Executive Headteacher’s Welcome
Welcome to Brooke C of E VC Primary School, an amazing school for teaching and learning. Now in my sixth full year as headteacher (and third as Executive Headteacher) of this wonderful community centred school, there is a lot to celebrate, including our new federation - the Sunflower Federation - with Hempnall Primary School, where I am also Executive Head.
We are focused on our values as a school. Wisdom, togetherness, kindness, love and resilience are embedded as the values in everything we do. As our school moves from strength to strength, we are throwing open our school doors to welcome the wider community to come and see what we do so well. We have welcomed many work-experience placements, visiting head teachers and members of the wider community to come in to school, learn from our teachers, share their knowledge with our children and help the whole school flourish. We are proud to be a VNET school in 2023/24, proud to host SCITT students from a range of teacher training providers and teaching school hubs and proud to develop close partnerships with Brooke House residential care home, Poringland MenShed, St Peter’s Church and the Village Hall community cafe.
We ensure that our children are enriched by the curriculum we offer at Brooke. We ensure that our curriculum is based around engaging topics, meets the interests of the children and teachers, and is school values led. We are lucky to be able to offer outdoor learning at our woodland – the Wishing Wood, one mile away from school; equipped with an outdoor classroom, compost toilets and a gathering space for children to learn, develop and grow. We are in the process of further transforming this space, and the space we have inside our small school, to benefit as much as possible from the great potential it offers. We always welcome volunteers to help us with this work, so if you are interested, or have a skill you can offer then get in touch!
At Brooke, we are learning together, achieving together, growing together. Rooted and grounded in God’s love (Ephesians 3:14-21). We ensure this through our School values and the Brooke Teaching and Learning culture, which have both been written and developed by the whole staff. In this we ensure a positive learning environment, respect and value for each other and offer challenge and show resilience. Whilst we recognise that our outcomes are important and must be measurable, our school’s learning culture ensures that we are becoming the BEST school we can be for the children and the wider community.
Children at Brooke love being at school, and teachers love teaching. To find out what has been going on in school, visit our latest news, class pages and school Facebook page. We place great importance on offering rewarding and real-life learning experiences. Key Stage 2 children have great opportunities for residential trips ; events to enrich their curriculum learning and once in a lifetime opportunities. EYFS and Key Stage 1 children have the most fantastic opportunities for continuous provision, deepening their understanding in their class topics and mastering skills in sports. All of our children have opportunities for whole school workshops including visits from Olympic athletes and mindfulness sessions. Each year, we celebrate the life of a former pupil, Max Muntingh, with an inclusive day of sport for all culminating in the awarding of the Max Muntingh Cup for bravery, grit and determination, and most importantly playing with a smile on your face. In 2022, we played korfball for our special July celebration of Max's life, in 2023 it was Ultimate Frisbee. We are a highly inclusive school and make sure that everyone can succeed in a place where they feel safe, happy and well.
We work together as a big team at Brooke. This includes children, staff, parents, governors and many members of our fantastically supportive community. The children’s voice in school is so important, they make decisions about changes that are made. Each year we have democratic elections where children are chosen to represent their class on our school council. We work really closely with our community. St Peter’s Church, and the Rev. Lynn Chapman, hosts our annual Harvest festival, Remembrance service, Christmas service, Easter service and Leaver’s service. We are incredibly lucky to have such close links to our church, our developing partnership with Hempnall Primary and also the other schools in the Framingham Earl cluster. These schools meet regularly to support one another and to enhance what we can offer the children by working together and sharing support.
The Brooke PTFA do a fantastic job, as a dedicated and much valued team of volunteers, to help raise money and support the school. If you are interested in finding out more about the PTFA, or joining them, please see their dedicated section of this site.
Brooke is an amazing school, and we warmly welcome you to visit and take a good look around. We always welcome feedback, and have an open-door policy, where everyone is welcome to experience the incredible work that goes on in school.
Alex Griffiths
Executive Headteacher
