Purushottam month children’s challenge
Hare Krishna
- Published in Notices
Sports Payment and Reminder
- Published in Notices
Welcome to the new year in Gurukula
Dear parent,
Hare Krishna. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
I hope you and your family are well and the children are ready and eager to return to gurukula tomorrow. We are certainly all looking forward to seeing our wonderful gurukula families again and we also welcome the new children who will be joining gurukula tomorrow and their families.
Please ensure that your child arrives on time in clean uniform and with a labelled water bottle and healthy snack ( it must not contain nuts).
I wish to take this opportunity to let you know the staffing arrangements for this year:
Admin/Business manager: Mother Tulsi Seva
Year 1 and 2: Mother Adi Ganga
Year 3 and 4: Mother Swati
Year 5 and 6: Mother Gunacuda
Teaching assistant: Mother Gaurangi Lila
Cover teacher and interventions: Mother Gopal Nayika
Care taker: Krsnanama prabhu
Music teacher: Loka Bandhu prabhu
Lunchtime supervisor: Mother Raja Vidya
Volunteer lunchtime helpers: Mother Bhargavi, Mother Michaela
The teachers, auxiliary staff and I have been busy preparing for the start of the new academic year and have many exciting learning opportunities planned for our classes including the gardening project I wrote about previously. . .
Mother Tulsi Seva will be there to greet you all at the gate every morning .We respectfully remind you that due to procedures in place to minimise the risk of Covid, no parents should come inside the school gate at present. A cheerful farewell from mum or dad can help a child feel happy to enter and you can always remind your child that you will see them soon if they seem a little anxious.
For this year, the sports lessons with Josh will be on Tuesdays for KS1 and Wednesdays for KS2 and this will begin next week.
The teachers will be arranging ‘meet the teacher’ sessions with their classes in the next week or so to talk to the class parents about expectations and give you an opportunity to have any questions you might have answered.In the meantime, if you need to speak to your child’s teacher, please make an appointment for after school via the office.
We hope and pray for the blessings of Sri Sri Radha Gokulananda upon the gurukula to allow us to work in partnership with you to give your child the best Krishna conscious education we possibly can,
Yours in the service of Srila Prabhupada,
Gunacuda dasi
- Published in Notices
Covid Safety Procedures
Hare Krishna
Please find attached a list of the main health and safety procedures the gurukula will put in place for September. A detailed risk assessment document will be sent to you in the next few days.
Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.
Your servant,
Gunacuda dasi
- Published in Notices
Covid risk assessment for Gurukula opening on 2nd September
Hare Krishna
Please find attached the full risk assessment for opening on 2nd September. Please pay particular attention to the temporary drop off and pick up times to help maintain the safety of the children.
Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours in the service of Srila Prabhupada
Gunacuda dasi
- Published in Notices
Lunch Prasad
Hare Krishna
Further to my earlier email, this is to confirm that the children will be served lunch prasadam from the temple from next week. Should your child bring a packed lunch from home please ensure there are no nuts or items containing nut products as we have a child in school with a severe nut allergy.
Your child should also bring a mid morning snack and we recommend they bring fruit or a similar healthy snack. Please also make sure your child brings a water bottle.
Yours in the service of Srila Prabhupada,
Gunacuda dasi
- Published in Notices
Absence Letters
Dear parent,
I hope you and your family are well and that we might see you at some of our three events this week in gurukula: gardening afternoon (today), Radhastami programme and the 6 hour kirtan on 30th.
I had emailed the attendance policy to you all a few weeks ago and explained that for this year we would no longer have the procedure where parents can apply at least month in advance for 10 extra days leave to go on pilgrimage.
The gurukula had not received any applications for leave for this new academic year before we closed in the summer so ,following our policy and government guidelines, any absence for holiday from the 2nd September will be marked an unauthorised absence.
Every school is required, as part of safeguarding, to have a Children Missing Education procedure. As with all schools in England, this states that if a child misses 10 days at school without an explanation or notification to the school they will be considered missing and it is a legal duty for the school to inform the Local Authority.
We expect all families to send their children back to gurukula on 2nd September, however if you know you will not be here then please send an email to either myself or Tulsi Seva mataji (via the admin email ) before 28th August explaining why your child will be absent and when you expect them to return.
This is an important part of our safeguarding procedure and does get checked.
We are aiming to have overall attendance of 97% this year and request everyone’s cooperation to ensure this happens especially as children have been out of school for a prolonged period during the lockdown.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation.
Yours in the service of Srila Prabhupada,
Gunacuda Dasi
- Published in Notices
Attendance policy
Dear parents
Hare Krishna. Please find attached the updated Attendance Policy which contains important information regarding the Gurukula’s policy and procedures for monitoring absence and attendance.
With Ofsted due to visit this academic year we would like to show improvement in our attendance. The children have also had a considerable amount of time out of school due to the Covid-19 closures. Therefore, for this academic year the school will not be offering the previous provision of parents being able to apply for 10 days extra holiday for pilgrimage. The governing body will look at this again next year.
We hope to achieve the national target of 97% attendance .
We reopen for all children on Wednesday 2nd September at 8.30 am ( for devotional soft start in classrooms) and lessons will commence at 8.50.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation.
Yours in the service of Srila Prabhupada,
Gunacuda dasi
- Published in Notices
Preparing your child for returning to school
Dear parents,
Hare Krishna
As part of our preparation for welcoming all children back to the Gurukula in September the teachers and I are discussing how we will address the emotional and mental health needs of the children after lockdown.
Your child may have been at home for 6 months by this point and be quite anxious about being away from you. We understand that the anxious child is not a learning child and as part of the recovery curriculum that will be in place I would ask you to help your child to make a ‘Happiness Box’ to bring with them on September 2nd.
Please see the details below:
https://barrycarpentereducation.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/rationale-for-the-happiness-box.pdf
You may find some of the books below useful. Although they do not have words, the rationale behind this is that the part of the brain that deals with experiencing emotions (amygdala) works less effectively once another area of the brain has to also be engaged to read words. These books have no words and can be used with your child to allow them to construct their own story based on their experience at this time.
https://booksbeyondwords.co.uk/coping-with-coronavirus
If you have any questions or things you would like us to know about the experiences your child has had during lockdown please do not hesitate to contact me or your child’s teacher via email.
Yours in the service of Srila Prabhupada
Gunacuda Dasi
- Published in Notices
January Newsletter
Bhaktivedanta Manor School welcome
Hare Krishna,
Welcome to the 4th edition of our school newsletter and the first of 2020!
Now, although it’s great to celebrate all the extra things we do at the Gurukula, it’s also nice to give a mention to the things we do as part of our normal school week. This time round, I wanted to include something about the music lessons that take place at school. Loka Bandu has been giving these at the Gurukula for a good 20 years or more and it’s a great foundation for all our future kirtan and harinam leaders!
I spoke to Jaidev in Year 3 about what they do…….
Me: What do you do in harmonium lessons?
Jaidev: We practise and help each other out if we get stuck or can’t play it so well. Sometimes Loka Bandu gets 3 harmoniums and we play on our own first and then all together afterwards.
Me: What else do you learn?
Jaidev: Sometimes we get to play the mrdangas too.
Me: What’s Loka Bandu like?
Jaidev: He’s fun and I like the lessons.
Me: Is he patient with you and does he ever get cross?
Jaidev: Yes, he’s patient because he knows we’re still learning. Sometimes he gets cross if people are messing around and then he has to tell them to stop it but it doesn’t happen much.
Recent trips and events
Monday 2nd December
Jagannath class went to London Zoo as part of their Science topic on animals and humans.
I aksed Vaidehi and Mohini about their day and what they saw and learnt…….
We saw giraffes, monkeys, lions and lionesses and there were camels, donkeys, hippos and pigs too.
Vaidehi – There was a strange animal which was half deer and half zebra and lots of naughty monkeys who steal things. The camels ate hay from a special bag with holes in. The hay fell out of the holes and then they could eat it. We saw a lizard which was really special because it glowed pink in the dark!
Mohini – we worked in our blue books and ticked off all the animals we saw and we learnt about what they all eat. Giraffes eat vegetables but lions and lionesses eat meat. Hippos eat grass and live in swamps!
Thursday 12th December
The children from Rama class had a trip out to London Zoo in December and absolutely adored the penguins!
Mani Manjari was very impressed with the set up there as the children were able to interact with the penguins through the glass. As you can see in the first photo, whenever Tulsi moved her hand, the penguin reacted by moving his head and the children all loved how playful they were. It was nice to see them so close up too as a lot of places don’t have that facility.
After the trip, as part of the class topic on Winter, Mani Manjari gave a class all about the different types of penguins around the world and where they live which was especially nice for the children as they’d actually had the experience!
Friday 13th December
Baladeva and Jagannath went to see a theatre production of “The Snow Queen – A Frozen Fairytale” at the Hertford Theatre.
As you can see, Gaurangi got hand picked to go up on stage and join in with the show! (She doesn’t always go around in a little Kung Foo jacket!) I asked her daughter, Keli what she thought of the show and of her Mum’s performance. This is what she said…………..
The show was good. There was singing and dancing, lots of bright lights and it was really funny. Jack Frost was in it and there was a Snow Queen who was evil, a boy, a girl and 3 crows.
I asked her she felt about her Mum becoming part of the show and she said, “It was a bit embarrassing but really cool at the same time”.
I then asked her if her Mum was any good and she said, in all seriousness, “Yes, she was”. And do you know what? I’ve seen the video and she actually was!
At the end of the show, the children even got to have a photo taken with one of the stars!
Friday 13th December
We’ve already shared the results from the Bake Sale last month but here are a few photos for you as well.
Tuesday 17th December
Vrindavan class went to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich as part of their class topic on Antarctica and Shackleton.
This is what Raghav in year 6 had to say about his day…………
There were large model ships and lots of facts about different things. We got to try on new goggles and old-fashioned ones to see how different they were and it was good fun. There were lots of glass cabinets with objects in and we saw fur jackets and medicines from the old days.
We got to have a go using The Great Map too which was a huge map you could actually walk on. We used I-pads and walked around the world collecting things like crew members and items we needed for on board the ships. We even got a bow and arrow and a sword! I started in London, went to 20 different places and ended up in Jamaica.
Another thing we did was to use a ship simulator so we got to feel like we were driving a real ship. It was a fun day and really interesting too.
Thursday 19th December
Baladeva class had a great day out at one of London’s most prominent landmarks, St. Paul’s Cathedral.
This is what Prema had to say about the trip……..
On the same day, Rama class visited St. Albans Cathedral for the morning as part of their topic on the Nativity.
Mani Manjari told me that the children weren’t so interested in the Nativity scene itself but loved hearing all about the character of St. Alban and the stories about him. There were toys to play with to aid their learning and they got to dress up and play “Romans”. There was also an interactive computer available to then to teach them more about the history.
13th January 2020
Kripamoya prabhu visited the Gurukula and did a special assembly on worship.
Anjali, Kishori and Laksmi in year 4 described what they learnt about during the assembly…….
Kripamoya Prabhu told us all about what to use when we make offerings to Krishna. He taught us about the “Pujari stuff” and showed us what’s on an arati tray and what it means. He also showed us how many times we should offer each thing. It was really interesting and we enjoyed it very much!
After School Clubs
| Monday | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Friday |
| Cooking
Radha Kanta |
Sanskrit Club
Ananda Sri
|
Tae Kwon Do
Patanjali |
Dance
Nikunja |
|
| Sanskrit Club (if enough sign up!)
Ananda Sri |
Chess Club
Nilesh |
Notices and things to remember.
- Please remember your child’s P.E. kit! Key Stage 1 have sports on Tuesday and Key Stage 2, on Wednesday, unless notified otherwise.
- Don’t forget to pack a water bottle and healthy snack for your child. It’s a long time from 8.30am until prasadam is served at 1pm!
- Please endeavour to be punctual both in the mornings and for pick-up in the afternoon.
- We would appreciate if all fees, after school club payments and trip monies were paid promptly and especially by the deadlines given.
- No parents should be driving onto the school premises unless special permission has been given.
TERM DATES 2019-2020
|
|
First Day – Last Day | Half Term |
| Spring | 7th January 2020 to 3rd April 2020
|
One week
17th February 2020 to 21st February 2020 |
| Summer | 21st April 2020 to 17th July 2020
|
25th May to 29th May 2020 |
- Published in News