Meet Our Librarians
Brighten Up Burwell
Pupils from our Year 5 and Year 6 Enterprise, Cultural Capital group distributed their plant-filled pots within the community. The pupils raised all of the funds necessary to cover the costs. We hope that our act of kindness will brighten people’s gardens and make them smile.
We applied our geography fieldwork skills when out distributing our plant-filled pots.
Each group designed their own logo.
Dear Miss Mansfield,
Please could you give my thanks to the pupils of year 5 and 6 who prepared my lovely planter that I found this afternoon at the top of Parsonage lane , near the old Barclays Bank. What a lovely surprise! I felt a bit self conscious carrying it home but am looking forward to seeing it growing in my garden.It was a lovely idea; unexpected acts of kindness can have such unexpected, long term results sometimes. It certainly made my day brighter. Keep up the good work!
With best wishes to you all.
He’s Behind You!
On the 20th December, Year 5 visited the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Cambridge Arts Theatre to watch Dick Whittington and his Cat pantomime. In the museum, we spent the first hour looking at paintings and then we had lunch. After, we visited the Greek and Egyptian exhibitions. It was really interesting.
In the afternoon, we watched the pantomime. It was really fun. I even got to go up on the stage at the end of the show.
I loved being in the theatre with all of my friends.
Dodgeball and Table tennis competitions
Dodgeball and Table tennis competitions
On Wednesday 7th December, 10 Year 5 and Year 6 pupils travelled to Coleridge Community College for a dodgeball and table tennis competition against other schools in Cambridgeshire. All children competed in both sports and demonstrated excellent teamwork and sportsmanship. We were thrilled to bring 2 trophies back to school. One for Toby in year 6 for winning the table tennis competition and the other one for our mixed year 5/6 team for coming 2nd in the dodgeball competition.
All children represented our school superbly!
Recommended reads
Recommended Reads
Recommended reads
Books for Topics have put together a list of books that are recommended for different age groups. The children have these in their reading records. We are encouraging all children to read these books in their spare time and tick them off the list as they go along. To support us in this it would be great if you can read along with your child or ask them questions about the books they are reading. Perhaps share them as a bedtime story. When children do read them it would be great if you can initial the list in the reading record to show that they have read them.
We believe that encouraging children to read this selection of books it will help to develop their vocabulary, their knowledge of common stories and story structures and, over time, develop a love of reading which will support them throughout their lives. Along with their school reading books and the emphasis on reading throughout the curriculum, children will develop into fluent and expressive readers. This in turn will support their understanding of the whole curriculum and opening up opportunities to develop deeper critical thinking and supporting successful outcomes.
Reading at home
Reading
Reading
Reading gives children access to the curriculum, to new and diverse worlds to explore, to information and knowledge and to opportunities well beyond the academic.
We have enhanced our reading material with a clear and progressive reading scheme which caters for all children in the school. At the parent workshop today we went through this scheme and the associated expectations. If children are to achieve their potential they need to be able to read fluently and with good understanding. Bug Club allows the school to systematically check progress against age expectations in all four elements of reading (fluency, understanding grammar and vocabulary and application). The books available are modern and engaging and build vocabulary throughout the stages. We expect therefore children to be reading their Bug Club book when they are in school so that teachers can be confident about what children know and understand. The early Bug Club books are all phonetically decodable allowing early readers to apply their known phonics as well as applying their sight vocabulary (another key skill). As children move through the stage the vocabulary becomes increasingly more difficult, as do the story structure and contexts of the reading material. In order to keep children’s interest there is a variety of text types, including non-fiction, graphic novels and comics and newspaper type layouts. Bug Club also offers some comprehension tasks to support parents with children’s understanding of the texts.
Children have brought home a Bug Club online login. This login allows children access to Bug Club via a website. The online site has the same texts as the hard copies (so there are no excuses for not reading). Some of the texts also have a text to speech version included so that children can listen and follow along. We know that for busy parents this is a very welcome support to ensure that children are reading regularly. If you do not have access to a laptop, phone or other device, please speak to the office as we may be able to support.
Finally, Bug Club is not the only reading material available. There are two other supplementary schemes in school; Collins Big Cat and Oxford Reading Tree. These will be used to support children and ensure a variety of reading material if they need to remain on a colour. Children also have access to a well stocked library four lunchtimes per week. During this time they can be supported in finding reading material that interests them. We want children to read as much as possible so although we want them to read their Bug Club book regularly it should not be exclusive. If children love finding things out there is plenty of non-fiction material in the library that they can borrow. If they love Jacqueline Wilson, Terry Pratchett, David Walliams or even Jane Austen or Charles Dickens, we have the material available and want to encourage children to read.
Reading is important, it is a very big key to success and opportunity. If you are unsure of anything to do with reading please ask your class teacher. If we know what the barriers are we can help to address them. This can include providing vocabulary flash cards, devices for online reading or simply encouragement to try a different genre.
Attached is the powerpoint shared with parents. We look forward to continuing to read with you and your child.
School Vision and Values
School Vision and Values
“Success through opportunity”
Following discussions with governors staff, parents and children we have agreed that this simple statement encapsulates our school ethos and commitment. The phrase was suggested by one of our parents following a parent forum at the start of the year. We are very grateful for our parental contributions and are excited to ensure that our school reflects these opportunities for all pupils to succeed.
“To nurture and inspire, compassionate and motivated pupils who achieve more through an exciting and rich school experience delivered by highly skilled and knowledgeable staff.”
A new curriculum for a new generation
We value learning in all subjects. We want to support pupils to become valued members of their community reflecting enjoyment and engagement in a rich and detailed curriculum and ensuring high standards of attainment and attitude.
As a school we are determined to ensure that all pupils achieve what is expected of them. This means that we set challenging targets for our pupils and staff and provide specific interventions, boosters and support to ensure that we achieve them. This begins with our assessment of pupils in the Early years, recognising their strengths and areas for development. We then track this attainment across all subjects in all years. Where pupils are identified as falling behind they will work with members of staff to fill these gaps. Where we identify that pupils need additional challenge they will work with identified staff to ensure that they are reaching their potential. Our expectation is that all pupils, regardless of their starting points, will achieve age related expectation by the end of each year. Those with special educational needs may require a slightly different approach or tailored curriculum but will still be expected to make good progress and attain their best.
We value the wider curriculum as much as our core curriculum offer. The curriculum is based on an EBACC style offer meaning that we have based our theme teaching around science, history and geography with English and mathematics skills being developed and applied in these subjects alongside their discrete teaching. On other days, we offer pupils a varied and in-depth curriculum based around the arts. This includes detailed music, art and DT teaching. There are specific opportunities for the application of ICT skills as well as a computing curriculum. We have incorporated understanding of social media, drama, enterprise and community engagement and self-study as part of our wider curriculum offer. The curriculum reflects the expectations we have for pupils to be able to explore different subjects and find elements of the curriculum that they love and are good at.
Teachers are best placed to ensure that pupils achieve the best outcomes but in order to do this they need the chance to develop their own subject knowledge, teaching skills and share good practice. As a school we value learning at all levels. We are therefore committed to staff development as we know that it is this that increases outcomes for pupils more than anything else. We offer staff the chance to work together during the working week to involve themselves in coaching programmes, action research, school development plans, planning, moderation and assessment. This time is so valuable and ensures that staff are continually learning and implementing new and improved teaching and learning skills from each other and external providers.
Our commitment extends further than the academic and the arts. We know that most pupils at some point in their school career will need additional support to understand and develop coping strategies for various external influences. We have therefore set up a well-being team who run programmes for specific children and specific needs. This could be mental health, play therapy, bereavement counselling, ADHD support or just support with confidence and self-esteem. This is a new team and the programmes on offer are developing but will, we believe, have a significant impact in the long term. We also offer tutoring to identified pupils and a number of after school clubs run by our own staff and external providers.
Burwell Village College has been through a significant transformation in the past eighteen months and we continue to develop our curriculum offer and improve the quality of teaching and learning. We are committed to providing the highest possible standards in everything we do.
Children should come to school excited about learning, eager to achieve and prepared to work hard. We are determined to ensure that our school culture reflects this and that this is provided in a supportive, caring and nurturing environment. We believe that this will develop pupils into engaged, active members of society having developed resilience and tenacity and ready for the next stage of their school journey.
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Invest in your child’s future by building a solid foundation with Burwell Village College Primary School.
New School Lunches
New School lunches
New School lunches
We were really pleased today to open our new kitchen with great lunch options. The food looked and tasted amazing! The children were really impressed with the new look of the dining hall and the food on offer.
Enrol your child today!
Invest in your child’s future by building a solid foundation with Burwell Village College Primary School.
Remembrance Assembly 2021
Remembrance Assembly 2021
Remembrance Assembly 2021
On Thursday we held our Armistice assembly. This is the most important assembly we hold in the year, recognising the sacrifice of people who have fought to ensure our right to freedom.
Twenty-one of our year six children read poems and stories written during or about conflict, from those who were there. The whole school stood for two minutes in honour of those who fought.
From Reception to year six, children must understand the importance of remembrance. This is why we stop the school as a whole, come together as a community and recognise how significant these events are.
Please follow the link below to see the full video:
Enrol your child today!
Invest in your child’s future by building a solid foundation with Burwell Village College Primary School.