Benhall Infant and Pre-School Parent Portal - 13th October 2023

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Friday Letter - 13th October 2023

Dear Parents,

We have had another busy week at Benhall this week. The key stage one children enjoyed a wonderful trip to see Michael Rosen at the Literature Festival on Tuesday. It was a delight to see the children so absorbed in his story telling and he has inspired so much writing back at school. Thank you to all the staff and volunteers that made this possible and thank you to the children for showing, as always, that you are ready, respectful and safe.

This week we welcomed the Open The Book Team back to Benhall who bring stories from the Bible to life. Thank you to Mrs Selby and Ali for reminding us all that we are all special in our own unique way.

Have a restful weekend everyone,

Love from Miss Morris and the team.

Benhall Buddy Bench

We would like to say a huge thank you to Caroline and Marcus who have gifted us an amazing Benhall Buddy bench. We are going to put it outside in our playground and cannot wait to see it out there and being used. School Council were given the important job of having a sit on the bench first. We are very grateful to Caroline and Marcus who have both supported Benhall for many years. Thank you both!

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Pre-School News

This week we have welcomed Sam a new starter and his family to Benhall Pre-School. We have started our three week topic of Autumn, first looking at “colours”. The children have enjoyed stories about “Elmer” the elephant, they have explored a variety of media and materials to collage Elmer. We explored different colours of paint and how mixing them together can create another colour. In conjunction with one of our stories, “Elmer and the Rainbow,” we discussed with the children about the shape of a rainbow and the specific colours. In groups the children collected different coloured items from around Pre-School to create a rainbow, which was beautiful. The children have been on an Autumn walk to collect leaves as decorations for our tree. We enjoyed a visit to Forest School where the children made autumn crowns. We have enjoyed singing a variety of songs and rhymes. Our Little Wandle Letter & Sound this week has been “t.” Next week for our Autumn topic we are looking at “Shapes”. Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Bennett and the Pre-School Team

Year Group in Focus - Reception

This week has been jam packed with super busy learning in Reception. We have been learning about how to use balance scales to measure things that are heavier and lighter in maths, talking about taller and shorter than and measuring ourselves. In phonics we continue to learn a new sound every day, and the children are already reading so many words by segmenting and blending and lots of them are writing words too. Our first PE sessions with Miss Bilton and Mrs Skelton were fabulous and both teachers said how well the children listened and followed instructions. You are all learning so much everyday - thank you for being such fantastic Purple Learners Team Reception!

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PTA News and Diary Dates

School Autumn disco!

Pre-School are holding an Autumn Disco on Thursday 26th October 2023. The event will be held at school. There will be three sessions (see below) that are Pre-Bookable only. Booking will be sent out from Parent Pay at 5pm on Monday 16th October. Please note bookings are for Benhall Children only. Each session costs £3

- 3.30-4.00pm for the preschool and those who require a quieter environment only. Parents for preschool must attend. Max 50 pupils.

- 4.15-5.00pm. Max 60 pupils. All year groups. Parents not to attend.

- 5.15-6.00pm. Max 60 pupils. All year groups. Parents not to attend.

The children can wear their party clothes and sensible shoes, but no dressing-up outfits please.

Drop off for each session will be at the main school door, where children will be signed in by a member of staff and collection at Violet Class door accessed by the playground. Children will be seen out by a member of staff. We are asking parents to keep their children's coats as giving them out at the end of the session delays the handover and clear up.

During each session there will be a disco, some party games, squash and a small bag of sweets for the children to bring home.

School Lottery - please consider signing up to our weekly lottery draw. Guarantee one person from Benhall will win a small prize each week and entry to the larger £25k too. https://www.yourschoollottery.co.uk/lottery/school/benhall-infant-and-pre-school?fbclid=IwAR0rUMXuSJkEwlSv70blK4UUdKENqdBxoF-bk_MQ1-nfMgxgef-7zEQpwQs

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Notices

Playground gates will be locked at 8.50am. Green Class will be greeted at the playground gate into the Year 1 area so that we can ensure that all parents have left site before locking the gates. Books can be swapped at the end of the day. Green Class books will be on the red bench next to Blue class.

Please remind your children to be respectful of others when riding bikes or scooters on the pavement. There have been some incidents of children knocking into pedestrians.

Purple Learning

School is buzzing with purple learning everywhere you go, from the outdoor areas to lunchtimes to classrooms. Purple learning really is at the heart at everything the children and staff do at Benhall. Reception have been embracing the challenge of learning about weight, Year 1 have been embracing the challenge to write about Michael Rosen and Year 2 have been embracing the challenge to sketch rabbits. The staff have also been embracing the challenge at lunchtimes and our aim is to have all the children outside by 12.45pm to enjoy the last part of lunchtime on the playground, it has been a great success this week. Well done to the lunchtime team!

Lunchtimes at Benhall

We would like to welcome Mrs Pearson and Miss Slender to our lunchtime team, they started with us this week and have slotted in perfectly to our team. This week we had a lunchtime assembly with all of the children and staff. It was lots of fun and we did have a giggle because some of the staff had to act out scenarios and the children had to explain how to put it right. We couldn’t believe it when Mrs Aitken wasn’t sitting correctly at the table and she even started eating a jacket potato with her hands! We were also shocked when Miss Morris put her lunchtime tray in the bin and Miss Mason was trying to swap her lunchtime band. The final shock was when Miss Pates and Miss Boakes didn’t stop when the whistle was blown. Fortunately, our wonderful children knew exactly how we should be at lunchtime ‘Ready, Respectful and Safe’ so we were able to rectify these mistakes quickly.Please see Tapestry for a small Power point about things that may help your child during this part of the day.

School Council at Benhall

This week School Council met and began to plan for a very exciting day in Term 2. They have planned an assembly for next week and we are very excited to share what will be happening with the rest of the school. School Council have lines to learn for the assembly and have created an exciting Power point to share too. Well done for another super week.

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We would like to wish members of our Benhall Family who have celebrated their birthday a really happy birthday. Happy birthday to:

Pia
Teddy
Zachary
Otis
Thea
Mrs Gowing

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Class Routines

PE Kit

What a great start to wearing school PE kit on PE days – thank you parents for your help with this.

PE Kit reminder:

Navy blue shorts or tracksuit bottoms
Plain white or purple T-shirt
Navy blue hoody or sweatshirt
Trainers

If your child has joined an after school sports club they can wear their school PE Kit on club days too (no football strips).

Orange Class
PE Days - Wednesday and Friday
Forest School Days - Starting week beginning 19/9/23 every other Tuesday
Book Bags - Every day please
Book Changes - Bring in on Wednesday go home on Friday
Sound Books - Back in on Wednesday
PPA Day and Cover - Weds am by Miss Bilton

Yellow Class
PE Days - Wednesday and Friday
Forest School Days - Starting week beginning 19/9/23 every other Tuesday
Book Bags - Every day please
Book Changes - Bring in on Wednesday go home on Friday
Sound Books - Back in on Wednesday
PPA Day and Cover - Weds am by Mrs Skelton

Green Class
PE Days - Tuesday and Thursday
Forest School Days - Starting week beginning 19/9/23 every other Thursday
Book Bags - Every day please
Book Changes - When 3 reads in class completed
Spelling Books - Thursday
PPA Day and Cover - Tuesday am by Mrs Selby

Blue Class
PE Days - Tuesday and Thursday
Forest School Days - Starting week beginning 19/9/23 every other Thursday
Book Bags - Every day please
Book Changes - When 3 reads in class completed
Spelling Books - Thursday
PPA Day and Cover - Tuesday am by Mrs Skelton

Indigo Class
PE Days - Monday and Thursday
Forest School Days - Starting week beginning 19/9/23 every other Wednesday
Book Bags - Every day please
Book Changes - Friday
Homework - Thursday (Tapestry)
PPA Day and Cover - Thursday am by Mrs Wisdom

Violet Class

PE Days - Monday and Friday
Forest School Days - Starting week beginning 19/9/23 every other Tuesday
Book Bags - Every day please
Book Changes - Friday
Homework - Thursday (Tapestry)
PPA Day and Cover - Thursday am by Mrs Skelton