Welcome to the Headteacher's blog. It is used to share information and showcase the variety of learning that takes place here at Brunel.  Along with Facebook, Twitter and our newsletters, this blog will also be used for posting information on events happening in school.  I hope that you find it useful and will check back regularly.

Suzanne Cooper - Headteacher

I’m sure that you will want to join me in thanking all the staff at Brunel for their hard work over the last two weeks in ensuring the delivery of high-quality remote learning. This is not something that anyone who trained as a teacher had expected, or trained to do, and the speed with which they have learnt and adapted is commendable.

Equally commendable are the parents, carers and children who are working at home, often in extremely challenging circumstances; a huge well done to you too! The photo shows salt pots made by children at home and at school.

Working from home is not ideal; we know from the first lockdown how hard it was for some of you to maintain a routine or to support your child and keep them motivated. This is why we are asking KS2 children to log on and complete the assignments on TEAMS daily and KS1 children to complete and show us their work via email or photographs.

In this way we can keep in contact, provide feedback on the work submitted and give the children a sense of purpose for completing the tasks as well as providing a much needed routine.

Please try to encourage your child to finish and return as many of the assignments as possible. The older children should be able to work, mostly independently, without very much parental teaching or input.

There is a much greater expectation this time around that children carry on with all their usual learning. However, we know, as with the first lockdown, that many of you will also be working from home, that you may be dealing with poorly family members, have more than one child learning from home, or have pre-school children who need your time, and therefore may not always be able to support your child’s learning. Please contact class teachers about any difficulties you are having and, like the rest of us, just do your best. Keeping healthy and happy should be everyone’s priority.  Suzanne Cooper.

Dear Parents and Carers,

It's great that we’ve come out of lockdown and find ourselves in the lowest Tier of restrictions in the country, however, things are still far from normal.

Many of the usual Christmas activities are unable to take place both at school and in the community, so you may be looking for new things to keep your children amused.

Together for Families and other partners have created an activity booklet, filled with everything you need to get crafting, cooking and colouring over December. It’s jam-packed with projects, recipes, tips and games such as Christmas movie bingo and cupcake tree decorations.

Download your FREE copy at

https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/education-and-learning/coronavirus-advice-for-children-and-families/doing-december-differently/

Suzanne Cooper

Headteacher                                                        

I had some very important visitors from Polzeath class this morning who were extremely proud of their independent writing. 

They had each drawn a detailed picture and had then composed a sentence in their mind before writing  it down.

Everyone remembered capital letters, full stops and finger spaces and they were also able to read it back to me.

Well done.

I am pleased to announce that this year, in the absence of the lantern parade, Brunel Academy  will be supporting the Saltash Chamber of Commerce's "Window Wanderland", which is due to take place from the 5th to the 7th of December.

Organisers are hoping that this new initiative will build on the community spirit shown in Saltash during lockdown and bring the community together in a Covid-safe event.

Brunel will be decorating the two reception windows near the main entrance and families at home are invited to register and take part too. As long as it is family friendly, the theme of your window display is entirely up to you.

When you register you will have access to a map which will display the location of all the addresses taking part. Joining in as either a ‘Window maker’ or a ‘Wanderer’ is absolutely free. We would enjoy seeing photos of your windows at home if you do decide to give it a go.

Further information can be found at windowwanderland.com

Suzanne Cooper
Headteacher

Dear Parents and Carers,

Thank you for your support of Children in Need on Friday. The children looked very cheerful, dressed in their multi-coloured mufti. Many classes joined in with the final stage of Joe Wick’s 24-hour challenge workout which reminded us of the earlier lockdown!

Years 3 and 4 took part in a multi-coloured walk past St Anne’s Care Home. We’ve not been able to visit our friends there this year and the residents read our posters and returned our waves enthusiastically.

Issy’s Nursery held their very own duck race and raised an amazing £40; James Pond was declared the winner with Lucky Ducky coming a close second!

A grand total of £190.21 has been donated to Children in Need.

Well done everyone!

Suzanne Cooper                                                                                                                                                                                                        Headteacher

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Welcome back to the second half of the Autumn term. It looks as if it could be a difficult month or two but I’m really pleased that, during this lockdown, the school is remaining open to all children.

Today your child will be coming home with a questionnaire concerning home learning. Please complete and return it as soon as you can as it is important for us to understand your particular circumstances.We know that it is not always easy to manage home learning, especially if you’re a family with more than one child and possibly trying to work from home yourselves.

Today we held our very first, socially distanced, school council meeting in the KS2 hall. The school council voted to support Children in Need (Friday 13th November) by holding a Multi-Coloured Mufti Day with a suggested donation of £1. I look forward to seeing how colourful we all look!

Next week I will be visiting classrooms in order to persuade your children to put themselves forward to be a school councillor.

School councillors have the very important job of representing the views of their peers when staff and governors are making decisions that affect us all.

In the past, Brunel councillor duties have included such actions as taking part in staff interviews, deciding which playground equipment to buy and altering lunchtime procedures as well as leading fundraising events on behalf of the school or charities such as Children in Need.

The first part of the process is the elections. Anyone who wants to be a councillor must follow in the footsteps of all politicians and create a manifesto. This means setting out why you think you would make a good councillor and what you would do if elected. Candidates can make notes or draw pictures to help them give a speech to their classmates and councillors are then chosen by means of a secret ballot.

In a first for Brunel, 2020 School Councillors will be meeting virtually through Teams. The results will be announced in a future edition of the newsletter.

Good luck everyone!