My name is Jen, I am a member of Friends of Meadowbrook Montessori (FOMM), who has children at Meadowbrook Montessori School. Like most of the kids that attend, they genuinely loved going to school, which is due to the incredible teachers and staff at the school.

At the end of March, tragedy struck our very close-knit community and one of our teaching team suddenly passed away. At the same time, one of our beloved teachers lost her son. These incredibly traumatic events left the children and staff in a state of shock and grief. Our amazing teachers continued to provide first rate teaching in the midst of this and supported the children to process their feelings. However, a few days after returning to school from the Easter holidays, the property was closed without notice. The teachers will, unfortunately, be without pay in April and it will likely take a long time for them to reclaim their redundancy.

Even during this incredibly difficult time, the teachers continued to message and call the children, meet us at the park and try to find solutions to continue educating the children. The teachers were more than just teachers, they were like family to the children. Our children are left devastated that they cannot be with their beloved teachers and school. They are quite frankly traumatised by what has happened and the way in which these events have been carried out. The same could be said for our teachers.

Therefore, we are setting up this page to raise money to support the staff directly. The core staff team are Sarah (head), Julie (Y56 teacher), Sarah Jane (Y34 teacher), Barbara (Y12 teacher), Wendy (reception teacher) and Joy (administrator). It also includes all the support staff too (Linda, Monica, Lenka, John, Sarah Brill, Viv).