USE THIS: Newsletter Template 2025

| Issue 24 | Spring 2 | Week 3 |

Science Week Activities (Week 1 of 2)

Out and About…

Tuesday 10th March: School Choir Performance at The Royal Festival Hall

Wednesday 11th March: Year 6 – Go Live Theatre Experience

Club Reminders

Late Collection

We understand that on occasions you may be running late due to circumstances outside of your control.
If this should occur, please email or phone the school office to inform them and of your expected arrival time.
This helps us ensure staff who work until 18:00 will be able to leave on time, with a member of the SLT providing cover if needed if they are unable to stay.
We thank you for understanding with this request.
A reminder that that a £5 late charge is applied to your fees for every 5 minutes that you are late.

Parents Evening

Our Spring term Parent Teacher Meetings will take place on Tuesday 24th March for all years apart from Reception.

Reception Class Parent Teacher Meeting will take place on Thursday 19th March.

Parents can book their meeting slots from 09:30 on Monday 2nd March via the Arbor App.

Each appointment slot is 15 minutes long. The first 5 mins are set aside for you to look at, discuss with and comment on your child’s work before meeting with the class teacher.

Please remember to complete the feedback slip provided, before you meet with your child’s class teacher.

If you experience any problems signing up on the Arbor App, please contact a member of the school office team, who will be happy to assist you.

Potential extension of our Preschool to include Under 2s

Dear families,

Currently our Preschool offers 12 spaces for children aged 24 – 36 months. These children then transition into our 3-year old Nursery Class the term after their third birthday. We are conducting a viability process with the view to extending to our current Preschool provision to include children (babies) under 24 months.

From September 2026, we are looking to:

extend our Preschool provision to include an Under-2s room, to cater for for babies from 3-months to 23-months.
change our annual opening hours, to enable this provision for 47-weeks per year for Nursery to Preschool (including under 2’s) children.

This change in opening hours will allow us to offer holiday wrap-around care, in the form of a Holiday Club Provision, for Reception to Year 6 pupils.

At this stage, we would like to know if any of this additional offering (eg: Under 2s, change in opening hours and Holiday Club Provision) is something that would be of interest and benefit to our families, and we therefore we are asking for your feedback.

Please email the school office indicating your interest in an Under 2s place and a short Google form will be emailed for you to complete.

Feedback from this form will help to inform any decisions we make and, should it go ahead, the overall package of wraparound care offered.

We will share further information about the shape of the Holiday Club Provision in the next issue of the school newsletter. Our aim is to confirm before the end of March if this provision is going ahead, after which time you will be able to enrol your child.

Many thanks in advance for your thoughts and feedback.

Biscuits Bytes

Woof….

Biscuit x

Community Corner

This week in collective worship, we explored the new beginnings that salvation through Jesus brings. We celebrated the second Sunday of Lent on 1st March.

In church, we were treated with some excellent piano playing from Arman in Year 5. We also sang Lord of the Dance and Spirit of God. The former talks of a “Pharisee”, which was brought up in our reading.

We explored what Nicodemus heard about being born again, and Vicar David gave us some excellent ideas about what this ‘rebirth’ means, and how Christians believe there are two births in a Christian’s life.

Bible Teaching of the Week: John 3:1–17

Nicodemus, a Pharisee, visiting Jesus at night to acknowledge him as a teacher from God. Jesus tells him that to see the kingdom of God, we must be “born again” of water and the Spirit. Jesus explains that salvation comes through belief in the Son, who was sent to save the world.

Community Questions:

How do we see God’s love in our daily lives?
What does it mean to be “born again” or start fresh with God
How can we show love and kindness to others like Jesus teaches
Who might need our help or encouragement this week?

Community Challenge:

This week, try to notice one person who might need a kind word or action from you and do something to show God’s love to them.

Spring Term Class Assemblies:

Class assemblies take place on Fridays, starting at 09:05. Please ensure that you are on time and that your mobile phones are turned off. Kindly note that no filming or photography is permitted at any time.

20th March: Reception

Our PTA: The Friends of Burdett-Coutts

If you are a parent, carer or a guardian of a child that attends our school, then you are automatically a member of our Parent Staff Association, Friends of Burdett-Coutts.

Being part of our PSA offers an exciting opportunity for you to meet other parents, whilst supporting our school, through organising fundraising events, volunteering and much more.

Even if you can only give a small amount of time, you will be making a difference to the school experience for your child and other pupils in our school.

Our meetings take place on Wednesday mornings from 09:00 – 10:00 in the Ground Floor Hall, with refreshments. Everyone is welcome!

Our next event: School Easter Fete Thursday 26th March @ 15:30 – 17:30.

Spring term meeting dates:

Wednesday 25th March

Easter Fair

Glue guns at the ready!

Upcoming Events

March 2026:

Tuesday 17th: Proms Praise Concert at the Royal Albert Hall – Choir Club pupils performing, (more information to follow), 16:00 – 20:00
Friday 20th: Last day for all Extended School Day and Booster Clubs for the Spring Term.
Wednesday 25th: Pimlico Music Foundation Concert: Disney at St. Gabriels Church. Choir Club pupils performing 18:00 – 20:00 (more information to follow).
Thursday 26th: School Easter Fete: 15:30 – 17:30
Friday 27th: Last day of school for the Spring Term. School finishes for all pupils at 13:30.

1. Pupil Medications

A polite reminder to parents and carers that we are unable to give over the counter or prescription medicines to pupils unless they have an agreed medical plan in place.

Should your child requires medication to be taken 3 times per day due to winter season illnesses, please give them their doses before school, after school and before bed time.

Alternatively, if you’re able to do so, you can pop into school during your child’s lunch break (12:30 – 13:30) to administer a midday dose if required.

Please do not put any medications, creams, ointments etc in your child’s book bag. This can be very dangerous for other pupils or adults who may have allergies or if other children access these items.

If you have any questions, please email the school office and a member of staff will get back you. Many thanks for your understanding with this important Health & Safety issue.

2. Pupil Permission Forms for Trips

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.

3. School & PE Uniform:

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:

Girls:

Dark grey trousers, skirt or skort
Long-sleeve white shirt (Years 3 – 6)
White school logo polo shirt (Nursery – Year 2)
Tie (Years 3 – 6)
V-neck navy school logo jumper (Years 3 – 6)
Navy logo school sweatshirt (Nursery to Year 2)
Blazer (Year 6 only)
Plain black shoes (not trainers)

Boys:

Dark grey shorts or trousers
Long-sleeve white shirt (Years 3 – 6)
White school logo polo shirt (Nursery – Year 2)
Tie (Yers 3 -6)
V-neck navy school logo jumper (Years 3 – 6)
Navy school logo sweatshirt (Nursery to Year 2)
Blazer (Year 6 only)
Plain black shoes (not trainers)

On PE days, pupils must wear the school PE kit only.

This is especially important for safety. Having the correct shoes for physical activities, and clothing that is not restrictive, for completing physical activity are essential for helping us to ensure pupils complete all PE lessons safely.

The Autumn/Winter term PE kit for all pupils from Year Reception to Year 6 consists of:

A school navy logo t-shirt
Navy leggings, tracksuit bottoms or skort (no logos etc)
Plain black trainers
A school logo sweatshirt (not the v-neck jerseys for KS2 pupils. Sweatshirts are available from the school office in KS2 sizes).

Please note that pupils who do not have the correct PE kit will not be able to participate in their PE lesson. They will be given alternate work to do, and a note will be sent home highlighting why they were not able to complete their lesson that day.

We thank you in advance in supporting our school’s uniform policies.

Term Dates 2025-2026

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, Nursery & Reception Admissions

We currently have the following availability for places in our Early Years provision from January 2026:

Nursery Class (3-year olds): 1 part-time (afternoon) place available at present.
Preschool (2-year olds): From April 2026 we have 4 full-time places and 2 part-time (afternoon) places available

September 2026 Reception class vacancies will be announced in May 2026.

If you are looking for a Preschool, Nursery or Reception place for your child, please come along for a 30-minute bespoke EYFS tour. Here, you’ll have the chance explore our Early Years setting, speak to key staff and ask any questions regarding admissions, and your child starting with us at Burdett-Coutts.

Contact us to register for our tours which take place every Thursday, with times available from 09:15 – 14:30 during term time.

To book your tour place, please call 0207 828 6790
For further information about starting Reception at Burdett-Coutts, please click here >

Online Safety

Did you know that not all apps are safe for children, with many popular ones having certain age restrictions. For example, WhatsApp, Tik Tok, Instagram and Facebook operate a minimum age of 13+ years, and therefore primary school children should not have their own, nor access to, such apps or accounts.

As parents, you can help safeguard your children online by researching these apps and their purposes, as well as their age restrictions, BEFORE agreeing to download them. If you do choose to download them, remember that parental controls such as password protection, can be set up so that in-app downloads or purchases, cannot be completed by the children themselves.

For example, to prevent iTunes, Apple App Store purchases or downloads, all you need to do is:

Go to Settings and tap Screen Time.
Tap Content & App Privacy Restrictions. If asked, enter your passcode.
Tap iTunes & App Store Purchases.
Select a setting and set to Don’t Allow.

Tips on how to install parental controls on other apps and devices (Android or Apple) can easily be found online, or even from the app developers themselves.

Funding eligibility letter for Pupil Premium, Early Years Funding & Free School Meals

Due to changes in the eligibility criteria for Pupil Premium, Free School Meals and qualifying for 30 hours of funding for Nursery provision, many pupils currently enrolled at our school may now be entitled to one of these funding allocations.

We will be issuing letters to families who are currently not in receipt of the above, asking you to complete the registration for the identified funding option your child/ren maybe eligible for. Thank you so much in advance for your help in completing this.

This funding allows us to increase additional staffing hours to run booster groups, and an exciting range of extended day activities, that benefit our school and your child, and your cooperation is greatly appreciated at this difficult time for school budgets.