| Key Events | Date |
| Summer term begins | Tuesday 19th April |
| Coffee morning including 10 Minutes Peace workshop | Friday 22nd April 9am |
| Year 5 trip to The British Museum | Monday 25th April |
| Reception trip to Postal Museum | Tuesday 26th April |
| Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and 2 Phonics and Early Reading workshop for parents and carers | Wednesday 27th April 9am |
| Head teacher and Chair of Governors’ coffee morning | Friday 6th May 9am |
| Year 6 SATs week | 9th – 12th May |
| INSET day | Friday 13th May |
| Mental health coffee morning | 19th May 9am |
| Brookfield Bank Holiday (in lieu of Queen’s Jubilee) | Friday 22nd July |
Laurel’s Update
Today marks the end of the Summer term – and what a term it has been! Yesterday evening we were able to come together as a community to raise money for War Child’s efforts to support children affected by the war in the Ukraine, raising over £4,000. This is an amazing achievement and wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the vision of parents Clio, Tabitha and the PTA. Thank you to our wonderful children (who danced their socks off) staff, parents and carers who volunteered and supported the event.
I hope you can enjoy family time over the Easter break and thinking of our Muslim families, wishing them Eid Mubarak, see note below about fasting, Jewish families celebrating Passover (Pesach) and our Christian families coming together for Easter services and traditions.
We look forward to welcoming you all back on Tuesday 19th April from 8.45am!
Spare clothes for reception
Reception would be very grateful for any donations of spare clothes. Trousers, leggings and pants are especially welcome, in age 4-5 size.
Mock SATS Week
To prepare children for their up and coming SATS tests, we will be running a ‘Mock SATS week’ the first week back after half term. This will be a chance for children to practice taking the papers prior to the official SATS which takes place the week beginning the 9th May.
We would like to highlight how important attendance and punctuality is for this week to ensure that the children make the most of this practice run.
A letter which gives a more detailed explanation of the SATS will be emailed to all year 6 parents and carers today.
A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream
On Wednesday, year 5 and 6 were excited to watch the superb ‘Young Shakespeare Company’ perform: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The actors brought the play to life- with the help from the children who were brilliant volunteers. We are delighted to continue working with this company and look forward to seeing them again next year.
Year 6 Adventures
Both Elm and Oak in year 6, while preparing solidly for the up and coming SATS in Summer 1, have had some fantastic experiences to further enrichen our learning this half term: World Book Day celebrations across the school were embraced by the year; the ‘Mad Scientist’ assembly brought excitement and (safe) explosions; the trip to the Imperial War Museum deepened our understanding and knowledge of our termly theme of ‘Home’ while focusing on the topic of World War 2. This trip also allowed us to reflect on the impact and sacrifices made during such challenging times.
Amidst some amazing storytelling through our ‘Stories with a Twist’ in English classes, we have explored the incredible writing of Michael Morpurgo’s ‘The Giant’s Necklace’. We have worked hard at our Mastery of Maths. We’ve developed our talk tactics in Oracy, been considering the wider world and just how we listen to and take care of each other. To finish this term, we were visited this week (along with year 5) by the Young Shakespeare Company who shared with us a truly interactive, ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’. Magic, love and joy – what better way could there be to propel us into Summer? Happy, well deserved holidays in the meantime are afoot!
Year 3 Beautiful Work
In Year 3, we have been exploring our local area in Geography and collage skills in art. We have combined subjects for our Geography and Art beautiful work to create 3D collage maps of our local area using recyclable and sustainable materials, fitting with our overall theme of ‘Sustainability’.
Message from Camden Music
Thank you for coming along to take part in the Camden Music Spring Festival. I write to congratulate all the young performers who took part. They focussed so well in rehearsal and gave such a committed performance when it came to the live stream.
Your children sang “True Colours” so musically, demonstrating real vocal control and understanding of the song.
I do hope the children enjoyed the experience. It’s quite a different thing from performing to a live audience, but I think there was a sense of occasion.
Thank you to you and to all the school adults who made it possible for the children to take part. We wouldn’t be able to do things like this if people like you were not willing to go several extra miles. Our thanks to you.
With very best wishes,
Sheena Sheena Masson
Primary Music Co-ordinato
Guidance on Primary children fasting during Ramadan
Fasting is not obligatory for young children until they reach puberty. Prior to this, it is common for parents and carers to encourage half-day and weekend fasts. Some families may be considering children from Years 5 and 6 fasting for longer. It is not advised for children younger than 7 to observe a whole fast and if they are, this should be under parental supervision and outside of school hours. Whilst the decision to fast is an individual family’s decision and schools want to be respectful of a family’s decision, schools will also be mindful of the impact fasting may have on children’s health and wellbeing and their learning and have a duty to safeguard children whilst in their care.
Where parents wish their primary-aged children to fast, please make a meeting with Laurel to talk about reducing the impact of fasting for younger children on their learning and health, particularly as the days get longer, as well as to discuss how the school will be supporting the child eg taking part in sporting activities, if they feel unwell or cannot concentrate, and supervision for your child when they would normally be having lunch. Parents and carers are mindful of the impact of fasting on young children and we want to encourage weekend fasting at home, rather than in school, fasting for half days, or a few days of the month at the start or end of the month.
It is important for school to know in advance if children are fasting, and particularly what their fasting will involve eg will they abstain from drinking water, in order to safeguard them against health risks and be able to support them.
Lingohubz at Brookfield
Lingohubz, the brand new French and Spanish after school club, is proving to be very popular. KS1 pupils have been enjoying games, songs, arts and crafts to kick-start their language learning. For KS2, the focus has been sentence-building using receptive skills and they have started to write about imaginary families. GCSE Fast-track students created French and Spanish restaurants within the classroom, practising role plays for their exams and travels abroad.
There are still some places left and it’s not too late to sign up for the new term. For a free trial lesson and to find out more visit:
*Free places available for Pupil Premium children.
Kids in the Wild
Channel 4 are making a brand-new programme and are looking to find children to take part in a once in a lifetime wild camping adventure this summer. We are looking for children ages 9-11 from all areas of the country, from a range of backgrounds, abilities and ethnicities. Please the flyer below if you’re interested
PTA News
Brookfield Disco for Ukraine
A huge thank you to everyone who helped to make Brookfield’s Disco for Ukraine a fantastic event!
Amazingly not only did we raise over £4,000 for to help children and families in Ukraine via War Child, but it was also brilliant to see the Brookfield community coming together again.
We hope you all enjoyed it and with your help we look forward to holding more fun events in the future.
(Note – we just need to know a few more expenses to work out the final total, but it will certainly be over £4,000. If you have any expenses do send them to brookfieldptatreasurer@gmail.com)
BROOKFIELD SUMMER FAIR – SAVE THE DATE!
We are excited to confirm that this year’s Summer Fair will be on Saturday 9th July.
It’s a fun day for the children and Brookfield community. It’s also an important fund raising event. The money raised helps pay for all the fantastic extra activities for your children such as Forest School, FAB, theatre trips and more!
Sophie & Nicolai from the PTA are looking for a couple of people to help organise this year’s Summer Fair. You don’t need any experience, just a willingness to get involved! Contact us at brookfieldschoolpta@gmail.com
