School Newsletter : 20 January 2023

Please join us as we wish a warm Burdett-Coutts welcome to our new school starters and their families who have joined our school’s community this term. We are delighted to have:

• Majeste (Y6) and her sister Sarai (Reception), who have relocated back to the UK from Trinidad.
• Doster (Y5) who has moved to the UK from Beijing.

After the February half term, we look forward to welcoming 4 new Nursery pupils. They’ll be visiting us over the next few weeks as they settle in ready for their start date, so don’t forget to say hello!

Next Thursday 26th January, we will be hosting a very special Coffee Morning at 09:00am in the school hall. All parents & carers are warmly invited to attend to help re-form our school’s Parent Staff Association (PSA), The Friends of Burdett-Coutts.

In the past, The Friends of Burdett-Coutts have worked in close partnership with our school to organise, host and realise a vast range of fundraising and school community events across the school year. Sadly, during the pandemic, they’ve had to cease activities but it’s now time to start things in motion again!

We are very excited about the relaunch of this important branch of our school family, and hope that you can come along to commit your time and energy in helping our school.

Being part of The Friends of Burdett-Coutts is a fun opportunity for you to be part of our school’s community, meet other parents, and help all pupils, while raising much needed funds for our school.

We look forward to seeing you next week.

January 2023:

• Thursday 26th January:  PSA ‘The Friends of Burdett-Coutts’ Coffee Morning – Ground Floor Hall in school (09:00 – 10:00)
• Thursday 26 January: LDBS Service at St. Paul’s Cathedral (13:00 – 15:30)
• Tuesday 24 January: Year 4 Trip to the Wallace Collection

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.

This weekend, millions of people around the world will be celebrating Chinese New Year on 22nd January. This celebration follows the Chinese lunar calendar and in China is often called the Spring Festival.

Red decorations are a common sight as red is considered a lucky colour in China, with billions of red envelopes exchanged between families to mark the occasion.

2023 is the Year of the Rabbit, and people born within this zodiac year are said to be quiet, elegant, kind and responsible. In London, the Chinese New Year parade is the biggest of its kind outside Asia and will follow a route around Chinatown that finishes in Trafalgar Square.

This week in church we heard the story of John the Baptist from the Gospel of John 1:29-42. Graham talked about the joy of sharing news with friends, and how excited people were to meet Jesus for the first time.

Please find here the agreed term dates set by our school’s Governing Body for the upcoming academic year, starting September 2022.

Please remember that holidays will not be authorised during the school term, and that all children should be in school (on time) every day.

Please refer to the table below for the term dates, including INSET days and Bank Holidays when the school will be closed to pupils.

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 2022-2023 >

 

AUTUMN TERM 2022
Start of Term (for Years 1-6)	Monday	05 September 2022
To	Friday	21 October 2022
Half Term	Monday	24 October 2022
	Friday	28 October 2022
Return on	Monday	31 October 2022
End of Term	Friday	16 December 2022
SPRING TERM 2023
Start of Term	Wednesday	04 January 2023
To	Friday	10 February 2023
Half Term	Monday	13 February 2023
	Friday	17 February 2023
Return on	Monday	20 February 2023
End of Term	Friday	31 March 2023
SUMMER TERM 2023
Start of Term	Monday	17 April 2023
To	Friday	26 May 2023
Half Term	Monday	29 May 2023
	Friday	02 June 2023
Return on	Monday	05 June 2023
End of Term	Friday	21 July 2023

 

INSET DAYS
Teaching & Learning: Curriculum Map Autumn/Spring	Thursday	01 September 2022
Teaching & Learning: Phonics	Friday	02 September 2022
Assessment & Pupil Progress	Friday	02 December 2022
Teaching & Learning: Curriculum Map Autumn/Spring	Tuesday	03 January 2023
Assessment & Pupil Progress	Friday	07 July 2023
BANK HOLIDAYS (school closed)
May Bank Holiday	Monday	01 May 2023
Coronation Bank Holiday	Monday	08 May 2023

Nursery have been spending time thinking, talking and dealing with feeling BIG feelings – no matter what they might be. Over the course of a day the children discussed how they felt at different times or in certain situations. They noticed that sometimes they feel some feelings for a long time and others for a shorter period. The children have learnt that some feelings are not good or bad, just big. We know that it’s fine to express our feelings as and when they occur, so long as we are respectful to others and our environment.

We have started an adventurous new topic this half term, ‘All Around the World’. Linked to this topic, we will also be exploring the vast and exciting topic of ‘Space’! Our task this week was to build a rocket using a range of junk modelling materials. We looked at different types of rockets and discussed the shapes we could see. We carefully chose the appropriate recycled materials and worked hard gluing and taping our creations together.

Happy Friday everyone! Year 1 are well and truly back into the swing of learning and play routines after a lovely break. This week in Art we have been focusing on primary and secondary colours and how we can make these colours with paint. We practiced mixing paints to make secondary colours such as orange, purple and green. We have also been learning about blending paints together to make different shades of colours. We used our fingers to tap and blend to create some beautiful ‘autumnal‘ themed trees.

This week in Music we have been learning all about the difficult role of how to conduct an orchestra. First, we had to learn the names of the different sections of the orchestra (percussion, strings, brass, woodwinds and keyboard), then we found a tune we could all play along to. Then we watched videos of famous conductors, including Mr Carden! Finally, we each had a turn to lead our class orchestra. We really enjoyed it!

This week in Maths, we have been exploring scaled factors within shapes, by enlarging and reducing them by various scale factors. We then applied this knowledge to solving ratio questions which involved the scaling up and down of amounts. We discussed how ratio can be applied in our everyday lives, for example in recipes, mixing paint, the quantity of concentrate juice to water.