School Newsletter : 27 June 2025

Monday 23rd June | The Garden Museum:
Year 2 visited the Garden Museum for a jam-packed day of scientific discovery! Our young Scientists took part in a workshop all about seeds – what they are, how they grow and how they travel. We examined a wide variety of seeds, comparing their shapes and sizes and even played a matching game where we had to describe seeds using photographs and find their names in Latin!

Pupils had the opportunity to use real microscopes to closely observe different types of seeds and discuss which plants or dishes they’re used in. They then dissected a butter bean to identify the seed coat, food store and baby plant (embryo), proudly sharing our knowledge with our plant expert for the day, Samia.

They also explored the Healing Garden, where they identified plants and their fruits, and learnt more about the history of the museum – including how it used to be a church! Samia was very impressed with the children’s enthusiasm, scientific vocabulary and even their knowledge of the Great Fire of London and the extinction of the dodo!

After planting our own seeds to take home, we had lunch in the garden and returned to school with our brains full and our hands a little muddy – the perfect day for a Year 2 Scientist!

If your child/ren are dropped off and collected from school by car, please ensure that you find a legal parking place to park in to facilitate this.

Please do not park/stop or idle on the zig-zag lines outside the school gates, or double park on the road curb opposite (also a school entrance).  This dangerous and illegal.

This is especially important at the moment, as there are three sets of separate street, water or phone line works also taking place along the street. These works already pose an additional hazard to pedestrians who are crossing the roads, and have had an impact on the amount of close parking to school entrance.

Therefore, please ensure that you leave enough time to find a park at the start and end of the school day. This will enable you to drop off & collect your child/ren safely and ensure the safety of all other pedestrians at these busy times.

Many thanks for your co-operation in keeping our school and wider community members safe 🙂

We are delighted to announce that swimming lessons will begin again this term, for pupils in Years 3 to 6. They will take place Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week.

• Year 5: Weeks beginning 23rd and 30th June (no swimming on Friday 27th June as it is an INSET day)
• Year 6: Weeks beginning 7th and 14th July

These lessons are an important (and statutory) part of the national curriculum and provide an opportunity for pupils to develop key skills and knowledge about water safety and learning basic swimming skills and strokes.

All swimming lessons will take part at the Queen Mother’s Sports Centre. Classes will complete their lessons in blocks (6 consecutive lessons over two weeks), instead of one lesson per week (over 6 weeks).

This arrangement ensures pupils have the best chance to consolidate and make the most of their lessons, with the opportunity to build on learning over sequential days, as opposed to having a week between each lesson.

On the weeks that your child’s class is swimming, they will need to wear their bathing costume to school with their PE kit over the top. They also need to bring in a bag; a towel, underwear and goggles, plus a cap (if they choose to use one).

Children will change into their PE kit after each lesson and put their towel and bathing suit in their bag to return to school.

Pupils will swim on Monday, Wednesday & Fridays of each week. They will walk to and from the pools with their class teacher and Mr Raheem.

If you have any questions or queries about your child’s swimming lesson, please contact the office to arrange a time to meet with a member of the Senior Leadership Team.

Our next school fundraising event will be the Summer Fair, which will take place on Saturday 12th July from 12:00 until 4:00 pm.

There’ll be an exciting range of stalls including games, bouncy castle plus food and refreshments available to purchase on the day, and we’re very much looking forward to welcoming everyone!

If you would like to provide a food plate (similar to what we did at our recent International Evening), please inform the office via email or please come in person to speak to Ms Ilhan.

All donations and provision of food items will be passed onto our school’s PTA The Friends of Burdett-Coutts.

This week, as Scientists, Year 2 have been exploring the fascinating world of seeds. We learnt new scientific vocabulary such as germinate, seed coat, embryo and cotyledon – the special food store inside a seed! To deepen our understanding, we dissected soaked broad beans and carefully examined what was inside. Using our scientific observation skills, we peeled off the seed coat and identified the root, shoot and the food store that helps the seed grow. We discovered that seeds are incredibly clever – even when they don’t have light, water or soil, they can still begin to germinate thanks to the food stored inside them. Pupils were amazed to learn that this early growth, before any leaves appear, is powered entirely by the energy packed into the seed itself. What a brilliant discovery!