BlueCoat Primary School News

As a school, we have decided to invest in an esteemed Personal Social Health Education (PSHE) tool intended to address key areas of our pupil's personal development. The 'Jigsaw PSHE Scheme' regularly covers age appropriate issues of diversity, bullying, hopes and aspirations, teamwork, enterprising behaviour, physical and emotional health, drugs education, e-safety, friendship and far more. It also delivers the school's statutory duty to teach Sex and Relationships Education (SRE). As the school is revising its approach to SRE in the context of the scheme, we felt it important to share our intentions with parents ahead of time.

The Blue Coat PTA May Fayre is always well received by the community, gathering big crowds and in the process raising significant funds for the school. However, this year's beach theme brought a refreshed format to the fayre which was held, in its entirety, on the school field. 

In a week where Milepost 2 children visited 2 very special places of worship, the week was also commemorated by Blue Coat's support for Christian Aid Week. The aim? To buy a cow! Supporting the work of the charity, the children were set a challenge by Mrs Blaken to raise enough money from selling homemade 'cowpat cookies' to the tune of £150 in order to buy a cow for a family in Ethiopia. The importance of the cow to Ethiopians cannot be underestimated, particularly for women. As well as it offering the nutritious advantages, in a culture where women's views can often be overlooked, the ownership of a cow also gives women a status and voice in the decisions that are made within villages. 

Whilst the Year 6's were busy knuckling down to SATs on Wednesday, Years 3 and 4 were taking part in an historical trip to Gloucester. The reason it was 'historical' is due to the fact that neither Blue Coat nor the Gloucester Diocese have ever engaged in organising a school trip that involved comparing two very different places of worship at the same time: a Muslim mosque and a Christian cathedral! The reason? To expose our children to places of spiritual significance in order to better understand some of our 'neighbours' who we share the planet with.

Each year, Church of England schools are visited by an appointed Bishop's Visitor. Their remit is to offer a pastoral role to the headteacher whilst identifying and celebrating the school's recent achievements in developing its Christian character and effectiveness.

There aren't enough verses of the song to reflect the number of people who 'went to mow a meadow' on Saturday At Blue Coat! In fact, there wasn't even any mowing taking place; instead, families and staff gathered just to enjoy the school's outdoors and what it has to offer.

Whether you've been taught by him, greeted by him, spoken to him or worked with him, everyone in the Blue Coat community knows Mr Clements. He's had a remarkable career at Blue Coat stemming, *ahem*, 'a number' of years - starting as a Teaching Assistant and leaving as a Headteacher in his own right.

Today, in the school hall, we got to say 'thank you' and 'farewell' as Mr Clements leaves Class Drake and Blue Coat to start his exciting career as captain of the Sharpness Primary School ship. The occasion was marked by some rather amusing photos (captured below) from over the years followed by pupils and staff sharing some of their fondest memories.

The media has been buzzing with the event of a rare solar eclipse hitting the UK today. Not being ones to miss out on the action, Key Stage 2 classes took to the playgrounds to witness the episode through the safety of viewing spectacles, pinhole projection and other shadow forming techniques. The coverage was predicted to be about 85% in our region but it didn't affect the children's (and adults'!) curiosity - it did get rather dark!

Inclement weather couldn't even dampen our spirits on the day where 'FUNNY = MONEY". Our children smiled their way through the rain clouds this morning to set up shop in the school hall at short notice and raise money for Comic Relief. 

Funny faces was the theme, of which there were plenty! Our children got creative with make-up, hair dye/styles/accessories and all sorts of props to raise smiles whilst raising cash for the good cause.

As you are probably aware from media coverage and previous correspondence, September 2014 saw the introduction of a new National Curriculum for Key Stages 1 and 2. We have been and continue to work hard to fully implement the necessary changes across the school.

New English and Maths curriculum changes have been of high significance and public interest. In authoring the new curriculum, the Education Secretary was keen to ensure that standards in both core subjects were raised significantly by bringing learning from later year groups down into earlier ones. At the same time, National Curriculum Levels were abolished as they now only correspond to the assessment of the previous National Curriculum. Both changes continue to present a number of issues for state schools nationally but, most immediately, they have a significant impact on the current assessment of pupil achievement.