School Newsletter : 03 February 2023

A reminder to parents & carers that there is a vacancy for the role of parent governor on our governing body.

Our school’s governing body is responsible for providing confident and strategic leadership, and creating robust accountability, oversight and assurance for our school’s educational and financial performance.

We are keen to invite candidates who have skills in the areas of law, finance and fundraising.

• If you’re interested in applying for the role, please complete this candidate form (Google Form).
• Alternatively, you can download a PDF copy to print and fill in.
• If you require a printed form, please ask at the school office.

All forms must be submitted by 9am Wednesday 22 February. Printed forms are to be handed to the Clerk to Governors, Ms. K Baker via the school office.

If we receive more applications than there are vacancies, a confidential ballot will be carried out. We will inform you closer to the time if we have to do this.

Should you have any queries about the process or would like to find out more about the role, please feel free to contact our Chair of Governors by emailing nbowles@burdettcoutts.co.uk

• Letter to Parents & Carers : Parent Governor Vacancy (PDF) ›
• Parent Governor Candidate Form (PDF) >

On Thursday, the Friends of Burdett-Coutts, our school’s Parent-Staff Association held their first planning meeting for the upcoming Easter Fete! Thank you to all the parents who attended – it was a really useful meeting, with so much discussed and decided!

If you are a parent, carer or a guardian of a child that attends the school, then you are automatically a member of the Friends of Burdett-Coutts. Being part of FoBC is a great chance to meet other parents, while supporting our school. Even if you only have a small amount of time, it’s an amazing opportunity to participate more in school life.

Please come along if you can to our next planning meeting. Our next one will be at 9am on Thursday 9th February in the Ground Floor Hall. EVERYONE is welcome and we would really value your input. 

If you’re unable to attend Thursday’s planning meeting but would like to help out, please speak to Miss Rachida in Nursery & Reception.

Circus Skills Club with Miss Mattey & Ms McCormack

In Circus Skills Club we are going to learn how to: juggle, spin plates, do card tricks, balance, and use the Poi. We have begun with juggling using scarves and some of us can almost juggle with 3 scarves already! Once we have mastered scarves, we will move on to balls.

As circus is a performance, each week we perform our new skills to each other, and these photos are of last week’s show. We are all really enjoying learning many new skills and using our brains in different ways. We can’t wait to show you all, in an assembly before Easter.

Science Club with Miss Sweeney & Miss Russell

This half term in Science club we have been learning all about what an omnivore, herbivore and carnivore are. We have grouped animals according to their diet and thought about the different types of foods they consume.

We then discussed the impact of our diet on the planet, thinking about where our food is grown and in what climates. From this discussion, we designed our own burgers thinking about where the produce comes from and enjoyed trying vegetarian burgers with all the toppings……. yummy!

February 2023:

• Guards Chapel Service:  Year 6 performing at the Guards Chapel as part of their service from 2pm.
• Half Term: Monday 13th – Friday 17th January

March 2023:

• Barbican Concert: Monday 20th March from 19:00 – 21:00 Year 6 have been invited to perform alongside pupils from Westminster School in their concert at the Barbican. What an amazing opportunity! More details to follow, including how parents can obtain tickets.
• Pimlico Music Foundation Singing Event at St. Gabriel’s Church: Tuesday 21st March (Time TBC) Year 5 to perform and parents are warmly welcomed.

Many of you may be aware from the national press that the National Education Union (NEU), has balloted for strike action on the following dates:

• Thursday 2 March 2023
• Wednesday 15 March 2023
• Thursday 16 March 2023

Kindly be informed that our school will be open on all the strike days listed above, with all classes and wrap around provision (Breakfast Club, Extended School Day and After School Clubs) operating as normal.

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.

Graham and Helena were away this week so we were led in worship by Jeremy, the curate of St Stephen’s, instead.

We learnt about Candlemas, the Feast of the Presentation of Christ, which is celebrated 40 days after Christmas every year on 2nd February. This special festival is seen by many Christians as the official end of the Christmas period, and celebrates the return of the light after the darkness of midwinter as well as the time Jesus was presented at the Temple of Jerusalem.

In church, our Year 6 readers retold the story from Luke 2:22-40 of Jesus being brought to the Temple as a baby. All firstborn children were presented in the Temple and a sacrifice made in keeping with the laws and traditions of the time. We learnt about the old man, Simeon, who had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah. On seeing Jesus with Mary and Joseph, he took the baby in his arms and praised God, blessing Jesus and his parents.

There was also another elderly person there, a woman called Anna, who spent all her time fasting and praying in the Temple. When she saw the baby, she gave thanks to God and declared that he would be the saviour they had been waiting for. After the reading, the Year 6 Choir were joined by Choir Club to sing The Lord is my Shepherd, which they did beautifully.

Another theme for the week is generosity, as we learn more about God’s provision in times of trouble. Our Community Questions are linked to the theme of giving and providing for others if they are in need:

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 are on a trip around the world and have been creating different versions of the Eiffel Tower! Using their critical thinking skills, the children created the tower out of blocks and decorated it with the people from their reference pictures. Working together creates team building opportunities that they will carry through life.

This week in Maths we have been learning about 2D shapes. We have explored the properties of common 2D shapes to learn how many corners and sides each shape has. We also had a shape hunt around our classroom and discovered many 2D shapes we hadn’t noticed! We have used our knowledge and understanding of shapes to create pictures, thinking carefully about the picture we wanted to make and what shapes would be appropriate.

What a busy week we have had in Year 1! In PSHE and RE we have been talking a lot about friendships; what makes a good friend, how we show friendship towards others and how Jesus showed friendship – even when it was hard! Today we made some friendship flowers to give to a new friend, showing how sometimes small gestures can be important to keep friendships strong.

In our class text ‘A Boy and a Bear in a Boat‘, the Bear has a very dubious sense of taste, and eats things like gooseberry, sherbet and anchovies altogether in one sandwich! We have been practising using expanded noun phrases to describe our ideas for sandwiches for the Bear, and the imperative verbs needed to write the recipes! We have really enjoyed thinking up disgusting combinations.

This week in English, we have been writing persuasive speeches to the Home Secretary. The aim of these were to allow Ahmet, (the main character from our class text The Boy At The Back Of The Class), to be reunited with his parents when they were separated on their journey to the UK after fleeing war in Syria. We found this a challenging task as we had to remember to use formal language consistently, include flattery, the power of three and repetition for impact. We are proud of our finished speeches.