We would like to say thank you to all our parents, carers and wider school community for their support and commitment to our school during the past school year. It seems almost hard to believe that we have already reached the end of another school year. We are delighted with the outcome of all national assessment results across the school. Our Year 1 phonics test results are higher than local and national, as are our KS1 results and Year 4 multiplication tables check. Our Year 6 results are particularly pleasing with almost every area well above both local and national levels. We would like to thank all our children for their continued hard work throughout the whole year and our parents and carers for supporting us to ensure all our children achieve the best possible outcomes.
This term, has been particularly busy with many of our year groups out on school trips. Once again it has been so pleasing to receive such positive feedback from staff at a number of venues regarding the behaviour of our children. It was extremely pleasing earlier in the term to receive a phone call from a member of the public who had witnessed the positive behaviour and good manners of all our children on public transport. We would also like to thank our PTA and wider school community for organising and supporting our Summer Fair.
What a brilliant success!
On a personal note, this term has obviously been very different to any of the previous ones during the past 27 years. I truly feel that I have been so lucky to have spent the past 27 years working with so many amazing children and an absolutely wonderful school community. I am so grateful to have received so much support and understanding from parents and carers over the years. I am sure the school will continue to grow and thrive under the new leadership and I look forward to visiting during the next academic year.
Please ensure you all have an enjoyable, restful and well-deserved summer break.
Martin Nicholson
The Nursery children have been busy taking part in lots of exciting activities this half term. We have planted seeds and are enjoying watching them grow. Well done to all of the children who participated in our sports day; they thoroughly enjoyed it and all tried their best. This week we were lucky enough to have a visit from Snakes Alive. The children got to learn lots of fun facts about reptiles and some were brave enough to stroke and hold some of them. The tortoise was a firm favourite. I think you would agree that the children looked fantastic in their graduation gowns and they all looked very grown up and ready for their new Reception classes, we are very proud of the children and how they have grown in confidence this year. We would like to thank our parents/carers for their continued support and we hope you have a restful Summer holiday and look forward to seeing you in September.
It’s been a busy half term in the Nest. The Reception children have explored the topic: Let's be explorers, we have read the following stories: Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? Arctic Adventure and Don’t Tickle the Polar Bear! Year 1 children explored the topic: Oh I do like to be beside the seaside. We read: What the Ladybird Heard at the Seaside, We’re Going on a Treasure Hunt and Rainbow fish. The children were fully immersed in these topics through the use of sensory tuff trays, stories, Attention Autism and craft activities. The children enjoyed the “Rainbow Fizz” experiment we conducted and were amazed at what happened when we added bicarbonate of soda to coloured vinegar.
Hello everyone! The Lions group have had a very busy Summer term designing and creating lots of wonderful things! As part of our topic ‘Food’ we took inspiration from the Italian artist Guiseppe Arcimbolodo. We learnt about who he was, what his job was, where he lived and when he died. We used colourful semantics to construct simple sentences about his life. In D&T, we studied some work by Guiseppe Arcimbolodo and then thought about what we wanted to create. We designed the portraits using real pieces of fruits and vegetables and took pictures. We then created the portrait by making our own fruit from clay and forming it into a face. We had lots of fun with moulding the clay and then painting them.
In Summer 2 term we had our long awaited trip to Jolly Jungle! This definitely was the highlight of the year. The Lions and the Tigers had so much fun in the soft play area and even requested to go again! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GP4IsyIrHx4ywWxfFPbjvlNNWilYbmoj/view?usp=drive_link
Sports day was another fabulous day! The children enjoyed all the activities set and even the parents joined in with the races! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ijbf-_SdhQMbvo4HiCcCLr420KKPmUcc/view?usp=drive_link
The year 1 Rights Ambassadors would like to share with you all of the exciting things that they have enjoyed doing this year:
Mason - 'I have enjoyed making sure that the plants in the year 1 yard area have
been watered so that they grow and we have a nice environment to play and
learn in.'
Heidi & Azhaan - 'We loved writing a script and doing an assembly for the
Reception and year 1 children explaining all about ‘Earth Day’ and why we
celebrate it each year.'
Kendra & Namiyah - 'We have enjoyed making bright, colourful posters to
encourage the adults and children at Grafton to try and eat more fruits and
vegetables and to walk to school instead of taking the car.'
Alya - 'I enjoyed learning about vegetables and how to prepare them in our ‘Eat
them to defeat them’ workshop.'
Jesse & Mohsin- 'We really enjoyed being ambassadors, meeting Mrs Bancroft
each week and completing the challenges that she set us.'
Grafton Primary School is part of Barking and Dagenham’s Race and Social Justice Programme.
Our aim is to empower children and staff to raise their expectations, change mindsets and to have meaningful conversations about race and social justice.
In September, we removed gender stereotypes from our uniform policy and adopted the Halo Code to ensure that hair discrimination has no place at Grafton Primary School.
In October, we celebrated Black History Month and the theme was 'Britain’s firsts'. In EYFS, the children learned about Pablo Fanque, the first Black circus owner in Britain and in Year 6 the children learned about Lilian Bader, the first Black woman to work for the RAF.
In February, we celebrated LGBT+ History Month and throughout the school, children learned about people from the LGBT+ community, including Elton John, Ru Paul and Frida Kahlo, under the theme of ‘Behind the Lens’. In Year 4 children studied the artwork of Keith Haring and created their own versions. In the Ark, the children made rainbow artwork and talked about their families.
In March, teachers had training on intersectionality in order to try and better understand all of the different overlapping aspects that make up a person.
Here are some books enjoyed by our children this year.
Year 1 read ‘Look up’ by Nathan Bryan.
Year 2 read ‘My Shadow is Pink’ by Scott Stuart.
Year 4 read ‘From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea’ by Kai Cheng Thom
In July, the Rights Ambassadors hosted four other schools at our first Diversity Summit. The theme was linked to Article 2 Diversity in sport and the children took part in a debate where topics such as male footballers earning more money than female footballers were discussed.
We have recently made the exciting decision to work towards the Leeds-Beckett Anti-Racist Schools Award over the course of the next two years. We will be looking to set up an anti-racist parent group to work with Miss Manning. If you are interested in that then look out for more details on that when we return to school in September!
The 18th of July marks the 4th South Asian Heritage Month. This year’s theme is ‘Stories to tell’. To learn more, have a look at this school’s toolkit, full of information and activities.
On Wednesday 5th of July 2023, Vish Kalsapura (Network Rail engineer and architect) came to visit Grafton Primary School and the science club. He came to judge the children’s train project which they have been working on over the previous term. The model trains were evaluated on precision, accuracy of their build, movement forwards and backward and straight line travel. The science ambassadors managed to complete three model trains which met all the criteria of the design brief. Vish shared his journey to becoming an engineer and the children had an opportunity to ask him questions about engineering. He was very impressed with the ambassador's efforts and gave them some tips to improve their trains. I was impressed with all of the science ambassadors who have given up their own free time to complete this project. They have learned a range of electrical and mechanical skills during this project. I am very proud of your efforts and well done to all of the science ambassadors.
Mr. Geary
This half term Year 3 have been busy designing and making vegetable tarts. We learnt about how using different colours of vegetables was important because each colour of vegetable gives us different kinds of vitamins and minerals. We selected three different vegetables to use on our tarts and designed how they were going to look.
When we made the tarts we used the claw and bridge methods of cutting, which we had learnt previously. We also grated carrots and spread the base with sauce to prepare our tarts before putting them on the tray and baking them. We really enjoyed taking them home to share with our families.
In Year 4 the children have been finding out about different kinds of cookies and have been designing and making their own type of cookie. I think that you will agree that they all look very tasty!
Our approach to Writing
At Grafton, from Nursery through to Year 6, we use a book-based approach to teaching Writing. Each year-group uses an agreed range of books to inspire children to write for different purposes. Examples include: children in Reception who, after reading The Hungry Caterpillar, write a list of the food that their caterpillar eats each day; children in Year 3 who, after reading The Tin Forest, write their own animal fact files and children in Year 6 who, after reading Macbeth, create suspense by writing the build up to King Duncan’s murder.
Publishing our Writing
At Grafton, every child is an author and we create opportunities for children to share their writing with a wider audience. This includes reading their stories and poems to peers, producing a class book for the reading corner or displaying their writing around the school. You will even find some of our published books when you visit the school library.
Meeting authors
This year, many children across the school have had the opportunity to meet a published author. Selected children from Years 2 - 6 have attended Aim High Writer days where they worked with an author to develop their writing skills.
Also, earlier this year, we welcomed two poets, Kimba and Michael de Souza to Grafton. Children enjoyed poetry assemblies and worked with the poets over two days, creating their own poems. What fantastic poets we have here at Grafton!
Handwriting
Neat handwriting is a key consideration when publishing work for others to read. Our aim at Grafton is that most children receive a pen licence by the time they start in Year 6. This year, we introduced a KS1 handwriting award. Children receive a Golden Pencil when all letters are formed correctly, when all letters 'sit' neatly on the line and when they use small finger spaces between words. We’re extremely proud of all the children who achieved a Golden Pencil or their Pen Licence this year.
The year 6’s have had an incredibly busy end to the summer term as their journey through Primary School is coming to an end. There have been a variety of trips and the children have been outstanding during each one.
Some of the year group were able to visit Stubbers Adventure Park for our year 6 residential. The children stayed over for two nights, got very little sleep and took part in a range of activities. These included: rock climbing, raft building, rifle shooting and many more. We must say that the children were an absolute credit to the school. They were polite to their instructors and all had a smile on their faces during the whole trip- especially when they got Mr Geary in the water at the beach!
We have currently been rehearsing for our end of year assembly. The children have been sharing their memories of their time at Grafton and learning a few songs that they requested to sing. We have been amazed at the talent that we have in year 6 and it is great to see the confidence of our children shine through.
Some children were lucky enough to attend a math challenge competition at the Excel Centre in London. They were faced with a range of tasks and worked together excellently as a team. The children were absolutely brilliant and we couldn’t have been prouder in the way they represented Grafton School.
We are also preparing for our end of year trip to Clacton Pier. The children are all excited to go on the rides and play arcade games with their friends. The next day will be the Graftonbury Festival. We were blown away by the amount of money raised by the children during their sponsored walk and would like to say a massive thank you to all parents and carers for their support this year. It will be the perfect send off for an excellent year group. We wish them all the best in the future and hope they will keep in touch!
The Year 6 Team