School Newsletter : 21 November 2025

Year 4 Trip to the St. Pauls Cathedral:
Year 4 have enjoyed so many exciting trips recently, and they were treated to another festive experience thanks to St Paul’s Cathedral’s Christmas Journey. The pupils explored the cathedral, dressing up and acting out the Nativity throughout the beautiful grounds. We asked lots of insightful questions, and really made our school proud with our excellent listening skills and knowledge of Christianity.

Year 5 Trip to the British Museum:
Year 5 enjoyed a fantastic trip to the British Museum as part of their Ancient Greece topic. After a bus journey full of excitement, we collected our interactive tablets and were immediately immersed in the world of the Ancient Greeks.

In the Parthenon room, the children worked in pairs to explore what the original Parthenon might have looked like and to search for artefacts linked to the temple. The tablet tour challenged them to recreate statues, examine how different friezes would have appeared, and answer questions to test their growing knowledge. To finish the activity, the children spent time studying the friezes closely and sketching what they could see.

After a well-deserved lunch and a chance to chat with friends, we returned to school for more hands-on history to consolidate our learning. It was a wonderful day full of discovery, teamwork and curiosity. Well done, Year 5!

Year 6 Trip to Kensington Library: Not Forgotten Project
On Thursday, 20th November, Year 6 took part in the climax of their Not Forgotten project, led by Peter Daniel, the Education Officer of Westminster Archives Centre. Our school has participated in many projects with him, all of which are superbly curated.

On this occasion, we are in the Lecture Theatre of Kensington Central Library, and to an audience of other schools, we acted and sang about Ernest Boots, a Westminster street cleaner in the Great War, whose life, and death we have been researching.

At the end of the play, both Arman and Tamer (Year Five), played The Last Post faultlessly using the trumpet sound on one of our electric keyboards. We are the only school to perform twice during the day in both the morning and afternoon shows. With the play’s running time being over two hours, together with travel as well, this was a full day’s work of concentration and performing!

During this Christmas festive season, we will be accepting donations of gifts to pass to a local charity working with families affected by homelessness.

From Wednesday 26th November until Tuesday 16th December, we will make an area available for families to leave a donated gift for this cause. Your gift could be a toy, book, board game or item of clothing.

You can choose to wrap your gift and attach a gift tag identifying whether the gift is for a boy or girl and the intended age it is for. Alternatively, you can drop the donation into school where we will wrap it and add the tag.

Thank you in advance for your support and donations received🎄

Parents & carers, please ensure that when pupil trip letters are sent home requesting permission for trips or visits, that you correctly read and complete the forms attached and return them to school by the date requested.

When forms are returned late, it is a challenge to manage and accurately provide the required confirmation / information to venues – which are usually requested 48 hours in advance. Furthermore:

• Our admin and catering teams face additional pressure to prepare lunch orders and first aid.
• These are difficult to amend at the last minute, and it also pulls them away from other duties & responsibilities they have.
• Teachers are also unable to assign group pupil:adult ratios to ensure a smooth trip briefing with other staff/parents supporting the trip.

Because of this, pupils will miss out on attending a trip if the correct permission slips are not returned by the designated deadline. Instead they will be assigned appropriate class work to complete in a supervised buddy class.

Many thanks for your understanding and support with this matter.

Please note that lip balms are not permitted in school.

Despite regular reminders, pupils often share these amongst their friends, which can lead to the spread of colds, flu and coldsores. These items also cause disruption and arguments, both in the classroom and the playgrounds, leading to interrupted teaching time and wasted time in resolving disputes.

If your child has a medical condition which requires any form of topical medication – such as a lip balm – please contact the school office so an appointment can be made with the school nurse. This will activate the appropriate protocols allowing designated pupils to be able to access this properly while in school.

Many thanks with your support in this.

A reminder that the following class assemblies will be on Fridays @ 9am. If attending, please be seated in the First Floor Hall by 9am.

• Year 3: Friday 5th December

All Burdett-Coutts families are warmly welcome to join us for our Thanksgiving Event on the evening of Wednesday 27th November.

This is an informal opportunity for us to come together; to meet other parents in your child’s class, catch up with old friends and hopefully make some new ones.

Our school choir will be singing a selection of songs with refreshments for pupils and parents provided. We will also be launching our Christmas Displays on this evening.

Woof…

It’s Friday already – how the days are whizzing past!

Winter has finally arrived this week, and my little paws have definitely felt the chilliness on the ground. I’ve had to wrap up extra warmly this week when sleeping 🐶

It is really important that we have the right clothes on to continue to play outside. I have been busy growing my own winter coat, plus I have an extra coat I can put on when it is really cold.

Please remember to wear your coat each day and a hat along with scarf and gloves as well.  It is important that you label all items with your name, so that you can have then returned if you’ve left them.

This week, I have had such pawsome fun playing football or chase in the playgrounds with the Breakfast Club pupils. It really is the best start to my day.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend – enjoy the crisp mornings and ❄️ crunchy ground frost if you are out and about early. I am really looking forward to running around in the frosty fields this weekend.

However I’ll probably not do as much swimming in the river as I think the water will be very chilly. Although I know I won’t be able to resist a little splash – so maybe just a short one!

Love Biscuit x 

Dear Parents/Carers and Pupils,

Many thanks to everyone who have safely navigated there way to school this week, amongst all the road and traffic disruption due to the water works taking place in our streets.

A polite health & safety reminder for those driving – please do not double park or block the roads around the school as this poses a real hazard to other users.

We will continue to support drop off and collection times as much as possible over the coming weeks by having a visual staff presence in and around the entrance to the school.

Road closures by Thames Water remain in effect from Monday 27th October until early December 2025.

• During this time, drivers will not be able to turn into Greycoat Lane from either direction. Barriers to prevent vehicle access will be put in place where the two blue lines are drawn on the map below.
• Please note you cannot turn into Rochester Street from Rochester Row, as this is one way street (and this would be going the wrong way). Please note that there is a camera on the street.
• Do ensure you review your travel routes to school before the new term starts, as those who drive will need to park in order to drop off and collect their children.
• As parking is very limited in our area, where possible we would strongly recommend using public transport and walking – rather than driving – during this period of works. Please note parking wardens do heavily patrol the areas.

For those with no alternative to driving, there will be a member of staff on the corner of Greycoat Street (Lane) and Elverton Street every morning, so that pupils can be dropped here.

Kindly note that this will be in the mornings only and only for drop offs. You will not be able to park here to walk your child into school. Please secure correct parking in the afternoons in order to collect your child/ren.

Full pedestrian access is still in place down Rochester Street (from Rochester Row) and from Elverton Street, along Greaycoat Lane to the main school gates, as shown as pink lines on the map.

If you have any queries, please email the school office. Kindly note that we will only be able to respond on Monday 3rd November, when school resumes after the half term break.

Kind regards,

BC Admin Team

Please ensure that your children are wearing the correct school uniform to school each day. It is important that all pupils are also wearing the correct school shoes – which are black shoes, and not trainers.

The Autumn/Winter term uniform options for pupils in Nursery to Year 6 are:

Please find here the agreed term dates set by our school’s Governing Body for the upcoming academic year, starting September 2025.

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

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 2025-2026 >

Preschool have had a wonderful time exploring colour in the world around them! Using different translucent coloured materials, the children looked through  their classroom window and watched how the outdoor scenery changed. They commented on how the colours shifted, deepened, or brightened, and excitedly pointed out new shades they noticed in nature. This hands on exploration helped them build early observation skills, develop language for describing colours, and experience the joy of seeing the world in a brand-new way.

This week, Nursery have been talking about changes that will be happening as autumn transitions into winter. The children shared their observations about how the weather is changing and how the cooler temperatures feel. They also enjoyed looking at animals that live in cold environments and learning about the special adaptations that help them survive. We compared these animals to others that cannot live in such cold conditions. It was a fun and engaging way to connect science with the world around us!

This week in Reception, we’ve blasted off into our new story, Astrogirl! The children loved predicting what the book might be about and shared some brilliant ideas about space adventures. Our classroom has turned into a mini space station, with children exploring what space might look and feel like through play, building rockets, and pretending to be astronauts. Their curiosity has been out of this world, and we can’t wait to see where their imagination takes them next.

This week, Year 1 have been busy welcoming the colder weather with a wonderfully wintry art project! The children created their very own moose masterpieces, combining painted textured backgrounds, snipped paper shapes, and lots of careful drawing to bring their cosy creatures to life. We talked about how winter animals keep warm and looked closely at moose antlers, textures, and colours before the children designed their own versions. From patterned jumpers to rosy cheeks, every moose had its own personality – and the children showed fantastic focus, creativity, and fine-motor skills throughout. It was a joyful, seasonal activity that filled our classroom with colour, imagination, and plenty of proud smiles. Our moose are now ready to march us into the winter season!

This week, Year 6 continued their Not Forgotten project with a full day workshop led by historian Peter Daniel. The children worked through the Moving Away Your Dust booklet, exploring what life in Westminster was like at the turn of the 20th century and how local people contributed to the war effort. Using original sources from Westminster Archives, they investigated real stories, learnt new songs for the upcoming performance and rehearsed their scene for the show. The session helped the children deepen their understanding of daily life during the First World War and strengthened their historical enquiry skills as they pieced together evidence just like real historians.