BlueCoat Primary School News

As we live out the last days of 2017 in school, there's still time to show the contrast in life at school...

On one hand, the children (with weliies in school) have been outside enjoying the weather on our school field, feeling the crunch of snow under their feet.

Whereas in school, the milepost 2 children led their own spiritual service for Christingle in the school hall. Classes from across the school visited throughout the afternoon and soaked up the atmosphere to remember the essence of our celebrations in school.

We are pleased to announce that Blue Coat is through to the voting stage for 2 funded projects for outdoor play, and so we're asking for your support

1. The Big Build - Tesco Bags of Help
2. Healthy Hearts through Active Play - Aviva Community Fund

Here are the details:

Earlier in the term, such is Blue Coat tradition, we formally welcomed new Reception pupils (and parents) into the school family by means of a service at St Mary's church.

Always promised to be a special occasion, the event also served to cement the  special bond between Reception children and their Year 6 buddy/buddies. To symbolise this the Year 6's all presented their buddy with a bespoke painted pebble that they had prepared for them. This was ceremoniously placed around the school's Holy Candle to remind us of our responsibilities to live out our core Christian values for the sake of all, but especially to the benefit of the youngest members of our school family.

We were, once again, encouraged by the support for what is now our annual Maths meeting for parents. 'Masters of Maths' sets out to uncover the thinking behind the new maths curriculum, its implications for our learners, what the school is doing about it, and how parents can support.

Mathematics is a rapidly evolving subject at Blue Coat and we have taken several very significant steps already this year in training our teaching staff to meet the challenges of nurturing future ready mathematical thinkers in our classes. 

It's been just over three years since we launched ourselves in to our Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL) journey, and what an exciting and eventful three years it has been! Our practice and our spaces have undergone change with play in mind, with ambitious plans and decision-making driven by the Blue Coat pupils.

• Play Matters Newsletter

Following on from the success of this very well attended event last academic year, we have decided to hold another Maths Meeting for Parents. In addition to covering a fraction of the content from last time, we hope to multiply the value of the meeting by dedicating a good measure to how parents can support at home.

The school is adopting a new approach to Maths home learning, having decided that Mathletics is perhaps not the best equation for future-proofing our pupils. We would like to support parents by advising them on what they can do to help ensure that their child understands and enjoys Maths, growing exponentially in confidence as they do so.

Blue Coat's commitment to play remains relentless. Thanks to Tesco Bags scheme funding, our pupils were able to have input into designing their very own 'Dengineering Zone' on our school field. The den building village is intended to allow children to develop their creativity whilst offering the physical, cognitive and social challenges of constructing their own shared structures with friends.

The children were insistent about the inclusion of a platform allowing them to play at height and a series of physical challenges for them to overcome -  such as a slackline to test their balance!

The school, like any decent learner, is always looking to improve . We recognise the role that feedback plays in learning to do better. So, at this year's summer consultations, parents were asked to submit their views on paper replicas of the online Ofsted Parent View survey. The web version has fewer submissions and paints a very different picture to that of nearly 200 paper submissions we collected in school.

With questions ranging from pupil happiness through to leadership and management, the survey tries to capture the main themes that parents are expected to have a view on. 

Yesterday was a very special occasion for the million or so people who took part in 'Outdoor Classroom Day'. The idea was coined to celebrate and inspire outdoor learning and play.

Why would we support such a cause? Outdoor learning has been shown to improve children’s health, engagement with learning, and leads to a greater connection with nature. We firmly believe that the element of play not only teaches critical life skills such as resilience, teamwork and creativity, but is central to children’s enjoyment of childhood.

Recently, Year 6's took part in a breakfast club aimed at socialising and settling nerves ahead of their pinnacle assessments (SATs). The club, but particularly the prospect of hot toast(!), was so popular with our eldest pupils that it got our team thinking...