Diary for the next few months:
From Laurel:
It has been wonderful to see children enjoying their Dress Up Day today. They have really enjoyed the opportunity to dress creatively and unleash their dressing up boxes! Thank you to the PTA for organising this much needed fundraising initiative. We have raised over £150 with more to count.
In light of the new national restrictions, I wanted to update you with any changes impacting school. The government has made very few additions to the guidance for schools and we are pleased to remain open to all children. Unfortunately, the gymnastics, trapeze and fencing clubs that hire our halls have had to suspend for the coming month. We will continue with all the safety routines and measures already in place and staff will be wearing masks at drop off and pick up times if they are able. Please can I encourage parents and carers to also wear face coverings at these times and avoid congregating outside the gates. We wish all our Brookfield families and the local community well during this time.
One of our parents, Camden New Journal journalist and local hero, Dan Carrier, receives a weekly donation of Indian, vegetarian frozen meals from a restaurant in central London. If any Brookfield families would benefit from a one off, or regular, delivery, please email Dan your address: dcarrier@camdennewjournal.co.uk
Due to a number of factors, we have had to press pause on Forest School and Woodwork provision. We will be in touch when we are able to restart these beneficial experiences for our children.
Reception places September 2021
If you have a child born between 1st September 2016 and 31st August 2017 you will need to apply for your child’s reception place to start next September. We hope Brookfield is top of your list! We will be offering virtual tours and an opportunity to meet the head teacher virtually during this lockdown period. To apply, please click here.
Email communication
Please use the appropriate email addresses to contact school, especially at a time when staff absence may lead to emails not being read promptly. Here is a reminder of the year group emails for all messages to teaching staff:
- Nursery: nursery@brookfield.camden.sch.uk
- Reception: reception@brookfield.camden.sch.uk
- Year 1: year1@brookfield.camden.sch.uk
- Year 2: year2@brookfield.camden.sch.uk
- Year 3: year3@brookfield.camden.sch.uk
- Year 4: year4@brookfield.camden.sch.uk
- Year 5: year5@brookfield.camden.sch.uk
- Year 6: year6@brookfield.camden.sch.uk
- Breakfast and after school club queries must be sent to: BASC@brookfield.camden.sch.uk
(Please note: after school club bookings need to be renewed every half term and are not automatically carried over.)
Relationships Education Policy
A reminder that the consultation period for Brookfield’s draft relationships education policy will be ending next week. We will be holding a Zoom meeting on Wednesday 11th November at 9.30am to gather feedback and answer any questions you may have. Gill Morris, Senior Health and Wellbeing Adviser for Camden, will be in attendance along with Laurel and me to help facilitate the consultation meeting. Please email me (Seren Quested) any questions you have in advance, or if you would like to comment but are unable to attend. This will help us to prepare more effectively for the meeting and to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard. Please find the Zoom link below.
Zoom details
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/79932836683?pwd=aEp6bDl0dWZWR2YxZWY5Q2NFMkFxQT09
Meeting ID: 799 3283 6683
Passcode: PNurp5
Seren Quested – PSHE Lead
Mental Health Support
The NHS mental health support team who work within your school and many others in Camden are excited to be able to offer an online webinar series for all parents and carers of primary school children in Camden.
The series will include online workshops via Zoom. The topics covered, scheduled dates and times are:
| Topic | Day and Date | Time |
| Parent Self Care | Friday 13/11/20 | 12pm |
| Understanding and supporting your child with worries | Friday 20/11/20 | 12pm |
| Sleep | Friday 27/11/20 | 12pm |
| ‘Good enough’ Parent and Child interactions | Friday 04/12/20 | 12pm |
Each workshop will last up to 60 minutes and have an optional follow up 20 minutes for further questions for those parents that are interested. You can opt in for all four sessions, or whichever most appeals to you. To find out more information and to register for any of the workshops (for free) please go to the Eventbrite webpage. We look forward to seeing you!
– Faye Winslade
Camden Libraries
Please see the notice below from Camden Libraries
Following the new national restrictions in place from 5 November, Camden libraries are pleased to confirm a number of services will remain open in Lockdown. Service updates include:
- Computer access: computers can be accessed on a first come first serve basis. Sessions are limited to 1 hour per day. Printing, scanning and photocopying available. Services will be available from Thursday 5 November at all libraries but not Swiss Cottage or Highgate Libraries.
- Highgate Library: this library will be open from Thursday 5 November for “request and read”. Collections will be available from the foyer.
- Swiss Cottage Library: this library will close on Thursday 5 November and reopen on Monday 9 November for ‘request and read’. Collections will be from the foyer.
- Camden Local Studies and Archive Centre: the centre will be closed to customers but resources can be accessed online.
- Home Library Service: we will continue to deliver to housebound customers. If you, or someone you know, can’t get out and about, you may be eligible for the free home library service. Every four weeks, we will bring reading, music and films to your home. Email homelibraryservice@camden.gov.uk
- Adult community learning: digital classes will continue from Kilburn Library Centre more information is available online.
- Digital library: you can continue to visit our digital libraries which has a range of free online books, e-magazines and information resources.
- Christmas closure: Camden Libraries will be closed over the Christmas period from Thursday 24th until the Tuesday 29th of December.
We are working to see if we can safely offer more services over the next few weeks and will keep you updated. All libraries will have measures in place to keep residents and staff safe. Visitors are advised to wear a face covering in line with Government guidance.
Camden Coronavirus update
Click to download the latest Camden information, including business advice, health services and more in the area.
PTA News
Christmas Trees
We are looking to run a Christmas tree scheme this year – pre orders, and collection at school. More details to follow, but any questions / interest please contact the PTA on the usual email.
Dress up Friday
Great to see lots of fantastic fancy dress costumes today – we haven’t totalled any cash yet but we’ve had over £150 donated online so thank you so much.
Hallowe’en update
Thanks to everyone who joined in the pumpkin Halloween trail last Saturday – we had over 50 addresses on the map, and lots of (socially-distanced) Halloween fun – well done everyone.
Pumpkin competition
Click here to see all the wonderful entries for the carving competition. And the winners are…
From Reception, Leo:
From Year 3, Alex
And from Year 6, Charlie
Also thanks to everyone who bought pumpkins – we sold out and made over £100 for the PTA, which is a good start to the term.
Kids Quiz
We will be running three Zoom quizzes for kids in November. We are going to do it in three groups – KS1 (reception to y2); Years 3&4; and Years 5&6. (Obviously with siblings etc this is not formal, just an idea of where we are pitching it.).
Our plan is to do it on the afternoons of 12th and 13th November. Stay tuned for more details. No prizes, just a bit of fun and hopefully no tears, unlike in the adult quiz.
Raise money while doing the shopping online
Did you know you can raise money for Brookfield while shopping online? It costs you LITERALLY nothing. All you need to do is add the easyFundraising plug in on your browser and it automatically does the rest.
Find out how to do it here. Sainsbury’s, Amazon, eBay, John Lewis – you can raise money any time you make a purchase.
If we all did it, we could massively change the PTA’s fundraising. So far we have 136 people signed up (2 new in the past week – thank you to those as well as the other recent sign-ups), so if we could get to 200 that would be fantastic.
Support your school with a mask
You can still order your “I love Brookfield” mask – a bargain at £5.
BUY YOUR MASK HERE (and we’ll deliver to you). (Also – we should all be wearing them at the school gates. )
That is all.