New Initiatives
New Initiatives
Lending Library - October 2011
The Brookside 'Lending Library' will be open on Mondays from 3.30pm until 4.15pm for children to borrow extra books from school. Children from KS1 and KS2 can visit the Lending Library on alternate Mondays starting with KS1 on Monday, 31st October and KS2 on Monday, 7th November. The library service is being run by Mrs Parr and Mrs Peatman. Mrs Peatman will also be selling school uniform during this time.
Gold Sing Up Award - September 2011
Sing Up Awards gave the following feedback:
I am very happy to be able to endorse this Sing Up Gold Award for Brookside Primary School. Congratulations! I was particularly impressed by the Sing Up Action plan and timeline which had such clear objectives and showed the way the school had linked singing to its other agendas including gaining Enhanced Healthy Schools Status. I was provided with a great range of evidence which clearly demonstaretd singing across the curriculum, across the different classes and in the playground. I especially liked the opportunities the children get to share their singing with each other. A lot of evidence showed groups of children sharing sngs with their peers, providing great role models for each other. The singing was enthusiatsic but controlled which shows good vocal leadership by the staff.
This award is well deserved. Well done!
Food Focused Week - June 2011
The children took part in a really successful food focused week here at Brookside just before the break. Everything the children prepared was made from its basic ingredients, for example the children in Year 5 mixed flour and eggs to roll their own pasta. Throughout the school cakes, bread, chilled cucumber soup (a new one on me, but delicious), ratatouille, pizza, muffins, pasta and crumbles were expertly prepared. Children measured, weighed, peeled, sliced, chopped, mixed, rolled, seasoned, simmered and presented their dishes with gusto. I hope you had the opportunity to attend Brookside’s Farmers’ Market at the end of the day to try some of the produce for yourselves. Thanks to the Co-op in the village (and our link with the Co-op, Jessica in Year 2’s mum) for donating all the ingredients to the school.
Mr Lowther in China - May 2011
Very recently Mr Lowther, our Deputy Head Teacher, had the chance to visit Dongguong Primary School in Jinhua, China. It followed on from a British Council sponsored event linking classrooms in the UK with classrooms in China that allowed me to visit the same school last year. Mr Lowther’s Year 5 class have exchanged learning activities with their partner class in China. Mr Lowther has the following to say of his visit: China was a fantastic place to have the chance to visit. It was a great opportunity to meet new people, try new food and work with kind hearted people. I had the chance to teach a class, take part in festival dances and make dumplings! The experience allowed me to work with teachers on the other side of the world who shared the same views on helping children to learn. We shared work children had done and discussed how we will continue our school connection in the future. It really was a life changing opportunity that I shall never forget!
Enthusiastic Authors - April 2011
Well done to all the children who entered the local primary schools’ writing competition. Mr Beharall and colleagues from amongst our neighbours read through and appraised almost two hundred entries in total. Emily in Y6 won Brookside’s KS2 award with her ‘The Day It All Went Wrong!’ story, while Max in Y2 not only won Brookside’s KS1 award but was judged best in the entire competition for his ‘There’s A Monster In My House!’ tale. A great effort from all the children involved.
Sing Up Silver Award - February 2011
Mrs Whelport led the school and our children toward recognition as a ‘singing school’ with the school receiving silver Sing Up! status. Silver status is the stepping stone to going on toward gold status. To celebrate, all the children, in classes, performed songs such as ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’, ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and ‘Alice The Camel’. Each Thursday after school, Mrs Evans and Miss Wiltshire orchestrate Brookside’s school choir for Y3-Y6 children. If your child has an enthusiasm for singing and would like to join the ranks of the school choir, please contact Mrs Evans, Miss Wiltshire or the school office.
Chickens at Brookside - October 2010
I hope many of you have had the chance to admire our chickens here at Brookside. They are Peking Bantams and caused a great deal of excitement amongst the children when they first arrived. Names were put forward by all the classes and were then drawn from a hat. We have Rocky, Sparky, Ribble and Ruby. Our chickens offer a wonderful opportunity for the children to learn about animal care and self sufficiency. In the near future I would like to recruit from amongst our children and parents a small team of dedicated enthusiasts. Those amongst you who would be able to share the caring duties of keeping our chickens happy and healthy by volunteering occasional weekends and days in the holidays. If this sounds like you, please let me know.
Enterprise Week - March 2010
This year we want our children to be engaged in, through actions or planning, enterprise activities. The aim of an enterprise focus is to allow the children to gain some experience of working with money and planning how to invest or use it.
Update: During Enterprise Week, the Foundation children fancy dressed as birds, raising the funds to purchase dressing up costumes for the foundation unit, as well as bird feeders and food for the school grounds. The Year 1 children raised nearly £100 through a table top plant sale. They decided to offer their profit to homeless charities. The Year 2 children laid on the cakes and biscuits during parents evening. Nearly £200 was raised. Their profits are offered to a Farm Africa charity and will be used for fresh water purification. The Year 3 and 4 children's projects are ongoing. Their aim is to raise funds to help contribute to a class trip. The Year 5 children have been active for a while trying to raise a contribution toward their Year 6 residential trip. Over £260 was raised with a table top sale, while bag packing at Morrison’s in Clifton pooled over £400. The Year 6 children are project managing a renovation of our woodland area. They have raised £316 and will work alongside the BFG as they aim to achieve the RSPB’s Wildlife Action Award.
Fronter - Autumn 2009
Fronter is the VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) that has been selected as the Nottinghamshire County Council supported VLE for schools. All schools who have chosen Fronter as their VLE will be trained in waves starting in 2009. Brookside is one of these schools. At Brookside, Fronter is initially being used by staff, allowing them to become familiar with its layout and capabilities. It will then be available for children and parents later in the academic year.
Sing Up - September 2009
Sing Up is the Music Manifesto’s National Singing Programme. It’s a programme to make sure that singing is at the heart of every primary school child’s life. It is believed that singing has power to change lives and help to build stronger communities.
Children's Voices - January 2009
Children are the reason we teach. Their voice is important and should be heard. Each month we take a topic which is important to the children and ask them to tell us about it. Every child matters so every child has a chance to voice their opinion. Previous themes have included Improving the Learning Environment, Improving Playtimes and School Dinners. Our current theme for Children's Voices in Saving Energy.
Help Save The Albatross - December 2008
Lara and Claudia in Year 3 would like to share with everyone just how easy it is for each of us to help save the albatross, an incredible, but seriously threatened bird. By simply saving our used stamps and placing them in Lara and Claudia’s collection box, the RSPB can purchase the devices which scare the albatross away from fishing trawlers. Tens of thousands of albatross are drowned each year in fishing nets. Please help Lara and Claudia by collecting all your used stamps over the Christmas period and then bringing them in to school. Well done to the girls and thank you all for you support.
Updating the Brookside Code - July 2008
In July we updated our Brookside Code, incorporating ideas from all children across the school. This is what we agreed upon with the help of the children from the school council:
We are kind, caring and helpful to everybody.
We are happy for other people’s success.
We have fun while being sensible.
We remember to put things back where we found them.
We work hard, try our best and stay positive.
We are truthful and respectful.