On 21st June, I, Darren Campbell, Headteacher at Bishop’s Waltham Junior School, will be taking on the Chase the Sun challenge — cycling 205 miles (10,000ft climbing) from the East to the West coast, all between sunrise and sunset — alongside my good friend and fellow headteacher colleague, David, and two other friends.

We’re riding to raise money for Acorns Children’s Hospice, in memory of Annie.

Annie was the very young niece of David. She was a joyful little girl with complex medical needs who brought happiness to everyone around her. Acorns supported Annie and her family throughout her life — and in her final days last August — with care, compassion, and dignity.

This ride is for Annie — and to raise awareness of the incredible work Acorns continues to do for children and families facing heartbreaking challenges.

If you’d like to support, here’s our fundraising page:

https://www.justgiving.com/page/annie-burtoft

There’s absolutely no pressure to donate, but please do share if you can. Thank you 

Darren Campbell

Headteacher

Congratulations to the BWJS Swim Squad! 

A huge well done to our 12 amazing Swim Squad members who competed in the Winchester Schools Swimming Gala last Friday morning, alongside 22 other schools!

Special shoutout to Alice B (Y4) who stormed to 1st place in the 25m freestyle finals, officially making her the fastest swimmer in Hampshire for her age group – an incredible achievement!

 
Well done also to James D (Y4) who came a very respectable 7th in his race.

Our boys’ relay team showed fantastic teamwork, qualifying for both finals and finishing 5th in the medley and 3rd in the freestyle.

The girls’ relay team were on fire too – powering through the heats and coming 2nd in both the medley and freestyle finals in two nail-bitingly close races! Their freestyle time of 1 minute 9 seconds sets a new BWJ school record! 

This gala also marked the final competition for our Year 6 squad members – thank you for your 4 years of commitment, sportsmanship, and superb representation of BWJS in the pool. You’ve done us proud! 

Congratulations to all – from your proud swim coach, Mrs Cooper!

Year 4 have made a fantastic start to the last half term of the year! Everyone returned energised (including the teachers) and looking forward to the many exciting activities we have planned.

Computing

After learning about how 'Taff' (a fictional character who seems to get himself into a lot of trouble when using computers) needs to be more careful with dealing with Junk emails, Year 4 started on a personal favourite unit – Making a piece of music. To accomplish this, the children used the wonderful Dance Ejay program. It is simple enough to use, yet detailed enough to create some creative pieces of music. Ask your child when they are next humming a tune, it may be one they composed themselves!

PE

Over the last couple of weeks, we have been learning the skills involved with Cricket. With a wide range of abilities, each group of children is given activities to extend themselves and help them all build their confidence in catching and batting. As the weeks progress these skills will be implemented into small group games. Hopefully, we’ll unearth the next Sachin Tendulkar!

Art

Today we started our final Art unit, Print Making. We have begun to investigate different techniques and artists that use printing to create spectacular pieces of art. From relief printing, simple stamps to investigating the meaning of typography, as a year group we are raring to start our own printing. So clear that mantelpiece, in a few weeks you will have a new masterpiece from your child to display!

Science

Yesterday we completed our Electricity unit by creating burglar alarms to keep the school secure! This unit has been one of the children’s favourite as it has involved lots of making circuits and hands on experiments!

Maths

This week we also completed our Multiplication Tables Check. This is a statutory assessment for Year 4 pupils to determine their fluency in recalling multiplication facts. The children have put a lot of effort into learning up to the 12 times tables and this important information is a vital part of their maths knowledge. Well done to all the children!

As always, thank you for your support, we really could not do it without you…

Year 4 Team

On 21st June, I, Darren Campbell, Headteacher at Bishop’s Waltham Junior School, will be taking on the Chase the Sun challenge — cycling 205 miles (10,000ft climbing) from the East to the West coast, all between sunrise and sunset — alongside my good friend and fellow headteacher colleague, David, and two other friends.

We’re riding to raise money for Acorns Children’s Hospice, in memory of Annie.

Annie was the very young niece of David. She was a joyful little girl with complex medical needs who brought happiness to everyone around her. Acorns supported Annie and her family throughout her life — and in her final days last August — with care, compassion, and dignity.

This ride is for Annie — and to raise awareness of the incredible work Acorns continues to do for children and families facing heartbreaking challenges.

If you’d like to support, here’s our fundraising page:

https://www.justgiving.com/page/annie-burtoft

There’s absolutely no pressure to donate, but please do share if you can. Thank you 

Darren Campbell

Headteacher