’

Yr 1/2 – ‘mammal’ and ‘explore’

Hedgehogs – ‘fraction’ and ‘stagnant’

Adders – ‘astounding’ and ‘indentation’ 

Junk Modelling - Could you please donate any small cardboard boxes for use during science week please (11th - 15th March).  The size of a tissue box would be ideal.  If you have any other clean junk modelling bits and pieces e.g. yogurt pots, milk bottle tops, small plastic or card containers, could you please save these and send them in to Mrs Duff. Thank you. 

Science Day 14^th March – As you will have seen on the dates for your diary section, Hedgehogs and Adders will be at Copdock Village Hall all day on Thursday 14^th March and Wolves will be at Copdock School all day. Hedgehogs and Adders will need a packed lunch on the day but Wolves will be able to order a hot dinner as usual. The day will be dedicated to science, investigations and inventions. Please drop your child at the relevant venue between 8:45am and 9am. If you arrive before 8:45am, please stay with your child; we had a lot of children being dropped off and left before the start of the day the last time we held a special day at Copdock Village Hall. Copdock Village Hall has a one way system and parents need to park properly and bring their child into the village hall, not just let them out of vehicles; this is for the safety of the children as there will be many moving vehicles at that time. There is a large car park to the rear of the village hall as you follow round on the one way system. 

Parents of Hedgehogs and Adders are warmly invited to come and join us from 2pm to see our inventions in action. Children need to be collected from the village hall between 3pm to 3:15pm and Wolves need to be collected from Copdock School at 3:15pm. We also need to know if your child will be attending morning club that day as we will need to make sure we have enough capacity to transport them to Copdock. Please let us know by next Thursday, 7^th March, if you intend to use morning club on the 14^th March. Children booked into after school club will be transported at the end of the day as usual. Thank you. 

PTA News - We have had a huge number of bookings for our Mother’s day afternoon tea! The first slot is now officially fully booked! We do still have spaces on the second slot from 3.15-4.15pm. Thanks to all who have already paid; just a gentle reminder that money needs to be in by Friday 15th March please. 

The votes are in and the winning project for the PTA to fund is....The Gym Equipment! We are super excited to be able to fundraise for such an exciting, big project. Our next PTA meeting will be on Monday 1st April at 3.15pm in the school hall (the meeting planned for 15^th March will not now go ahead). We will be discussing fundraising ideas, our upcoming events and projects being worked on. 

Food in school - We are currently reviewing our Food Policy and would like to take this opportunity to thank parents for supporting our guidelines about providing children with healthy lunch boxes and snacks. It is important that sweets are not part of the lunchtime meal and it is great to see many children eating a range of fruit and vegetables as healthy alternatives.  Part of our work within the curriculum encourages children to develop awareness of how food is produced and packaged, evaluating the impact of their intake on their health and well-being. We also discuss what a balanced diet looks like so children make healthy choices as they grow up.  

As you are aware, there are specific foods which can cause severe reactions for people with particular health needs, which is why we insist that nuts are not part of snacks or food brought into school. As some of our children also have specific dietary requirements we make adjustments to cater for their needs where possible too. On some occasions children may wish to bring 'treats' into school to share with friends as part of a birthday celebration. Whilst we are supportive of this practice we would encourage all parents to check with their child's class teacher or the school office before doing so. This will allow us to discuss any potential issues which may arise. It is important that this is planned in for the end of the school day so parents can monitor their own child's intake and any particular dietary needs. Thank you in advance for your support with this.

Governor vacancy - We are still keen to recruit new governors to help shape the future of our federation. We currently have a vacancy for a parent governor and 2 other vacancies. Please chat to the school office or Dennis Kell ([email protected]) for further information. 

Lego Tokens – Just a quick reminder that we are collecting the Lego tokens being printed in the East Anglian Daily Times and the Ipswich Star. If you have any of these, we would be very grateful for them. 

Special Visitor – We are very excited to confirm that the Polar Explorer, Ricky Munday, is coming back into school to visit KS2 children again on Friday 8^th March. He is an explorer with extraordinary tales to tell and inspiring messages. You can find out more about Ricky by visiting http://www.rickymunday.com/about.html