We have had a very busy and productive few weeks as we come to the close of November.

Some children in both Year 4 and Year 5 have had great fun developing their cycling and road sense skills, putting their new knowledge into practice.

We successfully held both Parliament Week and Road Safety Week at school.  Ask your children what they can remember from the assembly with Luke Taylor.  

As we transition into December, preparations are in full swing!  We have officially begun rehearsals for our Christmas productions! Please remember to check the Autumn Dates calendar to ensure you have all performance times noted in your diaries.

Staff Announcement

As many of you are aware, Miss Giacopazzi and Mrs Etherington will soon be leaving us to go on maternity leave.  I know you will join me in wishing them all the best as they welcome their new babies!

I am pleased to announce that Mrs. Hundermark, an experienced Early Years teacher will be taking on the role of Jet Class Teacher and Reception Lead.  We will also be joined by Mr Clements, an experienced Key Stage 2 teacher who will be taking over as Sapphire teacher.

I know you will join me in making them feel very welcome.

Finally, I would like to inform you of a change to our office staffing.  I am very pleased to inform you that from Monday both Mrs Reeve and Mrs Green will be in our office full time providing consistent support.  

As always, we thank you for your continued support of the school. 

Donations

We are in desperate need of socks please.  If you have any spare socks, please can you bring them into the office.  Thank you very much.  

Children in Need

We raised a fantastic £423 for Children In Need.  Thank you all so much for your contributions to this incredibly worthy cause.  

Play Apparatus After School

This brief message is a reminder regarding the use of the school's play apparatus outside of the regular school day. The safety of every child at Brookfield Primary Academy is our highest priority, and we must ensure that all appropriate measures are in place to maintain a secure environment.

Please be advised that children are not permitted to play on the climbing frame at the end of the school day.  We kindly request your support with this.  Thank you.

We Belong

We are currently creating a 'We Belong' display board showing all the different clubs and groups our pupils belong to, in addition to belonging to our Brookfield family.  If you would like for your child to be part of this display, please email a photograph of them in their uniform/team kit etc to bfoffice@leoacademytrust.co.uk.  

Many thanks for your support.

Schoolwear Inc

Please be advised that the Schoolwear Inc shop will be closed from Friday 12th December until Saturday 3rd January (opening 10am –1pm).

Our final delivery to your school before the holiday break will be on Tuesday 9th December.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

MUFTI DAY for Children in Need

🐻 Making a Difference

What a wonderful and heartwarming day we had on Friday 14th November, as our whole school community came together to support the incredible work of Children in Need. 

It was fantastic to see our pupils and staff embracing the spirit of giving while enjoying a brilliant day out of uniform.

The energy and excitement in our Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) were truly infectious! Our youngest learners had a day filled with fabulous, fun, and Pudsey-themed activities.

Year 6 Visit to The Houses of Parliament

On Monday 17th and Tuesday 18th November, our Year 6s travelled to London to visit The Houses of Parliament.  Both classes had a great day finding out all about the history of politics and The Houses of Parliament which helped them prepare for this week's Parliament Week.  

Year 1 Trip to the Ecology Centre

On Thursday 20th November, our Year 1 students stepped into the shoes of Tree Detectives, using their senses to explore and identify different types of trees and leaves in the woodland. They also became intrepid Mini Beast Hunters, gently searching for and observing the amazing small creatures that call the centre home. We found everything from ladybirds, to spiders to beautiful beetles!

A huge thank you to the parents who came along and helped us.  It was much appreciated.

 Year 5 -  RIAT Challenge Day

On Tuesday 25th November, acting as engineers, our Year 5s participated in a Royal Airforce Stem Challenge.  They had to tackle a range of challenges, solve problems and apply their knowledge to design a sustainable aircraft of the future.  

They had a fantastic day demonstrating their creativity.  Well down all.

 Year 2 -  Victorian Day 

On Thursday 27th November, our Year 2 classrooms 'turned back the clocks' and transformed into Victorian classrooms.  The children looked fantastic and had a fantastic day pretending they were in a Victorian school and trying a range of activities which they would have completed if they were in school during the Victorian era including writing with chalk!  

SUNSETTERS & SUNRISERS

If you need to book, change or update staff regarding anything to do with wrap around care, please use the following contact details: 

Telephone: 07762411746  

Email: bfwac@leoacademytrust.co.uk

9 Month Old + Nursery

We are very pleased to inform you that we are now accepting applications for our 9 Month old + nursery - Diamond class.  

Please click here to complete the application form.  

Look out for the date of our Diamond Nursery Open Morning in November.  

DONATIONS

With the colder weather, we would be most grateful if you could supply your child with a box of tissues for their classroom.

We would also be very grateful for any donations of trainers for our Nursery and Reception children please.

Thank you in advance for your support 

Most pharmacies in England are now providing the Pharmacy First service.

This free NHS service allows you or your child to get quick access to healthcare advice for the following seven conditions:

Earache (aged 1 to 17 years)

Impetigo (aged 1 year and over)

Infected insect bites (aged 1 year and over)

Shingles (aged 18 years and over)

Sinusitis (aged 12 years and over)

Sore throats (aged 5 years and over)

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) in women (aged 16 to 64 years)

If you or your child has symptoms that suggest you may have one of these conditions, you can walk into a pharmacy and be offered a consultation with a pharmacist in a private consultation room. Some pharmacies also offer the service remotely as a video consultation.

Your GP surgery may also electronically refer you or your child to a pharmacy of your choice for the service.

The pharmacist will provide advice and, if clinically necessary, a prescription medicine to treat the condition (the normal NHS prescription charge rules apply to people aged 16 and over).

An electronic message will be sent to the GP surgery so they can update their records.

If the pharmacist can’t treat you or your child, they will direct you to your GP surgery or another health professional.

If you or your child have symptoms that suggest you have one of the above conditions, why not give the Pharmacy First service a try?

Find out more by watching the Pharmacy First animation or visiting nhs.uk/thinkpharmacyfirst

PARKING

Safe and Courteous Parking During Pick-Up/Drop-Off

Ensuring the safety of our pupils is our top priority. This includes maintaining a smooth and safe environment for pick-up and drop-off times.

The school has never, and will never, advise parking in a way that obstructs residents' driveways on Ridge Road, or anywhere else in the neighborhood. We understand the convenience of pulling right up, but it's crucial to park legally and considerately.

We kindly ask all parents and guardians to be mindful of the following during pick-up and drop-off:

• Park safely and with due care.

• Respect our neighbours and local residents. This includes not parking across driveways at any time.

• If parking is limited, consider carpooling or using alternative transportation options when possible.

To further ensure safety and a smooth flow of traffic, we've requested additional police patrols during pick-up and drop-off times.

We appreciate your cooperation in keeping our school community safe and considerate of our neighbours.

We thank you in advance, for your support in paying for any trips, after school sessions or clubs on Arbor promptly.  Please let the office know if you require help to access the payment pages.  

On School Grounds: 

To ensure a focused learning environment, students are not permitted to use their personal mobile phones on school grounds or during lessons at LEO Academy Trust schools. This policy has a single exception for documented medical needs.

Storage and Use

For students who travel alone and carry a phone (at their parents' discretion), devices must be turned off upon entering school grounds and remain off until they exit the school gates. All such phones will be securely stored by the school upon arrival and returned at the end of the school day.

Parental Considerations

 We advise parents and guardians to consider providing their children with less expensive devices for safety reasons. While these devices still allow for calls and texts, they can mitigate some of the wider risks associated with more costly phones. We recognise that the ultimate decision regarding device choice rests with the parents.

Online Safety Education

LEO Academy Trust prioritises online safety. Our curriculum, parent workshops, and communications consistently highlight the dangers of unsupervised online access, particularly concerning social media. We also offer regular training and support for parents on online safety practices and managing parental controls on a variety of devices. 

We are extremely excited to announce that our new Behaviour reward activity each term will be at Family Fun Zone at St Nicholas Shopping Centre in Sutton. Family Fun Zone are allowing us to visit them for FREE! Our first visit will be on Wednesday 3rd December!

Reporting Absences

There is no longer an option to report a child’s absence via telephone.  We ask that you use the google forms below to report absence.  They are also available to complete on our website using the parent tab.

We do not authorise holidays during term time. If your child is going to be off school due to an exceptional circumstance, then please complete this form:

Request for Exceptional Absence in advance for future appointments and exception absence. 

Brookfield Primary Academy Absence Form for sickness and same day medical appointments.

If your child has an illness that requires them to take medication during school hours (e.g. antibiotics, cough medicine, creams etc.), you must fill in a Medicine Permission form. This can be found on our website under the Parents tab.  Hard copies are also available on the carousel in the school office reception area. 

This form, and the medication, must be brought to the school office on the morning that the medication is due to start. The school office staff will administer the medication at the times stated on the form by the parent/carer. You can collect the medication at the end of the school day, or at the end of the illness.

Please do not send any medicine into class with your child, this includes sore throat lozenges.

If we do not have a Medical Permission form, we will not be able to administer medication to your child. 

Please can we ask you and your child to read through and confirm the Brookfield Primary Academy's Home School Agreement.  The Home School Agreement is a document that outlines what expectations you can have of the school, what expectations we have of our parents/carers and what expectations we have of our pupils.

Also, as part of GDPR, at the end of every academic year, we are required to check that the data we hold for your child on Arbor is up to date and correct. Please can we ask you to log into the Arbor app and click on your child's face (top left hand side of the screen), this will bring up their details. Please scroll down and check if the information is correct, if you need to make any changes this can be done via the app and will be automatically sent to the office admin team to approve.

Also, please can we ask you to check the parental consents for your child, if any of the consents are incorrect or you wish to add or amend anything please let us know, via email bfoffice@leoacademytrust.co.uk and we can make the necessary changes.

If we do not hear from you we will accept that the data/consents we hold are correct.

Please refer to our website for our policies: https://www.brookfieldprimary.com/707/policies-and-statements

We pride ourselves on offering our children varied and exciting experiences and activities that help to support their learning of the curriculum. The School Fund will allow us to provide additional activities across all year groups. 

We have a voluntary school fund donation of £10 a term / £30 a year per child or £40 for a family if there are siblings at the school. Parents can pay for School Fund online via our Arbor payment system,  go to Accounts - School Fund - Top Up Account.

We would like to thank you for your support. 

Please..........help your child:

• Regularly listen to your child(ren) read 

• Encourage your child(ren) to complete their homework / Doodle Activities / Timetable Rockstars

• Ask your child about their day and talk about the amazing things they have learned

• Talk positively to your child(ren) about school and their progress / praise their achievements

• Speak to your child(ren)'s class teacher or a member of the Senior Leadership Team if you have any concerns regarding your child(ren)

• Avoid taking your child(ren) out of school during the school day / term time for appointments and holidays

• Drop your child(ren) off to school on time and in the correct uniform / collect your child(ren) on time / if you drive to collect your child(ren), ensure that you park safely respecting our neighbours and local businesses

Please..........help us:

• Carefully read all communications to ensure that they are fully understood and actioned (if required)

• Promptly report your child(ren)'s absence via the online form

• Ensure you pay for school meals / trips / events on time via Arbor

• If using extended services provided by school - Breakfast & Afterschool club, keep your account in credit

• If you have a child in nursery who attends additional sessions , ensure you keep their account in credit

• Update your personal information via the Arbor App if there are any changes

Please..........help raise funds:

• Contribute towards the School Fund

• Consider taking part in the LEO lottery

• Purchase online items via the Easy Fundraising App (if applicable) 

• Support the PTFA in attending events / or even better support the PTFA in helping to organise events