Dear Parents/Carers, 

This Friday we will be having a Mufti Day in support of the PTA and the upcoming Christmas Fair. On Friday, children can wear their own non-uniform clothes to school and bring a suggested donation of £2. Please note this is only a suggested donation, any donation you can spare would be most appreciated. 

Apologies for the short notice, due to a slight confusion over the date, we had not previously communicated this on our newsletter or calendar. 

Thank you and best wishes,

Burlington Infant & Nursery School

Please find attached the Autumn term newsletter from the Burlington Schools PTA team. Here you will find dates and further information of upcoming events. 

PTA Newsletter Autumn 2023

Please also find attached a summary of the funds raised in the last academic year. 

PTA Summary of Funds Raised 2022-23

A reminder that the PTA annual general meeting will take place on Monday 9th October at 9am in the Great Hall. All parents are welcome so please do come along if you are interested in getting involved! 

Thank you and best wishes,  

Burlington Infant & Nursery School

Please find attached a letter from Ms Ellis, our Maths leader regarding fluency tests the Year 2 children will be completing and how you can help them at home. 

Year 2 Maths Fluency Test

Please come and join us on Friday 29th September at 9.00 - 9.45am in the Infant Hall. 
Miss Chisholm our Reception leader will be talking about how we use Tapestry in school and how parents can access and share content. Miss Chisholm will also explain how we teach phonics in reception and how you can help with your child's learning at home. 
We look forward to seeing you!

At Burlington we are very proud of our diverse community. This Autumn term we will be looking at religious festivals such as Diwali, Mawlid an Nabi, Hanukkah (Chanukah), Bodhi Day and Christmas. We know that many families will be celebrating a variety of different religious festivals throughout Autumn term. We would love the children to share their news and personal experiences of how they enjoyed the special religious occasion with their family and friends. We are inviting the children to bring things in from home to show and tell with their class. This could be artefacts such as special story books, special photos, special clothes, a piece of music/food and some helpful written notes of information about the artefacts/festival. Remember: Photos and videos can also be uploaded to share via Tapestry. 

If you’re a parent and you would like to volunteer to come into school to talk to your child's class about festivals, we would love to hear from you. Please let your class teacher know.

Our PTA will be holding their annual general meeting on Monday 9th October at 9am in the Great Hall. If you are interested in joining the PTA or would like to find out more, please do come along. 

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.  We 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

Boys pants, socks, trousers and tracksuit bottoms in age 5+

Wooden jigsaw puzzles for nursery age children 

Donations welcome - 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: 

Attendance Policy
Parent & Visitor Code of Conduct 
Behaviour & Anti-bullying 
Complaints policy

Dear Parents/Carers,

RE: Annual Voluntary Contribution

At Burlington Infant & Nursery school we aim to provide pupils with a full and enriched education by offering activities which often fall outside of the national curriculum. These activities include workshops and events such as Earthsong drumming, Don Rae Dance, The Space Dome, “Pretend Holiday” days, art workshops and Healthy Living Week Big Breakfasts. 

In light of the above, each year we ask parents/carers to make a small voluntary contribution towards the School Fund in order to help to enrich the quality of our pupils’ education during their time at the school. 

The voluntary contribution for Burlington Infant & Nursery School is £50 per family, although you are welcome to give more, of course. This is separate to the contribution made to the Junior school. The contributions are entirely voluntary and we are incredibly grateful for any support you are able to give.  

Please make your donation via your School Gateway account. You can make a one-off payment of £50 (please note that School Gateway allocates the amount to each child therefore if you have more than one child at the school, you only need to make one payment against one child). There is also an option to pay on a reducing balance with smaller instalments throughout the year. If you need any assistance with School Gateway or are having problems activating your account, please speak to the school office. 

To maximise the value of any donations received we will be accepting donations via the PTA which is a registered charity. This means that UK taxpayers can Gift Aid their donations e.g. for every £50 paid with gift aid the school will receive an additional £12.50 from the UK government. Please read the declaration at the checkout and enter your full name and address in the payments comments box when paying via School Gateway and the school will receive an additional 25% on each contribution. If you are NOT a UK taxpayer, please state this in the comments box so that we do not claim Gift Aid on your donation.

Thank you in advance for your support.  Best wishes, 

Mrs S Yay-Walker, Headteacher

Everything you Need to Know about Burlington Infants! 

Thank you to everyone who attended this morning, it was a great turn out and we hope you found it useful. If you were unable to attend, please click below to see a copy of the presentation. 

Parent Information Morning - presentation Sept 2023

HENRY provides a wide range of support for families from pregnancy to age 12 including workshops, programmes, resources and online help. All of their support for families is underpinned by the HENRY approach to supporting behaviour change which helps parents gain the confidence, knowledge and skills they need to help the whole family adopt a healthier, happier lifestyle and to give their children a great start in life.

For more information please visit their website here - https://www.henry.org.uk

Click here to read their termly newsletter.

Welcome back to the new academic year! We are so pleased to see all the children back in school and to welcome our new children in Nursery and Reception. 

A couple of reminders...

For Reception, Year 1 and Year 2, the school day begins at 8.50am. Please drop your child to their classroom on time. 

The school day finishes at 3.20pm.

(Reception parents - please follow your staggered start and finish times as per the email we sent you until your child is attending full time).

Thank you to everyone who attended this morning's presentation for Year 2 parents. We hope you found it useful. If you were unable to attend, please click below to see a copy of the presentation:

Welcome to Year 2 presentation to parents 

Also, here are a copy of the handouts.

Welcome to Year 2 presentation handouts

On Sunday 3rd September, a few of our year 2 girls had the fantastic opportunity of having a mascot experience with Chelsea FC Women. The girls got to walk out of the tunnel in their own Chelsea football kit with the team just before kick-off at their home stadium Kingsmeadow. The girls also got to meet Stamford and Bridget, the 2 Chelsea mascots as well as watching the teams warm up from a prime pitchside position! 

Kingston Adult Education are offering a range of wellbeing courses starting this September. Course information and booking details can be found here.

Dear Parents/Carers,

Re: Measles, Chicken Pox and Shingles 

We would like to ask for your support with a serious matter. 

One of our pupils has recently received medical treatment for Leukaemia. This puts the pupil at serious risk if exposed to measles, chicken pox or shingles.

The best way to protect a pupil from measles is for all pupils to be immunised. Please discuss immunisation for measles with your GP if your child is not already vaccinated. If you suspect your child has measles you should let the school know immediately. 

Our pupil is also at risk from chicken pox and would need to seek medical advice if exposed. Please let us know immediately if you suspect that your child has chicken pox. 

It is also very important that you let us know if anyone in your household has shingles. 

Your own child is not at any risk whatsoever from this situation. However, the health and wellbeing of our compromised pupil may be at serious risk. We depend on the co-operation of all parents and know we can rely on your help. 

Yours sincerely, 

Mrs S Yay-Walker, Headteacher

Dear Reception and Nursery Parents/Carers, 

Please find attached a letter from the director of Public Health regarding a rise in cases of measles and information about vaccination. 

Measles Update Letter September 2023

Thank you and best wishes 

Burlington Infant & Nursery School

We are pleased to announce Burlington Infant & Nursery School has retained the Centre of Excellence in the Inclusion Quality Mark for a 4th year running.  This celebrates our high level of care and inclusion for every child, and support for individual needs.  You can read the full report below.

Inclusion Quality Mark Centre of Excellence Report June 2023

Wishing all the children and their families a wonderful summer break. The children have worked so hard this year so we hope they have a really good rest and most of all lots and lots of fun! 

We look forward to welcoming you back on Wednesday 6th September. 

The children have had so much fun this week going on their pretend holiday. Year 1 & Year 2 travelled to Spain and Italy checking in at the Burlington 'airport' with their hand made passports. Reception jetted off a bit further afield to Jamaica where they arrived into warm and sunny weather ready for the beach! All the children sampled different foods from their destination countries and took part in lots of fun activities. A great day was had by all and we would like to say a big thank you to parents for joining in with encouraging the children's imagination! 

This term is always a very emotional time as our year 2 children prepare to fly the nest for their next adventure. This week, each class had their leavers assembly where memories of their time in the infants were shared and they were given their special leavers t-shirts. The children sang so beautifully in their assemblies and there were lots of tears amongst the children, parents and staff as we said goodbye. We really will miss them but we know that they are more than ready for this next step. We are all so immensely proud of the children and the progress they have made during their time with us. The junior school are so lucky to be welcoming this wonderful group of children in September and we wish them lots of luck. 

We would like to say the fondest farewell to some of our staff who will be leaving us this summer...

We are so sad to say goodbye to lovely Mrs Belli who will be leaving us to relocate to County Durham where she is originally from. Mrs Belli has worked at Burlington for 14 years and has been a fantastic support to so many of the children during her time in reception. Mrs Belli will be so missed by all the children and staff but we wish her the best of luck and happy times ahead in her new adventure. 

Mrs Brage has worked at Burlington for 10 years providing invaluable support to so many of our children. We are really sad to see her go, she has been such a kind and caring member of our school community and will be missed greatly. Mrs Brage will be leaving us to work in a specialist provision at Knollmead School. We wish her lots of luck in her new role, her new school is so lucky!

We say a sad goodbye to lovely Mrs Stebbings who will be leaving us to work with her husband's travel business. Mrs Stebbings has been a teacher at Burlington for 9 years, she has made such a difference to so many of our children as well as championing the arts in our school. We are really going to miss her passion, enthusiasm and sunny smile but wish her lots of luck for her next adventure. 

Mrs Katoon has been a lovely addition to our Burlington community and has been working as a teaching assistant for 4 years. She recently qualified as a teacher and will be leaving us to take up a new post as a reception teacher in another local school. Mrs Katoon will be missed by all the children and staff but we wish her the best of luck in her new role, her new class will be very lucky to have such a kind and caring teacher!

Miss Katushabe who the children fondly refer to as Miss Miriam will be leaving us this summer to start a new job as a teaching assistant in a nursery in Richmond. For the last 4 years, Miss Miriam has been a lunchtime supervisor as well as a playleader in Acorns offering such warm and caring support to the children. The children and staff are really going to miss her and we wish her so much luck in her new role, they will be really lucky to have her. 

Miss King who offers one to one support in the classroom will be leaving us to pursue her professional development in psychology and will be moving on to work with adult patients. Miss King has offered such invaluable, kind and caring support not only to her one to one child but to other children in the class and for the short time she has been with us has become such a well loved member of the Burlington community. We wish her every bit of luck in her next role, we will miss her dearly. 

We also say a fond farewell to 3 of our lunchtime supervisors Miss Donegan, Miss Sainsbury and Mrs Gibbins. They have been lovely additions to the Burlington team and are now moving on to new adventures. 

The Eco-Council children went on one final trip to pick up litter in Blagdon Park. They have worked so hard this year and have done a great job! Thank you Eco-Council for always doing your best!

As September approaches, children and parents will start to think about the upcoming changes of joining a new school, or moving to a new class. These transitions may pass smoothly or they may cause children to ask questions and feel a little apprehensive.
On our website there is lots of useful information to help parents navigate their children's concerns - please click here to visit our wellbeing page. 

Another £50 raised this week!  Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the school fund, we are well on our way to reaching our target with £6,425 raised so far!

Our voluntary contribution is £50 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. 

We have already raised the funds for 60 brand new Chromebooks which will be rotated between classes. The school fund also pays for various workshops and special days such as Earthsong, Big Breakfast, Don Rae Music and Dance, Black History Month and Pretend Holidays.

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

School Fund web page

Thank you to everyone who attend the new to year 1 parent talk this morning. If you were unable to attend, please click below to see a copy of the presentation. 

Welcome to Year 1 Presentation for current Reception parents

This week 10 of our Year 1 and ​Reception children took part in a mini athletics event at Corpus Christi School. The event was run by Mini Athletics and involved the children taking part in several different activities, including hurdles, shotput and more! Well done to the group for representing the school and having lots of fun!

Following our recent WWF week, the children voted to adopt a Vaquita Porpoise. Fewer than 20 of these animals remain making them on the edge of extinction. We are so proud of the children for being so thoughtful and really thinking about which animals needed the most protection. 

We raised a total of £156.49 for WWF doing our copper mile. Thank you for all your donations. 

We would like to say an enormous thank you to our fabulous PTA team who organised the most fantastic event last Saturday. It was a great success and it was a joy to see so many children, parents and staff taking part in the fun. 

So much work went into making sure the day ran smoothly and we are so grateful to the PTA and everyone who volunteered. These events really are a joint team effort.

If you’re more than 10 weeks pregnant or have a child under 4, you may be entitled to get help to buy healthy food and milk. 

To check if you are eligible and to apply, visit www.healthystart.nhs.uk

Please find attached a letter from Kingston council regarding an update on the junior school expansion. 

Juniors Expansion - letter to parents July 2023

Thank you and best wishes,

Burlington Infant & Nursery School

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 2023

Thank you and best wishes, Burlington Infant & Nursery School

As part of our drive for healthy living this week, we have been promoting new vegetables each day. In addition to their usual vegetables and salads, the children received a sticker for trying a new vegetable each day. Even our packed lunch children got involved and earned some stickers.
They have tried beetroot, roasted butternut squash, minted peas, spinach and croutons.
 
We also had a surprise visit from ‘Mr Nourish’ who came to see how the children were enjoying their new veg! It was the most exciting day!  

Dear Parents/Carers, 

Please find attached a letter from Mrs Yay-Walker regarding the proposed industrial action on Wednesday 5th July and Friday 7th July. Please read the letter carefully and if you have any queries, please contact the school office. 

Strike Letter for 5 and 7 July

Thank you and best wishes, 

Burlington Infant & Nursery School