School Newsletter : 07 October 2022

Well it’s hard to believe that we are already one month into the new school year! What a busy time it has been.

We’d like to invite parents and carers along to information meetings that we are holding in the final week of the this half term. These meetings will be led by your child’s class teacher, and will provide you with further information on the learning taking place in class, homework expectations, class projects and reading tasks.

We hope you’re able to join us on the dates below, and are very much looking forward to seeing you then:

• Monday 17th @ 0900 – 0940:  Reception Parent Information Meeting
• Tuesday 18th @ 0900 – 0940:  Year 1 & 2 Parent Information Meeting
• Wednesday 19th @ 0900 – 0940:  Year 5 & 6 Parent Information Meeting
• Thursday 20th @ 0900 – 0940:  Year 3 & 4 Parent Information Meeting

Kindly note that all meetings will take place in the Ground Floor Hall.

Classes will have PE lessons on the following days for the Autumn Term.

• Monday: Year 1 (PM)
• Tuesday: Year 4 (PM)
• Wednesday: Year 5 (AM)* and Year 2 (PM)
• Thursday: Year 6 (PM)
• Friday: Reception & Nursery (AM) and Year 3 (PM)

*Kindly note that ONLY Year 5 pupils will need to come to school in their school uniform and bring their PE kit to change into after attending Church, on their designated PE day (Wednesday).

Please ensure that your child is wearing the correct PE uniform to school on their designated PE day. If you have any questions about school uniforms, please call, email or pop in to the school office

It is so lovely to see our classes on stage in the hall sharing their achievements at our Friday assemblies again. Year 6 dazzled us last week, with their celebration of Queen Elizabeth II’s life and reign.

Please keep checking the Community Corner section of the Newsletter for upcoming class assemblies; it’s lovely to see parents and carers in school to watch the assemblies.

Class Assemblies:

We are delighted to welcome parents to school this term for Friday morning class sharing assemblies on the following dates:

• 7th October: Year 5
• 14th October: Year 4
• 21st October: Year 3
• 18th November: Year 2
• 25th November: Year 1
• 2nd December: Reception & Nursery

When attending your child’s class assembly, please come to the main school office by 8:55am at the latest. You will be shown upstairs to the First Floor Hall and seated by 9am.

Collective Worship

The whole school attends acts of Collective Worship every day.

• Mondays and Tuesdays: key stage singing assemblies led by Mr Carden.
• Wednesdays: Church service led by Graham or Helena, the clergy at St Stephens with St John on Rochester Row. These services are very child-friendly, and Year 6 take a leading role by processing, singing in the choir and reading the Bible readings and prayers.
• Thursdays: We focus on celebrating achievements, led by a member of SLT, School Council or a class teacher with their class. When a class teacher leads the assembly, their class also recite a piece of poetry they have been learning. We would be very grateful if parents could support their children in learning these poems when it is their turn.
• Friday: Opportunities for classes to share what they have been learning with their families and the rest of the school.

Harvest Festival Donations – Thank you!

A huge thank you to our school community for the generous donations to our Harvest Festival collection.

We took everything into the Church for the Harvest Service on Wednesday, and Graham created an enormous tree with a painted trunk growing up the aisle of the church and real branches laid out in front of the children.

Children then distributed our offerings and Graham blessed everything.

Each class also wrote special Harvest prayers on autumnal leaves which were placed around the tree. Graham talked to the children about many things, including Saint Francis of Assisi and the importance of trees.

Theme of the Week:

The theme of the week in church is: ‘There’s more to life than money‘, an important and thought-provoking sentiment at this time when everyone is feeling the pinch of the cost of living crisis and rising prices.

Over the course of the year we will focus on our school’s three Christian Values: Friendship, Compassion and Service.

Throughout the Autumn Term we will be concentrating on Friendship, and this ties in beautifully with the start of a new school year, new class teachers, new friends and making a fresh start.

If you are looking for a Nursery Place, we have a one full-time space and one part-time afternoon space still available to start in September 2022 (or January 2023).

We have FOUR Reception places left for September 2022.

These are filling up quickly, so to secure your place, please contact us on 020 7828 6790 or email: office@burdettcoutts.co.uk.

We’d be delighted for you to join us for a 30-minute EYFS tour, where you will have the chance explore our Early Years setting, speak to key staff and ask any questions regarding admissions and your child starting with us at Burdett-Coutts.

Please contact us to register for our tours which take place every Thursday morning @ 09:30 – 10:30 during term time.

Due to changes in the eligibility criteria for Pupil Premium, Free School Meals and qualifying for 30 hours of funding for Nursery provision, many pupils currently enrolled at our school may now be entitled to one of these funding allocations.

We will be issuing letters to families who are currently not in receipt of the above, asking you to complete the registration for the identified funding option your child/ren maybe eligible for. Thank you so much in advance for your help in completing this.

This funding allows us to increase additional staffing hours to run booster groups, and an exciting range of extended day activities, that benefit our school and your child, and your cooperation is greatly appreciated at this difficult time for school budgets.

Nursery were thrilled to be visited by Biscuit, our school’s therapy dog and canine celebrity. She performed very impressive tricks and has been the topic of very important discussions since eg: Can she do any tricks without a treat? Will she write her name if you give her a bone? Can she join nursery?

We have started our weekly computing lessons with Mr Carden, and this half term we are focusing on developing our mouse skills. We have found it very tricky to navigate the mouse to the correct spot and click the mouse to select the thing we want/need. We are working very hard and have already made progress. We look forward to our computing lessons every Tuesday.