autumn 1 2023

GRAFTON NEWSLETTER

Dear Grafton Families,

Welcome to the first newsletter for this academic year, it was lovely to see everyone back at the beginning of September as well as meeting our new children and families. This first half term has sped by as the children have settled into their new classes and year groups. This Autumn term saw us begin our move away from the ‘Stay on Green’ behaviour system that we have had for many years and the introduction of ‘Positive Pathways’ in each class. The Positive Pathways approach supports the emotional well-being of children, it encourages the development of ‘emotional literacy’ within children as they use talk and reflect on their own feelings and actions and work together to solve their problems. The Positive Pathways gives children a shared goal that they work towards, as well as promoting the idea of ‘Intrinsic motivators’ for children. We will be writing to families with greater detail on Positive Pathways in the next half term.

We have relaunched the use of ‘Power Maths’ within the school. Our children tell us that they like Maths and/or Power Maths, which is built on a Maths Mastery curriculum. In each lesson children discuss key mathematical concepts and can use concrete objects (manipulatives) to support their learning as they work through the problems and challenges set. Moving forward, we will be using the Power Maths online platform for children to be able to access Maths home learning. The Maths and IT team have been working on getting this set-up for pupils.

In the summer term we introduced a whole school approach to collaborative learning which the children know as ‘Learning Partners’. This includes direct teaching of collaboration and communication skills. Either weekly or fortnightly, through a randomised system, Learning Partners are chosen within the class (each child has a Learning Partner). Children use this opportunity to learn from others, share ideas and develop their communication skills. We will be continuing with this approach as we move through the academic year.

There has already been a lot going on in school which culminated with the whole school coming together on Friday 20th October to ‘Show Racism the Red Card.’ Such events show that as a community we are here to support one another and address matters which are important to us, but they also focus our Rights Respecting and Global Citizens work as we think not just about issues that impact our own lives, but the lives of everyone around the world. Our children at Grafton are compassionate young people, who think with maturity and with the premise of making the world a better place. This is seen in so many pieces of work that they do, and the recent poetry competition was another platform for children to demonstrate this. I feel very privileged to lead a school where the children show so much empathy and understanding for others, they truly are a credit to their families and to us as a school.

As we enter the second half of the autumn term, the year will continue to be busy. Our PTA have been meeting regularly to plan not just for the Christmas Fayre, but also discussing ways that they can support the school through fund raising and other means. The work of our PTA does help the school, and I would like to say thank you to those who were involved last year and this year. The money that is raised goes towards specific projects that will benefit our children. Our Christmas Fayre takes place on the 13th December. I hope to be able to see you there.

I wish everyone a restful half term break and look forward to seeing everyone back on Monday 30th October.

Mrs Gray

Reception red class's journey

We're thrilled to share an update on our Reception class's journey as they settle into the school year. Our little ones have been actively learning rules and routines, which are essential for creating a structured and nurturing classroom environment. These skills are invaluable as they develop and grow.

In addition to this, they've been busy exploring both the indoor and outdoor environments. This hands-on experience allows them to discover, learn, and play, fostering their curiosity and imagination.

Our recent exploration of "Owl Babies" has been a delightful addition to their learning. We have enjoyed painting and making owls in our discovery time.

In maths, they have been learning how to subitise to 3. Subitising is when you are able to look at a group of objects and realise how many there are without counting. They have been learning to count objects to 3.

In phonics, they have started to look at the sounds that letters make. They are listening to the sounds they can hear in words. They are beginning to sound out simple CVC words such as t-a-p —> tap.

In Understanding the World they have been exploring Autumn. They have looked at lots of natural resources such as conkers/ pine cones and have enjoyed exploring these. For Black History Month, they have been developing scissor skills by cutting shapes to make a whole class Kente Cloth.

The children have learned about families. They looked at different family pictures and spoke about the similarities and differences between families. They have had lots of fun drawing pictures of themselves and their families. They have learned how to write their names.

1 Fox class

This half term has been very busy. The children have been settling into their new classroom and the expectations in year 1. They have loved accessing the village and yard during our village and yard sessions. They have especially enjoyed playing in our builders yard and constructing their own buildings making “cement” from sand and water. As well as building their own obstacle courses! The children have also been working on numbers to 10 in Maths and have enjoyed learning all about Victorian schools in History.

2 Rectangle Class

This half term, in Rectangle Class, our geography topic is Africa. In Literacy, the children read Handa’s Surprise, where they tasted fruit, created story maps and wrote their own version of the story. For our next book, we started by finding footprints which led to a special postcard from Sunny. We later found out he was a meerkat and started reading Meerkat Mail. As a link to our science, we learnt about different habitats the different mongoose lived in, including swamps and deserts, and later we wrote our own postcards to Sunny.

In Geography, we have been comparing similarities and differences between the UK and Kenya. We found Africa and Kenya on a map and started looking at daily weather reports of Dagenham and Nairobi. The children found Nairobi is warmer and drier than Dagenham!

We have also been creating African animals, including our drawing and collages of rhinos, milk bottle elephants and pencil and chalk drawings of lions.

In Maths, we have been partitioning numbers, for example, some of the ways you could make thirty-four is 30 + 4 and 20 +14. We have also been consolidating counting forward and backwards in 2s, 5s and 10s as well as starting to count in 3s. Please keep working on these with your children at home.

3 Chestnut class

It has been a busy start to the year for year 3 and Chestnut class. Our geography learning began with a visit to our indoor tropical rainforest where we felt the heat and moisture in the air, heard the squawking wildlife and saw some of the animal inhabitants - what a start! Having experienced the rainforest (or as close to it as we could get in Dagenham) we developed our knowledge further through sharing non fiction books. This allowed us to explore the features of non-fiction books and develop our research and note taking skills as we collated information about specific animals from the rainforest. We now have an Animals of the Rainforest information book written by Chestnut class in our book corner. The book includes a contents page, page numbers, a glossary, page headings, pictures, picture captions and information organised under subheadings. In Science, we revisited the key parts of a flowering plant, conducting an investigation that turned white carnations and celery leaves blue, showing the important role of the stem in transporting water throughout the plant. Our learning with plants continued within art, where we created pencil sketches and oil pastel pictures of detailed, vibrant flowers. Things got a little noisy as we used rocks and wood to hammer out the dye from leaves and flowers in a printing process known as hapa zome, it was amazing to see the colours and details within our natural prints.

4 ash class

We have settled into Year 4 and have enjoyed our learning this half-term. In Science, we have been learning about the digestive system, we modelled the digestive system using tights, bananas, biscuits, orange juice, water and a plastic bag. We followed instructions to understand what happens when we swallow food and we had lots of fun! Next, we learnt about different teeth and their functions. We set up an egg investigation, predicting which liquid would cause the most damage to the egg shell. The egg shell represented our teeth and enamel. Most of the class predicted cola would cause the most damage but we concluded that orange juice caused the most damage because of its high sugar content. We will now make sure we brush our teeth twice a day and drink more water! In Literacy, we read ‘The Adventures of Dish and the Spoon’, we then planned, wrote and edited our own version of the story but with a different dilemma. We can’t wait for our work to be displayed for you all to read.

5 Maple class

5 Maple class have enjoyed a fun-filled start to Year 5. In science, as part of our work on life cycles, we visited Valence Park. Here we explored the different habitats in the park and found some very interesting living things. For our geography 'hook' on rivers, we spent an exciting day at the Olympic Park. Here we were able to see the different parts of the river and we then used that to help us understand the course of the river and how it feeds into the River Thames. Year 5 have also been learning to play an instrument in our music lessons. Two of the classes are learning the trumpet whilst the other two classes are learning to play the guitar. It is great fun and we are all starting to produce some music. In design technology, we are looking at bridges and the different designs they can have. We have used card to explore some different structures and we will be using these ideas to build our own bridges using spaghetti. We have really enjoyed the start to year 5 and can't wait for the rest of the year.

6 Mulberry class

We have all been very busy in 6 Mulberry this half term! The children have settled in brilliantly and have been making excellent progress already.

In Literacy, the children have been reading a book called ‘Rose Blanche’ that is linked to our World War 2 topic. They have been making links about what war was like for children during the time and have been able to empathize with the characters and put themselves in their shoes. At the end of the unit, the children wrote a flashback from the point of view of Rose and I thoroughly enjoyed reading them all!

During maths this half term, the children have been consolidating their learning from year 5 and have been building on their knowledge of Place Value and the Four rules of number. They have been looking at the formal written methods of addition, subtraction and multiplication- towards the end of the half term they even began looking at long division which was a shock for some of the children!

In History, the class has been learning all about World War 2. It is an incredibly interesting topic and the children have found it fascinating learning about the effects the war had on children. They have learnt about evacuees and created interview questions to further their knowledge of the experiences many children would have had.

The children have really enjoyed the practical elements of their science lessons so far this year. We have built on their prior learning of electricity to create a range of circuits and the children have conducted some experiments to see whether the length of a wire has an impact on the strength of the light.

It has been great welcoming all of the children back to school and we are all looking forward to a fantastic year in 6 Mulberry.

Phonics

For Phonics, we are following Little Wandle Revised Letters & Sounds. The children in Reception have started learning Phase 2 sounds, including s, a, t, p, i and n, where they say the sound and find objects that start with them too, for example, the first sound in sock is s. The children are also working on oral blending for example the children can say d, i and g in dig.

Year 1 started by consolidating their previous learning, then moved to Phase 5, including ay

(ai-play), ea (ee-treat) and oy (oi-night). They have been blending words, sorting words and matching words and pictures.

For the past five weeks, Year 2 have also been consolidating their phonics as well as working on less common patterns, including zh as in treasure and vision. They have also been matching words and pictures and sorting words into their correct spelling patterns.

Workshops

These are held from 9am- 10am in the KS1 hall

16th November - Year 2 Phonics and No Nonsense Spelling

7th December - EYFS Phonics

Reading

We’re excited to share the wonderful progress and exciting news around reading this half term!

In Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 our focus has been on honing various reading skills—like retrieval, vocabulary, prediction, and summarising.

Meanwhile, in Year 3, personalised attention is given as we engage in one-on-one and small group reading sessions. This approach allows us to understand each child as a reader and cater to their needs.

Moreover, this half term marks the grand opening of our community library! It’s a space where we encourage our school community to come together through the power of books!

We’re also thrilled to announce that we’ve assembled a team of Reading Champions. across a range of year groups. These champions will play a pivotal role in elevating the reading culture at our school, sharing their love for books and encouraging their fellow pupils to delve into the fascinating world of stories. You will hear more from them next half-term so watch this space!

Thank you for your continued support in nurturing a love for reading in our young learners.

behaviour

Here at Grafton, we all know 'behaviour ' is a form of communication. Historically, behavioural systems all over the world have focused on the behaviour you can see, instead of separating the behaviour from the child. After years of research, we now know that this is not helpful, effective or supportive. At Grafton, we want to support children to understand their behaviour by approaching behaviour like we would any other subject. That is why we have decided to introduce 'Positive Pathways ' which makes links between behaviour, learning and feelings. With Positive Pathways, we are focusing on a journey. Each classroom has a different destination at different times. The key learning that takes place, the personal challenges, the resilience, the problem solving and all of those 'pot holes ' is a journey that makes learning happen. Positive Pathways is all about working together to reach destinations It’s not about trying to get team points or a silver reward. Seeing the process of the journey will support children to focus on each step forward rather than ‘outcome = prize’ . This will not stop us from recognising children's positive behaviour but we want it to be consistent, clear and stays true to collaboration over competition and effort over outcome. While we are very much at the early stages of our journey, we will be happy to discuss further in a parent/carer workshop in the Spring Term.

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