July
14th - Year 1 Pretend Holiday
15th - Venus and Mercury Class Party Day
15th - Jupiter Class Leaver's Assembly 9.10am
15th - Saturn Class Leaver's Assembly 2pm
16th - Year 1 Party Day
16th - Jupiter and Saturn Class Party Day
16th - Venus Class Leaver's Assembly 9.10am
16th - Mercury Class Leaver's Assembly 2pm
17th - Nursery Party Day
17th - Reception Party Day
18th - SCHOOL CLOSES AT 1.45PM FOR THE SUMMER BREAK (NO YELLOW OR PURPLE NURSERY)

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the school fund, we are well on our way to reaching our target with £9,315 raised so far!

Our voluntary contribution is £75 per family - if you feel you are able to contribute, this can be paid online via your School Gateway account. There is also an option to pay on a reducing balance with smaller instalments throughout the year. 

The money we raise from these contributions goes towards enriching experiences for the children such as Earthsong drumming, “Pretend Holiday” days, art workshops, Healthy Living Week Big Breakfast, school trips, multicultural picnic and classroom resources. 

You can read more about our School Fund by visiting the webpage: 

School Fund web page

We raised a staggering £438 from our copper mile with every penny donated to the World Wildlife Fund. A huge thank you to everyone who donated. 

A reminder that on Friday 18th July, school closes at 1.45pm for the summer break.

Acorns will close at 5pm on this day. 

No Yellow or Purple nursery.

As per our Attendance Policy, if your child is off for 1 or more days, for any medical or sickness reasons, immediately before or after a school (or other booked) holiday or closure AND no evidence is provided, this will be marked as an unauthorised absence.

New to Year 1 Parent Talk

Friday 5th September - SAVE THE DATE!

2:50pm Infant Hall

Find out all about Y1, including the topics your child will learn and how you can help at home with maths, reading and writing. 

New to Year 2 Parent Talk and Visit your Child's Classroom

Friday 5th September - SAVE THE DATE!

9am Infant Hall

Find out all about Y2, including the topics your child will learn and how you can help at home with maths, reading and writing.  Afterwards you can visit your child in their new classroom. We look forward to meeting you!

The countdown is on, I hope you are making the most of your time before the summer break to nurture yourselves and recharge your batteries for the 6 weeks ahead. Take some time for yourself each day leading up to the summer break, 10 minutes a day at the very least, sit down and put your feet up, meet with a friend, go for a walk, anything that you enjoy doing to prepare you for what lies ahead. If you are relaxed and calm, you will feel more like engaging with this weeks activity over the summer.

Children (of all ages) love junk modelling. Why not start collecting random bits of junk, boxes, tubes, sweet wrappers, buttons, lace, wool, material, stickers, bottle tops, anything you can find that that will fuel your children's imagination. If you do this activity outside, the possibilities are endless, try using  glitter, sequins, coloured sand, leaves, grass, flower petals, the list is endless. Set down an old bedsheet on the floor, put all your junk on it along with PVA glue, masking tape, sellotape, glue sticks etc. and just let your children's imagination run away! Have fun and join in, you won't believe how therapeutic and calming it is. Take lots of pictures of your creations and if you have a printer, try making them into cards to give to the family, or make collages to put on the wall. The junk models won't last forever but the pictures will.

Beware, next weeks activities are not for the faint-hearted, they are all about slime making and VERY messy play!

And finally, our positive thought of the week:

We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing!

If you have a parenting concern, you can contact Mrs Easty via the school office - admin@burlingtoni.org.uk

We have just added lots of new items to our wishlist such as paintbrushes, watercolour paint sets, wheelbarrows, dominoes, chunky crayons, sea animal figures and buckets and spades to name just a few! Items are priced from as little as £4 so if you are able to help us we would really appreciate it! Click on the link below to see our wishlist.

https://amzn.eu/983v2T9

If you are able to help, we would really appreciate it!

If you are taking part in science learning at home, please take a photo and email it to the school. It could be a photo of you trying out an experiment, sharing something that you have created or an interesting find. You could be with an animal, reading a book, feeding the birds, at your allotment or visiting a science museum. Please add comments and quotes from your child explaining what your science selfie is about and what you were learning.

Please email your science selfie to admin@burlingtoni.org.uk.  We look forward to seeing your Science Selfies!

Here are some of the Science Selfies we've received!

Science Selfie Challenge Photos

If your child needs to use the toilet after pick-up, please walk back to your classroom door and ask for your child to go back through the classroom to use the toilet. Parents are not allowed in the toilets. This is to safeguard the other children we have on site after school in clubs and at Acorns. 

Thank you for your cooperation.

Just letting you know that Burlington Infant & Nursery School are now registered with easyfundraising, which means you can raise FREE donations for us every time you shop online.

Over 7,000 brands will donate to us when you use easyfundraising to shop with them – at no extra cost to yourself! These donations really mount up and make a BIG difference to us, so we’d really appreciate it if you could take a moment to sign up and support us.

It’s completely FREE and only takes a moment. You can find our easyfundraising page here.

Thank you so much!
 
All you need to do is:
 
1. Go to the fundraising page by clicking here and join for free.

2. Every time you shop online, go to easyfundraising first to find the site you want and start shopping.

3. After you’ve checked out, the brand will make a donation to Burlington Infant & Nursery School at no extra cost to you whatsoever!
 
There are no catches or hidden charges and we will be really grateful for your donations.
 
Thank you for your support.

Parentkind, a charity that supports school PTAs have teamed up with Asda, who is making millions of pounds available to donate to primary schools across the UK through their ‘Cashpot for Schools’ initiative. To support our school, all you have to do is opt-in through the Asda Rewards app, shop and scan in store or shop online at Asda.com.
 
Between 2nd September and 30th November 2024, every time you shop with Asda using your Asda Rewards app, Asda will donate 0.5% of the value of your shop to your chosen school. Also, every time somebody opts-in to support our school, Asda will give an additional £1 to the school Cashpot. Plus, it doesn’t stop there – Asda are also giving £50 to every school to get them started.

It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3
1. Download the Asda Rewards app, register and opt-in to Cashpot for Schools (make sure you have the latest version of the app installed)
2. Choose Burlington Infant & Nursery School by searching the name or postcode
3. Shop instore across Asda and George, or online at Asda.com and start filling your Cashpot as you shop
 
Asda does the rest, all money raised will be donated to schools to spend on the things they need the most.

Remember, anyone can sign up, so start spreading the news and raising funds for our school.

A reminder to all parents that the yellow zig-zag lines outside our school at both the front and back gates indicate the length of road where stopping or waiting is strictly prohibited. If you park on these clearly marked, yellow zig zag lines you are putting the safety of our children and their families at risk.

Cars should not be parked on the zig zag lines for any amount of time - even if it is just a minute or two to drop off children.

Thank you for helping us to keep our school community safe.

Please can we remind parents that children are not allowed to ride scooters on the school premises. Please use the scooter stands provided or carry your child's scooter once inside the school gates. We really appreciate your support.
Thank you

If you have not already downloaded the School Gateway App, please do this immediately. This is our communication and payment system for the school so it is really important that you have activated your account. We will use this system to send emergency text messages and all clubs, trips, Acorns, nursery fees etc can be paid using the app. If you require any assistance, please do not hesitate to ask the school office. 

How to access School Gateway instructions for new users

You can find all our policies on our Policies web page:

School Policies web page

We recommend parents read: 

Medical Conditions Policy
Attendance Policy
Parent & Visitor Code of Conduct
Behaviour & Anti-bullying 
Complaints policy
School Uniform

Thank you to everyone who attended the workshop this week. If you were unable to attend, please click below to see a copy of the presentation. 

Nutrition Workshop presentation from Wed 2 July

This week 20 year 2 children went on a trip to the Oval in London to watch Surrey vs Durham. Despite the heat the children all had a great time watching the cricket and enjoyed seeing the links between the striking and fielding games they do in PE! 

Dear Parents/Carers,

The children had an assembly today where they found out their new class and teachers for September. They were all very excited! 

Please find attached information regarding your child's new class. If you have any questions, please contact the school office. 

New Classes for September 2025

Thank you and best wishes,  

Burlington Infant & Nursery School

We’ve had a fantastic time celebrating Healthy Living Week. The week was filled with fun, energy, and lots of learning as children across all year groups took part in a variety of activities designed to promote healthy habits and overall well-being.

From sports days to Big Breakfast, Don Rae, Mini Athletics and a visit from athlete Taylor Gough, every day brought something fun and exciting. The children also made some fantastic posters to promote healthy habits!

It was wonderful to see so much enthusiasm and teamwork, with children encouraging one another and really embracing the spirit of the week. 

We’re proud of the positive attitudes the children have shown and hope they’ve come away from the week feeling inspired to continue making healthy choices at home too!

This summer holiday we would like your child to join the National Library Summer Reading Challenge online or by visiting New Malden Library. It's called the Story Garden and you can explore new books and earn rewards for reading!

You can find more information on this link:

https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/

Every Friday we will be sending home an exciting picture to discuss and share at home which will hopefully inspire your child to write and draw. All entries must be brought into class by the following Friday morning. Children can write and draw anything which comes to mind after looking at the picture. Every week in Assembly, winning entries will be shared with the school and stickers/rewards will be given. Please encourage your child to participate in this weekly challenge. We’d love to see all of your ideas!

Click here to see a copy of this week's Inspiration Station.

Well done to everyone who took part in the Skittles experiment - we loved reading all about it.

Inspiration Station Entries 2024-25

Dear Parents/Carers,

Please find attached a letter from Mrs Leech, our OPAL leader with some exciting updates. 

OPAL Platinum Award Letter

Thank you and best wishes, 

Burlington Infant & Nursery School

Thank you to everyone who joined us today. Here is the presentation from the session, and the new Mobile Phone Policy which will come into effect in September 2025. Please share this with other parents, and thank you for your support with our drive to improve speech, language and social communication for all our children.

Thank you to everyone who joined us today. Please click here to see a copy of the presentation from this morning. 

With the weather currently being very hot, please can we remind parents to ensure their children bring a sun hat and water bottle to school every day. Please also apply sun screen before arriving to school. 

Thank you.

The children collected the used batteries that have been brought in for the Great Big Battery Hunt. They counted them and found that we have so far collected 527! These will now be taken to the nearest battery recycling point.

Year 2 enjoyed an author workshop from Lucy Noguera, who read them one of her books and took questions via Zoom. The children asked great questions and loved hearing the story.
 
Copies of Lucy's books can still be purchased via your School Gateway account. Deadline for orders is Tuesday 24th June. 

In our KS1 assembly last week, Mrs Yay-Walker introduced the importance of saying goodbye and that in September, Year 1 children will move into Year 2 and Year 2 children will move into Year 3 at the junior school. We will be saying goodbye to Year 2 children in July.

As a leaving gift every year the Year 2 children are given a special leavers t-shirt. This year they have been kindly bought by the PTA.

The children can now wear their special t-shirts on their PE Days, Mufti Days and during Healthy Living Week! We are really enjoying seeing the children wearing them!

Thank you to everyone who has come in as a mystery reader. The children have loved having a special guest read to them. 

If you would like to be a mystery reader, please arrange a time with your class teacher. You can bring your own book or borrow a book from the class. You can read a book in English or even your home language. Just don't forget to keep it a secret - shhhh!!!

A group of year 2 children attended a Swimming Gala at Coombe Hill Infant School this week. It was a fantastic event full of fun, excitement, and team spirit! The children showed great enthusiasm and sportsmanship as they competed in a range of events, from freestyle races to fun relays. It was wonderful to see the children cheering each other on and giving their best in the water. A big well done to all our swimmers—you made us so proud! 

We did the Copper Mile for WWF today and Eco Council helped to collect the money from the playground once the money was laid down. They worked really hard and Mrs Docwra and Mrs Easty will now take the money to the bank to have it counted. We’ll let you know how much we collected for WWF next week.

Dons Local Action Group would be grateful for the following donations:

Rice
Pasta
Tinned meat
Tinned fish
Tinned fruit
Tinned vegetables

Please leave your donations in the Dons basket in the school office before drop off on Friday 20th June.

Maria Sibylla Merian was born in 1647 in Germany and was an explorer and will always be known in the science and art world for her detailed drawings of nature.  Her illustrations were so detailed that people thought the bugs would jump right off the page! She discovered how caterpillars change into butterflies, also known as metamorphosis.  Maria is the first woman known to travel the world for her scientific research. She spent two years in Suriname (South America) painting exotic animals surrounded by the plants that they relied on.  Maria was highly regarded in both the art and science world and she was even featured on German money!  Maria died in 1717, but she is still admired by many (including Sir David Attenborough) and the species of at least six plants, nine butterflies, two bugs, one spider and a lizard are named after her.  

Activities:

1. Create your own piece of science artwork.  You could use different paints e.g. watercolours or drawing materials e.g charcoal, pastels, pencils.  Maybe you could use art drawing techniques such as stippling and hatching. 

2. Make a model of the stages in a butterfly lifecycle with playdough or recreate it by acting it out.  

Take a Science Selfie and post your photo on Tapestry!  If you would like to have your photo included in our weekly school newsletter, please e-mail your photo to admin@burlingtoni.org.uk

Please click here for a programme of activities being held during the summer term at local Children's Centres.

This week, Burlington Infants has been alive with the sights, sounds, and flavours of the world as we celebrated our annual Around the World Week! From country-themed classroom activities to traditional music with Earthsong and dance performances with Don Rae, the children had the opportunity to explore and appreciate the rich tapestry of cultures that make up our school community.

The week ended with our multicultural picnic where families and staff came together on the school playground to share delicious homemade dishes. A huge thank you to all our parents for the amazing food and for making this another successful afternoon. It was a wonderful opportunity to come together and celebrate the diversity that makes our school such a vibrant place.

The Burlington Art Gallery is open and accepting submissions for display in its ‘Hall of Creativity’!
 
This half terms exhibition has the theme 'Summer' and is open to each artist’s own unique and individual interpretation. We welcome work in all forms of media - paint, drawing, sculpture, collage, digital, printing etc.  
 
Mrs Drake will be using the artwork submitted by the children to fill a gallery wall in the school. Work will be framed and displayed for all the children to see as they pass by each day. The theme 'Summer' will run until the Summer Break, before a new theme is selected for the Autumn term.
 
Please ensure that all art work submitted has the artist’s name and class on the reverse/base of their masterpiece and to inform your child's Class Teacher that it is for the Burlington Art Gallery!

The school is taking part in the Big Battery Hunt. We invite children to bring in old batteries from home for Eco Council to collect. The Eco Council children will be counting the number of batteries collected across the school and making sure that they are recycled appropriately.

Thank you to all the Year 2 parents who came in for our Opal Pop-in event today.

During the event we shared a booklet called 'The Power of Playtime'. This may be of interest to all parents as it contains some top tips for outdoor play at home! Click here to see a copy.

On Thursday, the children celebrated the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE Day). They took part in a variety of fun and engaging activities that brought history to life! Nursery children got to make jam sandwiches for their own tea party, reception children made butter from scratch for their tea party sandwiches as well as making spitfire planes using toilet rolls while year 1 & year 2 made their own medals and spitfire planes as well as enjoying a tea party of course! We also joined forces with the junior school for a fabulous sing song of 'We'll Meet Again', 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' and 'I can see a Rainbow'. A special well done to our nursery children who bravely sang in front of year 4 and year 6 children! The whole day was a wonderful opportunity for the children to explore the significance of VE Day in an interactive and memorable way, enriching their sense of community and appreciation for history. 

Thank you to all the Reception parents who came in for our Opal Pop-in event today.

During the event we shared a booklet called 'The Power of Playtime'. This may be of interest to all parents as it contains some top tips for outdoor play at home! Click here to see a copy.

We have a limited number of brand new Burlington bucket hats available via the School Office for £2 each. Please come to the office if you would like to purchase one. 

Twelve of our enthusiastic KS1 children proudly represented our school at the Mini Marathon on Saturday 26th April. Each and every one of them showed incredible determination, energy and resilience as they took on the challenge with big smiles! The children ran so well and truly gave it their all – we couldn’t be prouder!  You are all shining examples of perseverance and teamwork and truly earned those medals – what a remarkable achievement! Well done to each and every one of you.

Thank you to all the year 1 parents who came in for our Opal Pop-in event last Friday. It was so lovely for the children to share this with their parents and great to see so many parents getting stuck in with the all the imaginative play! 

During the event we shared a booklet called 'The Power of Playtime'. This may be of interest to all parents as it contains some top tips for outdoor play at home! Click here to see a copy.

Sir David Attenborough was fascinated by wildlife from a young age and studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge. He decided to use his passion and knowledge as a naturalist (a biologist who studies the interactions between living things) to become a television broadcaster, writer and conservationist (someone who works towards the protection of animals and their habitats).

Sir David Attenborough is 98 years old.  In 2021, he gave a memorable opening speech at COP26 in Glasgow. He inspired hope saying that humans were ‘the greatest problem solvers to have ever existed on Earth’. Sir David Attenborough has at least 20 animals or plants named in his honour, and he has been awarded over 30 honorary degrees.

Activities

1. Can you help Sir David Attenborough to encourage everyone to protect animals and their habitats?  Make a poster about your favourite endangered animal.  Can you include information about its habitat, what it eats and its lifecycle.  The WWF website can help you with this. 

2. Sir David Attenborough thinks that it is important that children observe nature.  Have a nature day out with your family, for example in Richmond Park, and take photos of, and identify, the animals and plants that you see.

Take a Science Selfie and post your photo on Tapestry!  If you would like to have your photo included in our weekly school newsletter, please e-mail your photo to admin@burlingtoni.org.uk

Our Maths Day today was a fantastic celebration of the many ways maths is present in our everyday lives. From the beauty of art and nature to the puzzles we solve, maths truly is everywhere. Throughout the morning, children and parents engaged in a variety of fun and interactive activities that showcased the usefulness of maths skills. Before the event, we asked the children what they loved most about maths, and their responses inspired the day's activities. It was a day filled with learning, creativity, and a lot of fun – reminding us all just how essential and exciting maths can be! A huge thank you to all the parents who came along and for the really positive feedback. 

So many great activities especially the number and shapes treasure hunt.

I loved the car parking activity and shape sorting. I'll try to copy it at home.

It was wonderful to see how naturally the school incorporates maths concepts in the nursery setting. You make it look easy!

Great range of activities and so great to be able to go outside too.

It was so nice to see how the kids interact with each other on the carpet and how confident they are.

Please click here for a programme of activities being held during the summer term at local Children's Centres.

A huge well done to everyone who entered the Easter egg competition! We have loved seeing all the wonderful creations and we are so impressed with the creativity that has gone into every design.

The winners this year are: 

Nursery 
Orange - Ava, Teo, Chen Chen and Yue Yue
Purple - Alfie, Kai and Deva
Green - Theo, Victoria and Devesh
Yellow - William, Eliana, Isla H and Isla M
Blue - Grace, Donnacha and Rebecca

Reception
Foxes - Gledis, Arthur and Leilah
Hedgehogs - Romy, Rio and Alexander 
Rabbits - Harry, Freddie and Niamh
Squirrels - Ava, Rubin and Nola 

Year 1 
Diamonds - Sally, Flo and Maisie
Emeralds - George, Jessica and Latifah
Rubies - Amelia, Oscar and Aroosh
Sapphires - Rosie, Niraj and Ben

Year 2
Jupiter - Ethan, Nelson and Jamie
Mercury - Charli, Ho Yin and Charlotte W
Saturn - Naty, Max and Kianee
Venus - Ava, Amelie and Jessica 

This week in our Reading Assembly we announced the winners of the Extreme Reading competition. The winners were chosen by our new Reading Champions. Thank you for all your amazing entries!

Extreme Reading Competition Winners 2025

These two children won the Reading Tree for January and February respectively. Congrats to them! They each won a new book for their class.