5C celebrated this morning as the first person in our class was awarded their individual pin! Congratulations to Emily who proudly received her pin today. In circle this morning we all said how Emily had been an individual to earn her pin, these included reasons such as ‘she has opened her heart to help people grow in their learning’, ‘Emily achieves learning zone 4 and 5 all the time’. We are all very proud of you!
Next week we are looking forward to awarding out second individual pin!
Today Fatuma was awarded her ‘Achieve’ pin!
Since the start of Year 4 Fatuma has continued to grow her learning and keep an open mindset. She is becoming a resilient learner and has shown her determination to grow her learning, particularly in handwriting and presentation.
Well done Fatuma! Keep up the hard work.
…who will be next?
Year 2 had a fantastic day igniting their learning at the Natural History Museum.
In the morning the children explored the museum and were so excited to see so many dinsoaur skeletons and fossils.
After lunch we went to the dinosaur exhibition. We had booklets to complete as we walked around so we did some sketching, labelling and even wrote a diary entry! We were most excited to see the moving T-Rex which roared loudly as we walked by! Most of us were very brave! Some of us wondered if we could have one in the playground?!
Thank you to our amazing parent helpers!
Maths Homework
Reading Homework:
This policy can be found in the Policies section of the Brooklands Farm website. In light of the weather forecast, please also find a copy here:
Brooklands Farm –Adverse weather policy
During the winter months there are occasions when we can experience adverse weather conditions. It is always very difficult when we have snow and ice to determine how this will affect travel, etc. and I would ask that you follow the policy below if we experience any bad weather over the next few weeks.
If at all possible the school will remain open and staff will be here as normal. We are quite a large school and the majority of staff does not live locally and therefore may find it difficult to get to school if there is a heavy snowfall or if the road conditions are dangerous. In these circumstances it may be necessary to close the school.
If after taking local advice it is decided to close the school this will be announced on the Milton Keynes Council website http://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/closures, the school website http://brooklandsfarm.milton-keynes.sch.uk and on local radio. Whenever possible this will be before 7:30 am. Please listen to the local radio stations Heart Radio (103.3) or BBC 3 Counties Radio, until you are ready to leave for school as they announce any school closures.
The council offer a text /email notification service for school closures. Visit http://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/Closures/Subscribe where you can sign up for this free service.
The Policy at Brooklands Farm Primary School for adverse weather conditions is that:
At the start of the school day
Wherever possible the school will remain open, however due to road conditions some staff may be late arriving and the start of the school day could be affected. We would therefore ask that children do not arrive on these days until 10.30am details will be given to parents via local radio.
Parents are asked not to call the school as it may not be possible for staff to answer the telephone. Listening to the local radio or checking the council website or our school website for details of any closure is the preferred method of communication.
If conditions are snowy or very icy we would encourage you whenever possible to walk to school as the road to school is a private road not yet adopted by Milton Keynes Council and therefore will not be gritted by the council or their contractors. Please be aware that this will be an issue throughout the winter and the school cannot accept any liability for damage to cars/accidents whilst using Fen Street.
During the school day
Once the decision has been made to open the school it will not close during the day. If the weather becomes severe during the day then parents may contact the school if they feel that they would like to collect their child early for safety reasons (i.e. travelling/walking long distances or collecting other children from local schools). Parents will then be advised that children can be collected from 1.15pm onwards. For this reason, we strongly advise you to ensure that your email address and mobile number are up to date in ParentMail as this is how we would communicate with you. (This is something you must update as we cannot administrate your account.)
The school will remain open until 3.30pm. After school activity clubs will not run; however, if parents are delayed due to the adverse weather conditions, they should contact the school as soon as possible to give an anticipated arrival time.
Children will be supervised until a parent/carer is able to collect them.
Parents must consider their own safety, traffic congestion and safety of others in these circumstances and understand that children at Brooklands Farm will be cared for until it is possible for them to be collected.
Gritting policy
The caretaking staff will salt those parts of our paths that are close to the building and we know are likely to be slippery. We cannot salt the playgrounds, car parks or other areas. We would therefore recommend that staff, parents and pupils treat all path and playground areas as potential slip hazards and take appropriate precautions in cold weather.
Today in our grammar lesson, 5c tried a new learning strategy…children as experts. Our focus was on using commas correctly in our writing. For those who were already confident users of commas they got the opportunity to consolidate their knowledge as they became the ‘expert’ and provided support and guidance for small groups. This worked really well as many of the children commented that it was different from being taught by a teacher and they enjoyed being in peer groups without the pressure of an adult! Because of the positive reviews we will definitely use this strategy again in the future.
In gymnastics today we have been practising shapes to use in our gymnastics routines. We practised each shape and gave each other verbal feedback on how we could improve.
Last Thursday, Year 5 went on a magical adventure as they went behind the scenes of the Harry Potter films. As soon as we stepped into the Great Hall we were transported to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We saw the costumes worn by Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) as well as costumes of many other characters.
The props were also on show for us to see, this included the Triwizard Cup, the Gryffindor Common Room, the Potions Classroom. We also had a sneaky peek at how they filmed the flying scenes and even got the opportunity to ride a broomstick ourselves!
Butterbeer was a must have on the day, with many year 5’s gulping it down, only to realise it was extremely sweet! We learnt a lot about how they filmed the mythical creatures and how they filmed Hagrid…but we wouldn’t want to give all the secrets away! Walking down Diagon Alley was very exciting, we got see the shops used in the films including Olivanders and Gringotts Bank!
Finally, the highlight of the tour, seeing Hogwarts Castle. Due to the time of year we were very lucky to see it covered in snow. We were all amazed by the detail and scale of the model, it was certainly a very magical moment!
Year 5 behaved beautifully, despite being so excitable, and were proud role models for Brooklands Farm. The year 5 teachers would like to say a massive thank you to all the parents/carers that came on the trip with us, we hope you enjoyed it as much as the children did. We are now looking forward to creating magic with our Harry Potter project!
