Brookside Primary School, High Lane, Stockport

Fully Inclusive Extended Primary Education

OUR VISION
Successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors, responsible citizens.
‘TOGETHER WE LEARN, TOGETHER WE ACHIEVE, EVERY CHILD CAN SUCCEED’

Teady Bears Picnic

To celebrate a wonderful learning topic themed around teddy bears, our Reception class enjoyed a special Teddy Bears picnic last Friday afternoon.

Thank you to the parents who were able to join us. This was a superb opportunity to see our children’s motivation. It was a lovely afternoon, enjoyed by all.

Parent Questionnaire Dec 2011

Parent and Carer Survey 2011

Congratulations to our reception class stockport ‘green miles’ winners

Our children participated in the Local Authority’s initiative ‘Walk/Scoot/Cycle’ month in the Autumn term. Every class recorded their results on a visual map and had their own passport.

We were delighted to hear that our Reception class, with their high percentage of ‘green travel’, were the Stockport Early Years Winners! Congratulations to our children and their parents.

Rosie Fearon, Stockport Schools’ ‘Travel Plan’ Adviser attended our family assembly on Friday morning and awarded Mrs Cullen’s class the Golden Boot Trophy. This is a fantastic achievement and another Brookside success. As a Silver Award Bike-It School this proves that we are sustaining our efforts with ‘Green Travel.’

Russian Festival of Winter 9th January

Our children and staff enjoyed a fascinating presentation today. We found out about Russian Christmas and New Year celebrations and the famous Matrioshka dolls (nest of dolls).

It was fascinating to hear about the Russian traditions, King Frost and to look at traditional toys.

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

As a whole school we have made, in our Assembly today, seven New Year’s Resolutions, which I have put in an envelope.. We are aiming to reach February half term and open our resolutions to see if we are achieving them.

Good luck everyone!

PANTO PANDEMONIUM

Congratulations to our amazing talented Junior stars who gave two fantastic performances last week. The children’s singing, acting and dancing talents certainly ‘shone’ through and everyone commented on what a professional performance this was. It certainly was a memorable Christmas production enjoyed by audiences of 100+ on each of the two days.

My thanks to Mr Aherne, our inspirational director who was very well supported by Mrs Warner, Mr Tavernor an Mrs Williamson. All of our junior support staff helped too with costumes organised by Mrs Berndt, Mrs Jervis and Mrs Wright.

The performance will be available for parents to download from our VLE on our website in the New Year.

Christmas Brass Extravaganza

This was our FIFTH event of its kind at Brookside and was a resounding success.

Our children performed magnificently to our proud parents and also had a wonderful evening joining in with the festive music. It was such a pleasure to see our musicians’ enthusiasm, and to enjoy the performances of Poynton Junior Brass Band and Hazel Grove Brass Band.

My thanks to everyone for supporting the event – to staff, governors and PTA members who helped ensure that this was a successful and enjoyable evening.

Mr Haslam will be in school on Thursday morning before our pantomime visit, for his final visit this term. Our thanks to him for his dedication to our children’s progress and musicianship.

3 time Gold Medal Winner Matthew Walker Visits School

On Thursday 1st December Paralympics swimmer Matthew Walker came to school to speak to the children and show them his medals. Matthew has participated in 3 Olympic Games and has won gold medals representing his country. He also told the children about his meetings with the Queen. His speech inspired the children to overcome any challenges they face, and to keep trying to pursue their dreams. We would like to thank Matthew for his time in a busy training schedule, and we wish him all the best for London 2012!

The Bossy Christmas Fairy

Congratulations to Class One and Class Two on their MAGNIFICENT performances last week.

We were all delighted, impressed and amazed by their confidence, enthusiasm, superb singing and talent! We enjoyed the soloists and dancers, and I know that you will agree – we could her every word of their performance. The children proved to be stars and their show was certainly a ‘Brookside Special!’

Thanks to their class teachers, Mrs Dale and Miss Ramsbottom and their support staff for their inspiration and hard work with the children.

Parents, grandparents and families agreed that it was MEMORABLE!

Visit to Pizza Express

Our Resource children went to Pizza Express this week as part of their topic on Food. They made and ate their own delicious pizzas, and the staff were really kind and helpful. We'll definitely go again!

BROOKSIDE’S CHRISTMAS FAIR 25 NOVEMBER

ALL WRAPPED UP FOR A WINTER WONDERLAND

THANK YOU EVERYONE

YOUR GENEROSITY, HELP AND GOODWILL RAISED

OVER £2000!

Brookside’s Christmas Fair proved to be a wonderful success thanks to the ARMY of parents, staff, families and friends who offered help and supported the event.

Our children’s faces and enthusiasm made it especially enjoyable and worthwhile. The choir’s beautiful singing at the start of the evening, followed by their torch lit procession certainly put us in a festive mood. Mrs Dale led the choir, but who was that Rock Star Fairy?! Our thanks also to Matthew Walker, MBE, Paralympic swimmer, who officially opened the evening’s festivities.

After weeks of planning, Brookside’s amazing PTA organised an evening enjoyed by all:

Christmas illuminations under our canopy
Our famous Santa’s Grotto ‘Winter Wonderland’
Magical Fairy and Elf boutique
Unique 2011 photo with Santa
Children’s crafts and stalls
HUGE record-breaking PTA stall
Busy Bees’ Raffle and Teddy Tombola
Delicious hot food
Mulled wine and refreshments
Bottle Tombola
Chocolate Tombola
Children’s Games
Surprise Stall
Book stall
OUTSTANDING raffle with so many fantastic prizes and gifts.

It was a pleasure to see so many people there to support Brookside: including governors, past pupils and parents and to welcome friends of the school.

Congratulations and thanks to our wonderful PTA for the many hours they have given up of their own organising food, drink, seeking sponsors, publicity and raffle prizes, moving furniture and equipment, physically building Santa’s Grotto and Fairy Boutique setting up AND clearing and tidying up after the event.

Thanks to you, Brookside has £2000+ to spend on our children.

Operation Christmas Child 19th November 2011

Many thanks to so many of you for supporting this special worthy cause. You sent in over 70 shoe boxes for the appeal. Your generosity will go a long way to making Christmas special for children in other countries who are not as fortunate as ours.

Our choir and brass band were a real credit to Brookside. Their singing, wonderful behaviour and musicianship shone through for the community to see. My thanks to parents and families for supporting the event.

This year the event was masterminded by Mrs Emily McGowan who took a lot of time and trouble planning this for the children’s enjoyment. Even Santa made an appearance! The disco afterwards was enjoyed by many.

Well done to everyone – you made us proud!

The Real "Brookie" came to visit

Our infant classes had an excellent opportunity last Tuesday, to see real owls and find out first- hand about their habitats, thanks to a visit from Gauntlet’s Birds Of Prey. The birds flew cross our hall and the children were both mesmerised and thrilled! It proved to be an inspirational session where the excited children had their learning ‘brought to life’. The visit was funded by the money raised during Enterprise Week.

Class 3 Trip to Bramhall Hall

Class 3 went to Bramhall Hall for their topic, ‘The Tudors’. They experienced the life of a rich Tudor child helping for the Yuletide (Christmas). We made things, acted out a mummer’s play of St George and the Dragon and saw many old things, such as a spinet which was a smaller version of a piano, a recorder which we have now days and many other fascinating things. Class Three couldn’t have gone to a better place for their school trip!

Annie, Class 3

Year 5/6 World War 2 Topic

Year 5/6 have been learning about World War II as a topic. Mrs Dooley came in to talk to us; it was very exciting. She brought lots of things to show us. Some of the things were really fancy. She also brought a sword-top thing. It was very sharp. She gave us lots of information to help us. Then a week later a man called Ernie Craig came into class to talk about his life in World War II. It was very good. He gave us so much information that Lucie managed to write seven whole pages on him in her draft book. All of us really enjoyed having them in our class and we have learned first-hand about the war from our special visitors.

Danika and Jack, Class 5/6

Class 5/6 Trip to Tatton Park

As part of our World War II topic, on Thursday, 10^th November, Class 5/6 were evacuated to Tatton Farm to work with the land girls. When we arrived, we went to meet a lady called Aunt Mary and had a tour around her cottage. After that, we all went to feed the goats and chickens, then saw the pigs (they were MASSIVE!) Next we went to clean the saddles with saddle sap and sponges. Then we went to see the cows and goats and milked a wooden cow. Finally we groomed a donkey, saw a giant shire horse and went into an air raid shelter to sing songs. It was a great trip!

By Lucie, Class 5/6

National School Meals Week

We all enjoyed the special launch event hosted at Brookside. Our children made our VIP guests feel very welcome and our kitchen staff served us all with a delicious lunch. Mrs Dooley was our guest of honour, having been a serving governor at Brookside for twenty four years. Mrs Dooley has been associated with Brookside as an employee, Grandma and governor for forty one years!

Authors Visit

All the children in Reception and Key Stage 1 were very privileged to welcome writer and illustrator Debi Gliori to Brookside for an exciting afternoon last week. Debi is the author of ‘The Scariest Thing of All,’ ‘Stormy Weather’, No Matter What’ and ‘The Trouble With Dragons’.

After telling us all about her life and showing us how she creates her characters, all the children then had a go at drawing Pip the rabbit, the main character from her latest book. We all had a wonderful afternoon, being inspired to create our own illustrated stories!

ENTERPRISE WEEK AT BROOKSIDE! OPEN MORNING 14th October 2011

The Stars at Brookside ‘shone’ last week – and I mean our children and staff!

This was a chance for our children, staff and school community to excel and it certainly was an outstanding success for everyone. The children took on the challenges eagerly and amazed us all with their resourcefulness. Each class had the challenge to ‘design and make’ their own product to raise profit and were involved in planning and advertising their products. My thanks to all of our visiting speakers and to the many parent helpers who ensured that our Open Morning was such a success.

The week began with visits to school from a famous author, Debi Gliori who gave a wonderful presentation of her life and career to our Reception, Year One and Year Two classes, as well as personally signing books.

Class One made beautiful door plaques, decorated biscuits and made owl pictures.

Class Two made salt dough Brookies and book marks

Class Three children welcomed Leigh and his wife, Beryl, from High Lane Post Office who talked to the children about the monetary services offered through the Pot Office. The children also has professional cake making sessions with Miss Fell. Class Three also made fantastic cake boxes and produced cake invitations and recipes.

Class 4/5 and Class 5/6, Julia Simpson from Lloyds/TSB gave a presentation about banking and savings accounts. Laurence’s Mum, Mrs Benson also worked with Class 4/5 and gave them a business challenge as well as an opportunity to find out what running a real business involves.

Class 4/5 made and recorded their own professional CD with a selection of Mr Aherne’s songs ‘Down at Brookside School’.

Class 5/6 worked in teams, challenged to find a way to make money from their ‘prizes’ of sweets. They proved to be very resourceful!

Our Resource children, as well as making products within their own classes, also made special bracelets and jewellery to sell.

Mrs Cullen’s class started our Open Morning with their fantastic Autumn Extravaganza. Reception children and Busy Bees worked together on the many autumn activities on offer both outside the classroom and inside. It was a pleasure to see the children so well settled at our school and to welcome new parents to our Open Morning.

The morning celebrated and showcased all of the children’s achievements and products from the week. All of our classes did superbly well; profits will be announced next week when the children have worked out the income versus expenditure! Class 5/6 raised at least £160!

Everyone involved, both from the school , our visitors and from our community, were ‘blown away’ by the outstanding achievements of all of the classes. Who knows, maybe amongst Brookside’s excited children were Alan Sugar’s, the ‘Apprentices’ of the future!

PTA AGM & BEETLE DRIVE 12th October

Our Beetle Drive was a superb way for our children, parents and families to socialise and have fun. Starting with hot dogs and drinks followed by the successful voting and thanks to our PTA, the games began. Mr Aherne ensured that the evening/fun/scoring ran smoothly and his sense of humour was appreciated by all! Over eighty people attended! The aim was to have a family fun event and everyone left with big smiles – so we certainly succeeded!

New School Council 2011/2012

The children have worked very hard over the past two weeks to be elected as School Councillors. We have been amazed at the amount of work that has gone into their campaigns. On Thursday we were fortunate to have a visit from Shan Alexander came into school to speak to the children about what it is like to work as a councillor, and the responsibilities that come with the role. The candidates all asked some well thought out questions.

The children were given the opportunity to go into our specially made polling booth to cast their secret ballot, and then posted the voting slip in the ballot box.

Some of the class votes were very close, and commiserations to the losers. However congratulations to all those who won! I look forward to working with you this year.

Dated 20th September 2011

The statutory 21 days notice that the PTA AGM will take place on Wednesday 12th October 2011

Chairpersons Report for year
Election of officers
Year end Accounts
Appoint Independent auditor
AOB

The PTA committee

NEW IMPROVEMENTS MADE AT SCHOOL OVER THE SUMMER BREAK

KEY STAGE 2 SATs RESULTS 2011

We are very proud of our KS2 SAT results this year. A special mention should be made about our Writing scores, with all our children taking the tests achieving Level 4, and our Maths scores with just under half the class achieving Level 5. A big well done to all our Year 6 for their hard work in achieving such fantastic results!

	LEVELS	BROOKSIDE	NATIONAL
ENGLISH	4 +	97 %	81%
ENGLISH	5	30%	33 %
MATHS	4 +	89 %	81 %
MATHS	5	48 %	35 %

BRASS BAND AT THE ROYAL NORTHERN COLLEGE OF MUSIC 21st July 2011

Many congratulations to our very talented players for their performance last Thursday at Stockport Music Centre’s Showcase Event. Our children certainly gave an impressive concert, memorable for the children and for their families. This proved to be a special evening and one where the name of ‘Brookside Primary’ came to the attention of an audience of over 400 people.

Zara, in Year 4, promised me “Mrs Holmes, we’ll make you proud of us”. That was an understatement! My thanks to parents for supporting their children’s music throughout the year, not only for funding lessons, but helping to transport instruments into school each week and attending concerts and events. Also, the children have worked hard throughout the year to improve their musical skills; Thursday’s concert made all of this very worthwhile!

Congratulations, it certainly was a magical and unforgettable evening.

OPEN EVENING WEDNESDAY 20th JULY

School was open late for all parents and pupils to visit the school, as well as the classrooms being open for all the children to show parents there work, there were events in the main hall. These included the Brass Band, Country dancers and Gym Clum to name but a few. We also welcomed many new families who will be joining us in September. A lovely evening enjoyed by everyone.

New School uniform available to order now

LYME PARK TEDDY BEARS PICNIC 13th JULY

The whole School enjoyed a Picnic at Lyme Park today, The morning started with a brisk walk and for the Infants this included a "Hunt the Teddy" challenge. The whole School then met for a Teddy bears Picnic, then in the afternoon everyone enjoyed activities from Art, Team Games, Drawing and even Bug Hunting. Thanks to the PTA for making this possible.

WINNER "ERIC TITTERTON MEMORIAL TROPHY" 2011

Brookside School were 2011 winners of the "Eric Titterton Memorial Award" presented by the Rotary Club of Marple and Goyt Valley on the 12th July 2011. This award to the Staff, Pupils and Parents is recognition for the Valuable help and work Brookside Primary give to the Local Community and Service to Others. A fantastic achievement for our School and the Local community.

CLASS ONE/TWO BRING THE SEASIDE TO BROOKSIDE

Congratulations to Miss Ramsbottom and her team for producing a FANTASTIC assembly last Friday. Our children ‘shone’ with their amazing performances – singing, dancing, brass music, re-telling the history of the seaside (then and now), even Punch and Judy!

Our parents, friends and families, along with the whole school, were all very proud.

Sports Day 5th July 2011

What a fantastic day for the children and staff, it was a very close result this year with the BLUE team winning by just one point over the yellow team. Parents and teachers were able to witness some fantastic sporting achievements. Well done to everyone.....

Our New Reception class for September

We were proud and delighted to spend time with our new pupils who will be joining us in September. In addition to induction sessions with Busy Bees, our new friends spent the morning with us last Wednesday. They had a super time. Parents joined us for lunch afterwards. Welcome to you all!

YEAR 3 AT MOORFIELD 29th June 2011

The Year 3 children had a super day on Wednesday participating in Moorfield Primary’s ‘Fun Day’. The children tried many new skills such as creating natural sculptures, making fruit kebabs, playing the steel drums, puppetry, soccer skills with Stockport County, orienteering and colour therapy. The children were full of enthusiasm and would like to thank all the adults and children involved in organising such a fantastic day. Here are some of the comments:

“I had an amazing day!” Ethan A

“It was the best day every!” Lorna

“I liked the puppets!” Megan/Rachel

“I loved playing football and being with lots of happy friends” Bailey

Young Entrepreneurs business breakfast 22^nd June 2011

Our young entrepreneurs who have done so well and turned £500 into almost £1500 enjoy a well deserved business breakfast at the Dog & Partridge. The breakfast was excellent and enjoyed by everyone.

Tuesday 21st June 2011 Bike it Event

All children who bought their bike in to school today had a Bike it Breakfast and a fun day "blinging" their bikes

Friday 17th June 2011 Family Evening of Fun

FULL PHOTO GALLERY IN THE PTA SECTION OF THE WEBSITE

Congratulations and thanks to our dedicated PTA for organising Friday’s ‘Summer Fun’ event. The evening was enjoyed by all who attended – staff, families and friends of the school. It was especially good to see so many of our past pupils, who not only attended, they also helped!

The staff organised ‘games events’ outside on the field. Our new canopy became the ‘place to be’ with the bar, the ‘best barbeque in town’ (comment made on the night) and a cafe serving tea and coffee. Brookside parents and children again amazed us with generous donations of bottles/sweets for our famous tombolas – thank you to all. We also had a cake stall including biscuits and cakes iced by our own children, our famous Bran Tubs, a tattoo stall, ‘trash and treasure’ stall, home-made chutneys, second-hand books, guess the weight of the cake (winner – Mrs Bollington), guess the name of the dog (which was ‘Biscuit’ won by a very excited Mrs Bowden!), a fantastic teddy tombola with all new teddies, dogs, lions etc which was only £2 a go and there was a prize every time! The sparkly face painting was the best ever – unbelievable!

The final highlight of the night was thanks to Mr Aherne who organised a very successful Karaoke for children and Mums and Dads. Wow! We all enjoyed the singing and shared the enthusiasm of those who took part – a must do event in the future. Brookside has definitely got talent!

Our raffle with record-breaking prizes this year was won by: First prize – Patio table and chairs donated by www.thegardencentre.co.uk – won by Lucy’s Mum in Reception class. Second prize – Kindle – won by Athena and Matthew’s Mum. Many other incredible prizes were also won on the night. My thanks to all who donated prizes so generously.

The success of the evening was evident for all to see: a happy atmosphere, enjoyment, enthusiasm, fun and a great deal of laughter from parents, staff, families and friends of the school. All of this PLUS fundraising for our children. Our thanks to all of the Committee Members who worked so hard organising the event, giving up their own time to collect food and buy in everything that was needed and for using their initiative to forward plan to ensure that the whole evening ran so successfully. Our barbeque experts worked tirelessly and professionally to feed us all. Our staff gladly helped out and the team work with so many parents who gave up time to run stalls was outstanding – thank you to you all.

A happy fun event – very successful and well-supported. Brookside thrives on its partnership with its community and parents. My thanks to everyone for making Friday’s Summer Fun Event such an enjoyable evening for all.

Brookside Primary School PTA Beetle Drive 25th May 2011

Over 120 parents and Children attended, a fantastic evening

4th May 2011 Our own Royal Wedding Day

All the Children came to school in Non Uniform today to celebrate our future Kings Wedding day, there were so many princes and princesses, and a street party under our new Canopy.

Northumberland Trip 2011

This was a very successful week, enjoyed by all, go to the bottom of this page for the photo gallery. The children’s behaviour was excellent. Staff commented that this group’s behaviour and attention to keeping their rooms tidy was the best they had encountered over many years!

On our behalf I would like to thank Mr Tavernor for organising, planning and leading the trip and to Mr Aherne, Mrs Warner, Mrs Pogson, Mrs Berndt, Mrs Ross and Mrs Cavanagh for taking such excellent care of your children throughout the week.

The children returned happy and full of news on Friday afternoon. The highlight of the week was either Alnwick Castle or Beamish. Memorable and enjoyable for all!

Thursday June 30th

Fantastic day at Beamish Open Air Museum! This has been enjoyed by all. Beamish is a ‘living history’ museum on a huge site with buildings, a farm, a Victorian street, bandstand, sweet shop, old Co-operative store…a chapel and original pit village with a mine and colliery houses and gardens.

The children loved participating in the Victorian school lesson and seeing what a Victorian classroom was like. They even tried the original ink pens! Not a computer in sight!

Wonderful opportunity to see living history and real buildings – very successful and enjoyed by all! The children will have so much to tell you when they get back.

Last evening of activities tonight. Your children’s behaviour has been excellent throughout the week and the Staff are proud of them all.

All parents please note that Brookside will be in touch with the coach driver and Mr Tavernor throughout the day. They will give us a call when they are about an hour or so from Stockport, as they will have driven through some of the traffic by that time. We will text everyone to give a definite idea of possible arrival time ( considering Friday traffic and the rush hour ) This could be around 3pm at the earliest.

Please park considerately – (and remind others to do the same!) as you come to collect your child. Remember that a large coach will need to drive into our school feeder road.

It sounds as if the children are all happy and have had an excellent week and that they have had many exciting ‘adventures’ to tell you all about on their return.

See you all at Brookside tomorrow afternoon!

Wednesday 29^th June

Weather wonderful!

Staff report that the children’s behaviour is excellent and that everyone is having a superb time. Today has been a visit to Alnwick Castle. The children especially enjoyed the ‘Knight’s Quest where they were able to dress as Knights, Lords or Ladies They loved making pottery tiles.

It was really exciting to find out about Alnwick castle and explore its grounds. The special Harry Potter tour was fantastic! Being able to hear about the filming of the famous Harry Potter stories, and to find out about the history of the castle was fascinating. Samantha from year Six proved to be the real expert when she won the Harry Potter quiz on the tour. Well done Samantha.

The afternoon has also been great fun: visiting the ‘biggest tree house ‘ with the beautiful gardens….just amazing!

Tonight they are looking forward to more games and activities on the beach – and tonight there will be time for that special CHIP SUPPER!

Already looking forward to the trip to Beamish tomorrow………

Tuesday 28^th June

Children had a good night’s sleep, very tired after an exciting journey and evening on the beach

Today they have been across at Holy island, then returned and had a picnic lunch, watching and waiting for the causeway to be covered over by the sea.

Afternoon at Bamburgh Castle.

All children having a wonderful time ! Weather brilliant- bright and sunny but not too hot as it was yesterday.

Tonight they will play on the beach before visiting the lifeboat station at Seahouses……possibly chips for supper?!

More updates on the website throughout the week