Laurel’s update
Thanks to parents and carers for attending Spring parent, carer, teacher meetings. Teachers have reported how helpful and positive these have been. If you were not able to attend, please message your child’s year group email to rearrange.
Please see this letter sent to Poppy parents and carers regarding Olly’s departure from Brookfield. We thank him for his brilliant teaching and wish him all the best for his next chapter. If any families would like a message sent to Olly, please pass to the office.
Healthy School Street
Brookfield will be benefitting from a Healthy School Street from July. We have worked with Camden to arrange for restrictions on Croftdown Road in term time from 8.15-9.15am and 3-4pm. We look forward to safer and sociable drop offs and pick ups and cleaner air! Brookfield children will also be involved in planting and maintaining the planters used to restrict traffic. Read all about it in this article from the Ham and High!
Please see details below of the Tech for Everyone fundraiser from the PTA. It’s a hugely important issue for the school and we are so far around a third of the way to our total! Please do give if you can.
******* We have raised 30% of our target so far – can we get to over 50% this weekend? *******
Summer Parent and Carer Workshop
Thanks to parents and carers who joined Lillie to learn about supporting children’s mental health at this week’s workshop. Here are Lillie’s slides from her presentation. It is really encouraging to have attendance at these workshops and please let us know if there are any workshops that would be helpful so we can arrange.
E-Safety parent training
Do you want your child to be confident and safe on the internet? As a parent you play an essential role in supporting and training your child, but many of us lack the skills or confidence to do this because technology has changed so much since we were school aged.
Join us on May 6th at 11am to explore Be Internet Legends is a program designed to help children stay safe online in a fun and interactive way. This is the e-safety program that is used at Brookfield for all KS2 children.
Please see below, our full programme of workshops for this term which are at 11am via Zoom each week.
6th May: E-safety parent training with Sus (Computing Lead)
13th May: Year 2 and 3 coffee morning with Laurel (Head teacher) and Mel (Assistant Head)
20th May: Oracy with Seren (EYFS Lead) and Louise (Oracy and English Lead)
10th June: Year 4 and 5 coffee morning with Laurel and Lauren (Phase Leader)
17th June: Year 6 coffee morning with Laurel
24th June: Nursery, Reception and Year 1 maths with Lucy (Maths Lead) and Seren (EYFS Lead)
1st July Art with Emily (Art Lead)
8th July: Head teacher and Chair of Governor’s drop in
Zoom meeting ID: 718 2430 4068, Password: xxsL5B
Book of the week
My book recommendation for this week is ‘Big Ideas for Curious Minds’ from the School of Life Press. It’s AMAZING. This book explores philosophy for children. That sounds really high brow but honestly, it’s so accessible and really fun. It introduces the idea of how we think about the world and ourselves, pondering real life scenarios that are easily relatable. Chapters include things like, “Learn to say what’s on your mind” and “Why we procrastinate”. At one point the children are asked to consider wise and unwise responses to situations like ‘You lose a game of Connect 4 with your brother’ and ‘You don’t like what you have for dinner’. It’s particularly great for reading with your child and starting some great discussion! Wonderful pictures, layout and design too. It’s book for slightly older children, but not as old as you might think, and to dip in and out of.
Earth Day competition winners
Check out our winners from the ‘nature’ dress up for Earth Day last Thursday. The competition was SO good, we decided on not 1, but 3 winners! Well done to Astrid from Catkins, Juno from Heather, and Jemimah from Ash.
Letter from the School’s Occupational Therapist
Dear Parents,
Over the next term, Elena Foulkes, the school’s Occupational Therapist, will be working in your child’s class alongside the teacher and support staff.
The OT service in Camden offers universal services for all students in Camden Maintained Primary Schools with the aim to;
- Increase early identification of children who are having difficulty with school activities
- Build capacity of educators and families
- Promote health, wellbeing and participation
The OT will be working with the class teacher to identify areas of need for the whole class, and embed strategies in the classroom, such as handwriting tips, specialised writing paper, self-regulation activities and activities to develop independence in dressing.
Should you have any queries about the OT working in your child’s class, please do not hesitate to contact the schools SENDCO Laura Smale or class teacher.
You can find more information about the Occupational Therapy service in Camden on our website, including a short, informative video
https://www.royalfree.nhs.uk/occupational-therapy-cyp
Camden Music May Holiday Group
Camden music are holding a holiday music course, which will take place at half term over the first weekend.
Carla’s research project
All key stage 1 classes have received an email about Carla’s research project about STEM-related home school learning. She is looking to recruit 5-10 key stage 1 parents who consent to participate in a semi structures interview. Please get in touch with Carla via email at carla.wallington@kcl.ac.uk if you would like to take part.
PTA News
Do you want a Summer Fair?
If the answer is “yes”, then two things need to happen. We need volunteers. But crucially we also need a new PTA Chair to oversee the PTA events.
“I want to volunteer”
– Great. Just drop us an email and we’ll make sure you’re on the list for Summer Fair plans.
“I’m thinking about PTA chair”
– Also great. Lulu and Rahma have done an amazing job keeping things going through the pandemic, but it’s time to hand over to someone (or two people) who can bring some new energy to the role. Without new leadership the PTA will not survive, and it’s unfair to expect Lulu and Rahma to stay on indefinitely. There will be tons of advice and assistance, don’t worry.
The PTA chair role involves 3 main things:
1) run an AGM
2) plan a schedule of events (and then delegate)
3) agree spending plans with the school.
You don’t need to do the money side of things (the treasurer, Rob, is staying on in that role) and you don’t need to be an experienced fundraiser. You just need to be able to plan, organise, and want the school to have some fun times.
Technology for everyone at Brookfield – PTA Summer Fundraiser
We’re one week into the Summer term and we’re off to a FANTASTIC start with our Fundraising campaign.
Thanks to your generosity we have so far raised £870 – that’s 29% of our £3,000 target achieved so far.
This means that, of the 15 Chromebooks (and charging trolley) required we’ve so far raised enough funds for four and a half Chromebooks.
So let’s keep going!
Please donate if you have yet to do so, and can afford to. And please share our fundraising page with other kind and supportive adults in your extended family and in our community. Let’s see if the grandparents or extended family can help to buy a Chromebook or two in the coming weeks…