BlueCoat Primary School News

Each year, every Church of England school has a scheduled visit from the Bishop's Visitor. The purpose of the visit is multi-pronged: looking at the school's improvement journey (academically and spiritually); all the way through to pastoral support and signposting to best practice within the diocese.

It is always a pleasure to showcase some of Blue Coat's achievements during the visit and a delight to read the feedback on how these have been interpreted by someone with many years of experience, expertise and a frame of reference that spans many schools in Gloucestershire.

It's Global School Play Day 2019 (on 6th February), and what better way to celebrate than to launch Blue Coat's Vision for Play (and, of course, enjoy some outdoor play!)

Our Play Vision was drafted by Blue Coat Year 6 pupils in the summer term 2018. The pupils were interviewed by Mrs Murray and had the chance to reflect on their play at school, to talk about what they felt was important and how their playtimes affected the rest of their time at school.

The Play Vision paints a picture of what we feel play at Blue Coat could and should be. The six statements describe what we would like all Blue Coat pupils to experience and feel through their play by the time they reach year 6. It also shows how much Blue Coat values play and is committed to supporting play for all our pupils. Here it is:

This week, the children in Mile Post 2 and Class Tabei have been fortunate to spend some time with visitors who have helped to both inform and amaze!

Blue Coat parent and wildlife cameraman Mateo Willis came in to speak to the children of Mile Post 2 about his internationally-reknowned work on the latest BBC Planet Earth 2 series with Sir David Attenburgh, specifically his experiences in the rainforest. This will help to inspire the children in their current topic "From the Treetops".

Some schools are lucky with their PTA. We at Blue Coat, on the other hand, are blessed. So much so, that our PTA have a direct line with Father Christmas himself!

A very exciting breaktime was experienced today when chidlren discovered that Father Christmas had descended on our playground, complete with a team of PTA helpers (his elves are working around the clock wrapping, you see). And, of course, he didn't arrive empty-handed.

As national performance tables become available for the public to peruse, it's notable that Blue Coat appears prominently for both pupil attainment and progress.

With the ability to compare schools within the Local Authority, the tables show that a highly significant 89% of Blue Coat's Year 6 pupils achieved the Expected Standard in Reading, Writing and Maths last summer. This ranks our school as ninth in Gloucestershire. Furthermore, only 2 similarly-sized schools sit above Blue Coat, with the others having far smaller pupil populations.

We're really proud of the independence of our learners - none more so than when children reach Milepost 3 in our school. Using their own initiatives and ideas, our eldest pupils organised their own fundraiser at break time today for this all-important charity.

Nerf gun shoot-em-downs, guess the number of sweets, bookmark-making, popcorn selling, cake bakes and so much more was all on show for children to take part in or feast on. Of course, all proceeds will be pumped back in to Children In Need. 

On Friday 2^nd November, all pupils and staff took part in a Forest School extravaganza to celebrate 10 years of Forest School delivery.

The special event was supported by a grant from The Ernest Cook Trust.

All classes joined together on the school field for a whole day of ‘learning outside the classroom’, Forest School and play. There were over 20 activities to take part in and the children got to choose what they took part in and when, giving them lots of freedom throughout the day. The event was held as part of the international ‘Outdoor Classroom day’ initiative, with over 3.5 million children taking part around the world.

With rapid developments in mobile technology, gaming and apps, the sad reality is that your child is more vulnerable online now than ever before.

The National Online Safety campaign raises the issue of online grooming, raising parental awareness and offering advice on what parents should do to support their child in leading digitally safe lives.

As a school, we ensure all children receive e-safety teaching appropriate to their age and discuss what safety looks like online.

Many of the pupils at Blue Coat have excellent opportunities with PE and Sport at school. Not only do we have teaching expertise at hand but we also have Mrs Dixon who coaches the teachers to develop their teaching skills in this subject further.

The school takes part in a very high percentage of local and regional competitions and experiences notable success in them. We also offer a wide range of after-school clubs that range from judo through to archery. 

However, each year, Sports Day is an opportunity for everyone to take part in competitive sport and rally for their respective house team. This year was no different. Following the success of the Key Stage 1 event previously, Key Stage 2 took to the field to earn points for their house teams in a combination of team field events and more traditional track races.

100 pupils, family members and friends joined us for our Playing Out session, where the Blue Coat staff car park and driveway were closed to cars and open for play.

This event was inspired by the Playing Out street-play movement, which started in Bristol and has now gained momentum and recognition nationally. The idea is to (temporarily) reclaim residential roads for communities to come together and play and socialise safely. If you are interested in holding your own Playing Out event see their website: http://playingout.net/