Firstly I would like to say how amazed and proud I am of the Millfields community for the fantastic fund-raising effort for one of our families this week. Frank, who is in Year 4, suddenly lost his father this week, and we have been raising money to help support the family at this very sad and difficult time. A massive thank you to everyone who has donated via the Just Giving page so far. I know that Frank's mum and extended family are so very grateful for all your thoughts,prayers and support.

In class, the children have continued to work on influential and famous people as part of Black History Month topics. In Early Years classes, they have been learning about musicians via the book series 'Little People, Big Dreams'. They have listened to music from and read stories about Ella Fitzgerald among others. Year 1, the children have been reading 'Mae among the stars', a book about Mae Jemison, who was the first African American woman to travel in space. The children showed me their brilliant biography writing about Mae. Year 2 has been reading, 'The Bus Ride' that tells the story of Rosa Parks. The children shared their thoughts about the book with me and celebrated the fact that by standing up for her rights, Rosa Parks became known as “the mother of the civil rights movement”.

Today I was talking to Year 3 children about their timelines, as they have been reading 'Long walk to Freedom' celebrating the life of Nelson Mandela. Year 4 has been learning about Jesse Owens, who was the first American track and field athlete to win four gold medals at a single Olympic Games. Year 5 read ' March On' that follows the journey of Martin Luther King Jr and his famous 'I Have a Dream' speech that was delivered on August 28, 1963, during the March on Washington for civil and economic rights for African Americans. Year 6 has been reading all about Marshall 'Major' Taylor who was the world's first black sports superstar. He was world cycling champion in 1899. The conversations, debates and discussion in every class I have visited has been so intelligent, considered and respectful. Please talk to your children about their learning this week.

To celebrate the end of Black History Month, the whole school is being encouraged to dress up as part of a non-uniform day on Friday 23rd October. We will be wearing red clothes for 'Show Racism the Red Card'. £1 donations will be collected at each gate on Friday morning. Thank you for your continued support during these difficult and challenging times for us all.  Your cooperation with social distancing at the gates and around the school, wearing masks and encouraging your child/ren to leave for home promptly are helping us to minimise risk. In school we continue to operate in bubbles, and children are social distancing at lunchtime, and are washing and sanitising hands, what feels like all day!!

As London has now moved to Tier 2, we would encourage you to talk to your children about what this means in terms of going to friend's houses after school and at the weekend. Next week,we will be talking to them about playing outside more, and making the most of all the local area has to offer outdoors over half term. Please assure them that this isn't forever! (We all hope!)

Please note that Monday 2nd November is an INSET Day. Children will be back in school on Tuesday 3rd November.Have a good weekend.

Take care, stay well and keep safe.

Jane.

Millfields is proud to celebrate Black History Month! Please click on the image to enjoy an assembly which was shown to the children to inspire their learning.

We are already at the end of another week -time seems to be flying by! We welcomed back the children and parents of Hutchins Class yesterday and learnt that they enjoyed learning at home but we were so happy to be back in their own classroom again!

Thank you for your understanding and patience with school photos that were taken again yesterday! Fingers-crossed, that they have taken some good ones this time!

Across the school, the children have all been really busy in class this week as they have been beginning their classwork on Black History Month activities. In Year 3 and Year 4 -classes took part in 'Black History: A Celebration'  workshops -learning about key figures including Olaudah Equiano, Walter Tull, Sam King and Baroness Scotland. In Year 5 and 6, 'Her-Story' workshops focussed on the struggles and achievements of historic and contemporary black women from the past 250 years including abolitionist Mary Prince and sculptor Augusta Savage, alongside the better-known Rosa Parks and Sojourner Truth. The children learnt about how the actions of women, from Africa and the Caribbean, to America and England, have shaped our history; or should we say, ‘her-story'!

Next week, all classes will focus on a black history text in their Literacy lessons, and will be sharing some of their work in our online Black History celebration event at the end of this half term. Please also remember that the last day of half term is non-uniform day. This half term, we will be asking all children and staff to wear something red and will also be collecting £1 donations at the gate for 'Show Racism the Red Card'.

A huge 'thank you' for all your Hackney Food Bank donations! You are such a generous and giving community. We will be collecting until the middle of next week, so if you are out shopping this weekend, please pick up an extra carton of UHT milk or fruit juice, a can of fish or vegetables, an extra packet of biscuits or cereal, or washing powder or toothpaste.

Another 'thank you' to you and your children for making all our teachers feel very special on Monday morning with all the best wishes, cards and gifts for International Teacher's Day! It was a lovely surprise for them.

I also wanted to say that as a community, we are working so hard together to ensure that everyone is kept safe and that we are minimising risk at every point in the day. Thank you for your support with social distancing, wearing facemask and not congregating in the street.

I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Take care, keep well and stay safe.

Jane

It is the end of what seems to have been a very long week! Thank you to you all for all your support with keeping our community safe, and for remembering to wear facemasks, keep your distance and to not stop and chat in groups near the school. The drop-off and pick-ups have become much better and the flow in and out of the playground much smoother! The rain did help today as it meant there was nobody chatting on the streets!

I hope that you received the Black History Month launch video that went out to all parents yesterday. All the children watched the assembly in school and we are all excited to learn more and celebrate Black History Month over the next few weeks. Please put the date -Friday 23rd October in your diary as the children ended to wear red to school that day to support 'Show Racism the Red Card'. Follow this link: https://youtu.be/NiKZ1UcPEFw

Thank you to the parents of Hutchins Class who have been so supportive and engaged with the online learning arrangements in place for the class. Thank you to those of you who have thanked Rana and Mariam for the amazing effort they have put in to make sure that the children are still engaged with learning. I think they have been brilliant! I appreciate that many of you are also working, so thank you to you for your commitment and for making this happen! The children from this class will be back in school from Thursday 8th October.

Following on from the letter last weekend about a confirmed case in the school, it seems that there are now many cases in schools across Hackney. Please do make sure that you let the school know if your child or any of your family have symptoms and have a test. Please let us know if negative or positive as this helps with tracking and tracing potential contacts. And will guide my decision around absences, attendance and home learning.

This week, the children in KS2 have been getting ready to use Google Classroom. The children have been learning how to log on and how to communicate with their teacher and classmates via the platform. This will be a weekly practice and we will be using the Google Classroom more and more in school and for homework and home learning, as this will aid any home learning that may need to take place due to potential class closures in the future. Thank you to all the parents who have already returned the signed AUP (E-safety Acceptable Use Policy), if you have not already done so, please can you do it ASAP and return to the school via info@millfields.hackney.sch.uk.

Some parents have asked about wearing coats, scarves and gloves in school. As part of the Risk assessment, we are currently opening all windows and doors around the school and in classrooms. We are aware that this may become untenable in the colder Winter months and we will have to reconsider our strategy at that time. But for the time being, to aid ventilation and to ensure that we are minimising risk, classroom doors and windows are open. Please make sure that your child wears a vest, a jumper and a warm coat from this point onwards. The children are allowed to wear scarves, hats and gloves!

This week, we are introducing our 'Virtual Sharing Assemblies'. The children in Riley Class and hawking Class' have been sharing their work so far this term in the usual way but with no audience! The children in each year group will watch the video in class and you the parents will be emailed a link to watch! Thank you to Mehmet and Ashraf and all the children in your classes for being the first to try it out! All feedback welcome!

Finally, I would like to thank Gabriel and Wolf, Odin and Percy and their friends in Hawking Class for organising a brilliant Jumble Sale last weekend! they made more than £100 and have donated some of it to Millfields! Amazing, thank you so much!

I hope you have a good weekend despite the terrible rain and wind that is forecast.

Take care, keep well and stay safe.

Best Wishes,

Jane

Keeping our community safe

Please remember:

*keep your distance when dropping off or picking up from school

*Wear a face mask

*only one parent to drop off or pick up

COVID 19

Children should not come to school if they are displaying any symptoms of Covid 19 OR if anyone in their household has displayed any symptom in the previous 14 days.

If a child has symptoms, they will need to be tested as soon as possible.

If a child or any member of the household  is tested positive, please inform the school immediately.

We are at the end of another week already! And we have been so busy learning again! Sadly, today was to be our whole school ‘Outdoor day’ but the weather was just too wet this morning, and we felt that it would be too wet, damp and windy for the children (and staff!) This termly event has been postponed until November when we will mark national Outdoor Day. This week, the teachers and children finished decorating their classroom doors to represent the name of the famous person that their class is named after. We always make this in to a competition and the decision-making about the winners was very hard this year! Well done to Bond Class, Tarrant Class, Hepworth Class, Berners-Lee Class, Lovelace Class, Faraday Class and Anning Class!

Also this week, I want to say congratulations to Khatija who had a baby boy earlier this month, and to Keli who also had a baby boy last week. Best wishes and congratulations as well, to Blaithin who got married last weekend. We also said a sad farewell to Dave, one of our Intervention Instructor’s this week. He has been at Millfields for over 12 years – it definitely won’t be the same without you, but we wish you all the very best of luck with your PHD!

Also today, we remember our friend and colleague Alice, whose birthday it would have been. We think of her often and always remember her when we look at the beautiful memory and reflection wall outside in the back playground.

The children have been very busy in class and have been working hard on, not only their Maths and writing skills, but also they have been learning lots about their History and Geography topics this term. It is lovely to visit each class daily and see what they have been doing, look at some of the books and listen to their feedback and comments on their learning. Today I took part in Lowry Class PE lesson, as well as join Macintosh Class to learn about a fair test in Science, and I was reading some great descriptive writing in Turing Class. I also joined in with a Maths lesson in Hepworth Class and a very hard Maths group from Anning Class!

Thank you to all the parents who joined Reception teachers on Monday evening as part of their virtual ‘Welcome to Millfields’ meeting!  I hope you found the session and accompanying presentation useful and please don’t hesitate to contact your class teacher or main office for further information The children in all 3 Reception classes have made a great start to their Millfields’ journey and have now all settled really well. Most of them seem to happily skip through the gate in the morning and are always hard at work and play when I visit their classes! Thank you to all the parents for helping your child adjust to school life!

Next week is ‘Maths Week’ at Millfields, and each class will be continuing with their usual Maths learning but will also have the opportunity to learn about a famous mathematician and their contribution to the world of all things Maths! Look out for more information and an update next week.

Finally, this weekend would have been the first outing for the Millfields’ Choir who take part in the annual Thames Festival that traditionally takes place on the Southbank as part of a weekend-long festival. This year, there are still some Millfields singers involved and you can hear and see them perform virtually on Sunday 27th September at 2pm. https://thamesfestivaltrust.org/whats-on/kids-choir-sing-for-water-1627/

I hope you have a good weekend. Take care and stay safe everyone! Best Wishes, Jane

I cannot believe that we are at the end of another week already! The children have definitely been enjoying their learning this week, and have really liked outdoor PE in the playground and at the park. Thankfully the sun has been shining too, so the children have loved using all the new equipment. Thank you for sending your child into school wearing their PE kits on the days that their class has PE, it is working really well. A reminder however, that football shirts should not be worn, so please try to wear a blue or white t-shirt and dark shorts.

Thank you to all the parents who have attended the Year group 'Welcome Meetings' via Zoom this week. I know from lots of positive feedback that many of you have found them useful, but if there is anything else that you need to ask or want to know more about, please do email the class teacher, Age-phase Leader or one of the Senior Leaders, and we would be happy to help!

All of the Year Group presentations are now on the school website in case you missed the meeting or want to check anything. www.millfields.hackney.sch.uk. Please note the dates of our Virtual Sharing Assemblies - this will be a first for us!

We are trying to keep the website updated with the latest information but the guidelines and information seems to be constantly changing, so we are sending more emails and texts than we would usually, so apologies, but please try to read them all.

On that note, from Monday, we will be serving all children who are entitled to school meals and those who pay for school meals, with a hot meal every day. We currently have longer lunchtimes and half the amount of children in the hall at a time, so this will mean that some children need to have their lunch in their classroom.

We are trying to keep things as normal as we can throughout the school year, so on Tuesday next week, we are using our usual professional photographers to take individual school photos. On this day, please wear school uniform, and trainers if it is PE! Unfortunately, we will not be able to facilitate family group photos this year due to minimising risk and social distancing between bubbles in school.

Finally, we are getting ready for the whole school to be using Google Classroom. That will mean that if and when there is another lockdown, we will be prepared. The teachers have had two training sessions so far and the rest of this half term's training sessions will be used to build confidence in using Google Classroom effectively and ensure a smooth rollout. We will be using this platform for all classes and learning communication and online learning. In the next week or so, you will be receiving a letter that will explain this further and ask for your consent to allow your child to use a google email and Google Classroom. It is important that every parent completes this ASAP.

Please remember to wear a facemask if you have one, when you are outside the school gates, and also to make an orderly socially-distanced line when dropping off and collecting your children. Also, another plea, we need to be mindful and respectful of our school neighbours… please do not stand in groups on the road or on the street corners, and please do not lean up against cars that are parked there.

Thank you in advance for your support with all of this.

I hope you have a lovely weekend, take care, stay well and keep safe. Jane