BlueCoat Primary School News

We are happy to announce that Blue Coat has made it through to another Tesco 'Bags of Help' shortlist. On Wednesday 1st Feb (coincidentally Global School Play Day!) voting started for our 'Dengineering Zone' project.

The Dengineering Zone will be a construction play zone  on a currently blank corner of the school field. Children will be able to build outdoor dens and teepee structures with wood, ropes and tarpaulins. Depending on the level of funding that we secure through the voting, the zone may also include hammocks, a slack line and a large netted climbing structure.

Since the introduction of the 'new' National Curriculum, Blue Coat has been looking at innovative and in-depth ways of meeting the challenging and ambitious aims for Mathematics. The subject has been a constant focus of staff meetings and INSET days and there is too much going on behind the scenes to do justice to it here.

We would like to share this new Maths curriculum with parents, now we're starting to come to terms with it ourselves. We would like to show you what the maths curriculum values and what it is trying to achieve for your child. In doing so, we will touch on how it is assessed and, more importantly, what Blue Coat is doing to ensure that we develop Future Ready mathematicians.

Every year, we conduct a survey of our parents from which we get a good indication of what we're doing well and where we can focus more. The survey is identical to the Ofsted format but allows stakeholders to include written information. 

We are regularly evaluating what we do at Blue Coat. This isn’t just a senior leadership exercise, but one that is ongoing for our catering team, our teaching staff, office team, play team... and our pupils! We recognise that feedback is crucial in helping all of us learn at all levels where we can improve.

What a busy but rewarding few weeks of advent in the lead up to the Christmas break! 4 EYFS-KS1 Nativity performances, 2 KS2 Christmas productions, a Year 3/4 Christingle Service, numerous choir events, a PTA-sponsored visit from Santa, a playground sing-song around the Christmas tree... and much more! 

In the midst of all this excitement we've had tremendous support from parents attending these events but also by bringing some hope into the lives of others in need...

Learning through purposeful, creative and engaging play has been on a rapid upwards curve over the past couple of years at Blue Coat. In this time, we have won nationally recognised awards putting the school in the top 10 of play providing institutions in the country. It would seem unlikely that we could go much further right now... or could we?

As our minds prepare for the Christmas season, with advent just around the corner, we have started to reflect in school on those for whom our Christian value of Hope this term may be in short supply.

This year, as we have done in the recent past, Blue Coat has decided to support the cause of the Samaritan's Purse 'Operation Christmas Child'.

Support for the appeal takes the shape of donors providing a shoebox that they have carefully packed with a range of gifts suitable for youngsters who are in need of hope at Christmas time. These may be children subjected to poverty, disease, bereavement or otherwise. The children receive their gifts and realise that someone cares about them at this special time.

Technical issues have prevented us from posting images sooner from our Reception Welcome Service  - but here they are now in their full glory!

Gratefully hosted by our home-from-home, St Mary's church, Reverand Axford led a service to formally welcome our youngest pupils and their families into the Blue Coat community. The service comprised of songs, hymns, readings from our Year 6 buddies and school leaders, as well as prayers and blessings.

Celebrating success is a central part of Blue Coat's school ethos. This happens on a daily basis when we learn and play, but also we carve out time each Friday to celebrate the huge diversity of achievements of our pupils in our end-of-day worship.

However, successful pupils require successful adults to nurture them. Recognising this, we have nominated Mrs Murray, our play expert, for an Outstanding Contribution award offered by the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom (LOtC). 

We are delighted that her hard work and inspiration has enabled her to reach the final stages of nomination, in a shortlist of just 4 nominees from across the UK!