School Newsletter : 09 December 2022

Dear Parents & Carers,

We’re delighted to be hosting Winter Camp 2022 organised by OurCamps from 19th – 22nd December at our school. Founded in the summer of 2021, OurCamps is an organisation committed to providing fun, safe activity camps for children in over 50 schools across London, Surrey, Hampshire and Portsmouth.

OurCamps work in direct partnership with councils and Local Authority partners to make attending camp FREE for free school meal children and affordable for all others. They believe that everyone deserves a great experience during the holidays and their camps are exclusively for pupils at the school where the camp is being held.

This year, they’ll be hosting the Burdett-Coutts Winter Camp 2022 from 19th to 22nd December at 10am until 2pm, daily. Depending on numbers, activities may include gym/dance, arts & crafts, themed days, Warhammer, skateboarding, experiments, physical activity, creative free play and more!

To find out more and to sign up, simply use your phone to scan the QR code on the flyer that was sent home or here in the newsletter to go to the School Camps.org website. You will need to create a new account and once you’ve done this, simply search for Burdett-Coutts under ‘Camps’ to make your booking.

The camp is open to pupils aged 5 – 11 years, however Nursery and Reception children/siblings can also attend. The cost per child (including Nursery and Reception) is £20/day + £5 lunch. You can opt to bring a packed lunch instead and not pay the £5/day per child for lunch, but please ensure that their pack lunch contains adequate nourishment to sustain their activities throughout the day.

REMINDER: This camp is FREE for all pupils on ‘benefits related‘ Free School Meals (FSM). When booking, simply use the booking code HAFBUR100. A hot lunch is provided each day.

If your child is not entitled to benefits related FSM, or is in Nursery or Reception they can still join in for £20.00 per day.

• OurCamps Winter Camp 2022 Flyer >
• OurCamps Winter Camp 2022 details (opens in new window) >

Here are some comments from children about the show:

“It was very fun and lovely to see everyone’s parents watching us!” – Daniel
“It was very nerve-wracking at first but once you get to know your lines you get used to it.” – Ali
“It was a good opportunity to sing on stage and dancing. It was very entertaining” – Sofia
“I loved the Sheik, Rattle and Roll part because it was funny the way they introduced themselves” – Lola
“It was fun!‘ – Fahad
“My favourite part is when we say Glory to God in the Highest because it was fun to sing with the actions.” – Sarina

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.

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

By setting up a Smile Amazon account, every time you shop there, you can make a ‘free’ donation to our PTFA Friends of Burdett-Coutts!

By linking your existing Amazon account to a charitable cause, Amazon will donate a small amount to our PTFA each time you buy something, at no extra cost to you.

• To do this, go to www.smile.amazon.co.uk
• Click ‘Get started’
• Sign into your Amazon account (or create one if you haven’t got one)
• Pick your charity by searching for ‘Friends of Burdett-Coutts’
• Then click ‘Select’
• Tick the box that says ‘Yes, I understand that I must always start at smile.amazon.co.uk to support Friends of Burdett-Coutts’
• Start shopping and remember to always go to www.smile.amazon.co.uk for all your Amazon shopping to make that vital donation to the Friends of Burdett-Coutts.

For a visual description of these instructions, please click the image on the right >

If you are looking for a Nursery  or Reception Place, for your child from September 2023, please contact the school and make an appointment to join a school tour.

We’d be delighted for you to join us for a 30-minute bespoke 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, with times available from 09:30 – 14:30 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.

We have been focusing on celebrating ourselves this term and Nursery children have been focusing on their names. They were most excited to show off their name writing skills, using chalk on black paper which really highlighted their newly acquired skills!

This week Reception have had a visit from a very naughty elf! We received a letter from Father Christmas asking us to keep an eye out for an elf who has gone missing from his workshop. We have been writing beautiful sentences about what he has been up to so that we can send them to Father Christmas. We will keep you updated on any more of his mischievous activities!