School Newsletter : 07 October 2025

Dear Parents/Carers and Pupils,

Many thanks to everyone who have safely navigated there way to school this week, amongst all the road and traffic disruption due to the water works taking place in our streets.

A polite health & safety reminder for those driving – please do not double park or block the roads around the school as this poses a real hazard to other users.

We will continue to support drop off and collection times as much as possible over the coming weeks by having a visual staff presence in and around the entrance to the school.

Please note that although Greycoat Lane remains open at the moment (turning into it from Rochester Row), this will be closed off at some stage during the course of the works. Please take care when this happens.

Road closures by Thames Water remain in effect from Monday 27th October until early December 2025.

• During this time, drivers will not be able to turn into Greycoat Lane from either direction. Barriers to prevent vehicle access will be put in place where the two blue lines are drawn on the map below.
• Please note you cannot turn into Rochester Street from Rochester Row, as this is one way street (and this would be going the wrong way). Please note that there is a camera on the street.
• Do ensure you review your travel routes to school before the new term starts, as those who drive will need to park in order to drop off and collect their children.
• As parking is very limited in our area, where possible we would strongly recommend using public transport and walking – rather than driving – during this period of works. Please note parking wardens do heavily patrol the areas.

For those with no alternative to driving, there will be a member of staff on the corner of Greycoat Street (Lane) and Elverton Street every morning, so that pupils can be dropped here.

Kindly note that this will be in the mornings only and only for drop offs. You will not be able to park here to walk your child into school. Please secure correct parking in the afternoons in order to collect your child/ren.

Full pedestrian access is still in place down Rochester Street (from Rochester Row) and from Elverton Street, along Greaycoat Lane to the main school gates, as shown as pink lines on the map.

If you have any queries, please email the school office. Kindly note that we will only be able to respond on Monday 3rd November, when school resumes after the half term break.

Kind regards,

BC Admin Team

We are thrilled to announce that Burdett-Coutts pupils have once again shone in the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland Art Competition. With over 700 entries submitted from schools across London, our talented young artists impressed the judges to achieve outstanding results!

• Silver Award: Kelise
  Kelise has won a Family Winter Wonderland Ticket Package, official merchandise and will have her artwork proudly displayed at the event.
• Bronze Award: Nuraa
  Nuraa has won Winter Wonderland entry tickets, Magical Ice Kingdom tickets, official merchandise and will also have her artwork exhibited at the event.
• Honourable Mention: Pippa

We are incredibly proud of both our winners, as well as Pippa for her Honourable Mention – and extend a huge well done to all pupils who took part. Your imagination and artistic effort were truly inspiring!

A reminder that the following class assemblies will be on Fridays @ 9am. If attending, please be seated in the First Floor Hall by 9am:

• Year 6: Friday 14th November
• Year 4: Friday 21st November
• Year 3: Friday 5th December

All Burdett-Coutts families are warmly welcome to join us for our Thanksgiving Event on the evening of Wednesday 27th November.

This is an informal opportunity for us to come together; to meet other parents in your child’s class, catch up with old friends and hopefully make some new ones.

Our school choir will be singing a selection of songs with refreshments for pupils and parents provided. We will also be launching our Christmas Displays on this evening.

Starting next week, we will be taking part in Anti-Bullying Week, a national initiative that encourages children to recognise the power they have to make a positive difference, whether in their friendships, in our school community, and in the world around them.

We will begin the week with Odd Socks Day on Monday 10th November. Children should come in their usual school uniform but wearing two different socks in simple celebration of what makes each of us unique. There is no donation required for Odd Socks Day.

Throughout the week, children will be exploring how our actions and voices can be a power for good — whether that means showing kindness, being a good friend, or speaking up if something feels unkind.

On Friday 14th November, we will be fundraising in support of Children in Need whose theme for this year is ‘Challenge Yourself to 25‘.

This day will be a non-uniform day (for a gold coin donation) and we would like to encourage the children to take on their own positive ‘25 challenge‘  – which could be 25 acts of kindness, 25 jumps, 25 thank-yous, or whatever creative idea they decide to choose.

As part of our fundraising, we will also have:

• Cupcakes for sale at 50p each
• A ‘Guess the Number of Smarties’ jar for each key stage (50p per guess)

Please ensure children are dressed warmly, as this will be a full school day of learning and play. Thank you in advance for your support with this important national initiative.

We look forward to a week of kindness, community, and empowering our children to use their voices for good.

After a spot of weeding and sorting out of the garden area last week, our school chickens have had a few new items arrive in the garden area to roost on and shelter under as we enter the wet and windy season.

A new sign has been fitted onto the garden gate which helps pupils to identify our chickens, Cinnamon, Nutmeg and Nugget. Each chicken has a coloured ring on one of its legs which matches the colour splat behind them on the poster above.

They are becoming so friendly and really enjoy engaging with the pupils, who are helping to feed and collect eggs each day. Do stop by and check out what they are up to in their enclosure when you get the chance.

Woof…

Happy Friday everyone. Welcome back to the second half of the Autumn Term – get ready, it’s going to be busy!

We’ve had a fantastic start to the term and there has been lots of excitement in the playgrounds especially, with the new playground equipment being in place. This has been purchased as a direct result of all the amazing fund-raising our school’s PTA, Friends of Burdett-Coutts have been doing over the last few terms.

We are so appreciative of the support and enthusiasm of our parents, carers & staff who are part of the Friends of Burdett-Coutts (PTA), as well as the wonderful cooperation shown by our families in attending all the events that they host.

Together, this has enabled us to undertake these playground improvements, which we will continue to enhance further as and when we can.

There is so much happening in school – although it’s only been a week back, we have had trips and visitors and everyone has jumped full back into their learning.

I have had so much fun this week, both playing in the playgrounds with many of our pupils as well as helping with school tours as our new families visit the school for the upcoming Reception class intake.

Last week during half term, I was very busy in school helping to tidy and sort out the garden and chicken area. Both the chickens and I really pitched in to help with the weeding. Although I didn’t understand why the chickens like the worms so much. I’m usually not fussy with foods but snacking on worms is not really for me.

We’ve also had lots of visitors in school who were fitting new lights into three of our classes and corridors, as well as the main office areas. The remedial works and decoration following flood damage by the Reception class was also completed, while the top floor KS2 toilets was also being refitted.

I was kept very busy following all these visitors (who had yummy snacks and lunches on them) around the school!

The first phase of our school’s IT upgrade has also started, and we had all the cabinets updated and some relocated, plus new switches put in. The next phase will see all new wifi points installed and the final phase will included new servers and the IT room decommissioned as we move towards 1:1 deployment of devices across the school.

The second phase will take place in the Christmas break and the final phase in the February half term.

And if you think this week was busy, there’s so much more coming up next week:

• Monday: Odd Socks Day (Start of Anti-Bullying week)
• Tuesday: Remembrance Day School Service begins at 10:45 and Year 6 trip to Westminster Abbey for Remembrance Day Service
• Wednesday: Years 1, 2 & 4 at Lambeth Palace to take part in Wintershall Advent Travelling  Crib Event.
• Thursday: Choir pupils taking part in music writing workshop with Westminster School
• Friday: Non Uniform Day for BBC Children in Need and Year 4 Trip to St. Pauls Cathedral

Please see calendar area below for more information about the above events.

Have a pawsome weekend and see you all next week.

Love Biscuit x 

Please ensure that your children are wearing the correct school uniform to school each day. It is important that all pupils are also wearing the correct school shoes – which are black shoes, and not trainers.

The Autumn/Winter term uniform options for pupils in Nursery to Year 6 are:

Please find here the agreed term dates set by our school’s Governing Body for the upcoming academic year, starting September 2025.

Please remember that holidays will not be authorised during the school term, and that all children should be in school (on time) every day.

Alternatively, you can click on the image thumbnail on the right to view the PDF (please note this will open in a new window) or you can click on the link below:

• Burdett-Coutts & Townshend Foundation CE Primary School Term Dates 2025-2026 >

Preschool have begun exploring their core text, Owl Babies! The children loved using puppets to bring the story to life, practicing expressive language and storytelling skills. We extended their learning by building trees with wooden blocks, creating cozy homes for the owl characters. This hands-on activity encouraged problem solving, fine motor development, and spatial awareness while connecting play with the story.

Nursery have began reading their new story, Leaf Man. The children were inspired by the book and enjoyed heading outdoors to collect leaves. Using their collections, they created their very own leaf characters and artwork. It was a wonderful hands-on way to explore nature and storytelling. We loved seeing their creativity and excitement grow with every leaf they found.

Welcome back! Reception have been bursting with stories from their holidays, and it’s been wonderful to hear them all. We’ve begun the term by exploring autumn and the festivals celebrated during this season. From creating Bonfire Night crafts, to learning songs for our upcoming Remembrance Day service, and understanding the significance of poppies, it’s been a busy and exciting week. A lovely way for everyone to settle back into school life.

In Maths, Year 1 explored addition and subtraction within 10 using number lines. We practised counting on to add, and counting back to subtract, making links between the number sentences and our jumps on the line. The children showed brilliant resilience as they worked through their calculations and explained their thinking.

As readers this week, Year 6 have begun exploring their new class novel, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne. We’ve been reading the text both in class and at home, using it to develop a range of key reading skills including fact retrieval, inference, prediction and understanding language in context. Pupils have been discussing the setting and characters, using clues from the text to imagine where the story is taking place and what Bruno might encounter on the other side of the fence. They have also been looking closely at the author’s choice of language – exploring the meaning of unfamiliar words and how vocabulary is used to create mood, tension and character development. This powerful and thought-provoking story provides an accessible and engaging entry point into the difficult topic of the Holocaust. Alongside our history lessons about World War II, this novel is helping them build a deeper understanding of the time period in a way that encourages empathy, reflection and critical thinking.