Laurel’s update
It was an absolute pleasure to see the children’s enjoyment of the World Book Day celebrations. Huge thanks to Louise (English and Oracy Lead) and her team of parent supporters who created a range of inspirational activities for the children including live bagpipes performances, poetry recitals and a neighbourhood World Book Day Trail. See below for all the links to costume photo galleries and more.
We are so excited to be welcoming back all children on Monday next week (March 8th). Today (Friday) has been spent training and preparing; we now have lots more first aiders! This letter and risk assessment have information about the safety measures in place. These include the following staggered start and finish times. Please note that Nursery children will be dropped off and collected through the small, junior gate on Croftdown Road at 9am and 3.15pm.
Start / finish times
| YEAR | START | FINISH |
| INFANT GATE | ||
| Reception | 8:55 am | 3:25 pm |
| Year 1 | 8:50 am | 3:20 pm |
| Year 2 | 8:45 am | 3:15 pm |
| JUNIOR GATE | ||
| Year 3 | 9:00 am | 3:30 pm |
| Year 4 | 8:55 am | 3:25 pm |
| Year 5 | 8:50 am | 3:20 pm |
| Year 6 | 8:45 am | 3:15 pm |
Please do read the full reopening letter with all the details you need:
See also our Risk Assessment:
Covid-19 Community Update
There continues to be an encouraging trend across London, with Covid-19 infections in decline. Camden rates are the fourth lowest in London. Please continue to follow government guidelines and, in particular, make school drop offs and pick ups swift.
Brookfield staff now have access to Lateral Flow Home Tests twice a week.
Challenge Partners
This week, we welcomed Julie Bourdon-Pierre to conduct our first Challenge Partners organisation review. She got to know our school very quickly through virtual meetings with children, staff, parents and governors. I look forward to sharing her full report with you that focussed on communication and leadership.
World Book Day
Firstly, it was a hugely successful day, mainly due to the efforts of Louise and supported by the PTA, with special thanks to Amanda Davie and Rob Minto. The trail was great fun – thank you to all the families who put up decorated posters, and all who took part.
>> You can still see all the great World Book Day content here, including photos and videos. <<
Book design cover winners:
Ruby – Nursery; Jose – Acorn; Leandra – Bluebell; Lev – Heather; Lincoln – Ivy; Sonny – Willow; Lincoln – Oak
All these children have won £10 book vouchers – please collect from the office.
You can see all the cover entries here – amazing work.
Costume winners
- Year 1 – Year costume prize – £30 worth of book vouchers for the Owl bookshop for your book corners.
- Year 4 – Year costume prize – £30 worth of book vouchers for the Owl bookshop for your book corners.
Special mention costume prize winners
- Barnaby – Reception (Audible book or colouring pens)
- Stephen – Fern (Choice of audible prize or £10 Owl bookshop voucher)
- Annie – Ash (Audible prize or colouring pens)
Special mention combined costume and book cover
- Louis and Eva Schoell Tite as a family – Year 4/5 (Map gift shop voucher)
Adults from school winners
- Michelle Morrison-Birt
- Jo Nathan
- Paula Harvey
- Becca (Whale) and Laura (Snail)
Adults / families at home
- THE FRUIT BOWL family
- Rita in Nursery’s family – Chrissie and Andrew
- Leanne – Robin’s Mum
- Ritu – Kalyani’s Mum
Please get in touch with Louise about your fantastic prizes (food, wine, books etc)
Thank you to our local supporters – please do support them too
- Absolute Print for their kindness and generosity in supporting the trail.
- Kleftiko-a-go-go for donating a meal prize
- Magic Cat Publishing for donating book prizes
- Owl Bookshop for prize vouchers
- The Map Gift Shop for prize vouchers
Back to school tips and advice
Ollee, the free online virtual friend can help you support your child with any worries and concerns about topics including, family, friends, school, the world, their body and the internet. Ollee will ask a few questions to understand the problem and then give some supportive advice and ideas to help.
The daily mindfulness calendar has ideas of mindful activities to help your child relax, including breathing and gratitude.
This article from Young Minds has general useful tips for parents about supporting your child going back to school after lockdown.
This kindness calendar has seven days of activity ideas for you to use with your child which can increase happiness. It also includes a blank template so you can create your own kindness calendar for your family.
You could use the calendar to count down the days before going back to school. Before bed cross off that day on the calendar and count the number of days left until school starts again. This will give your child time to prepare for the return.
The Bow-wowza website has lots of fun activities to support your child through the change of going back to school. If they are anxious, you might like to create a worry monster, or build up their resilience by trying out the positive daily checklist where they can tick off the positive activities they have done each day. Or create a happy list of all the things that make them happy.
This video from the Islington Schools Wellbeing Service looks at common worries your child might have about returning to school and how you can help.
Spring Parent and Carer Workshops
Thanks to parents and carers who attended Laura’s phonics workshop. The information she shared is available here:
On Thursday 11th March at 11am, parents and carers are invited to join Louise for a workshop about supporting children at home with reading. The Zoom link is the same each week. Please see the programme below for the menu of workshops for this term. We look forward to seeing lots of you there!
• 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
Science Week
The week beginning 8th March marks Science week and the theme this year is: Innovation for the future.
To celebrate this, we are going to be asking all year groups to become innovators and help solve a global issue with an innovative design/idea/invention. This will then be pitched to their partner class for feedback, improvement and final edits with the week ending by submitting a poster design of their idea to the National Science Week competition.
To do this, we really need you to start stockpiling junk modelling materials (washed and cleaned, please!), including:
- plastic bottles
- bottle/milk tops
- card board boxes
- plastic containers
- masking tape
- magazines/brochures/newspaper (appropriate content)
- anything else you think would be easy for the children to cut and create their own models from.
These need to be ready in time for the start of back-to-school, so by 8-9th March would be great!
C4: the Pandemic at no 47
Brookfield family – Paddy, Jodi, Rae and Frank – are the maker(s) and stars of this brilliant documentary on a street in lockdown last spring. Worth a watch – there are plenty of Brookfield cameos.
