This page provides a summary of information news about events that have been happening in the school throughout the academic year. Please look at the newsletter section for the current, most up to date infomation: www.stbedewinchester.co.uk/newsletters-1/

• Year 6 Trip to Fairthorne Manor

  Tue 01 Oct 2024

  It was a real privilege to join our Year 6 pupils at their team-building day at Fairthorne Manor on Tuesday 24^th September.  The common themes of what they had enjoyed most were the camo trail and raft building- both of which involved getting very wet and/or very muddy. The day ended with a campfire, lots of singing and dancing and some fabulous performances from the children, which suggest that this year’s Christmas talent show could be a special one!

• Pupil responsibility posts- Spotlight on the Pupil Leadership Team

  Tue 01 Oct 2024

  Our pupil leadership team are often used as first choice ambassadors - attending community events as representatives of the school, or showing visitors, including prospective parents and employees, around the school. Last year one of the roles our pupil ambassadors enjoyed taking on was attending the service at Winchester Cathedral to welcome the new Bishop of Winchester.  Congratulations to our new pupil leadership team of Seb, Fifi, Ema, Arnie, Alexander and Lilly, thank you for putting yourself forward for this role.

• Pupil responsibility posts- Spotlight on the Pupil Ambassador Team

  Tue 01 Oct 2024

  Our pupil ambassador team have already started their support work across the school this week, taking part in activities based in our Early Years and Year 1 classes. 

   

  Congratulations to our new pupil ambassador team of Molly, Sophie, Emily, Seb, Noah, Sintia, Lizzie, Poppy, Keira and Halle, thank you for putting yourself forward for this role.

• Silver Modeshift Stars Award

  Tue 01 Oct 2024

  We are delighted to report that we have been awarded the Modeshift STARS silver award in recognition of our work towards supporting cycling, walking and other forms of sustainable and active travel. Thank you to all the children and adults who supported the school with this award last year. We look forward to taking part in further initiatives this year and will have news of them soon. A special thank you to Mrs Quincey who leads this work in our school- what a great outcome!

• October is Black History Month

  Tue 01 Oct 2024

  This year’s theme for Black History Month is ‘reclaiming narratives’. Alongside our planned activities for inside the classroom, we are also hoping to meet with some of our parents from minority backgrounds at a coffee morning on Friday 18^th October (after drop off) to find out more about how families feel they could be better represented and supported at school. If you would be interested in joining us, it would be really helpful to know of any resources you have seen or used in your own families to promote diversity and inclusion.

   

  We are proud to say that everyone is welcome at St Bede and would love to learn more about the diverse backgrounds and experiences of the families across our community to inform how we move forward as a school in this area. This year, one of our strategic priorities is linked to our school rule to ‘be respectful’ and will include that we further refine policies, planning, teaching and learning to consider and address diversity and inclusion resulting in respectful behaviours and attitudes. We hope that you can agree that this is an important area for us to explore and address.

• Parent Meeting Bookings – Autumn Term 2024

  Tue 01 Oct 2024

  Tuesday 8^th October & Thursday 10^th October

   

  We are continuing to use a hybrid approach to parent consultations again this term, which means that you will have the opportunity to either book a face to face appointment where you will be able to come into school and meet your class teacher.  These appointments will begin at 15:30 and finish at 17:30.  Alternatively, between 18:00 and 18:30, you can book a remote appointment, which will set up a virtual video link between yourself and the teacher.  Support guidance for using our parents booking system is available at:  https://www.stbedewinchester.co.uk/parent-online-booking-system/

   

  The meetings are due to take place on two days (Tuesday 8^th October and Thursday 10^th October) and each session will keep to a strict ten-minute time limit to ensure that all meetings booked can be completed during the evening.   If further time is needed to discuss issues, then parents will be able to make a further appointment with the teacher at a mutually convenient time. 

   

  The online booking facility is available at the following link: https://parents-booking.co.uk/stbede

• Parent Questionnaire Information

  Tue 01 Oct 2024

  We look to seek feedback from our community formally and informally and respond to it in the best way that we can to the benefit of all children at the school. One of the approaches we take is to send out a questionnaire, which we do via Google Classroom - https://forms.gle/Jfr9tSu9JnZoZshR7

   

  We do not seek to know the names of those who submit questionnaire responses, but do however ask for clarification over which year group children of responders are in to help us analyse the information we receive and act on it accordingly.  In previous years, we have found that questionnaire responses ticked a box saying ‘don’t know’, therefore we have tried to provide a brief explanation of what is already in place from a school perspective to help you answer all questions knowledgeably and more confidently.  We hope that you find this helpful. Questionnaires can be completed up to the 4^th October after which we will analyse the information gathered and discuss it with governors and our community. Thank you for your time and engagement.

• E-safety and mobile phones

  Tue 01 Oct 2024

  A reminder to parents (and children) that there is no requirement in any year group for children to have a mobile phone. If however they do bring a phone to school with them, it is essential that it is handed in to their teacher who will store it securely during the day and return it to them before they return home. Please note that if a child brings a phone into school, the school cannot take responsibility for anything that happens to it. We request that no child comes to school with a smart watch.

   

  We increasingly find that children accessing social media accounts and other apps online such as Snapchat, Tiktok, YouTube, Instagram and WhatsApp, lack the maturity to do so safely and respectfully, leading to problems that arise and impact on friendships inside school. It is important in line with our safeguarding duty to remind you that in line with user agreements, a young person must be 13 to have an account.

• Winchester Rotary – Shoebox appeal

  Tue 01 Oct 2024

  Once again we are pleased to support this very worthy cause and have attached an information leaflet to this message (hardcopies are available from the school office). You no longer need to provide a shoebox, as flat pack templates are available to collect directly from the school office. This year, the Rotary are once again encouraging the children to decorate the exterior themselves, rather than to wrap them.

   

  The boxes must not be sealed (as the Rotary team need easy access to see the contents of the box) and the label showing the age and gender of the gift inside must be clearly visible. The shoeboxes can then be returned to school along with the £3 donation (please note this is more than the leaflet suggests) to cover transportation costs, from Monday 21^st October to Wednesday 23^rd October. For further details, please follow this Youtube link: https://youtu.be/WplgVDMbNoQ

   

  We appreciate that for many families the spiralling cost of living would perhaps impact on their ability to provide an entire box of donations and we would be delighted to receive a smaller cash contribution, which the school will gather collectively to fill additional shoeboxes.

• Harvest celebrations- come and join us!

  Tue 01 Oct 2024

  At the end of this half term, we would like to invite you into school to join with us in celebrating those things in our lives that we are grateful for. To ensure that as many children as possible feel able to take part, we will hold our harvest celebrations in the school hall on the morning of Thursday 24^th October.

   

  This will involve children from Year 1 to Year 6. (We feel it is still rather early in their time at St Bede for our Year R children to be putting on a show, but promise to share some special happenings with them nearer to Christmas.) Children will share their work and ideas in their house teams, which we hope is helpful for families needing to take time away from work as our children are placed in the same house group as their siblings.

   

  Please see the table below to find out the time of the celebration your child will be involved in. We ask that a maximum of two adults per child attend to ensure that we can fit everyone into the hall, please note we will not be able to accommodate pushchairs inside the school due to fire rules and regulations. Please let us know in advance if you need a space reserved for a wheelchair and accompanying companion/carer, so that we can create a suitable route into the building for you.

   

  Chimera	9:15 - 9:35
  Gryphon	9:50 - 10:10
  Phoenix	10:25 -10:45
  Dragon	11:00 – 11:20