BlueCoat Primary School News

Our girls' football team have already secured a place in the County Finals next month. The boys were then tasked with trying to do the same thing as they took to the pitches of Katherine Lady Berkeley school, hungry for that photo finish. Mrs Arnold was there, cheering on from the sidelines...

Our Girls' Football team last year narrowly missed out on significant success at the county finals. Given the space of a year - and now that they're wiser, stronger and better - they kicked off the Blue Coat sporting calendar with a brilliant performance. Mr Brooks watched from the sidelines and reports the following...

Due to the commitment of Blue Coat families, our school can be proud of high rates of pupil attendance. Extensive research shows the positive relationship that exists between pupil attendance and their in-school achievement.

For this reason, attendance really does matter and we take a wide range of actions in school to promote and support healthy pupil attendance.

The Department for Education (DfE) continues to highlight the importance of this issue through policymaking. As a result, we must highlight some recent changes that now affect schools and families nationally.

Friday saw us formally saying 'Welcome' to our new Reception starters and their families at St Mary's Church. The service was packed full of songs, hymns, readings and, of course, the ceremonious placing of pebbles around the school's holy candle.

The tradition of pebbles was formed a few years ago by our Year 6's. As 'buddies' of our reception children, they wanted to formalise the friendship through gift-giving at the service.The pebbles were chosen to be handpainted so as to be customised for their buddy, with the reception child's name on the underside. The recipient's pebble sits around our holy candle throughout their first year at Blue Coat, symbolising the fact that they are the youngest learners whom are being nurtured and introduced to our Christian values of Respect, Responsibility, Creativity and Happiness.

Making the choice of which school is right for your child is a really big one, we know. In October we are going to help prospective parents of the school make that choice a little easier (we hope) by opening our doors to give a taster as to what we stand for and where we hope to be heading.

We broke our 'Big Breakfast fast' today by reintroducing the event to our Key Stage 2 community. Support from families was, as usual, excellent as early risers tucked into a selection of cereals, pastries and drinks from 8am in our school hall.

Last week, children in Year 1 to Year 6 classes got creative in their electioneering campaign to be voted in as pupil leaders of our school. Blue Coat's Future Leaders are elected 'for the pupil by the pupil' on an annual basis. Their role? To work alongside the school's leaders to improve our school for everyone.

Announced in our Star Achiever assembly on Friday, the excitement mounted as this year's leaders were, one by one, called to the front to show the rest of the school who was representing them. The children were very convincing in their campaigns and gave pupils and teachers alike great confidence in them to communicate issues and ideas raised in classes to the school's leaders for their attention.

Several newspaper column inches have been devoted to the government's launch of website parentinfo.org over recent days. Recognising the importance of young people staying safe online, the Education Secretary has called for a website that informs parents of the perils of the online world and how they can help keep children safe. It raises parental awareness of a number of issues, websites, and technologies that parents should get to grips with, but also publishes a glossary of 'text chat' used by young people when socialising online. Please do check out this resource and its partnering websites for invaluable up-to-date information.

It's been 2 years since the school embarked on the OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning) project. Without a Play Co-ordinator to spearhead the first year, we found it difficult to make progress with the ambitious plans we had for our pupils' play. That all changed, this academic year, with the appointment of Mrs Murray who has formed and led a fantastic 'Play Team'. They have trained and worked tirelessly to ensure that play times for our children are valuable, exciting and fulfilling. 

Friday evening saw Gloucester Cathedral open its doors to a slightly more diverse crowd than usual. The Sainsburys School Games Celebration Ceremony was hosted both in and around the cathedral in honour of celebrating those who have represented their school in the Gloucestershire School Games over 2014-15. This involved the place of worship being turned into a haven for BMX bandits, skaters, dancers, cheerleaders, musicians, archers and gymnasts!