School Newsletter : 13 January 2023

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.

We have had a great start to the year with a focus this week on Healthy Living. We’ve had 2 whole-school assemblies on the benefits and importance of exercise and good food choices. We now know that children should do at least 60 minutes of physical activity each day! This can made up through organised sport, walking to school or playing with friends. Our challenge is to make sure we do this every day.

We have also learnt how to read food labels and make healthier choices when we are in the shops, as well as how to measure portion sizes. Did you know that your stomach is only the size of your fist? Years 1, 3 and 5 also had class workshops linked to healthy eating and living, with some great ideas for how to incorporate more fruit and vegetables into our diets, and the importance of moving and stretching, especially when we have been sitting for a long time.

On Thursday afternoon there was a parent’s workshop also – thank you to those parents who attended. Our school is currently working towards the Healthy Schools Bronze Award, which will recognise everyone’s efforts to be healthy. We will keep you updated and don’t forget, try to aim for 60 minutes of exercise a day!

Woof!

Happy Friday Everyone 🙂

What a busy first full week we have had back at school. There has been a healthy schools focus this week – which I’m happy to report did not involve less treats for me! What a relief!

All classes had sessions with Ebony from Change4Life, who helped everyone learn about ways to make simple changes to their lifestyles including diet and exercise, which will have a positive impact on our health.

I love exercise and enjoy 2 hours of walking a day (which is also good for my human) and playing with all the children in school, chasing balls and playing football.

I also really enjoy visiting classes and really love it when I get lots of belly rubs and pats – it makes me very happy (which you can tell by my very waggy tail).

Wishing you all a healthy and happy weekend. I hope you get a chance to go for a walk or play in the park 🙂

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.