Update from Laurel
Dear parents and carers,
Thank you for your support and encouragement as we have opened the school to over one hundred key worker and vulnerable children and re-established Brookfield’s virtual school. We are saddened not to be all together and know that it is safer for most children to be at home at the moment. Families have already achieved so much this week with re-adjusting to learning at home – well done to you all!
Now that we know that school will be closed to most children until at least February half term, we have made improvements to the home learning provision. These include:
- Blended and flexible home learning including interactive teaching, independent activities and recorded teaching from: Brookfield teachers, White Rose Maths and other carefully selected sources
- 30 minutes of interactive teaching with a year group teacher each morning at 9am for Years 5 & 6, 9.30am for Years 3 & 4, 10am for years 1 & 2 and 10.30am for Nursery and Reception. Each day will have a different focus to include: planning the week ahead, English feedback and teaching, maths teaching, well-being and sharing of work. Please can children appear on camera so that they can be registered by the Learning Support Assistant
- Live, daily story time for up to 100 children with Laurel, and special guests, at 3pm using this Google Meet invite: meet.google.com/xvu-yndy-pdh
- Remote teaching and support for targeted individuals and small groups for example, children with Special Education Needs and Disabilities or eligible for Pupil Premium
- Collection at school of completed home learning on Thursday 14th and 28th January to help motivate children and for staff in school to review. (Please note, individual written feedback cannot be provided)
We have decided that our children’s learning needs will be best met through tailored home learning packs created by our teachers. During the Autumn term, we used CGP books to send to children who had to isolate at home and these could be bought by families if they are looking for additional resources.
An example of how the home learning day may look for a child in years 3 or 4:
- 9:00 Plan the day ahead and independent reading, logging onto Google Classroom
- 9:30 registration and teaching session with a Brookfield teacher. Watch a video of a Brookfield teacher teaching the literacy input and complete the activity, upload work onto Google Classroom
- 10:45 break
- 11:00 Watch the White Rose Maths lesson and complete the activity on the sheets provided, try the extension task
- 12:00 Physical activity
- 12:30 Lunch break
- 1:00pm Engage in Google Classroom, interacting with staff and children asking any questions
- 1:30 Foundation lesson and upload to Google Classroom
- 2:30 Independent learning e.g. reading, drawing, Times Tables Rockstars
- 3:00 Story session with Laurel and special guests
If you are struggling at home, please email your child’s year group email (eg yearX@brookfield.camden.sch.uk) and a member of the team will give you a call to discuss what support the school may be able to offer or signpost you to.
We’ve also redesigned the school website – let us know what you think of the new look and improvements!
Please contact the school via email (admin@brookfield.camden.sch.uk) or phone (020 7272 9627) if you need any support or have questions for us. We will continue to do our best for the Brookfield children, families and community.
Yours, Laurel
What support is available?
Free school meals: The latest information is that the government plan to bring back a voucher scheme and that this will probably be similar to the scheme from last year’s lockdown. As soon we have further details about this, we will be in touch with families directly.
If you believe your child may be eligible for Free School Meals, please go to the Camden website (this is the case even if you live in a different borough).
Thanks to our relationships with Highgate Newtown Community Centre and the Camden New Journal we are able to support families with free, doorstep deliveries of groceries and/or Indian vegan meals from the Punjab restaurant in Covent Garden. Brookfield staff have been enjoying meals donated by the Punjab restaurant and we can recommend them highly! Please email admin@brookfield.camden.sch.uk or d.carrier@camdennewjournal.co.uk for this to be arranged.
Camden also has a dedicated web page giving more information on how to access Covid tests and also what support they can offer for individuals and families who are struggling.
Islington are offering similar support – click here.
Finally, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (Furlough) now makes it possible for parents to request that their employers furlough them if they have caring responsibilities ‘caring for children who are at home as a result of school or childcare facilities closing’. The details are on this page. Although employers can turn down the request, this may be an option worth exploring for parents and carers who are finding the juggle of home-schooling and work impossible to balance.
If you are struggling at home, please email your child’s year group email and a member of the team will give you a call to discuss what support the school may be able to offer/signpost you to other support which you could access. (Year group emails are in the format yearX@brookfield.camden.sch.uk)
Drop off and collection of home learning packs
Please could families arrange for completed work to be dropped off and home learning packs and reading books to be collected from the junior playground on Chester Road at the following times on Thursday 14th January. These will include timetables and worksheets for the next two weeks. It would be really helpful if families could arrange with each other to collect for a group – for example, if you live on the same road as other families and can coordinate collection and doorstep deliver. This will minimise the number of people visiting the school site.
| Time – on Jan 14th | Year group |
| 9:15 – 9:45am | Year 6 |
| 9:45 – 10:30am | Year 5 |
| 11:15am – 12:45pm | Year 4 |
| 2:00 – 2:30pm | Year 3 |
| 2:30 – 3:00pm | Year 2 |
| 3:30 – 4:00pm | Year 1 |
| 4:00 – 4:30pm | Reception |
| 4:30 – 5:00pm | Nursery |
Parent workshops in the Spring term
Thanks for Mel’s presentation about the New Curriculum and parents and carers for attending on Thursday morning. If you weren’t able to attend, please find the slides attached below, including photos of the children’s ‘beautiful work’ and some updates from Laurel on home learning.
Next Thursday at 11am, parents and carers from Nursery and Reception are invited to join Laurel and Seren (Early Years Phase Leader) for an EYFS coffee morning. The Zoom link is the same each week. Please see the programme below for the menu of workshops for this half term. We look forward to seeing lots of you there!
- Thursday 14th January Early Years coffee morning with Laurel, Headteacher and Seren, Early Years Phase Leader
- Thursday 21st January Positive Behaviour with Stephanie, Deputy Head
- Thursday 28th January Special Educational Needs and Disabilities with Laura, SENDCo
- Thursday 11th February Year 1 and 2 coffee morning with Laurel
- Thursday 25th February Year 3 & 4 coffee morning with Laurel
- Thursday 4th March Phonics
- Thursday 11th March Supporting your child at home with reading
- Thursday 18th March Year 5& 6 coffee morning with Laurel
- Thursday 25th March Maths with Lucy, Maths lead
Zoom Meeting details
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/71824304068?pwd=QzkvR2RFMERzZGZGT1JXdVNGVkg5QT09
Meeting ID: 718 2430 4068 / Passcode: xxsL5B
Bucket tasks
Here’s a visual idea that you could use at home to motivate your children.
- Draw buckets for different groups – eg ‘My activities for today’, ‘My screen time for today’, ‘Other things I could do’ etc.
- On post-it notes / pieces of paper write the tasks that the children will complete for each bucket.
- When they have finished a task it goes into the bucket.
This is a clear visual to help children see the day’s expectations as well as feeling successful when they see how much they have completed at the end of the day.
Do not feel pressure to complete every task on the post-it notes – some could continue through the week.
SEND
Happy New Year! I hope your first week of home learning has gone well. I am thinking of you all in these challenging times.
There’s a PDF you can download below of a social story about school closures which you may like to read through with your child/children if they are feeling anxious, confused or asking lots of questions about why schools are shut. Social stories are a great way to explain scenarios in a way children can understand.
Please also find 5 top tips for Lockdown created by our CAMHS colleagues that you may find helpful.
If you have any worries or concerns regarding home learning or anything SEND related and would like to have a chat with me my email address is l.smale@brookfield.camden.sch.uk. Please get in touch!
Stay safe,
Laura (SENDCo)
PTA News
As we are back in lockdown, our usual events are off…
Instead we are looking at several new fundraising initiatives, so stay tuned to your WhatsApp groups, this newsletter and anyone you chat to (at a distance – obviously).
We are on the lookout for a new PTA chair, so please do say if you are interested.
For now though, just stay safe, stay home where you can, and be kind to each other. It’s tough, we know.