School Newsletter : 05 December 2025

Our School Christmas Lunch will be on Tuesday 9th December. Please see the menu below.

Children are welcome to wear their Christmas jumper on this day.

Parents & carers of those children with a packed lunch, if your child(ren) should prefer to have a Christmas Lunch instead on this day, please inform the school office by Wednesday 3rd December.

Kindly note there is £3.00 charge for the meal, which can be paid at the school office.

Don’t forget to bring some money along to purchase party food or drinks!

A further thank you to those families who have dropped in gifts for this initiative over the week – we are so grateful for your support.

Our PTA volunteers, along with school staff, will be wrapping and labelling all gifts donated during the week beginning 15th December.  We will continue to  accept donations of gifts to pass to a local charity working with families affected by homelessness, during this Christmas festive season.

You can continue to drop off any donations until Tuesday 16th December. A  dedicated area is 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  for your support and the donations received to date.

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.

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 >

This week, Preschool embarked on a fun adventure of discovery, inspired by the book Dear Zoo. The children were eager to explore the concept of big, medium, and small and how things around them can fit into these categories. With curiosity sparking their imaginations, they gathered items from the room, examining each one closely to decide where it belonged. From oversized blocks to tiny toys, they learned to group objects based on size, building their understanding of the world in a hands-on, interactive way. It was a wonderful example of how simple exploration can spark both learning and creativity!

With it being the first week of December, Nursery were excited to jump straight into the festive spirit! At the art table, the children enjoyed decorating colourful Christmas lights, dipping their pom-poms into paint to add bright, festive patterns. They explored different textures and colours, all while strengthening their fine-motor skills. We’re looking forward to even more festive crafts and Christmas activities as we head further into December!

This week, Reception have been busy making magical letters for Santa. They carefully drew pictures, added their Christmas wishes, and wrote kind messages. We can’t wait to take the letters to the post box very soon and see what special reply Santa might send back. Alongside this, we have really enjoyed getting into the Christmas spirit by learning Christmas carols and playing them on the xylophone and glockenspiel.

Year 1’s storytellers have been absolutely enchanted by Beegu. After designing brand-new friends for Beegu last week, the children took the next step and began creating their very own new stories for her. We shared the book together as a class, talked about Beegu’s feelings, and they then began drafting the first pages of their stories — complete with expressive drawings, speech, and lots of imagination. It’s been wonderful watching them think like real authors and illustrators. We can’t wait to see their final published pieces… we may have a few future Oliver Jeffers in Year 1!

As Mathematicians this week, Year 6 have been strengthening their understanding of fractions. They’ve learnt to simplify fractions using common factors, compare and order them by finding common denominators or using bar models; and confidently adding and subtracting both proper fractions and mixed numbers. The pupils also explored multiplying and dividing fractions using both abstract methods and visual models. To finish, they applied their learning to multi-step word problems, choosing efficient strategies and ensuring answers were simplified and accurate.