LEARNING

EXCELLENCE

OPPORTUNITY

To help prevent the spread of Covid at Brookfield Primary Academy, please can we ask adults to take regular rapid tests, we now advise that you increase the twice weekly tests to three times a week - Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday (children are not required to take regular tests).

1 in 3 people with Coronavirus do not show symptoms.

Testing kits are available

• through your employer if they offer testing to employees

• by collecting a home test kit from a test site

• by ordering a home test kit online

Protect our school community, your friends and family.

A negative result means the test did not find signs of coronavirus. But this does not guarantee you do not have coronavirus, so you should keep following all coronavirus advice including:

• regular handwashing

• social distancing

• wearing a face covering where recommended

Changes to the self-isolation period for those who test positive for COVID-19

This change came into effect in England on Monday 17 January and applies to all positive cases, regardless of vaccination status.

People who are self-isolating with COVID-19 have the option to reduce their isolation period after 5 full days if they test negative with an LFD test on both day 5 and day 6 and they do not have a temperature. For example, if they test negative on the morning of day 5 and the morning of day 6, they can return to their education or childcare setting immediately on day 6.

The first test must be taken no earlier than day 5 of the self-isolation period, and the second must be taken the following day. All test results should be reported to NHS Test and Trace.

If the result of either test is positive, they should continue to self-isolate until they get negative results from two LFD tests on consecutive days or until they have completed 10 full days of self-isolation, whichever is earliest.

The new rules also apply to people who are already isolating – so if someone was already isolating before Monday 17 January, they can take LFD tests on day 5 and 6 and if they are both negative and they have no temperature they can end their isolation.

Anyone who is unable to take LFD tests or anyone who continues to have a temperature will need to complete the full 10-day period of self-isolation.

Further information on self-isolation for those with COVID-19 is available.

What a great week have been having! In Reception, we have LOVED learning about Superworm! What a great story. We did lots of worm craft activities. We had to use long pieces of wool to make our own little wiggly woo worms. We also went to the Forest School so that we could go on a worm hunt- we found so many! Can you remember where they were hiding? They were under the logs and in the soil. In our phonics we have started our Phase Three sounds. These are the double sounds like 'ou', 'ur' and 'ow'. We played lots of games so that we can read them in words.

In Nursery, we have been super heroes this week - working in the Vets! We found out how to look after the animals and take care of our pets. In our classroom we set up a Baby Clinic. We had to show the new mums how to wash their babies and care for them. It is very tricky dressing a baby, especially if they are very wriggly!

The Nursery children have also been so clever learning the number of the week-4 and how to hear the first sounds in words.

Yet again we have had a busy couple of weeks in Y1. The children may have come home telling you about lunch play changing. All of the children now have access to the whole playground and penalty shoot out on the field. There are different zones of activities, so do ask what they got up to at lunch play! Golden tickets are being given out to anyone following the Golden Rules at lunchtime and Y1 is doing well at collecting tickets! Last week in RE we found out about the Jewish Festival of Purim and we made some awesome party hats as a result of this. In maths we have been exploring height and length. We began with non-standard measures and then moved on to measuring in cm. In art, our colour mixing has now incorporated techniques with the brush to give different sea effects. In science, we are exploring the properties of materials and in Topic we compared the lives of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II and we had fun using Flipgrid to record the differences.

This week in year 2 we have been reading a new story! Our writing text has been 'Pirate Stew'. From reading this book, we have been writing creating our very own pirate stew and writing instructions on how to make this stew! They have been both incredible and very creative. We have continued to focus on the importance of money and how we can save effectively. In our financial education lessons, we have been discussing where money comes from and what different people might spend their money on (e.g. children, teenagers and adults). Year 2 have become very knowledgeable of the purpose of money in real life situations. Our PSHE topic this half term is 'dreams and goals'. We have been working with others to think about how we can achieve our goals and what sort of environment and mindset we need to be in in order to achieve these goals. In our 'dream garden', we have been designing a bird that can act as a positive reinforcement to achieve. Finally, we have been looking at 'printing' in art. We have linked this to our topic 'Land ahoy!' and have been creating our own pirate related tiles for printing. The children have been really inspired by the topic for their art work. What a great week we've had!

Year 3 have enjoyed learning about length and height in Maths, measuring each other and comparing the lengths of objects. They have also learned to convert metres to centimetres and kilometres into metres and vice versa. In English, they are learning to write instructions about how to make a papyrus, the Ancient Egyptians paper. They even made their own papyrus following their instructions and the following day, they drew Egyptian pictures on them! In one of our Science lessons, children learned how fossils were formed through time and they then pretended to be palaeontologists, reporting and recording their findings on Flipgrid. Year 3 have continued to think about themselves and their right to have an identity, as stated in Articles 7 and 8, and they have also explored how other people live in Peru and Germany during their Lyfta sessions.

Year 4 have begun an exciting new initiative, the Zero Carbon Project to help our school reduce its carbon footprint. We have begun the project by finding out how much we already know about the Environment and Climate Change. We then worked together to create idea maps showing what we already know about the causes and prevention of Climate Change and what individuals and schools can do to help prevent Climate Change. In Writing, we have been writing and publishing our own stories based on the story of Arthur and the Golden Rope. We have finished our chapter about fractions in Maths and have now begun our chapter about decimals. We have have been creating decimals with tenths and decimals with hundredths and linking the two together. In our topic lessons, we have been exploring the life of Abbot Hadrian, an abbot from North Africa who travelled to Britain to set up schools and encourage education of the masses. We also debated if King Alfred the Great lived up to his reputation our if recorded History was biased towards him. In Science, we have used the sound monitor extension on our chromebooks to help us explore what happened to the volume of sound as we moved further away from the source of the sound.

Year 5 have been working hard progressing their skills in understanding fractions. We have started learning how to multiply fractions and have found these easier than adding and subtracting! We have continued reading our class story and have enjoyed some drama experiences. We used Flipgrid to share our interviews with our class- this was an enjoyable experience. In Topic, we explored the island of Crete. It made us and our teachers long for a sun holiday. We used Google Earth to find answers to our questions. Where is Crete located? What is the climate like? What seas surround it? It was very interesting and we shared our learning with our friends on Flipgrid and we created maps of Crete in our books. We created temples in Art. In Science, we are continuing to learn about forces and we had a particular focus on friction this week. We used shoes and Newton meters to test the friction of different surfaces. Fortunately, trainers tested well on the playground so these are great for grip when running.

Year 6 have worked really hard over the last two weeks! They have been working really hard in maths. We have learnt about identifying and simplifying ratios and have started looking at the tricky topic of algebra! In English, we have continued reading our class novel 'Letters from the Lighthouse' and written an informal letter as Olive explaining her first experiences with evacuation. We are also focusing on our editing and improving of our writing in English. Our topic work linked with the topic of 'evacuation' from our English lesson. We explored what evacuation was and why it had to take place in World War 2. Then, we were able to incorporate our geographical skills and plot where children were evacuated from and where they went on the map. In Science, we continued learning about 'Evolution and Inheritance' and considered how different animals adapt to their surroundings. We used our scientific enquiry skills to match animals to their habitats and how they are adapted to suit these.

Thank you to all the children and staff at Brookfield for their contribution to our whole school art project, celebrating Anti-Bullying Week's: One Kind Word Campaign. The art work is now proudly displayed in the school corridor for all to see and serves as a reminder that it doesn't take much to be kind but it can have a big impact.

I'd like to thank all of you who came along to hear the exciting new changes happening with our reading and phonics.

If you missed the presentations, the YR slides can be accessed HERE and the Y1 & Y2 slides can be accessed HERE.

If you would like any further information or have any questions please contact me and I'll be happy to help!

Thank you, Mrs. Holmes, Reading and Phonics Lead.

How many vegetables are in your lunch boxes?

5 fruits and vegetables a day really help the brain work at its best. Here are some ideas of how you can include more vegetables into your lunches. We'd love to see you try some of the recipes below.

Our Count On Us Maths club continued this week and our fabulous Mathematicians have shown how competitive they are by playing in table groups against each other. They have played a new game of dominoes and some of the patterns were quite tricky! Would you like to have a go? If you are in Y4/5 and you would like to take part, come and join us every Wednesday at lunchtime 12:45.

It seems timely to remind all parents that we consider Brookfield a safe place for children. All staff have attended safeguarding training. This training is updated yearly. The designated staff for safeguardng are Ms Prathayini Wright (Principal and Designated Safeguarding Lead), Mrs Rachel Teixeira (Vice Principal and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead), Mrs Sarah Wells (Vice Principal for Inclusion and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead), Mrs Claire Langford (Office Manager and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead), Mrs Catherine Davies(Year Group Leader and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead) and Ms Nicky Marrable (EYFS Lead and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead). Please see our safeguarding policy and procedures on the school website.

Contacting your child's class teacher: If you need to contact your child's class teacher please email the school office on bfoffice@leoacademytrust.co.uk and they will forward the emails during the working day for the teacher or Senior Leader to act upon and respond.

• Please do not to approach the class teachers in the mornings during drop off time unless it is urgent.

• Please make an appointment to see the class teacher via the school office.

• KS2 pupils do not finish their school day/ learning till 3:20pm, therefore, if you are waiting on the playground to collect your child at the end of the day, please ensure that you stand away from the classroom windows and door so as not to disturb their learning.

• The climbing frames are not to be used before and after school, parents please remind your children of this school rule. In addition, children are not to use their scooters or bikes on school grounds and must walk to the side of them.

• If using private vehicles, please remember to park thoughtfully and not park in front of the local residents’ drives or on the yellow zig zag lines in front of the school. We would like to see as many families and staff as possible walking, cycling or scooting to school.

• If your child suffers from asthma they must have an in-date, spare inhaler in school at all times along with a spacer. These should be given to the office who will store them securely. Please check on a yearly basis that the inhaler is still fit for purpose. Please also ensure any child with an allergy has appropriate medication in school, i.e Epipen/Piriton etc. This could be life-saving.

• We ask that pupils bring in their own water bottles daily. The bottles need to be clearly labelled with the child's name and only have water in them.

• Please leave buggies and prams outside the school buildings, as it could be very hazardous in an emergency. Currently, the office is operating on a 'one in and one out' policy. Please ensure you wear a mask if you enter the school building.

• Please remember that all children in KS2 are encouraged to bring fresh fruit or vegetables to school for a mid-morning snack during playtime. Many children are really hungry by lunchtime and will be happier and learn better if they have eaten something at playtime.

• Only children in Year 6 are permitted to bring a mobile phone into school and only if absolutely necessary. Phones are stored in the office during the school day.

• No pets in the playground please especially dogs! (Excluding guide dogs). This includes owners carrying their dog in their arms. We cannot permit any pets on the premises.

• Please do not let your children climb on the climbing frames in the KS1 or KS2 playground.

• No smoking is allowed anywhere in the school or grounds.

• I would like to urge parents to remember to park thoughtfully and not park in front of the local residents’ drives or on the yellow zig zag lines in front of the school. We would like to see as many families and staff as possible walking, cycling or scooting to school.

• Please ensure that you look at your Arbor account as we are a paperless school and all information is sent via this portal. If you have any queries, please contact the school office.

We always welcome parents in school helping in classes and we are pleased to let you know that we can continue to do this this term. We know how much our children benefit from this additional support, especially at the moment when so much time in school has been missed.

Please complete this form if you are interested in helping in school.

All PTFA helpers and volunteers in class are required to complete Safeguarding training and provide a current DBS certificate. Contact the office on either school site for advice on this.

We have a number of exciting opportunities arising across the Trust:

LEO Academy Trust Vacancies

Sutton Schools Nursing Service

Children, young people and families with any concerns can contact the school nursing service via phone. For parents, the school nursing duty line number 0208 770 5409 from Monday to Friday 9am-5pm. For children and young people who require support, the contact number is 0208 770 4409 9am-5pm, or the email address is

schoolnursing@sutton.gov.uk

Learning Support

Sutton College is offering to help parents support their child/ren with FREE online Family Learning English and Maths workshops and courses. Please see the link below for further details.

Family Learning

Our local jobcentre

https://www.jobcentrenearme.com/

Help raise funds for the LEO Foundation by joining our lottery.

• Join our weekly lottery from just £1 a week

• It’s an easy way to support our Trust and help raise funds for LEO Foundation projects

• 40% of ticket sales come back to us

• There’s a guaranteed winner every week as well as the chance to win £25,000

• It’s easy to sign up online so start supporting our Trust today!

This year, funds raised by the LEO Foundation supported our LEO PRIDE Awards in EYFS, our ECB All Stars Cricket Development Centre for Year 2 pupils, Mandarin lessons for Year 5 pupils and our Year 6 Junior Citizenship Programme.

Your support is greatly appreciated and we wish you good luck!

Please find below a reminder of our procedures for communicating with the school

The School Office is open daily from 8:00am – 4:30pm

The phone number is 020 8644 8616 (the phone lines are open from 9:15am to 4:30pm)

Email: bfoffice@leoacademytrust.co.uk

Our website address is http://www.brookfield.sutton.sch.uk

The office staff can deal with all general queries and take messages for our teaching staff. If any problems should arise, please let us know as soon as possible. Class Teachers continually monitor every child’s progress and will contact you with any concerns about academic progress, behaviour and application in the classroom. Pastoral care is also offered to the children in their class and across the school. Your child’s class teacher should always be your first point of call with any general concerns that arise. If you still have ongoing concerns, please make an appointment to speak to a Middle Leader. Our Middle Leaders/Year Leaders are - EYFS Mrs Nicola Marrable, Y1 Mrs Paula Holmes, Y2 Miss Rebecca Giacopazzi, Y3 Ms Eva Rubio, Y4 Mrs Michelle Underwood, Y5 Mrs Catherine Davies, Y6 Miss Sara Brice. Any concerns that you feel still have not been addressed will be escalated to the school’s Senior Leadership Team. Our Senior Leaders are - Mrs Sarah Wells (nee Pearson) (Inclusion Manager and Vice Principal), Mrs Rachel Teixeira (nee Mander) (Vice Principal), Ms Prathayini Wright (Principal) and Mrs Alison Day ( Executive Principal).