Newsletter 5th June

Dear parents and carers,

I hope that you and your families enjoyed the half term break and have been able to broaden your experiences with the slight easing of lock down.

It has been a delight to welcome over 100 children back to Brookfield this week, see the smiles in the pictures below! They have so appreciated seeing each other and settling into new routines. We started with three Y6 bubble classes and the key worker Y3-5 class on Tuesday, on Wednesday we celebrated the return of two Y1 bubble classes and a mixed Y1-2 class, on Thursday our two reception classes were greeted with bubbles and today our Nursery class completed the puzzle. We are following a detailed risk assessment and our staff have been fully trained. One teacher commented that they feel like they don’t see anyone anymore – which shows how well the arrangements are working! I have recorded a tour with some of the changes which you can watch below.

We are following a Brookfield recovery curriculum which focuses on: safety, calmness, control, connectedness and hope. I think these are just as important to us as adults as the children. We are keeping the in school curriculum as closely aligned to home learning as possible so that children have the opportunity to have similar learning. With over 300 children learning from home, please make the most of the Google Classrooms with recorded lessons delivered by teachers, story times and work responded to by staff diligently working from home. Staff are monitoring who is using Google Classroom and offering support to any families struggling to engage.

While most of our bubble classes are now full, we do have some spaces and are hoping to create extra provision. If you are a key worker, considered as vulnerable or have a child in Nursery, Y1 or 6 please let us know if you would now like your child to return. We will do our best, with the resources we have, for more children to join us as soon as possible.

We look forward to being able to welcome all children back to Brookfield. This will be possible with a relaxation of the current measures in place and we await guidance from the government and Public Health England about when we can do this safely. Please know that parents and carers will be kept fully informed as national, Camden and Brookfield plans progress.

Yours, Laurel

Virtual Tour with Laurel

Return to school

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George Floyd

As a staff, we have been reflecting on George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis and how to discuss this with children. Our bubble year 5 and 6 classes will be reading and watching Newsround and discussing this tragedy and wider implications with their teacher and learning support assistant. If you would like to do the same with your children at home, you might find this link helpful: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/52813673

Zia Teshome is a Brookfield parent governor and also BAME Officer for Labour Highgate ward. Please contact her (jerryteshome@hotmail.com) if you would like any information about the anti racism marches she is organising from Cricks Corner, Dartmouth Park Hill at 10am on Thursdays to Kings Cross.

Home Learning

Many of our staff are now working in school and this will impact on our home learning provision. The home learning teams are now smaller and this means that our capacity to phone children and email is reduced. You should have received an email from your child’s class teacher explaining who to email if you have queries or concerns. Please do follow this advice as staff in school will not be able to reply.

We will continue to use Google Classroom to set work. Many teachers will now be managing the virtual classrooms for two classes and this means that we will be able to provide less personalised feedback on the work that children ‘Turn in’. We will prioritise every child receiving bespoke comments on the main piece of writing that they submit each week and will try to ensure that other pieces of work are responded to. Children in school will also be following the curriculum outlined on the ‘Home learning’ document in order to maintain consistency in learning between those at Brookfield and those at home. 

If you have any questions about our home learning provision this half term, please email your child’s phase leader: 

Wellbeing

Below is a link to a brilliant child friendly yoga resource: Cosmic Kids Yoga. ​ The youtube channel has lots of videos for mindfulness, yoga and relaxation which are specifically designed for children aged 3+.  They incorporate stories and fun themes e.g. Starwars and Moana! It is used in schools and homes all around the world: 

https://www.youtube.com/user/CosmicKidsYoga/featured

Faye Winslade

News from the office 

Please can parents and carers check their balances for dinners, breakfast and after school clubs on Scopay and clear any outstanding charges from the Spring term. If your circumstances have changed, please speak to Carole (020 7272 9627) or email admin@brookfield.camden.sch.uk. 

School lunches have been free to key worker and vulnerable children during the wider school closure. From this half term, Nursery and KS2 school lunches will be charged for with the exception of any children eligible for free school meals. 

If you think your family may now be eligible for free school meals, please read this letter with information about how you can apply: 

Stars of the week

Acorn – Suhaib for star of the week this week. He’s made so much progress working from home.

Bluebell & Daisy – Ihanna and Esen: For working really hard in Google classroom.

Dandelion & Poppy – Flora and Holly: They’ve both put excellent effort into their home learning. We loved seeing the art they created with natural objects found on Hampstead Heath.

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Fern – Rex: For exceptional effort in his Geography task – interviewing his grandmother and researching LOADS of information about the city of Florence in Italy!

Heather – Abe: For excellent effort in his maths and reading tasks and uploading lots of pictures of his work onto Google Classroom!

Ivy – Star of the week is Vlera for making such an effort with all of the assignments this week. I loved her coffee painting and was really impressed by her brilliant diary in literacy! 

Bramble – Jemimah for a fabulous presentation on flowers.

Ash – Star of the week is Gabe for being active on google classroom and working very hard from  the very beginning. Gabe produced a very well researched and beautifully presented desert island survival guide where he has used a lot of previous knowledge as he loves nature and wants to  become a naturalist (an expert of plants and animals)

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Willow – Star of the week goes to Lughan for writing a fantastic message in a bottle inspired by our class novel- “Kensuke’s Kingdom”. Lughan used green ink to give the impression that he has used octopus ink to write and then he placed his letter in a bottle.

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PTA News

Thanks to everyone who donated money to the PTA following the quiz – we have raised nearly £400, which is fantastic. 

While we have no events planned at the moment (the Summer Fair would currently not be allowed given the government guidelines, even if we held it in Barnard Castle) we still have a commitment to fund activities for Brookfield pupils once school is back up and running – we fund art projects, forest school, some of the music programmes and much more. So there may be a funding gap – any donations, are hugely appreciated.

Don’t forget to use easyfundraising – your internet shopping can raise money for the school.

Details are here.

Best wishes from the PTA team. 

Cheers
Rob