Out of the Blue - Lent 2021 by The Blue Coat School

CO AT

THE BL UE

BIRMING HA M

SPRING 2021

L OO CH

out blue of the

The Blue Coat School Founded by the Church of England in 1722

Life on Mars

A Roarsome Time

Year 6 create Mars colonies.

Nursery enjoy dinosaur fitness! PAGE 5

PAGE 14

From the study… You will read in this magazine how, again, we navigated our way through school closure and how our engagement with pupils and the school community during the COVID-19 pandemic has earned us The Birmingham Civic Society’s School Stars Award and shortlisting for the TES Independent Prep School of the Year, for a consecutive year. Staff, parents and children, the community, must be commended for their dedication through such a difficult period. Before the start of the Lent term two new baby boys joined the BCS family: Mr Nicklin and Miss Stefanowski welcomed Teddy; Ms Crews and partner Andy introduced Joe. We send them all the happiness in the world. As for new staff members, it has been a fiery baptism. Well done indeed to Miss Al-Dujaili, (Nursery) Miss Warmington, (Year 1), Miss Mockler (Head Swimming Coach), all of whom have taken difficulties in their stride. And now, stronger after adversity, we all hope that we are moving towards the world that we once knew. Noel Neeson, Headmaster

Term Round Up The Year 2021 was dawning and we were all looking ahead with anticipation. Sadly, our hopes were prematurely quashed. On the eve of the start of the Lent Term, the Prime Minister announced once again that schools were to close their doors to the majority of pupils, with immediate effect. Fortunately, Mr Neeson and his Senior Leadership Team were already gathered, and were preparing a roadmap to navigate Blue Coat through the next chapter of the Pandemic. And so it was that the new BCS Live Distance Learning Programme was rolled out for Reception to Year 6 within a matter of hours. Happily, we were able to welcome back our Nursery pupils who returned along with the children of Key Workers higher up the school. Just 12 months ago, The Blue Coat School was shortlisted for 3 prestigious awards. This year, as well as a second opportunity to be considered by the Times for Prep School of the Year 2021, we had a shortlisting of a different nature. We were selected for entry into the Guinness World Records™ Book 2021 following our successful GWR attempt last summer. What a luxury it now feels to be able to gather the whole school together in one place!

THE BL UE

BIRMING HA M

S L OO CH

CO AT

Not sock puppets this time, but our BCS Creative Arts Department ensured that the children used their imagination and creative skills whilst learning about different artists. This term, the children have produced some inspiring work including natural art in the style of Andy Goldsworthy, pointillism using digital software, hats out of recycled materials and creepy crawlies made by paper folding. Many also watched the tutorials created by Miss Moore to recreate illustrations of Winnie the Pooh on his National Day and to express their feelings as part of Children’s Mental Health Week.

Out of all our subject areas, BCS Music has perhaps been the hardest hit. The highlight of music-making is most certainly in the sharing of a live performance and the coming together of instrumentalists and vocalists with their audiences. We have seen orchestras adapt and play at distance but with our pupils at home we have been forced to rely solely on a virtual medium. It is therefore to be celebrated that weekly Zoom lessons have ensured continued progress and preparation for ABRSM examinations. Mr Nicklin adapted our Music Festival and an impressive 136 children took the time to record their pieces and enter. We were thankful that our finalists at least were able to perform to their peers, live, on our return to school.

In the Spotlight This term we have enjoyed lots of activities centred around storytelling, books and reading. A timely occasion to catch up with a former Head of English and ardent reader Mrs James! Q. So you are now in your twenty-first year at BCS?! A. Yes, that’s correct! I have seen lots of changes but BCS is a special place, and it still has the same family-feel that it had when I first arrived. It is a privilege to be part of the BCS Staff. The one constant throughout my time here is that when I have been in Prep, I have always been part of St. George’s, though I’m now on my fourth Head of House! The BCS Sports Department have also been undeterred and PE lessons have been well received thanks to our own Joe Wicks inspired workouts. Morning Madness sessions at 8am also helped to set the children up for the day and get the blood pumping! Towards the end of the term we enjoyed the return of our House Matches which were keenly fought. The Pandemic has certainly given everyone a crash course in IT skills and the new norm of online assemblies and meetings has continued. We even created our own intranet site for staff to share stories for National Storytelling Week and World Book Day. With his weekly Storytime, Mr Neeson is now a serious contender for Jackanory, should it ever return to our TV screens!

Q. Did your children come to Blue Coat too? A. Both my children, Lizzie and Aled, were here from Buttons to Year 6, and I feel very lucky that they were able to receive an excellent education that has stood them in good stead for their secondary schools and beyond. I’ve been here so long that even children that were in my class are now returning as teachers – I taught Mrs Gridley! Q. Did you always want to become a teacher? A. Yes. I spent many an hour at my blackboard ‘teaching’ my class of dolls and teddies when I was a little girl! Q. What are your hobbies? A. When we are not in Lockdown, I enjoy eating out with my friends and family, going to the theatre and cinema, and I love listening to live music. I can’t wait to go to a concert again, and already have a few booked in! Recently, we have welcomed a Colliedoodle into our family, and I love taking her for long walks. You can’t beat curling up with a good book either. Q. What is your favourite book and why?

BIRMING HA M

THE BL UE

S L OO CH

CO AT

A. A Kindle loaded up with lots of good books, I’d have to take suntan lotion as I burn very easily and writing materials - I’ve always fancied writing a children’s book!

Children’s Mental Health week was particularly poignant this year as the nation’s young people have had even greater issues to contend with due to COVID-19. At BCS we gave this week an important focus and were delighted to have Dr Hazel Harrison speak to us about the five pillars of wellbeing. Safeguarding our children’s wellbeing online was also a topic for Safer Internet Day and the whole school was involved in activities to teach them how to differentiate between fact and falsehoods.

Q. And finally, what 3 luxury items would you take to a desert island?

For the first time, we invigilated 80 children via screens as we held our 7+ Entrance Test Day. A credit to them all for ‘cheerfully trying hard’ and ‘showing respect’, qualities that we look forward to celebrating with the successful candidates as soon as we are able to welcome them on site. Outside of lesson time, we connected our own school community with the Blue Coat kitchen and over a hundred families cooked along with Mr Moss as he was joined by Mr Neeson, Chaplain and Mr Melia. Thanks also to Mr Fallowfield who organised the inaugural BCS Online Chess Tournament, which proved very popular.

A. ‘Tuck Everlasting’ by Natalie Babbit. I was introduced to the book when I was at Exeter University, as a group of us dramatised it as part of our Drama course. I instantly fell in love with it. The story is wonderful and magical, and full of rich, beautiful language. I introduced it to BCS when I arrived, and it is still read as a class reader higher up the school.

Pre-Prep Classroom Kung Hei Fat Choi! Nursery had lots of fun celebrating Chinese New Year. The classrooms had rice, noodle and glitter trays for the children to explore, to promote sensory play and discussion and they wore the traditional colours of red and yellow to celebrate in true Chinese style.

A Roarsome Time Reception have been having a roarsome time learning all about dinosaurs! The children listened to the story Tyrannosaurus Drip by Julia Donaldson and used their imagination to write about what they thought the different dinosaurs might have been saying to one another. They also had a go at writing their own dinosaur riddles for one another to solve. I have feathers. I am 2m long. I have 2 legs. I am fast.

I have a really long neck. I eat fish. I live in water.

I am a velociraptor

Milo Cuell, Aged 4

I am a plesiosaur

Rajan Banga, Aged 5

Scottish Day Year 1 have loved reading the fictional tales of Katie Morag, written by Mairi Hedderwick. The children enjoyed finding out about her adventures on the fictional Isle of Struay. They worked across a range of genres including writing postcards and creating striking leaflets, using persuasive language to advertise all the wonderful things that could be done on the island. Their topic work ended with a Scottish Wow Day! The children were very excited to take part in a range of activities which included Scottish dancing, making Loch Ness monster puppets, collaging a thistle, and decorating shortbread biscuits using a tartan pattern.

Forest Wow Day

THE BL UE

BIRMING HA M

S L OO CH

CO AT

Year 2 thoroughly enjoyed spending time in Forest School for their Enrichment Day. They found the Friendship Tree and used its brightly coloured strands of wool to make friendship bracelets. It was then time to learn how to make fire! After a demonstration from Mr Isherwood, the children learnt to take up the respect position on one knee to ensure that they weren’t going to fall forwards into the fire, then they fluffed up their cotton wool balls to allow oxygen to circulate and used flints to create sparks to set them on fire. It wasn’t an easy task, but the children persevered and the delight on the children’s faces when they were successful was brilliant to see. As the day ended there was just time to gather all the classes together for hot chocolate and biscuits around the campfire.

Prep Classroom Buddy Love One of the hardest things during the COVID-19 pandemic, has been the separation of year group bubbles from each other. The buddy system at BCS offers the children a connection across the school and we didn’t want to lose out on this special friendship which was forged back at the end of the last academic year when our incoming Prep children were matched with a buddy in Year 5. Now in Year 6 the senior children have been continuing to offer support and friendship via personal letters, many handwritten and including photos of pets and family, details of hobbies and other interesting facts. Mr Neeson was delighted to make another special delivery to Year 3 and keep the correspondence going until the children can reunite in person.

Amazing Outdoor Art Year 4 have worked independently on an outdoor project to create sculptures from natural materials using the brilliant artist Andy Goldsworthy OBE as an inspiration. Goldsworthy highlights nature and its beauty by creating sculptures made of all natural materials and constructing them in their original environment. Mr Hegenbarth was so impressed with the children’s creativity, including a life size piece produced by Harry Forty. This project has helped the children achieve their independent working and perseverance skills for the BCS Blue, and we hope they also enjoyed the screen break and spending time outdoors!

Exploring India

Innovating For The Future

THE BL UE

BIRMING HA M

S L OO CH

CO AT

Along with the rest of Prep, Year 6 celebrated British Science Week and as part of this year’s theme ‘Innovating for the future’ they shared ideas for what the future might look like. The children then went on to design a colony for humans to live on Mars, with consideration for both human health and happiness. They began by viewing a video showing the UK’s involvement in the Perseverance mission and the wealth of space-related career opportunities available in the UK. After learning a little about the hostile conditions humans will encounter on Mars, the children worked in Engineering Teams to design their colony.

As part of their Humanities studies, Year 5 have been exploring the wonderful country of India. The children have looked at locating India on a range of maps, explored the varying lives of people living there and have also travelled to some of India’s famous landmarks. The children discovered and created presentations on: The Mysore Palace, The Lotus Temple, The Amber Fort, The Golden Temple and even Humayun’s Tomb. They ended the topic by recreating India’s most famous landmark, The Taj Mahal. Their imaginative creations included edible Taj Mahal cakes, some sturdily built Lego models, Minecraft creations and even some painting masterpieces.

BCS Cook Along Over 100 Blue Coat families enjoyed Blue Coat’s answer to Saturday Kitchen this term! First up was Mr Neeson making flapjacks. We loved seeing all the children in their kitchen cooking along and especially the photographs of everyone’s creations sent in afterwards. Next up was Chaplain and two versions of Mac ‘n’ Cheese. Mr Moss’ ‘posh version’ was made with kale, cream cheese and smoked salmon – yum! We particularly loved Chef’s tips; who knew that saving a bit of sage and onion stuffing to sprinkle on top would be a winner?

Thank you to our production team Mr Hill, Mr Nicklin and Mr Newman who brought this delight to our screens. We very much hope we might be invited back into the kitchen for a seasonal special in the not too distant future. Until then keeeeep cooking!

THE BL UE

BIRMING HA M

S L OO CH

CO AT

To round up the term, our King of Morning Madness, Mr Melia, gave Mr Moss a few repetitions of rolling pin bicep curls and shoulder presses, before rolling up his sleeves to make savoury and sweet scones. As Mr Newman reminded us, the correct pronunciation should be ‘scon’ as in ‘gone’ rather than ‘scone’ as in ‘cone’. The next big debate was whether to put cream or jam on first!

BCS Wellbeing Week To coincide with Children’s Mental Health Week, we set up our own week of wellbeing activities at BCS. This began with a fantastic talk from children’s psychologist Dr Hazel Harrison. Throughout her talk, she spoke about the Five Pillars of Wellbeing - positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning and achievement. Hazel linked each aspect to concrete resources for parents to use and also incorporated these with our BCS Values. We really appreciated her many top tips to help us through Lockdown. Children’s Mental Health Week was first launched back in 2015 by Place2Be. The Charity helps over 600 schools in the UK with mental health services and we were delighted to donate £482.22 from our non-school uniform day to this worthwhile cause. The Charity’s theme for this year was ‘Express Yourself’. This could be through finding ways to share feelings, thoughts, or ideas, through creativity or just by doing activities that make you feel good.

Wednesday’s activity focused on getting away from the screen and into the fresh air, completing a rainbow walk. The walk enabled the children to not only be outside, but to focus on the environment around them, celebrating the area they live in whilst finding objects that represented the different colours of the rainbow. Reading and relaxing was the focus on Thursday, whilst Friday was all about Dressing to Express! The children were encouraged to come to school in clothes that express themselves and their emotions. Their brightly coloured clothes certainly put a smile on everyone’s face! Our final wellbeing activity was one of the most important - Free Time Fun! Across the week, the children completed various wellbeing activities to express themselves in different ways; these ranged from movement to artwork and nature trails to reading. We wanted to create time for the children to do things which make them feel happy. Each day we introduced different techniques that they can use to help them feel good about themselves and function effectively in their day to day lives.

THE BL UE

BIRMING HA M

S L OO CH

CO AT

On Monday, the Breathe and Believe activity taught different breathing techniques, using the Starfish Model to show the children why it is so important to be in control of their breathing. On Tuesday, the children took part in some Mindfulness Mark Making. Miss Moore, produced a wonderful drawing tutorial for the children to follow that showed the children how to express their feelings through art.

Roman Day Year 3 pupils and staff arrived at school looking magnificent in their Roman outfits, ranging from slaves to senators, soldiers to generals. Throughout their Enrichment day, the children were able to experience four things from the Roman era. With Mr Martin everyone got to create a Roman mosaic looking at examples that have been preserved from across the Roman Empire. Mrs Walker was in charge of equipping the Roman legions with suitable shields to defend themselves in battle against the Celts. These were to come in handy later when the School Hall became the battle ground for four Year 3 battles! The day concluded with all of Year 3 experiencing how the Roman legions conquered all before them in battle. Each class took it in turn to play the part of the Celts and the Romans, seeing how the Romans superior tactics and organisation delivered them victory. The day really brought all our learning to life and left all with some great memories. Well done Year 3.

THE BL UE

BIRMING HA M

S L OO CH

CO AT

To complement their outfits, Miss Anning showed the children how to make a Roman wreath. These headpieces were normally worn in more peaceful times. The final craft activity saw Year 3 learning about the Roman Gods and Goddesses and using this knowledge to create their own Roman Gods Top Trumps game to take home. It was certainly a fun way to learn about the different powers that the gods and goddesses held.

Awesome Aztecs Our Year 4 Aztec Enrichment Day took place on Tuesday 16th March 2021; that is the tonalpohualli, eight deer of the flower, in the solar year of nine house according to the sacred Aztec calendar! Amongst the many interesting Aztec facts that the children learnt during their day was that the Aztecs had two calendars – an agricultural calendar of 360 days plus five very unlucky days, and a sacred calendar of thirteen months, each with twenty days. The day began in a riot of colour as the children arrived at School in their bold and bright outfits. They greeted each other with cualli tlanecic (good morning) or pialli (hello) in the Aztec language of Nahuatl, more of which they would master with Mrs Newman later.

To add to this fantastic overview of the Aztec civilisation Year 4 made calendars and created headdresses decorated with colourful feathers and Aztec patterned ribbon. Then it was time to venture outside for Aztec warrior drills with Mr Melia. The children also learnt how to play the Aztec ball game of ullamaliztli. The aim of the game is to keep the ball up in the air but players can only use their elbows, hips, knees and head and not their hands or feet!

Year 4 then began a carousel of activities. Mrs Stockton’s group were first to visit Mr Moss’s Totem Pole Pool Party in the Boardroom. They created totem pole fruit and marshmallow kebabs which they then dipped in a special Aztec chocolate fountain flavoured with chilli and avocado!

THE BL UE

BIRMING HA M

S L OO CH

CO AT

A great day was had by all, and the children were fabulous. So fabulous in fact, that none of the teachers needed to use the Aztec punishments of pricking children with cactus spines or holding them over a fire of burning chillies – thank goodness for that!

In Mr Newman’s classroom the children received a letter from Acamapichtli, the first ruler of the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, setting them the challenge of completing a timeline activity on the history of the Aztec Empire. Mapwork skills were tested to understand the migration from Aztlan to the Valley of Mexico, and a story was read about Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of sun and war, who guided the long migration taken. Links were made from this period to the Mexican National Flag, with reference to the eagle perched on a prickly pear cactus devouring a rattlesnake, and the children ended the potted history by understanding how Cortes conquered the empire in 1521.

A River’s Journey As Prep embarked on their Lent Enrichment Day Year 5 took part in a fact finding mission to learn all about the journey of a river. During the morning, the children were drip-fed information about the upper course of a river; learning how waterfalls are formed, what groundwater is and how a source is created. The children then cascaded into looking at the middle course, learning how meanders and oxbow lakes are created. There were some excellent interpretive movements to show how the water moves around a meander too! A special mention has to go to all of the children who created a model while working from home. There were virtual models made on Minecraft, detailed diagrams and even a model or two made of Lego. We could only attribute (…tary) the success of the day to the hard working attitude of all of the Year 5 children. Well done and thank you to Mr Hulbert for this pun-filled review of the day, obviously his mind was overflowing and he just couldn’t hold back!

In the afternoon, the children deposited their newfound knowledge of the lower course, by describing and seeing examples of deltas and estuaries.

THE BL UE

BIRMING HA M

S L OO CH

CO AT

With the creative ideas flowing, the children then used all of this new information to create a 3d model of a river’s journey from source to mouth. Using a variety of materials, the children channelled their inner artist to produce some excellent models, incorporating all of the information they had learnt throughout the day.

A visit to Ancient Greece The year is 776BC in the city of Olympia, Ancient Greece. Our Year 6 boys and girls have travelled from the depths of Harborne to explore what it is really like to be an Athenian in Ancient Greece. Would they leave the day as the next Olympian, a Greek Linguist or maybe even a Greek storyteller? With some armed for battle, the possibilities were endless! Throughout the day, the children visited six Athenians to explore important aspects of Ancient Greek life. In one of their workshops, Year 6 had the exciting challenge of studying and translating the Greek Alphabet before writing their own name or messages in Greek.

The children also designed their own Ancient Greek art: vases which were used to tell stories and were usually placed in homes, as well as mosaics of Spartan warriors. Finally, a day exploring the Ancient Greeks wouldn’t have been complete without learning about their weapons. The catapult was invented in Syracuse as a new weapon when the city was under a two year siege from Athens. Like the Ancient Greek engineers, the children also came together to create their own catapults using a range of materials, some even managed to fire 3 ping pong balls simultaneously!

In another area of Greece, the children became Ancient Greek Olympians, taking part in three events - Javelin, Discus and Long Jump - before being crowned the Olympic Champion. Unfortunately, the horses weren’t available for Chariot Racing!

THE BL UE

BIRMING HA M

S L OO CH

CO AT

Armed with new knowledge, the children returned back to their normal lives in Harborne but not before a quick tasting session of some Greek cuisine: Tzatziki, Pitta Bread and Cherry ‘Wine’.

During the day, the children visited the Greek Theatre - a major part of Ancient Greek culture - where they learnt about the two main types of Greek plays: Tragedy and Comedy. Following this, they rehearsed and performed two Greek Legends, showcasing their theatrical talents.

Musical Notes The Lockdown period was a great time to develop the listening and appraising element of the BCS Blue, and children in Year 2 enjoyed listening to the Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Dukas. They learned about a range of orchestral instruments and discussed how the instruments were used to tell the story. They particularly liked the Broom Dance on the bassoon.

Year 1 started the term learning about the music in the Nutcracker. They had a lot of fun pretending to be mice and toy soldiers! Recently they have been learning about traditional Scottish music, which ties in with the Katie Morag books they have been reading in class. They even tried a bit of Ceilidh dancing in their music lessons, which was enjoyed by all. It has been lovely to resume our Nursery and Reception Music Makers activities during the second half of term. In addition, Reception have been listening to The Carnival of the Animals and making up their own animal music.

Always a highlight of the Blue Coat calendar, this year’s Music Festival was no exception and despite the challenges of the National Lockdown, our young musicians rose to the occasion and produced music of a very high calibre indeed. It is testament to the Blue Coat spirit, that the number of entries was as high as ever. Although we were unable to run the Festival in its entirety, Mr Nicklin and Mrs Creaton were delighted by the incredibly high standards of performance that were submitted via video. As a result selecting the class winners was extremely challenging but a very pleasurable experience.

Across both Pre-Prep and Prep we have really missed live music but pupils and staff have been ‘cheerfully persevering’ and achieving great things in their one-to-one lessons online. Looking back, we are reminded that singing has not been able to take place face-to-face for almost a whole year. Nevertheless, every week Miss Godwin has been met with warm smiles and excited faces on screen. The children have continued to work on their technique, vocal exercises, grade pieces, aural and sight singing, all via the computer. We have everything crossed that singing can return to BCS very soon and our many Blue Coat choirs can delight us once more.

Although there will not be one overall BCS Young Musician of the Year 2021 we were able to enjoy listening to our finalists in their Year Group Bubbles and video recordings were shared with the wider school community.

THE BL UE

BIRMING HA M

S L OO CH

CO AT

Thank you to our fantastic team of Visiting Music Teachers and equally supportive parents. With your help we have kept Music at the heart of BCS and we continue to celebrate the children’s achievements both in and outside school. With our Music Ensembles now up and running again, we look forward to a lot of amazing music making in the Trinity term. And as we look to the future, Mr Nicklin can confirm that the standard of music amongst this year’s Music Scholarship candidates was higher than ever – exciting times!

THE BL UE

BIRMING HA M

S L OO CH

CO AT

Music Festival 2021

Sports Round Up A big thank you to the Sports Department for keeping the Blue Coat family fit and healthy throughout lockdown. Giving Joe Wicks a good run for his money, the children were taken through their exercises online and had lots of fun. Just in case that wasn’t enough, the team also put on Morning Madness sessions and this proved popular with many families tuning in at 8am to start their day. Meanwhile as we prepared to reopen the school following half-term, Mrs Fletcher had a rather unusual Risk Assessment to submit. How would she safely accommodate 120 dinosaurs in the sports hall? From feeding the triceratops to rescuing dinosaur eggs, helping a pterodactyl to fly and escaping a T-rex, the Nursery and Reception children enjoyed using their imagination, dinosaur knowledge and most importantly showing off their agility and coordination skills in a dinosaur-themed PE Wow Day in their first week back at school.

In Years 4 and 5, ‘Stinger’ rules were introduced. Whilst positions are utilised there is a rotation so that all players get to play in all positions making them all round players. This 5-a-side game has encouraged all girls to shoot, attack and defend. Finally in Year 6, the ‘Girls First’ rules are closer to the 7-a-side game they are used to. The girls enjoyed playing in various positions, gaining experience in every role and preparing them well for senior school. Congratulations to St. Margaret’s who were the overall house winners.

Football It was clear to see with so many smiles on faces that we all enjoyed, once again, chasing a small leather ball around the pitches with our friends! For some Year 3 children, this was their first ever Football game. Regardless, all the boys took to the pitches donning their House colours like seasoned professionals. There was some superb individual talent on display with plenty of action to keep the referees gasping for breath! Well done boys on your superb attitude, sportsmanship and teamwork. The Year 4 boys have been focussing on improving their ball skills, dribbling and passing. In addition to this, they have worked on using positional play and creating space. The House matches were very evenly matched with both sides demonstrating superb individual and team skills.

Netball The girls have done exceptionally well to adapt to England Netball’s Bee Netball rules over the last 3 weeks. With little time to adapt they have played some really exciting House matches. Year 3 enjoyed the introduction of ‘Fliers’, where pupils play a 4-a-side game across the third with no limitations on positions and using a shorter post.

The front field was filled with fast paced and dynamic games as Year 5 took to the field. Despite back and forth attacks from all teams St Philip’s were the overall winners, winning on 3 pitches and drawing on one. For our Year 6 pupils, this was their last Football House match and they certainly gave it their all. Every pupil should be proud of themselves for the progress they have made whilst at BCS and the result was 3 very close and enjoyable games.

THE BL UE

BIRMING HA M

S L OO CH

CO AT

Congratulations to St. Philip’s who were our overall House winners.

The Big Bad Wolf, The Cat in the Hat and his reliable Thing 1, The BFG, Miss Trunchbull, as well as a Tiger all came to the Mad Hatter’s tea party in order to help celebrate World Book Day. Lockdown could not deter the enthusiasm of all the children and staff at Blue Coat who embraced the day in high spirits, while sharing their love of books and authors together. Screens lit up with colourful characters bringing a smile to everyone’s faces. Reading for pleasure is at the heart of the curriculum at BCS and we relished the opportunity to celebrate high quality texts and to take a peek into the world of the characters that roam our pages. We participated in some fantastic virtual author events throughout the week, thanks to the resources shared by Bournville BookFest which this year was held completely online.

In Prep, Year 3 solved World Book Day Dingbats and participated in a World Book Day Rap! They produced a picture book inspired by the writing of Oliver Jeffers, and many wanted to carry on writing and illustrating even at the end of their English lesson! Maths was also inspired by World Book Day and the children wrote a fractions story describing how to simplify fractions using their reducer gun! Reading for pleasure was widely celebrated over the course of the week in other subject areas across Prep. Mrs Newman commenced all her lessons with a short story or poem in French, Mr Hegenbarth engaged pupils in book character fun in Art, while Chaplain’s Chapel Tube invited pupils to think of the many books within the Bible. Year 5 and 6 also had great fun getting creative and designing their very own invitations to a happy unbirthday tea party inspired by Alice in Wonderland.

BIRMING HA M

THE BL UE

S L OO CH

CO AT

Finally, thank you to all our busy parents for supporting your child(ren) to dress up. This made for a superb day with lasting memories for all.

In Year 1 the children thoroughly enjoyed creating their own Top Trumps cards and designing book jackets by writing a blurb and illustrating their own front covers. In PSHE, they became immersed in the catastrophe of The Giant Jam Sandwich before following instructions to make their own less catastrophic jam sandwiches! Catastrophes of another type were thought up by Year 2 as they gave their own twist to the story of The Lighthouse Keeper’s Catastrophe by Ronda and David Armitage.

In Pre-Prep, the Nursery children enjoyed making The Hungry Caterpillar and Elmer masks, meanwhile Reception made bookmarks, thought about their favourite stories and completed a book review.

To end the celebrations, Mr Newman hosted a family World Book Day Kahoot Quiz with over 100 families across the school participating. Thank you to Ms Stacey for putting the quiz together and congratulations to Joel Drake, Emily de Bono and Remi Granger who were our top 3 performers!

Charity Check Let’s Feed Brum This term, Chaplain launched the BCS Smarties Challenge to raise money for Birmingham-based charity Let’s Feed Brum. Volunteers at Let’s Feed Brum, have been working in our city for many years, walking the streets each night and providing food and essentials (such as toiletries, warm socks and new sleeping bags) for those sleeping rough. The charity also befriends the homeless and works with them to find long-term accommodation and work.

Comic Relief Comic Relief continues to make a difference to the lives of millions of people across the UK and around the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has made people’s lives even harder and so it was more important than ever to maintain our support of this cause. Our four School Leaders gave an informative assembly to remind us of how our donations will be spent. This year the theme was Superheroes and pupils and staff came dressed as superheroes of many guises ranging from everyday heroes working in the NHS to well-known DC Comic book heroes. Our non-school uniform day raised £561. The idea was for the children to take a Smarties tube (or an empty jam jar) and fill it with loose change to raise money to help the homeless. This could be simply change they found down the back of the sofa or money earnt through household chores. Pupils might also challenge themselves to complete a sponsored event and several pupils did just that. Thank you and well done to Abhav who raised an incredible £1,235 from a sponsored readathon, Nirvan, Noah and Reuben for their sponsored walk and run, as well as Otis in Year 4 who made up a quiz for his peers and raised £80. Our fundraising was further supported by a non-school uniform day and the children added a pound to their pot to come to their online lessons in their home clothes. An amazing £2,520 has been raised and money is still coming in!

Key Dates for Trinity Term 2021 Term begins Monday 19 April

Term resumes Monday 7 June

Bank Holiday (School closed) Monday 3 May

Term ends Wednesday 14 July at 11.45am (No After Care or Prep supervision)

Half-Term holiday begins Monday 31 May

Shortlisted

Prep school of the year

THE BL UE

BIRMING HA M

L OO CH

CO AT

The Blue Coat School, Somerset Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham B17 0HR S

The Blue Coat School Founded by the Church of England in 1722

Telephone 0121 410 6800 Email info@thebluecoatschool.com Website thebluecoatschool.com The Blue Coat School Birmingham Limited is registered in England, Registration No. 8502615 and is a Registered Charity No. 1152244