School Newsletter : 06 January 2023

Welcome back everyone! We would like to send the best of wishes to all our families for the coming year. We hope you had a wonderful holiday, are well rested and ready to start the new term – because we certainly are!

One of main priorities for this term is to resurrect our school’s Parents Staff Association (PSA), The Friends of Burdett-Coutts. If this is something you’d love to volunteer time to, or to get involved with, please join us for an informal coffee morning on Thursday 26th January from 09:00 – 10:00 in the school hall.

This will be an opportunity to find out more, and contribute to gathering ideas for organising and arranging fundraising events across the school year – and we thought we could start with an Easter Fete?

Do come and get involved – everyone is warmly invited and we look forward to seeing you there.

On Thursday 19th January, at 9 – 9.45am in the Ground Floor Hall, Alexander Haswell, our school’s Educational Psychologist, will be hosting a Coffee Morning for parents, with a Q&A workshop to talk about sleep.

Sleep plays an extremely significant role in brain development. The quantity and quality of sleep a child gets has a profound impact on learning and memory. During sleep, the brain sorts out and stores important information – this is how memories are created. Poor sleep is linked with behaviour issues, hyperactivity (ADHD-type symptoms), concentration and memory issues, as well as health difficulties.

Sleep Psychologist Dr Guy Meadows says: “We need to recognise that sleep is one of the most powerful performance-enhancers known to humankind. If you are serious about your child’s academic performance, then schools and parents should be really helping them get good quality sleep on a regular basis.”

This Q&A style workshop for parents will explore the importance of sleep for child development and offer guidance for parents to help them establish healthy sleeping patterns for their children, including teenage children.

As part of our Healthy Eating Week beginning on the 9th January, all classes will be participating in a focused workshop, with the following overview:

Eating is a habitual behaviour and, like most habits, is established during childhood. Implementing healthy eating practices in children ensures optimal growth and development and sets the foundation necessary to lead a healthy lifestyle into adulthood.

These workshops have been designed to equip children with practical skills to implement the key messages of the Eatwell guide at home. They will include interactive activities and links to valuable resources to help strengthen understanding. After this workshop, children will understand:

• The importance of achieving a healthy diet.
• How the Eatwell guide can help children meet their nutritional needs.
• How to implement the Eatwell guide recommendations at home.
• How to use food labels to make healthier food choices.

Woof!

Hi everyone and Happy New Year!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas Holiday and are as excited as I am about being back at school and beginning a whole new year. I have heard about lots of amazing trips, visits and class based activities that are taking place this term – and I can’t wait! I just hope I am invited 🙂

It has been really great seeing everybody back in school this week and today I spent lots of time visiting with children in the playground, attending our Epiphany church service and helping (well sort of) tidy away the Christmas decorations……. those baubles really are like balls and so much fun to chase 🙂

Looking forward to fun filled term,

Love Biscuit xx

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.