The school is re-opening on Tuesday 2 June with a phased return of children in Year 1, Reception and Nursery.  Those Year 1 children who have accepted a place for 2 days a week will have already received more information from the school office regarding their return from 2 June: class allocation, start / end times and what to bring.  Following a satisfactory risk assessment review at the end of the first week, we hope to welcome back Reception children from week commencing Monday 8 June.  Those children in Reception will receive more information in the coming few days.

We have prepared a video that shows you how the school will look when children return.  For those of you with children returning as part of this phased return, please share this video with your child to help them prepare for the changes.

Return to School Video June 2020

I love to see you all enjoying Science and would like you to continue sharing your Science Selfies with me!  Please take a photo of yourself 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, watching the butterfly lifecycle or planting in your garden.  Feel free to add captions or comments explaining what your science selfie is about and what you were learning. 

Please email your science selfie to admin@burlingtoni.org.uk and please let me know if you would allow for it to be shared in the school newsletter and on our school website.  I look forward to seeing your Science Selfies! 

You can check out the selfies we've received so far by clicking below:

Science Selfie Challenge Photos

Mrs MacMillan

Achieving for Children have put together a useful presentation deck to highlight the possible worries or anxiety your child may have in returning to school after the lockdown, and suggestions on how to handle and manage those feelings effectively.

View the deck here as a pdf:

Transition to School After Lockdown as pdf

To access the voice over and other links throughout the presentation, please visit the link below and download the presentation in Powerpoint if possible.

Link to 'Transition to School After Lockdown' so you can follow it along

We hope you have enjoyed your teachers reading stories to you on Tapestry and Google Classroom. If you would like to hear more, Storytime Storytime is a great YouTube Channel where you can hear lots of children's stories being read. Helpful if you have run out of books to read at home. 

Storytime Storytime

Wishing you all a lovely half term break next week. Have lots of fun with your families and don't forget to keep safe and look after each other.

Our lovely staff have put together a little video message for the children. Please check your Google Classroom or Tapestry account to watch the video. 

Dear Parents/Carers,

Please find attached a letter from Mrs Yay-Walker explaining the current plans for the phased reopening of Burlington Infant and Nursery School.  At present this guidance only applies to Nursery, Reception and Year 1, but we felt it important to share our plans with the whole school.  In the letter, there is a link to a survey.  This survey must be completed ONLY by parents who have children in Nursery, Reception and Year 1. The deadline for completing the survey is Monday 25th May, 3pm.  Please also find attached the responses to parents’ questions in the form of FAQs and a copy of the summer lunch menu for those children returning to school. 

Best wishes, Burlington Infant & Nursery School

Return to School Letter for YN, YR, and Y1 (sent 22 May)

FAQs for Parents and Carers

Summer Packed Lunch Menu

Each year our school takes part in  ‘Outdoor Classroom Day’ which inspires and celebrates outdoor play and learning.  In response to the coronavirus crisis, they have launched ‘Playful Nature’ instead, inviting everyone to celebrate their connection to the natural world by dressing up in nature on Thursday 21 May!

For inspiration and more details, click below:

Playful Nature - Thursday 21 May

Dear Parents/Carers,

I hope this email finds you safe and well.

As you may know, the government has announced its initial plans for schools to reopen, and I know that many of you will have questions about what this will mean for your child. We are waiting for further guidance this week, with Headteachers meeting across the borough to make some decisions on the way forward. As an infant school, this could mean the vast majority of our children return, which will present more challenges for us in terms of social distancing. Especially considering the age of our nursery children. We are therefore putting together very careful plans and risk assessments before I can give any further information for any gradual reopening of our school.

The priority as always is the safety of all our children and staff, and I thank you for your support and patience at this time.

Finally, on behalf of the whole staff team at Burlington Infants, please let your children know that we are all really looking forward to having them back in school.

Best wishes,

Mrs Yay-Walker, Headteacher

Run every year, the ever popular Great Bug Hunt competition brings science to life in the outdoors.  Due to the closure of schools, they have opened up their competition to all primary school children (and their parents!). Their challenge is simple…take your children into the garden or any outside space and see what bugs you can find.  Look and explore a range of places including hedges, flower beds, trees, long grass, logs, stones, rocks and report back what you find!

For more information on the competition and details on how to enter, please click below:

The Great Bug Hunt 2020 Competition

The closing date is 12 June 2020.

A big well done to Isla-Leigh in Nursery who has completed it and received a very special certificate. We are so proud of you! 

Each week, the WWF will be providing five engaging ways for children to connect with nature and learn more about our amazing planet. Their themed weeks will include live learning events via their dedicated Facebook group, an opportunity to participate in fun and insightful webinars with WWF experts, and links to their popular educational materials. And in case you miss any of these live events, you can revisit and access all content as and when you need to.

Find out more here: 

WWF Learn to Love Nature

Dear Parents and Carers,
 
Thank you all for supporting your children to take part in some of the activities we have sent home. We are very aware that we have sent out a range of work to cover most areas of learning, and that this can be overwhelming for some parents, especially for those who are working full time. Please can I make it very clear that it is not compulsory to do every single thing that is sent out. We have had a range of responses – some parents have sent back every piece of work and have asked for more work, and some parents have found it more difficult. We are reminding parents that we are only asking for the following to be returned:

Phonics/English
Maths
Reading

We are very happy to receive more than this and encourage you to try to look at other subjects too. But please do not feel that you have to get through everything if you are finding it difficult. We understand how challenging this situation is, as many of us are also juggling work with our own children at home. Please take time to just have fun with your children, spend some time in the garden, cook together or play a board game – anything that keeps your child happy and calm.
 
Thank you again for all your support and I hope you have a lovely weekend.
 
Best wishes
 
Mrs Yay-Walker

Kingston libraries have a range of digital resources for adults and children plus lots of activities and events. For more information, click below:

Family Newsletter from Kingston Libraries

We have been amazed at some of the fantastic work that our children have shared with us. Please keep the work coming and let us know if you are happy for us to share it in the newsletter.

As you know, Google Classroom has now been set up for Year 1 and 2 and hopefully you have all managed to log in. Please let us know if you get stuck – it is important that your children keep up with maths and phonics/English every week and return the completed tasks to their teachers. Please do look at other areas of learning too. Teachers will be monitoring the work that children are doing and will be in touch if they feel some children may need extra support accessing the online learning.

We hope that you are enjoying the lovely weather, staying safe and well, and managing to squeeze in a bit of Joe Wicks or Don Rae every day too!

Best wishes,
Mrs Yay-Walker

A message from Mrs MacMillan who is our Science Leader:

I love to see you all enjoying Science and would like you to continue sharing your Science Selfies with me!  Please take a photo of yourself 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, watching the butterfly lifecycle or planting in your garden.  Feel free to add captions or comments explaining what your science selfie is about and what you were learning.

Please email your science selfie to admin@burlingtoni.org.uk and please let me know if you would allow for it to be shared in the school newsletter and on our school website.  I look forward to seeing your Science Selfies! 
Mrs MacMillan

Our lovely music teacher, Mrs Williamson, has filmed a brilliant music lesson for our nursery children with the help of her family. We thought other children may enjoy watching it too!

Mickey sings with Burlington on YouTube

Some of you will know Don Rae from our 'Wake Up Shake Up' sessions during Around the World Week - he's also popular at local birthday parties!  During the schools closure, Don Rae is streaming a fun home-made mini TV show for young children up to age 5 years.  Tune in to BEANIEBOPS: RISE AND SHINE, an online series created by Don Rae himself, streaming every Tuesday morning at 8am on his YouTube channel.

BeanieBops: Rise and Shine YouTube link

This week's theme is TEDDY BEARS so grab your Teddy snd join in the dances and games!

Here is a great collection of activities and ideas for parents and carers to try at home with younger children.  Many of the ideas have an educational slant, but the learning is done through playing and exploring.

(At Least) 50 Fantastic Ideas To Try at Home

A message to all our children and parents…
 
Well done to all our children and parents for getting through the first 2 weeks! We are really missing all our wonderful children and hope that things are settling down into some sort of routine at home. This is a challenging time for us all, but it is wonderful to hear about some of the great learning and activities that are taking place at home. We would love to include some regular uplifting Burlington news for our newsletter -  if you have any heartwarming stories to share about what your children have been up to during this period of school closure, or any photos that you would be happy for us to share of creative, fun activities that your children have participated in, please do send them in to us. ‘Stories’ should be no longer than a couple of sentences, and a photo would be great! Please only send in photos of your child if you are happy to give us permission to share them in the newsletter.
 
I hope the learning packs that teachers have sent out have been useful and that you are enjoying the tasks set. There are lots of online opportunities and I know that it can be overwhelming, but please do try to keep up with regular, bite sized activities with your child and don’t feel pressured to race through everything. Anything you can do would be a great help. Make sure your child has some free time and regular breaks throughout the day. Following some parents’ feedback, we will help you set up a timetable to follow if you feel this would be useful for you and your child. Remember at this time that you include some form of exercise or active play. And most importantly, keep up with the reading – hearing your child read and reading bedtime stories to your child.
 
After the Easter break, please look out for invitations to Google Classrooms which is currently being set up. Our teachers are planning weekly lessons which your child can access from home and complete. This should be ready to launch after the Easter break.
 
Finally, thank you to everyone who has very generously brought in food donations which has been shared out with families in need. We have now arranged through Radish our schools’ caterer, to give out regular food parcels to some of our families who are eligible for Free School Meals. The school has been in touch with all those who are eligible, but have not heard back from a few families. If we have left you a message and you have not yet contacted us, please do let us know through the school’s admin email address, whether or not you are interested in collecting a food parcel from the school for your child.
 
Wishing you all a lovely Easter break.
 
Best wishes and keep safe,
 
Mrs Yay-Walker

Run every year by the Association for Science Education in partnership with the Royal Entomological Society, the ever popular Great Bug Hunt competition brings science to life in the outdoors. Due to the closure of schools, they have opened up their competition to all primary school children (and their parents!).Their challenge is simple…take your children into the garden or any outside space and see what bugs you can find. Look and explore a range of places including hedges, flower beds, trees, long grass, logs, stones, rocks and report back what you find!
Make it into a project – if they find a spider or woodlouse, find out all about it. Draw it, examine it (carefully!), what does it eat, where does it live – maybe even write a story or poem about it, design a poster, shoot a video and then email it by 12th June 2020 to rebecca@ase.org.uk (use mailbigfile free to send large files).

The competition is divided up into four categories: Ages 4-5, 5-7, 7-9 and 9-11.

The prizes will be awarded to the winning child’s class.
The winning entry in each category, selected by a panel of experts from both the ASE and Royal Entomological Society (RES), will receive a copy of the fabulous book ‘Let’s talk about Animals’, plus a bundle of bug exploration-related prizes, whilst the overall winner’s school can select a day when schools are back in the (hopefully) Autumn term when the team from the RES will join them for a hands-on "Insect Day", bringing along an assortment of insect life that we can guarantee won't be found underneath a log by the school pond. A digital microscope will be awarded to the child too with the best entry!

For more information, please visit the website:

Great Bug Hunt

The nursery team would like to say a big thank you to all the children who have been completing the home learning and uploading it to Tapestry. We miss you all very much and seeing you all completing the home learning tasks makes us so happy.

We have organised for all parents to have access to Letter-Join. This is a website we use at school for teaching handwriting. It is for all year groups including nursery. 

Please find full instructions of how to use the website here:

Letter-Join Instructions 

The teachers are in the process of loading tasks for the children to complete but in the meantime you can use the free play section. 

The school office will no longer be taking phone calls however, we will continue to check the emails throughout the day Monday-Friday. If you need to get in touch with us or your class teacher please email the school office and we will reply as soon as possible. Teachers will also reply via the office. 

Thank you for your ongoing support 

We would like to share a variety of resources and information that are available to you and your families during these challenging times.  We’ve also included some advice on how to handle possible anxiety in the time of Coronavirus.

Support for Families During Coronavirus

Please see below a clear and simple video that can help in identifying the symptoms of the coronavirus.

BBC News Video on Coronavirus symptoms

If you have a library card, Kingston Libraries have a huge resource bank of free ebooks, audio books and reference information. Please visit their online library on the link below:

Kingston Council Online Library

The Burlington Schools are now closed until further notice.  Please click below for the latest letter regarding the school closure and provision for key workers:

School Closure and Provision for Key Workers - sent 20 March

Home Learning packs for each year group (from Nursery through to Year 2) are available on the Year Group web pages:

Year Group web pages

All previous school communications regarding Coronavirus can be found here: 

Useful Information web page

The Burlington Schools are now closed until further notice.  Please click below for the latest letter from the school regarding our closure.

School Closure Letter

Home Learning packs for each year group (from Nursery through to Year 2) are available on the Year Group web pages:

Year Group web pages

Thank you to everyone who attended the reading comprehension workshop on Friday 13 March. We hope you found it useful. Please find below links to the presentation and handouts. 

Reading Comprehension Presentation

Early Years Simple Bookmark

Early Years Bookmark with Questions

Year 1 Bookmark with Questions

Year 2 Bookmark with Questions

We will be including regular updates regarding the expansion plans for the junior school in our Friday weekly newsletter and on our website. A working party has now been set up and they had their first meeting last week. Mrs Yay-Walker and one of our governors will be attending these meetings to represent the Infant School.
 
As you may have noticed, there have been some building works going on over at the Junior School on the Clasp building which houses their Year 3 classes and school office. The work being carried out is to assess the integrity of the metal supports surrounding the building and in order to do this, the wooden cladding had to be removed and replaced.
 
Further works on the actual expansion of the Junior School are due to start in 2021, however the plans have not yet been released so for the moment there is not a great deal to report. We will of course keep you informed of any communications that the Junior School send to their parents and there will be a link which we will be able to share in due course for parents to send their views/comments directly to the council.
 
In the meantime, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact the school office.