School Newsletter @ 19 June 2026

Year 4 Trip to the Science Museum:
Year 4 enjoyed an exciting trip to the Science Museum, where they discovered the many careers that use science in the fascinating Technicians Gallery. We may even have a few future pharmacists in the class! Pupils also explored a range of remarkable inventions in the Modern World Gallery, learning how science and technology continue to shape our lives.

The highlight of the day was attending not one, but two incredible live science shows, where real-life experiments exploded into action before their eyes. It was a fantastic opportunity to learn, explore and be inspired, and everyone had a wonderful time.

July 2026:

• Tuesday 2nd: Disney (Frozen) EveningPerformance 18:00 – 19:00 (details to follow)
• Tuesday 7th: Year 1 Trip to the Florence Nightingale Museum.
• Thursday 9th: Whole School Sports Day
• Friday 10th: Last day of Booster and Extended School Day Clubs
• Tuesday 14th: Founders Day Service – Year 6 (Time TBC)
• Wednesday 15th: Year 3 and Year 6 KEIR site visit, 09:15 – 12:00
• Thursday 16th: Y6 Trip to Rochester Cathedral
• Friday 17th: Last day of school for the summer term. School finishes at 13:30 for all pupils

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 >

Please find here the agreed term dates set by our school’s Governing Body for the upcoming academic year, starting September 2026.

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 link below:

• Burdett-Coutts & Townshend Foundation CE Primary School Term Dates 2026-2027 >

This week, Preschool have been diving into our exciting underwater theme inspired by the story Hooray for Fish! The children have loved exploring a variety of sea creatures and learning all about life beneath the waves. Using blue paint, different textures and a range of materials, they worked together to create a beautiful underwater backdrop. Through this sensory and creative experience, they explored colours, textures and their imaginations. They then designed and created their own colourful fish, carefully adding them to the display to bring our underwater scene to life. We have also enjoyed making jellyfish and crabs as part of our learning. The children have shown wonderful creativity, curiosity and enthusiasm throughout the week as they explored all things under the sea.

This week, Nursery began reading their new story, Anna Hibiscus’ Song. To introduce the book, the children explored the front cover and used their imaginations to predict what the story might be about. They thoroughly enjoyed sharing their ideas and listening to one another’s thoughts, offering lots of creative and imaginative suggestions.

As part of our topic work, we also started learning about Africa. The children explored some aspects of the continent’s rich culture, including its music, food, wildlife and traditions. We discussed traditional African necklaces and looked at the different colours and patterns often used in their designs. The children had great fun creating their own necklaces, carefully selecting bright colours and incorporating repeating patterns into their work. They were very proud of their finished creations and enjoyed sharing them with their friends.

For our writing activity, the children drew their favourite safari animals and used their phonics knowledge to label their pictures and write simple words and phrases. They were encouraged to listen carefully for the sounds they could hear in words and to apply their growing phonics skills independently.

We have had a fantastic start to our new topic and are looking forward to continuing our learning about Africa and following Anna Hibiscus on her adventures next week.

This week in Music, Reception have been introduced to keyboards and have been exploring how to create different sounds using the keys and settings. The children learned how to change tones, experiment with rhythms and play along to backing tracks. They showed great enthusiasm as they began to understand how music can be created and layered in different ways.

A particular highlight was the opportunity for them to share their own short musical pieces with the class. They proudly performed on the keyboards and showed excellent encouragement and support as audience members. A huge thank you to Mr Carden for helping to build the children’s confidence, listening skills and enjoyment of making music together.

Our Year 1 writers have been absolutely amazing this term! Inspired by fairy tales and story writing, the children have been using ambitious vocabulary, exciting sentence structures and their imaginations to create engaging narratives.

We have been particularly impressed by how confidently the children are planning and developing their ideas, using descriptive language such as determined, gloomy, crunchy twigs and squinted to bring their stories to life. They are beginning to think like real authors, carefully building suspense, describing settings and creating problems for their characters to solve.

Alongside their creativity, the children have worked hard on sentence accuracy, using capital letters, full stops and increasingly sophisticated vocabulary. It has been wonderful to see their confidence grow as they write longer pieces and independently edit and improve their work. We are incredibly proud of the progress they have made this year and cannot wait to see where their imaginations take them next.

Last Friday, Year 6 proudly presented their class assembly, Year 6 Reunion. Dressed as older versions of themselves, complete with walking sticks, glasses and a few aching knees, the class imagined returning to Burdett-Coutts fifty years in the future and reflecting on the memories that had shaped their primary school journey.

Although some of our elderly Year 6 pupils struggled to remember where they had left their walking sticks (and even what they had eaten for breakfast!), a special memory box helped bring their recollections flooding back. Using objects from the box, pupils revisited some of the highlights of their final year, including their work with local historian Peter Daniel, visits to Westminster Abbey and London Museum Docklands, their theatre project with Go Live Theatre, SATs week and their intergenerational work with members of the local community through The Abbey Centre.

As the assembly progressed, pupils reflected on an important message: while they may not remember every test, lesson or piece of homework, they will always remember the people who supported them along the way. Their humorous reflections on SATs brought plenty of laughter, while their thoughtful memories of friendships, teachers, teaching assistants and family members left many audience members feeling emotional. Through the poem SATs Don’t Measure, pupils reminded us that test results are only a small part of who we are and that qualities such as kindness, creativity, resilience and friendship matter just as much.

The assembly concluded with a heartfelt performance of Say Goodbye, celebrating the friendships, opportunities and memories that have made their time at Burdett-Coutts so special.