Dear Parents and carers,
It is the government’s ambition for schools to open primary schools to more children from 1 June and all children from 22 June. As a school, we are enthusiastic to have children back learning and playing together, and the challenge now is to do that safely for all.
We are carefully following advice from Public Health England and the Department for Education. What is known is that younger children are less likely to become unwell and generally have less severe symptoms than adults. It is important to have children back at school for their learning, socialising, and health, and to diminish the inequalities of learning at home. Also, children being at school enables parents to work and benefits the economy. Eleven countries internationally have reopened schools and made similar adjustments to those recommended to English schools.
Brookfield will need to run in a different way with additional safety measures put in place. These will include:
- Staggered start and finish times between 9am – 3.30pm with no breakfast or after school club provision
- The creation of ‘bubble’ classes of up to 15 children who learn, play and eat together and do not mix with other classes
- Each bubble class will have at least two members of staff who teach and care for them throughout the day
- Staff and parents socially distancing
- Symptomatic children staying at home
- Frequent hand cleaning and good respiratory hygiene – catch it, bin it and kill it
- Regular cleaning and removal of soft furnishings, soft toys and toys that are hard to clean
- Keeping doors open and lots of outdoor learning
- Extra staff training
Children will not be expected to socially distance:
‘We know that, unlike older children and adults, early years and primary age children cannot be expected to remain 2 metres apart from each other and staff.’ DfE, 13 May
Home learning and Google Classrooms will continue to be provided by staff working from home. Some classes may merge into year groups or phases as time passes. As we progress with detailed plans and risk assessments, it would be really helpful to know how many children to expect and so I am asking the parents of children in Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 to fill out this online form below – by 3pm Monday please:
Once child and staff numbers are known, a detailed plan and risk assessment will be created and shared with governors and parents before half term. Please note, school will be closed at half term to allow us to deep clean and prepare for the return of more children. Brookfield will be able to gradually open with the confidence of parents, staff, unions and governors and I look forward to welcoming more children back over the coming weeks.
Yours, Laurel
[See end of email for news of the PTA QUIZ]
Virtual assemblies with Laurel and Mel
Stars of the week!
Nursery Catkin: Jamie who has been exploring his favourite numberblock – number 14 – in lots of different ways.
Reception: Acorn: Liam for Star of the Week. He’s been really engaged in home learning and worked incredibly hard his week. We can see by the amount he has saved on Purple Mash!
1 Daisy: Charlotte – For her amazing Science work on materials. Charlotte and mum have been working very hard to find materials around the home and videoing their findings. Great explanations that show she really understands the different properties. Well done!
1 Bluebell: Maisey has been such a home learning super star – she has gone above and beyond with each learning task she has been set, along with becoming a computer whizz! Well done Maisey for continuing to be so determined in your learning when you are at home. Keep up the hard work!
2 Dandelion:
Flora – for writing an excellent letter from Goldilocks. Flora has worked so hard on her handwriting at home and used some excellent adjectives: mischievous, maddening, delinquent. I was very impressed with her efforts!
2 Poppy & Dandelion
Albi & Juno – Albi worked with his sister, Juno to create an advert for a witch. I loved his idea of a grassy flying carpet, which he described as ‘Soft like silk.’ It was lovely to see their teamwork in the video they created together!
3 Heather: Star of the Week is Quentin for putting so much effort into his home learning. There’s such a variety.
3 Fern: Louis – For getting his whole family involved in his science assignment and creating an amazing life-size skeleton with all the bones labelled and even separate stick on organs! Fantastic effort Louis!
4 Ivy: Harry is working incredibly hard and is engaging superbly with home learning! I have been particularly impressed with his creativity over the last few weeks.
5 Ash: Lia for consistently hard work on google classroom from day 1 and for always producing high quality work. I particularly loved the design of your tropical island this week
5 Willow: Frankie is Willow’s star of the week this week because he is working really hard at home, particularly on his maths.
6 Elm: Quinn is Elm’s star of the week for being very engaged with his learning on Google Classroom and for making this amazing origami Viking long boat.
6 Oak: Viola for working so hard on Google Classroom every day! Well done for being such a motivated, independent learner, and for producing this wonderfully presented and creative poem about your imaginary island.
PTA News
Obviously PTA events have been suspended due to the coronavirus situation. The most important thing is that people stay safe and well. However, we do have some good news for you…
! QUIZ NIGHT ! QUIZ NIGHT ! QUIZ NIGHT ! QUIZ NIGHT !
It was supposed to be the annual school quiz on Thursday 21st in the hall, but of course we can’t do that. However, if we can’t get you to the quiz, the quiz can come to you!
Rob is planning to run it on Zoom. Here’s the plan.
1) You need to download Zoom if you haven’t already.
2) Teams. We will be using Zoom’s ‘breakout room’ functionality to create virtual teams, so you can collaborate in different households.
If you are interested, please let Rob know by email by Wednesday, so he can get an idea of numbers. Then you need to get yourselves into teams – no more than 4 Zoom participants per team. Of course, a Zoom participant might be just one person, a couple, or a whole family – we can’t control that, and it’s just for fun so let’s not get too strict.
3) The Zoom session will start at 7.30pm and the quiz shortly after that once we’ve got people online and into the right groups. The actual quiz will last around an hour.
4) Usually this would be a ticketed event and raise lots of money for the PTA. We aren’t going to charge anyone, of course, but PTA donations would be hugely appreciated. A link will be sent on the night.
Let’s do it!