School Newsletter : 22 July 2025

As we come to the end of this academic year, I’d like to take this opportunity, on behalf of our governors and trustees, to thank everyone in our school community – parents & carers, pupils and staff – for your ongoing support.

The children have worked incredibly hard throughout the year, attending school with a commendable positive daily attitude. They have absolutely thrived and it clearly shows by how we have so much to celebrate and be proud of.

A special well done to our hardworking pupils and staff, especially to those in all the national data collection years, which include Reception (EYFS), Year 1 Phonics, and Year 2, and Year 6 SATs, for their fabulous results.

You all did incredibly well, and we are so very proud of you!

I’d also like to thank our amazing PTA – The Friends of Burdett-Coutts – who have worked tirelessly throughout the year realising events and raising money for our school to help enrich our children’s opportunities.

To all our staff at Burdett-Coutts, thank you for continuing to be so incredibly dedicated and hardworking and for always putting the children first.

We wish you a fantastic summer. Please keep safe, and we look forward to seeing you all again in September, ready for another amazing year.

Wednesday 9th July: Year 2 to Hyde Park
Year 2 had a fantastic day out in Hyde Park, where they enjoyed a fun and active cricket session led by Lord’s Community coaches. Before the workshop began, we had a lovely picnic lunch in the park, soaking up the sunshine and spending time together outdoors. The children then took part in a range of cricket activities focused on batting, bowling, and fielding. The sessions were led by ECB-qualified coaches who made sure every child, regardless of ability, was fully engaged and had the chance to develop their skills. It was a brilliant day of sport, teamwork and summer fun!

Thursday 10th July: Years 4 & 5 to Hyde Park
Pupils from Years 4 & 5 attended the British Summer Time Schools program, where they watched the Brainiac Remixed Show, where the Brainiac team tested materials to see if they could be jumped through, as well as blowing things up for fun! After lunch, the pupils participated in the Brainiac Detective Academy, where through a series of clues, they had to find the culprit who’d stolen the lab costs. The children were able to identify their own fingerprints and looked at how different pens have different ink inside of them. The children handled the warm eather admirably and everyone had such a great day.

Wednesday 16th July: Year 5 Trip to Piccadilly Circus
year 5 enjoyed a class trip to the Piccadilly Circus building site, to visit the construction company who’d been collaborating with the children on projects related to climate change. The class were fantastic at identifying environmental issues, and had great questions about how the constructors ensured they weren’t damaging the environment. After the presentation, we went to the building site to sow seeds and plant plants, to create an environment for birds, bees and butterflies to enjoy. Everyone came home with a great goodie bag too!

Thursday 17th July: Cross Country Day in Richmond Park
What a fantastic day we had on Thursday at Richmond Park for our Cross Country event! Brilliantly organised and supported by the Ranelagh Harriers running club, 31 children from Reception to Year 6 (who had taken part in our school’s after school running club), experienced a day full of excitement, teamwork, and perseverance. The journey to the race venue itself was an adventure, with a train and bus ride to the park, setting the tone for a day of outdoor fun.

The children showed great spirit & resilience as they tackled the course, cheered on by staff and volunteers. Everyone completed their runs and were given a medal to reflect their accomplishments – even the adults! After an outdoor lunch in the grass, we said our goodbyes to make our way back to school.

Just as we were almost out of the park, we were treated to a truly magical sight – a herd of deer – appearing in the woods. What a fabulous way to finish off an amazing day. A huge thank you to Ranelagh Harriers and everyone who made the day so special; and a massive well done to the children for their amazing running!

A HUGE thank you to everyone who attended our Summer Fair on Saturday 12th July. It was a resounding success with amazing summer weather beaming down on the many stalls laden with yummy food and BBQ, games and bouncy castle, nail art, craft and much more.

We had such amazing feedback and thanks to everyone’s generous support, together we have raised an amazing £2124.50!

I would like to extend a special ‘thank you’ to our PTA parents, staff and all other parents and family members, who assisted in the setup, pack up and preparation of this event. Your help and support is very much appreciated and you are all superstars!

Please keep an eye for the September edition of our newsletter for FOBC meeting dates and key events planned for the Autumn Term 2025.

Our talented Go Live children were treated to an unforgettable trip to the West End to see My Neighbour Totoro – a true bucket-list experience! For many, it was their very first time seeing a live theatre production on such a grand scale, and everyone’s excitement was electric from start to finish.

The pupils were completely awestruck by the incredible set, the larger-than-life puppetry, and the magic of seeing actors bring a beloved story to life right before their eyes. It was a joy to witness their faces light up in wonder, and truly a proud moment for all of us.

We are so grateful to Go Live Theatre for making this magical experience possible, and we look forward to working together again in the future to inspire more young hearts through the arts.

A HUGE thank you to all the parents, friends and extended family members who came along to our sports day this week. We had such a FANTASTIC morning of sporting fun and competition.

We were extremely lucky with the weather, with all the events completed (including the parents’ race!) and a return from the fields before the rain arrived. Although the end of our day took a sudden and unexpected turn, we were delighted to see that Mr Carden is recovering well and was back in school for the Burdett-Coutts Talent Show.

Well done to all our pupils for their demonstration of great sportsmanship and competition. It was wonderful to see (and hear!) the enthusiasm, joy and pride as they participated in a wide range of events.

Thanks to all school staff for their support and preparation for this event – your help really made the day go so smoothly. Special thanks to Westminster School and especially to their groundsman, for the use of their wonderful playing fields. We look forward to seeing you all next year!

As writers, Year 2 read a beautiful and mysterious story called The Princess and the White Bear King by Tanya Robyn Batt. Blending three folk tales from Northern Europe, it tells the magical adventure of a princess who journeys far across the world to right a mistake and break an ancient spell. When she breaks a promise to the White Bear, she sets out on an impossible quest that takes her east of the sun and west of the moon. To inspire their writing, children imagined themselves as royal goldsmiths and created crowns based on the one the princess sees in her dream. They wrote persuasive letters to the King, trying to convince him to choose their crown, describing them as “brighter than the sun” and “finer than any treasure in the land”. They worked hard to use sentence openers, expanded noun phrases and conjunctions to make their writing vivid and persuasive.

For our Year 2 pupils, this year has been full of memorable moments and unforgettable learning adventures taking them through time, across continents, and deep into their imaginations. We began by travelling back to 1666 to learn about the Great Fire of London and its impact on our city. Later, we celebrated the 80th anniversary of VE Day dressed in 1940s outfits and went on a local walk through Westminster.

They enjoyed memorable outings – from admiring royal portraits at the King’s Gallery and becoming zoologists at London Zoo, to playing cricket in Hyde Park with professional coaches and dissecting seeds at the Garden Museum. We made the most of our school pools during hot summer days and enjoyed cosy hot chocolate breaks in winter. At Christmas, we performed the Nativity in front of a packed church, created a beautiful display based on The Twelve Days of Christmas, were visited by our mischievous Elf on the Shelf, and shared a delicious festive lunch with friends and teachers.

Biscuit, our favourite furry assistant, has been by our side – listening quietly during reading or helping us with our maths lessons. She was particularly interested in learning to count how many sweets were in the jar on Maths Day! We are incredibly proud of how much the children have grown. It has been a true joy to teach this class, and we wish them all the best as they continue their journey into Year 3. Have a wonderful, sunny and well-deserved summer holiday!