School Newsletter : 08 December 2023

It was an appreciative audience who gathered to witness our talented EYFS and KS1 pupils performing an outstanding and heartwarming nativity today. They demonstrated amazing confidence, considering this was the first performance they had done in front of the school and their parents and carers.

The children worked very hard to remember their speaking lines, songs and all of the actions. All the children did brilliantly to stay in character throughout their scenes. The singing was amazing, and they dazzled us with their performance.

Congratulations to everyone and thanks also to all parents and carers who attended today’s performance, it was wonderful to have you all there and for joining in with the shared carols at the end of the service.

A huge thank you to school staff who have worked tirelessly with their classes over the past half term, and to our talented and much loved music teacher, Mr Derek Carden. As they say, the proof is in the pudding, and that was certainly the case today, with an amazing performance delivered.

The children and staff at Burdett-Coutts matched the Christmas-sy decor of the school on Thursday, with everyone wearing their bright and festive Christmas jumpers! As well as getting us all in a jolly mood, this special day raises awareness and funds for Save the Children, a charity supporting children facing serious issues such as hunger, poverty and war.

We are well and truly celebrating this Christmas season, kicking off with our annual 9 Lessons Carol Service at St John’s Smith Square. This beautiful concert hall is in fact a church, and is linked to our school church, St Stephen’s. We are incredibly grateful to the team at St John’s for allowing us to use it once again, and it was also so lovely to see so many parents in the audience.

We must extend more thanks to Graham for joining us at St John’s and leading the worship, and to Mr Carden for putting the service together, rehearsing the choirs and soloists, organising the readings and playing the piano and organ so beautifully.

The soloists from Year 6 and Choir Club did themselves proud, and the readers took us through the 9 poems and Bible verses admirably. It’s quite nerve-racking standing on that big stage in front of a large audience so well done everyone!

It was wonderful to be able to come together as a whole school (including the youngest members of the nursery) so well done and thank you to all the staff and older children for helping to escort the 2 and 3 year olds to and from the venue. And the little ones did so well, even dancing in the front row!

This December we’ll be holding a speech writing competition. We’d like you to write a speech about something that you are passionate about. For example, it could be a hobby that you have enjoyed, or it could be about an issue that you feel strongly about.

Everyone from Nursery to Year 6 are invited to take part and you’ll present your speech to your class on Friday 15th December.

Your class will then choose the two best speeches and those selected will present their speech in an assembly in the final week of the term. There will be prizes awarded for the best speech in each class.

The theme for this half term’s Science home learning task is Connections. Below are some of the activities which you can chose from, or you may wish to come up with an idea of your own.

• Model Neuron: Make a model neuron, to learn about connections between nerve cells.
• Chain Reactions: Set up a chain reaction with outdoor items or small indoor items like dominoes, thinking carefully about the connections between each part of the chain.
• Life cycle: Create an edible life cycle to discover how each stage is connected.
• Polar habitat: Make a model of a Polar habitat, this is a great way to learn about how animals adapt to their surroundings.
• Ice caps: Another easy investigation for younger children is to model melting polar ice caps.

Entries will be shared in a celebration assembly at the end of this half term. Good luck everyone!

Please ensure that your child is wearing the correct PE kit to school each week.

Pupils who are not wearing their full PE kit will not be able to participate in lessons, and a note will be sent home indicating why they were not able to participate.

The full PE kit for the Autumn/Winter term is as follows:

• Plain navy blue leggings or tracksuit bottoms
• School navy blue PE t-shirt
• School navy blue sweatshirt (all year groups).
• Pupils in KS2 (Years 3 – 6) must wear a school navy sweatshirt for PE and NOT their school jumper.
• Plain black trainers (velcro if your child struggles with shoe laces)
• Please ensure all items of uniform are clearly labelled (with a permanent pen or label)

We have now moved to email updates and notifications, and only using text messaging when reminders are urgently needed.

Please check your Spam folders and if you haven’t seen any emails from us, please contact the school office so that we can check that we have the correct email address for you.

If you would like your child to move from bringing a packed lunch to having a school meal, you must inform the office at least a week in advance of this change being made. Kindly note pupils are not allowed to alternate between having packed lunches and/or school meals on a daily or weekly basis. If you have any questions, please see a member of the school admin staff at the school office.

You can find the current school lunch menu here >

If you require a printed copy, please ask at the school office. Should you have any questions about the menu, kindly make an appointment to speak with Miss Barnett.

Why good school attendance matters: Missing a few days of school here and there may not seem a big deal, but research shows that it can have a significant impact on children’s learning.

Children who miss a substantial amount of school fall behind their peers, and struggle to catch up. Most of the work they miss is never made up, which can lead to big gaps in their learning.

• Poor attendance often starts at primary school and children who fall into this pattern are likely to under-achieve at secondary school.
• Pupils who miss between 10 and 20% of school (that’s 19 – 38 days per year) stand only a 35% chance of achieving five or more good GCSEs, compared to 73% of those who miss fewer than 5% of school days.
• An attendance rate of 95% is generally considered good; this allows for children to miss 9.5 days across the school year.
• Persistent absence (PA) is defined as an attendance rate of 90% or below.
• All pupils are expected to have an attendance rate of 95% or higher.

Attendance class of the week: Each week we will be celebrating the class with the highest attendance levels.