Newsletter 23rd July

Laurel’s Update

I have great pleasure in sharing with you our new Brookfield film, which will shortly be uploaded to our homepage. This has been created by a wonderful group of year 6 children: Aaron, Freya, Jamie, Lara, Omari, Ryan, Sahal and Sian and three amazing Brookfield parents: Rachel, Valeria and Acelya. When I asked Jamie about the experience he told me  ‘Making this film has made me feel more confident about speaking in front of people – it was a superb experience.’ I hope you enjoy watching this celebration of Brookfield’s vision and values and sincere thanks to the children, staff and parents who contributed.

As I write this, we are preparing to say farewell to our year 6 children who are ready to spread their wings at secondary school. They have risen to the extra challenges of the past two years and we can’t wait to hear about their achievements moving forward. I also want to thank leaving staff: Sus and Michelle who have been promoted to roles in other London schools, Anthony who is pursuing his arts in schools project, Elisha and Charlie who will be embarking on their teacher training courses. We wish them all the best for their next chapters.

All that remains is for me to wish you and your families healthy, safe and joy filled summer holidays. I am already excited about 2021-22 and look forward to welcoming children in years 1-6 back to school on 2nd September.

COVID 19 and arrangements for September

As you will be aware, COVID-19 cases continue to rise and we have missed Bramble, Fern and Heather classes this past week. If your child receives a positive PCR test over the next 5 days, please email admin@brookfield.camden.sch.uk so that we can inform parents of children in that class or year group.

We have found that many of the safety measures that we currently have in place to protect against infection, are working well and supporting the children in a range of ways. We therefore intend to maintain most of our current risk assessment for the first few weeks of term. Two changes that we are planning are to invite parents and carers to collect from playgrounds, rather than at the gates and to condense the Key Stage 2 lunchtime. We are currently operating a two hour lunch break for our Key Stage 2 children which is proving a challenge to staff. We will therefore have a 12-1pm and a 12.30 – 1.30pm sitting to reduce the numbers of children on the playground at any time. Parents and carers will be invited to wear masks and directed by staff on the gates to where your year group will be dropped off and collected. The drop off and collection times will remain the same:

8.45am and 3.15pm years 2 and 6

8.50am and 3.20pm years 1 and 5

8.55am and 3.25pm reception and year 4

9am and 3.30pm year 3

Nursery Catkin class will use their Croftdown Road gates at 9am and 3.30pm (9.00 – 1.00 Friday)

Nursery Blossom class will use their Chester Road gate at 8.45am and 3.45pm (for children attending full time) (8.45 – 1.00 Friday)

After School Club

After School Club bookings for the Autumn term are now available to book on the website. We are pleased to be able to resume offering a variety of activities that children will enjoy.

Please remember that bookings need to be made in advance. There is an additional charge for late bookings.

Nursery Start & Finish Times

Catkin hours for full time are 9.00 – 3.30 (Mon – Thurs) and 9.00 – 1.00 (Fri)

Blossom hours for full time are 8.45 – 3.45 (Mon – Thurs) and 8.45 – 1.00 (Fri)

Times Tables Rockstars

In September, we are going to have a whole school focus on times tables. They are such a vital part of our maths learning and so it really helps to be fluent. An important tool in helping us to remember these is Times Tables Rockstars. Please continue to use this website over the holidays and we will be putting our skills to the test in ‘Battle of the Bands’ in the new year! 

Summer Reading Challenge

Don’t forget the Summer reading challenge also for your children with Highgate library. If you haven’t already planned on it, visit the library to find out more.

Year 5 Design Technology

Year 5 were DT experts last week, using their measurement, materials and design skills to construct Ancient Greek-style temples. We hope you’ll agree that their creativity, teamwork and construction skills are pretty inspiring! 

DPFC Kids

We’re thrilled that the York Rise Street party will have a special DPFC cinema screen this year and we will be showing local films & running talks etc. One of the main events will be a screening of films made by local children so this is an invitation to all the kids living in the area to create and submit short films. We’re going to try and screen all the films submitted by children on the big screen. 

WHAT – Children are asked to make and submit short films of maximum four minutes in duration. These films can be animation, drama, documentary or a mix of genres. We’d like all films to be related to the area of Dartmouth Park in some way: they could be filmed in the area, star actors who live in the area, or simply be made by people who live here. 

WHEN – You have the whole summer to make your films. They need to be submitted by Weds 8th Sept. 

WHY – Because making films is fun and showing them to an audience is even better!


HOW – 
Please send your films as downloadable links – using WeTransfer or a similar service – and please include the child’s name and age in the file name. Submit your films to dpfcanimation@gmail.com 

Camden Covid Update

Open-Air Thursdays at Lauderdale House

Have a brilliant series of open air performances on Thursday evenings on the Tea lawn – comedy, jazz, klezmer and musical theatre – these are socially distanced, relaxed and fun

PTA News

Thank you so much for all your understanding about the Summer Stroll. We were all very disappointed that it wasn’t able to happen, but a few fun/positive things to tell you about:

the Raffle – if you haven’t claimed your prize, do get in touch with the PTA on brookfieldschoolpta@gmail.com. Check winning tickets here.

– The plant sale was kindly hosted by Sophie and raised over £100, so thank you.

– We will be giving out the ices and lollies that were for sale on the Stroll at the end of school, as a parting summer gift.

A big thank you to all the businesses and shops that donated to the raffle – in no particular order

  • Map Gift Shop
  • Owl Bookshop
  • Beauty Box
  • Authentique
  • Loopster
  • Gails
  • WaxCat
  • Excel Holiday Camps (LSU)
  • Queenies
  • Health on the Heath
  • Bull and Last
  • Electric Daisy Flower Farm
  • Salon Marisol
  • Tesco

Lastly, did you know? You can donate to Brookfield while shopping at Amazon. Just to go smile.amazon.co.uk and pick Brookfield Primary School Association as your charity of choice. It costs nothing to you and it’s the same Amazon, just with a bit of money to the PTA (and perhaps a little less money for space travel). 

Have a wonderful summer, and here’s to some fun PTA action in the autumn.