Burstow Bear Blog
Pleased to meet you, my name is Bertie and I am the official Burstow Bear.
I have my own blog at the school, writing about my adventures with our children around the school, out on school trips, as well as spending time with children on their school holidays!
My aim at school is to have lots of fun with the children, and share in their enjoyment of learning.
BLOG ENTRIES
September 2023
We celebrated our first few hot chocolate Fridays and it was a great success! Each week a child from each class who has 100% attendance and has missed no learning will be invited to have hot chocolate with Mrs Turvey and talk about what they have learnt or most enjoyed in that week. Bertie Bear also got 100% attendance and got to join in with the fun!
June 2023
This month Bertie Bear visited Drusillas Park, a small 10-acre zoo in East Sussex with Year 4 children.
Children got to see lots of animals, stroke a rat and snake and got to do lots of challenges. Bertie Bear and the children had so much fun!
May 2023
On Friday 5th May Burstow School celebrated the King's coronation. The children in Year 1 all joined in to create a lovely piece of art work (shown in the picture below) , designed crowns and even managed to get a picture with the King! Bertie Bear joined in on all of the action with Year 5.
March 2023
Bertie Bear has had an extremely busy month.
On 17th March Burstow celebrated Red nose Day. Children could come into school wearing red. This year, the event focuses on raising money and awareness around the cost of living crisis, as millions of people in the UK and across the world need support now more than ever. Bertie Bear joined in wearing a red nose and also went to visit some classes.
St Patrick's day was also celebrated at Burstow this month which fell on the same day as Red Nose Day .The day is the observation of the death of St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. Bertie Bear joined Nursery in their celebration.
February 2023
Bertie Bear joined Year 2 this month and went back in time at the Great Fire of London workshop. He had great fun travelling back to 1666. They all listened so attentively and joined in the role play imagining being in that time capsule.
January 2023
This month Bertie Bear has been extremely busy joining the children in various activities. Bertie Bear attended the O2 Young Voices event by coach with all the children and really enjoyed himself hearing all their lovely voices.
Bertie also attended the Fantastic Fred Workshop. He sat with the children and they all listened so attentively.
November 2022
On Friday 11th November, the school held a two minute silence to remember all of those that have lost their lives to World War 1 and all of the wars that have followed, to protect our freedom.
The Nursery children dressed up Bertie the Bear in his very own uniform and remembrance poppy.
He shared books about living with a Mummy or Daddy who was a soldier and helped the children make tissue paper sun catchers and playdough poppies.
October 2022
Bertie the bear joined Nursery. The Owlets children had a surprise one morning when their teachers were replaced by 4 superheroes. The teachers each had an emergency so called on Wonder Bear (with her school lanyard), Miss 5 a-day (with her pineapple juice sponge), Super Mum (with her Mummy bag full of useful things) and Kindness Bear (also known as Bertie!). They told the children that they had heard that Owlets are super-kind, super-helpful and super- listeners. Kindness Bear gave out stickers when he saw acts of kindness. The Superheroes invited Owlets to join a superhero training camp over the next few weeks and they promised to come back and see what they had learnt.
September 2022
After a long summer holidays Bertie bear is back and ready to get involved in the children’s learning. This month Bertie has been in various DT lessons exploring the different activities. Bertie joined Year 5 whilst the children designed and created their own drawstring/totes bags.
He also joined the Year 6 DT lesson where the children began to build their own model fairground rides. Hello,
April 2022
When Nursery learnt about St George's day they were surprised to see Bertie had dressed up for the occasion. Everyone made a shield with the George cross in the middle and they looked at the map of the UK to find England and Smallfield. During the year Nursery have learnt about all of the UK saints days and made flags, shared Welsh cakes and collaged a shamrock too.
March 2022
Bertie was very busy this month, attending three different events with our children!
On Thursday 10th March our fabulous team of Burstow dancers attended the East Surrey Dance Festival, taking to the Harlequin Theatre stage to perform their dance routine to a mix of ‘Better When I’m Dancin’ and Cotton-Eyed Joe!’ They wowed the audience, many whom included their family and friend supporters. It was a whirlwind of a day, full of rehearsals and a mixture of nerves, fun and laughter. It was lovely to have Bertie the Burstow Bear join us! After the girls had performed their masterpiece, they were beaming and full of positive energy! Millie said “I can’t believe we just did that, it was brilliant! “.
The organiser of the dance festival commented “The children’s enthusiasm and joy was infectious and so heart-warming. The Burstow Dancers performed beautifully”. .
It was wonderful to watch the girls grow in confidence and form new friendships within the group over the months. The dedication from each of the girls to attend each dance session, practise over and over again, support each other was remarkable and I am truly proud of what they have achieved!
Over the last term the club have been working on their passing, footwork, space awareness and shooting skills topped off by games at the end of the session. The team had great fun where they practiced their different passes using reaction balls instead of netballs. The children had to think quickly reacting to the unpredictable changing direction of the balls and all that could be heard was giggles and laughter coming from the children.
At the end of each game the children learned about sportsmanship, they were encouraged to use supportive words towards the other team such as "good game" and "well played" . The children were fantastic at adapting to each activity, learning new skills as they went along. As coaches, it has been a pleasure working with the children and seeing their confidence grow each week. We look forward to seeing them in the new term and warmly welcome any new faces who wish to join in the fun.
Bertie wore a red shirt and a flamingo nose for this years Red Nose Day. He joined the Nursery children throughout the day making card noses, painting and printing and playing outside in the sunshine. At lunchtime Bertie went with the children to see where the school's top scientists had been planting seeds that morning. Bertie thought that sausages and honey pots had been planted and would soon grow - silly Bertie! We took the opportunity to visit the Bio-dome to see what else had been growing. It was very hot so we didn't stay long. Back in the classroom the children all put on their cardboard noses .... Happy Red Nose day!
February 2022
During February Bertie Bear joined Year 5 for their Bread making topic.
The children said the following about the lessons: “For the last few weeks of D.T, we’ve been focusing on bread. We’ve loved it!
For the first lesson, we discussed the Eat-Well plate, and which foods are healthy and which aren’t. We sorted out the foods into all the different categories.
The second lesson was a pleasure since we got to taste test different types of breads like naan bread, flatbread and soda bread. Everybody enjoyed it but the rye bread tasted like chips soaked in way too much vinegar. Next, we planned our ideas for the bread we would be making. There were lots of options to pick as the additional ingredient, like dried fruit, garlic, poppy seeds and rosemary.
The third lesson, we created our own bread! It was super fun but very messy. We made the dough ourselves. Since it was of course very messy and sticky we had to clean up after. Somebody was cleaning, the other drying and somebody stacking! We had a good system. Thank you Miss Dixon, we all enjoyed this topic!”
“It was pretty awesome and a fun lesson, it was also a sticky mess and our tables were messy with loads of flour and we cleaned up after,” said Phoebe.
January 2022
YEAR 4 FIZZPOP SCIENCE WORKSHOP
On Monday 10th January Year 4 were very lucky to attend a ‘Hair-raising’ workshop as part of their Super Scientists discovery day. During the workshop children explored how circuits worked, investigated what materials would act as conductors and insulators and even saw lightning being created. Lucky volunteers also had the chance to chance to make their hair stand on end with the Van De Graff generator! After the event Helen exclaimed ‘this is the best day ever!’
December 2021
On Wednesday 15th December, Bertie joined the children in the school hall to enjoy a festive Christmas lunch with all the trimmings! Everyone was in high spirits dressed in their Christmas jumpers and accessories! A huge thank you to Mr Morgan and his catering team for cooking such a delicious lunch. Also a huge thank you to Miss Wollington and her midday team, alongside our wonderful LSAs who helped to set up, serve and clear away after each seating.
November 2021
On Wednesday 3rd November, Bertie the bear joined Class 2B in their outdoor topic lesson. This lesson linked together their topic learning about habitats with their English unit. After reading a story about Max the Hedgehog and his family, they received an email from Max asking them to make some new hedgehog houses. The children loved going outside and creating some new, cosy houses for the hedgehogs. The children worked brilliantly in teams and were able to share and collaborate whilst having lots of fun!
Remembrance Day
On Thursday 11th November, the school held a two minute silence to remember all of those that have lost their lives to World War 1 and all of the wars that have followed, to protect our freedom.
The Nursery children dressed up Bertie the Bear in his very own uniform and remembrance poppy.
All of the children in the school paid tribute to Remembrance Day through a giant art installation in school, where they used their hands to create a giant poppy and also individual falling poppies.
Lest we forget, those brave soldiers who gave their lives so we could live ours.
October 2021
Bertie Bear was so excited to join the Year 1 classes for their Fizz Pop Science Workshop on the 19th October.
During the workshop, Bertie Bear and the children learnt about the different properties of various products and used lots of adjectives to describe them.
Bertie learnt how to stay safe whilst mixing various ingredients together. He realised that he needed to wear his own goggles to help protect his eyes, just like all the children.
Bertie couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the slime that the children made from the different ingredients.
It was a fantastic morning, thanks for letting me join in on all the slimy fun Year 1!
September 2021
Bertie Bear was thrilled to set off and travel with the Reception team to visit our new Fox and Badger class children in their homes!
Bertie said “I really enjoyed seeing all of the children’s smiles and hearing about what they liked to do.”
Bertie has learnt all of the children’s names and he couldn’t wait to visit them again in school.
On their first day of school Bertie came to say hello again and he was so amazed and proud of how well all the children were doing. Well done Fox and Badger class!
July 2021
The children were so excited about their Sports Day and so keen to “have-a-go” and even Bertie the Burstow Bear joined in. We had three races, the first being an egg and spoon race, ‘Hungry Caterpillar’ race where the children had to pick up foods from the story and collect them in their buckets and finally a running race.
After all individual races the children worked together as a team with the parachute making small waves and bigger waves with Bertie on board! It was a lovely morning and the children really made us proud as they cheered their friends on.
May 2021
As part of their new topic ‘Saving the World: Rainforests I joined Year 3 during a visit from a company called ‘Crocodile Encounters’. They were visiting to introduce the children to some special friends and to tell Year 3 all sorts of amazing facts about different reptiles who live in the rainforest. When I arrived to the hall there were six different boxes all containing a different reptile. One by one, different reptiles were taken out of their box for the children to learn about and hold. Year 3 were so incredibly well-behaved and curious! As soon as the crocodile came out I said see you later alligator and hid behind one of the benches. As well as a crocodile, the children were all able to hold or stroke a corn snake, tortoise, bearded dragon, a lizard and an ENORMOUS python! It was a fantastic morning filled with lots of fun and mind-blowing facts! Did you know that pythons can reach up to 30 feet in length! That’s like, 4 and a bit Mr Locke’s! Incredible! Thanks Year 3 for letting me join you all.
In a while crocodile,
Bertie Bear
November 2020
CHILDREN IN NEED DRESSING UP DAY
On Friday 13th November Bertie joined Year 2 for a day of fun and activities dressed in his special yellow spotty t-shirt and mask for Children In Need!
The children raised £361 on the day through donations.
Thank you!
Bertie enjoyed his visit to Year 5 on 3rd November for their Discovery Day on Ancient Greece. With the help of the children he used his map skills to locate the Ancient Greek Empire and modern day Greece, and through a timeline, the children learnt about significant events in the Ancient Greek period. Bertie ended his day with Year 5 competing in an Olympic Games to see which city state would be victorious!
October 2020
Bertie had a great time visiting Year 2 for one of their RE lessons! He was able to help the children learn why Jesus is important to his followers in both the past and present. The children learned about the 12 disciples and discussed their own special friends, who inspire them and what qualities we can see and what qualities are within us. Bertie then helped the children make their own disciple out of clay!
Bertie had great fun visiting the Bio-dome this month and picking the largest home grown courgette he or any of the children he was with had ever seen – WOW!
September 2020
Bertie had lots of fun exploring the improved Year 1 outside area. He was so excited to play in the mud kitchen, build gravel castles in the construction area and explore the wilderness in the pre-historic dinosaur zone. After all those activities he was exhausted and completed his visit by having a quiet sit down in the new reading corner!
February 2020
Bertie Bear joined classes around the school during Children’s Mental Health Awareness week. He found out some interesting things about children in Burstow Primary School. Bethanie told us all about her Grandad who fought in the war and showed us photographs of him during his service. She said, “When I need to be brave I think of my Grandad and how brave he was.”
Bertie also heard how a boy in Early Years wears his Spiderman mask when he wants to be brave.
Bertie also heard about other children’s bravery, including a child who entered a gymnastics competition and was very nervous, however she decided she needed to be brave and won!
In Year 6 Bertie also watched clips from Harry Potter and discussed with the class how Harry was brave and what he was most likely feeling.
A great week of awareness.
January 2020
Bertie joined Year 2 for their 'Time Travellers' Discovery Day this half term. The children were learning about the past and gained an insight into the different significant events they were going to learn about. Throughout the day, Bertie and the children thought of important events that happen throughout the year and decided to have their very own New Years Eve party! The children made colourful party hats and banners to decorate the hall. They also made a range of healthy party food all by themselves! Bertie was so impressed with how sensible the children were when preparing the food. At the end of the day, Bertie joined Year 2 in the hall for their party.
December 2019
Bertie had a great time at the school Christmas lunch on Wednesday 18th December. He joined the Nursery and Reception class children and their teachers for a fantastic festive feast!
November 2019
Bertie came along to the Year 3 Dinosaur celebration on the 23rd October. He looked at the children’s beautiful artwork and was so impressed by the skeletons the children had made out of cotton buds! He enjoyed looking through the children’s books and seeing how hard they have been working as well as meeting their parents. Bertie joined in with the fascinating Dino quiz whilst the children were able to show off everything they had learned. Bertie was also able to watch the children perform a dinosaur rap about a Diplodocus. Roar-some!
Before the end of the half term, Year 5 wrote persuasive letters to the Science and Technology Facility Council and NASA persuading them to let us ‘Borrow the Moon’. They were successful in their efforts and amazingly Burstow Primary School were lent a number of Earth and Space rocks. These included a lunar disc with samples of parts of the moon as well as an large iron meteorite and a Martian meteorite. Year 5 had a brilliant topic exit day exploring these rocks with Bertie Bear. Together they examined flour and sand under a microscope to compare which was most like the soil from the moon. They investigated the relationship between the size of crater made and the height at which they dropped a marble into flour. To finish off the day the children and Bertie Bear made edible craters in the form of rocky roads! The children were very impressed with all the rock samples and they had a wonderful science day with Bertie Bear.
October 2019
I had the privilege of accompanying the lovely Year 6’s on their residential at Norfolk Lakes. I had a fantastic time across the entire week.
Some of my highlights included, rock climbing, team games, canoeing, sailing, archery and shooting. It was a really great opportunity to bond with the Year 6’s and learn to collaborate and work together to complete tasks and conquer my fear of heights!
I was well looked after by the children and teachers in Year 6 and I was even invited to join Miss Perkin’s group for hot chocolate and snacks one wet and cold evening.
The food was great throughout the week, so much so that so after each and every meal I felt well and truly stuffed (pardon the pun). I very much enjoyed the week away and I cannot wait for next year!
September 2019
Bertie Bear could not wait to come and visit all of our Reception children as soon as they started school. He remembered all of his visits to their homes and recognised lots of the children’s smiley faces! Bertie was lucky enough to join in with lots of our daily activities such as ‘Wake up Shake up’, playdough disco and being a patient in the Doctors role-play. He is so impressed and proud of how all of the new Reception children have settled in, and he can’t wait to visit for more adventures soon.
July 2019
Bertie Bear and Year 4 enjoyed a great day out visiting the British Museum on Wednesday 17th July. We travelled there by coach and passed many famous London sites.
While at the museum, we explored a number of different areas but mainly focused on Ancient Egyptian mummies, statures and coffins. During the visit we also looked at some of the artefacts from Ancient Greece, ready for Year 5. All the children were amazed at how beautiful and colourful each sarcophagus looked.
Harry commented, "The mummies were my favourite."
Isabel mentioned that, "We saw many fascinating artefacts and I recorded everything in my notepad”.
Finally Nikola said, "I was so excited, the museum was huge!" Thankfully we were able to rest on the long journey back to school.
Well done to all of the children in Year 4 for their great behaviour and the parents who came along to support us.
June 2019
Bertie Bear had a fantastic time with all the Year 3’s at High Ashurst. Everyone arrived at school with lots of luggage and excitement ready for the coach journey. When we arrived at High Ashurst, we explored the campsite and heard about all the fun activities we would be doing. In our groups, we set off and completed our different challenges. Bertie started with team tasks where the children had to guide each other round a trail, blindfolded! Bertie watched as the children successfully collaborated and listened to each other. Before bed, Bertie enjoyed a delicious dinner with his new friends. The children got ready for bed and settled down with their sleeping bags in the tepees. Bertie bear finished the day with a bedtime story.
The next day, the children set off on their next activities. Bertie went with Millie to do some orienteering. The groups used maps to explore the whole area and find hidden clues. The last activity was learning some exciting woodland skills. The children created fire, made popcorn and used charcoal to decorate their faces, Bertie ended up looking like a tiger!
At the end of the day the children packed up their belongings and headed home (with a scrumptious lunch in tow).
May 2019
On our school trip we went to Oakhyrst Grange School. Bertie had fun playing eye spy on the coach. When we arrived Bertie looked around in the marvellous forest. Hannah and I made a hammock for Bertie and made a little house for the ‘minpin forest people’. Bertie opened the door to one of the houses and peeked inside to see all the furniture we had put in there. Then Bertie sat down for a nap in the nest we had built together.
March & April 2019
Bertie Bear came along to our exciting Space discovery day on 25th February! The Reception children arrived to find that there had been a rocket crash landing, and after discovering lots of clues and listening to different sounds the ‘Moonbeam’ alien family were found. Reception were hooked by this and very keen to learn and find out about the family, as well as where they had come from up in space. Bertie enjoyed observing and being part of the fun packed day. He loved listening to the questions the children had and finding out about what the children wanted to explore and know about space. During the day Bertie was involved in lots of space themed activities with the children such as building space rockets and homes for the alien family, as well as taking part in space yoga. He also came on a journey to space in a rocket with the children. Miss Hodgson also came to visit to tell us about her exciting trip to NASA! Finally he read lots of the interesting letters that some of the children had written to NASA. He can’t wait to come back again soon!
February 2019
Today I had a lovely time with the staff and children at lunchtime. I was allowed to help prepare the delicious food, help the servers and try lunch in the lunch hall. I loved the fresh fruit – it was so juicy!
After lunch, I went outside with the children and there was so much to do. I watched a football match, listened to a story in the Pavilion Library, danced to music outside the Science room, went on the climbing frame, hid in the wig-wams, played in the Den area and even climbed a tree!
Poppy said to me: “Our school dinners are just like my Mum’s cooking at home”. Freya said to me: “we like dancing at lunchtime!”
January 2019
I joined both Year 4 classes on Friday 25th January for their exciting Fizzpop Science workshop! I had a great time watching the class stick balloons around the classroom, join hands and paws (!) to make a light stick work and most of all watching the hair raising effects from when the children touched a Van Der Graaf generator – sadly my fur was too short for this to work on me though! Thank you to Year 4 for such a fun and Science packed day in class!
December 2018
Bertie the Burstow Bear joined the Owlets Nursery for a special Superhero dressing up day. The children had been learning what it means to be a superhero and had been training hard for weeks using their looking eyes, listening ears, super strength and balance among many things. The dressing up day was a chance for everyone to put on their costumes and pose for the camera. Even Bertie put on his cape as he smiled for his certificate.
November 2018
Hi, it’s Bertie here! Today I spent the whole day in Class 5P where we had an Art day.
We were painting flowers inspired by the different styles of Picasso. We painted two pieces using bright colours and dull colours to create a mood in our work. I had a great time sniffing all the flowers but I kept on sneezing and falling over!
At the end of the day, I had to really clean my paws to get off all the paint. What a great day!
OCTOBER 2018
From 21st to 28th September Class 5S had their chicken week which meant they got to look after the chickens all week in groups of 7. Bertie was invited along for the week to learn alongside the children more about how our friendly chickens live at the school.
Ameile commented, “We had to take the eggs out. Then we put mealworms on our boots and the chickens ate them. Then we had to refill the water which was heavy! We had to fill the food which was really low. We had Bertie the Burstow Bear to help us and take pictures with!”
Year 6 Residential Trip
Monday 1st October 2018
Monday was an adventurous day. We all had fun on the coach watching our parents waving,smiling, weeping and cheering. We waved goodbye and began our amazing but, tiring journey to Norfolk Lakes. When we were about half way we stopped for lunch and a toilet break. I went to the toilet with some of my friends and then ate the lovely packed lunch that Mrs Wright made for me.
Tuesday 2nd October 2018
On Tuesday I overcame my fear of heights. With the encouragement of my friends and the instructors I made it really high up in the sky.
Wednesday 3rd October 2018
Wednesday was a wet and cold day Mrs Wright and I went on a kayak together. I sat in Mrs Wright’s shoe, it was great fun especially when I nearly fell in the freezing cold water. We went over to see the canoers, they looked like they were having lots of fun too playing games.
Thursday 4th October 2018
Thursday was our last full day It was one of the funiest days. We made a raft which was succesful because I got off just before everybody fell off! I wore a wetsuit [a tailored bin bag] which was very tight. After dinner we went off and did archery, it was thrilling.
Friday 5th October 2018
Friday was really sad because we had to leave but before we got on the coach I said goodbye to the football pitch and had a drink. Then we had to go. The journey felt really short although it was three hours. Over the Dartford Bridge we went, spotting all the famous landmarks as we went and when we got back the parents were cheering. What a great week. Thank you Year 6.
SEPTEMBER 2018
Bertie has really enjoyed visiting all of our new Nursery and Reception children in their homes this month. He was so excited to see everyone again so he came and met all of the children on their first days of school. Bertie enjoyed having photos with all of us, playing, joining in at snack time and joining in with different games to get to know us.
We can’t wait to see Bertie again soon!
The children in Owlets Nursery have all settled well, with a little help from Bertie! Last week they found apples growing on one of their trees. Bertie helped them to harvest them, wash them, chop them up, cook them and of course, eat them!
Come back soon Bertie, we love to see you.
