The Bonneville Buzz
September 2023
January 2024
Our January Value is Commitment
Bonneville Priorities
- To ensure our children are happy and we explain things well
- To ensure no child leaves our school unable to read
- To ensure children learn a broad vocabulary to access the world around them
- To enhance the educational experiences of diagnosed and undiagnosed children with SEND
Bonneville Football Team
a message from Ms Parker...
Happy New Year!
Welcome back to the start of the Spring Term in 2024. Whilst the mornings are still dark, and there is still a chill in the air, we can start to look forward to days were the sun is shining. That gloves, scalf and sun glasses type of weather.
This is a short 5 week term, so please remember to check the schools website to ensure you have all the key dates in your diary!
On my learning walk this morning, I was incredibly impressed by our children's resilience in maths lessons. In all classes, children were focussed and trying their best. Every classroom exuded the development of confidence in grappling with learning a written method, appropriate for their stage of learning. A big well done to Ms Napiers year 6 maths group for nailing algebra, an area of maths they once were nervous to attempt.
Our value this month is 'commitment' and being 'commited', at a time of year when it is commonplace to make personal promises for self improvement and happiness. Whether that is a particular fitness goal or a habit change. During assembly we will think about different ways we show commitment and can be comitted, the different types of behaviour for commitment to take place, relating this to achieving our goals.
With this in mind, I would like to take the time to give three key reminders relating to uniform, punctuality and voluntaring.
Please ensure your child/ren come to school in the correct school uniform. This should be a Bonneville blue or white T-shirt, sweat shirt or fleece. Children are permitted to wear blue, grey or black skirt, trousers or leggins. Dark coloured shoes or trainers only. Children should not be wearing football boots to school. I am also seeing lots of unecessary accessories. All neck scaves must only be warn for outdoor purposes, and headresses for religious reasons only.
The school gates open at 8:45am for a 9:00am start. Arrival anytime after 9:00am means your child/ren are missing out, as the daily timetable of education begins promptly at 9:00am. It takes the children approximately 5 minutes to settle into their seat with the resources they need. A child who is 5 minutes late everyday, loses 25 minute of learning, in the same subject every week!
Please remember our community commitment to ensuring no child leaves Bonneville unable to read. We need your help to maximise reading opportunities for our children. If you have a spare hour, please volunteer your time hearing children read at our school. Anytime, is valuable time!
Every month I will invite a subject leader editorial on one of our curriculum areas. Last month Ms Neate, our English Subject Leader, shared how reading is taught in our school. This month, we will hear from Ms Neate again telling us all about writing. Keep an eye out for the article further down.
Our annual Parent Survey was released on Monday 15th January, please do not forget to share your views.
The Lambeth Football League starts this week. We wish our team well in their first two games at the Ferndale Community Sports Centre. The first game is against Walnut Tree Walk Primary School, and the second versus Allen Edwards Primary School.
Finaly, congratulations to Ms Wilden who gave birth to a baby boy Oliver. We can't wait to meet him!
Bonneville gets cooking again!
This term we are reinstating our cooking curriculum (for the whole school) with the help of FAB. Please think of us before you throw out your unwanted cooking tools.
We would love your donations of the following:
- Serving spoons/spatula
- Pot/pan/baking trays
- Cutlery
- Mixing bowls
- Scales
Topic's this term...
Top questions to ask your child this month!
What English word of the week has your child been learning?
Year 1- gigantic Year 4- exclude
Year 2- ferocious Year 5- concept
Year 3- contrast Year 6- justify
Please rienforce the learning by asking your child/ren what it means.
Homework
Please help support your child with their spellings by looking at the spelling rules, sounds and patterns in each word. Practicing spellings daily (or as much as possible) will help your children to learn and remember each word.
In KS1, children will need to choose five spelling words to put into sentences.
In KS2, children will need to write a sentence for each word, using neat, joined handwriting.
This will give the children the opportunity to understand the meaning of each word, put the word into context and allow them to practice their handwriting.
All spelling books must be given the Class Teacher every Wednesday. This will ensure that your teacher has enough time to get the new spellings stuck in. Children will be doing a weekly spelling test in the back of their homework books so you will be able to see how well they are doing.
Homework Exhibition Hall
Eat the Rainbow Project
Bonneville Primary School has had the pleasure this term of ‘Eating the Rainbow’.
Eat The Rainbow is a new programme that has been created exclusively for Lambeth. The council has supplied funds for 10 schools and have asked to focus on schools in the Brixton Hill area-, which includes us! Through an integrated primary school and families programme, it encourages children to eat a greater volume and variety of vegetables by adding one new vegetable at a time until they have a rainbow of different vegetables in their diet. We started with red peppers, where the children spent some time cutting up, smelling, feeling and tasting peppers, and were sent home with a bag of peppers for the family to enjoy. Every child also went home with the Eat the Rainbow “manual” which we hope has supported you in to getting your children to eat more veg. This has been created by the UK’s leading nutritionists, chefs and child psychologists and is supported by greater depth and video content online! We hope your children enjoyed this term’s vegetable of choice, any guesses what the next one will be?
Writing at Bonneville
The teaching and learning of English at Bonneville Primary School comprises the development of comprehensive reading, writing, speaking and listening skills and, importantly, the exploration and application of high level vocabulary. This is embodied by the mantra, as Alex Quigley emphasises, “if they can read it, and understand it, they can say it. If they can say it with confidence, it provides them a key to success for their future beyond school.” It remains a vital subject to embed our pupils' understanding of literature and the lived experience of others across the globe, past and present, and across a range of genres. It rests at the very core of our pupils’ ability to express themselves creatively and imaginatively, and enables them to think critically and enthusiastically about the world around them. The study of English also embeds our pupils’ understanding and appreciation of the intricacies of language: its breath, patterns, structure and origins. Empowered with this knowledge, pupils at Bonneville Primary School are able to make informed choices about how they communicate themselves in different contexts.
English at Bonneville follows the 3-2-1 structure. Each half term we spend 3 weeks on our fiction unit, 2 weeks on non-fiction unit and 1 week on poetry.
At Bonneville, pupils follow the ‘immersion, experimentation, innovation’ sequence of exploring a genre of text.
At the start of each unit, the immersion lessons will involve ‘immersing’ the children in the examples of the genre they are focusing on. This will include lessons that allow the children to read, listen to, and where applicable, act out a range of examples of that genre. They will be able to identify and explain the purpose of the key features in each genre they are learning.
Following this, children use the features of the genre to work on their sentence and word level skills. This will include a focus on the grammatical elements of the genre. These lessons and their work are linked to the overriding topic of that term and have a clear context and purpose in terms of their end of unit piece.
Children will then have the opportunity to plan, draft, edit and publish their final pieces, building on the skills developed over the course of the unit and embodying the practices of professional writers.
Please remember, there is a 'Word of the Week' for every subject.
In this Buzz, we cast a spotlight on some of the vocabularly learnt in Science last week.
FAB Update
FAB- Please get involved, more hands make light work!
FAB stands for Friends Association Bonneville.
Many, many parents are involved in enabling fundraising for our school. Thanks again to the FAB Office Team, for galvanising the community and keeping everyone updated through their wonderful Newsletters.
It is great to see new faces getting involved. A donation of 1 hour per term (that’s only 3 hours per year), of your time, is all that we ask. Whether it be class rep, planning/hosting an event or standing on a stall. Some parents very generously agree to host an event like our amazing wreath making workshop, or the gathering of donations for our incredible raffles. We always need more help and support. Every parent is a member of FAB. I ask that everyone gets involved.
Don't miss out on the next FAB event...
January 2024
Monday 8th - INSET Day (School closed to children)
Tuesday 9th - Children return
Wednesday 10th - Open Morning 9.30am
Monday 15th - Clubs begin
Monday 15th to Friday 19th - Parent Survey
Wednesday 24th - SEND Coffee Morning @ 9.15am
Friday 26th - FAB Feast
Tuesday 30th - Year 5 & 6 Virtual Parent Grammar Workshop
Supportive Services
Food Bank Vouchers
In these difficult times any of us can find ourselves in challenging situations. Should you need support, please contact Mr Connelly who can support with food vouchers discretely.
Better Start Outreach Support
We are delighted to welcome Alex from the Better Start Team who will be working with families at Bonneville going forward. Alex will be in school every Wednesday morning and will be happy to meet parents and carers to give help, advice and support relating to the following issues:
Citizens Advice
Benefits advice
Food bank vouchers
Disability Living Allowance applications
Cost of Living information
Training and employment advice
Activities for children during half-term breaks
Advice on support available within Lambeth
Alex has a great deal of knowledge and expertise and will be a fantastic asset to have working with us at Bonneville. If you would like to arrange an appointment with Alex to have a chat and a cup of coffee on a Wednesday morning, please contact Mr Connelly and he can book in an appointment for you.
Our January Value is Commitment
Attendance
Central to raising standards in all schools and ensuring all pupils can fulfil their potential, is the need for children to attend school regularly to benefit from their education.
There is a strong link between good learning, high achievement, rapid progress and developing good social skills with excellent attendance.
We want to take this opportunity to outline our expectations for school attendance this academic year.
If your child arrives at school from 9.01am they will be marked as LATE, if they arrive after 9.30am they will be classed as “late after the register is closed” and their attendance is classed as absent for the morning session. As the registers would have already been returned to the Department for Education.
Regular poor punctuality can also have a negative effect on your child’s attendance as well as their academic learning. Being 6 minutes late each day equals 30 minutes of missed learning every week.
If your child’s attendance drops below 90%, we will need to share our concerns with the Local Authority Education Welfare Officer at Lambeth Council.
Is my child to ill for school?
How to seek support with attendance challenges?
Pupil Attendance
Congratulations to our latest attendance winners.
Key Stage One
93.5%
90.7%
95.5%
KS1 and overall Winners!
Congratulations
94.8%
Key Stage Two
96.7%
93%
95.5%
98.1%
KS2 and overall Winners!
Congratulations
93.8%
84.2%
94%
96.2%
Nursery being wriggly worms
Click below to view the most recent Nursery and Reception Learning Updates
Click below to view the most recentYears 1 and 2 Learning Updates
Do you have the skills to help?
When we need particular support from our parent community, we post for help on our 'Call to Action' page on the schools website, and send the direct page link in an email to our parent community. So signing up is really easy!
Perhaps you would like to be a secret reader (reading a story to your child’s class), or would like to support us in maximising children’s opportunity to practice their reading skills, we need you.
Press the title to find out more.
Click below to view the most recent Years 3 and 4 Learning Updates
Our January Value is Commitment
Raising a Concern
It is important to us that any concerns or questions you may have are dealt with as efficiently as possible. The structure we have in place is designed to do just that.
The structure
1) Your first port of call is -Your child’s class teacher
(email via the admin team to request a meeting)
2) You may contact the leader of your child’s phase (see below)
This includes issues regarding communication and organisation
(email via the admin team to request a meeting)
Should you be dissatisfied with the handling or outcome...
3) You may raise your concerns with Ms Parker
(email via the admin team to request a meeting outlining the nature for the purpose of the meeting)
Leaders are required to share items (as appropriate) with Ms Parker on a weekly basis, even if the matter is being handled by them.
We request that you do not field your concerns to FAB but instead work directly with the school staff as outlined above.
Assistant Headteacher Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2
Assistant Headteacher Year 3 and Year 4
Assistant Headteacher Year 5 and Year 6
Click below to view the most recent Years 5 and 6 Learning Updates
School Meals Spring Term Menu
Quote of the month...
Out of School Clubs at Bonneville
Rooms and spaces are available for hire at Bonneville. Use the link to check out our website and find out more.
On site at Bonneville.
Brownies
Tuesdays 6pm -7.15pm
Guides
Tuesdays 7.15pm - 8.45pm
Use this link to connect to the website and access community resources.
Local Community Events
Consultation for a new Zebra Crossing
Consultation on the installation of a new Zebra crossing, near the junction of Abbeville Road and Bonneville gardens has begun. To share your views, email Councillor Ben Curtis.
Lambeth’s support services for families and students
The Gaia Centre provides support for Lambeth residents affected by gender-based violence, including domestic abuse. An out-of-hours on-call service: 07725245779. Normal hours are 8am-6pm Monday – Friday. It also offers services for young people and advice for practitioners. Tel: 020 7733 8724, E: lambethvawg@refuge.org.uk.
Helpline support is available:
- National Domestic Abuse Helpline, 24/7
- Women’s Aid live chat, daily 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
- Men’s Advice Line, weekdays, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
- Samaritans Helpline, 24/7
- Childline 24/7
- In emergencies, call 999
Additional resources are available on the Lambeth VAWG webpage and through Operation Encompass, a national initiative for children exposed to domestic abuse. For questions, contact: PS Laura Bennetts - laura.bennetts@met.police.uk or PC Rachel - Rachel.Dennison@met.police.uk or PC Nicola Smalldridge - Nicola.Smalldridge2@met.police.uk
How we keep you in the loop!
Weekly- News Summary Video
Bi weekly- Year group learning updates on the school website
Monthly- Newsletter 'The Bonneville Buzz'
Monthly- Federation SEND Newsletter: https://www.smore.com/3ahfv
Termly- Annual Calendar of dates
Termly- Federation Newsletter
Keep Up To Date
For more information on any of the above and more, press below to visit the schools website and follow us on Twitter!