Grazebrook Primary School Bulletin
21st October 2022
Message from Mrs Beecroft
Dear Grazebrook families
It is hard to believe that we have already come to the end of this half term. The staff are very proud of all our children who have shown great focus, responsibility, kindness, collaboration and creativity this term. The number of pupils who applied to be members of the Learning Council, Digital Leaders, Playground Friends, Reading Ambassadors, Junior Road Safety Officers, Gardeners and Eco-Warriors was absolutely incredible and we can't wait to see how the children will help us make Grazebrook even better this year!
Thank you to all of our families for your support whether you attended the PSA Barn Dance, have joined us for a workshop, coffee morning or lunch or have worked alongside your child to create a geography home learning project. We really value your participation and look forward to seeing you at our upcoming Reading Breakfasts, Sharing Assemblies, Come Learn With Me and Come Dine With Me events.
Next half term, we will be moving our humanities learning from geography to history. Our new topics will be:
Year 1: Living History - the children will be visiting Islington Museum then creating their own museum about the history of Grazebrook.
Year 2: Hackney's History - the children will be learning about local history. They will take part in a Hackney Museum Suitcase Stories Workshop to explore who lives in Hackney, the countries people come from, why they moved to London and what it was like to migrate.
Year 3: Stone Age to Iron Age - the children will learn about life in the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. They will visit Hackney Museum to learn about Stone Age Hackney.
Year 4: The Romans - the children will be learning about the Roman Empire and the attempted and successful invasion of Britain. They will be visiting the London Mithraeum.
Year 5: The Vikings - the children will be learning about the Viking invasion of Britain and the Danelaw. They will be visited by a Viking to explore Viking artefacts, create kennings (Viking poetry) and play Viking games.
Year 6: The Kingdom of Benin - the children will learn about life in the Kingdom of Benin. They will visit the British Museum to see the Benin bronzes and learn about why people want the bronzes returned.
Please be reminded that school will close for the half term break at 3.30pm on Friday 21st October. Our Space is open as usual. The school gates will reopen at 8.45am on Monday 31st October.
The Grazebrook Team wish you a very relaxed and peaceful half term break and look forward to seeing you back at school on the 31st.
Key Dates
31/10 Children Return to School at 8.55am
31/10 English Touring Opera Performance for KS2
01/11 Reception Families: Learning to Blend Reading Workshop
02/10-04/10 Year 6 Practice SATs - Reading & Maths
03/11 Year 1 trip to Islington Museum
04/11 Year 5 & 6 Jeffrey Boakye Virtual Author Event
04/11 Reception Family Fridays start (see flyer)
04/11 Flu Nasal Vaccinations
15-17/11 Travelling Book Fair
16 & 23/11 Year 4 Lantern Constellation Workshops
18/11 Nursery Family Friday and Reading Breakfast
18/11 Year 2 Hackney Museum Visit
21/11 Year 6 Visit to The British Museum
21/11-22/11 Y1-Y5 Reading and Maths Assessments
23/11 Nursery Parent Workshop - Reading Stories
24/11 Year 4 London Mithraeum Visit
03/12 PSA Christmas Fair
06 & 07/12 Parent Consultations
08/12 Christmas Jumper Day
08/12 Mother Goose at Hackney Empire Years 1-6
08/12 Nursery & Reception Clumsiest Elf Travelling Panto at school
09/12 Year 5 Portals to the Past Viking Day
13/12 Year 3 Hackney Museum - Stone Age Hackney trip
16/12 End of Autumn Term - school finishes at 2pm
Family Events at Grazebrook
Our Values
During the Summer Term, we consulted with pupils to gather their opinions of our school values and expected learning behaviours. After much discussion, it was decided that these would be streamlined into five core values. Children earn tokens and certificates for demonstrating these across their school day.
This term, we have been working with the children to embed their understanding of our values through assemblies and class charters with a particular focus on introducing our new value of responsibility.
Our Reading Journeys
At Grazebrook, teaching our children to read and love books is at the heart of everything we do. Each term, the children are read a selection of high quality texts to inspire their writing. These are our 'books to write from'.
Last year, our children said they really cherished having books in common with their classmates and other children across the school, therefore, this year, we have added 6 core books for children to read for pleasure in each year group.
Our core books are now available for children to borrow from the classrooms and corridor libraries. Children have been given a book mark of their reading journey for this academic year. Please talk to them about the books they have read so far and what they are looking forward to reading.
Our new Reading Ambassadors were set the challenge of pre-reading one of the books and reviewing it to encourage their classmates to read and love it too. Some of their reviews and recommendations are included below. After half term, they will be creating their own reading bulletin to share their recommended reads with our Grazebrook community.
Our reading journeys can be found under the curriculum tab in the classes section of our website
These Year 2 Reading Ambassadors recommend the graphic novel Narwhal.
Gigi says, "This story is about a jellyfish and a narwhal making a pod." She gave the book 5 stars.
Aiden says, "The fun facts pages are very, very funny!" He gave the book 5 stars.
Jawhara says, "This story is set in the ocean. It is very funny!" She gave the book 5 stars.
Iris recommends Loki: A Bad God's Guide to Taking the Blame by Louie Stowell for children in Years 4, 5 and 6 who like funny books or the Tom Gates books.
Nancy recommends the graphic novel El Deafo by Cece Bell for children aged 7 to 11 because it is a book about acceptance and friendship.
Learning Outside the Classroom
Year 3 developed their map and compass reading skills in their geography lessons. They completed an orienteering challenge around our school grounds.
Year 2 visited Clissold Park to identify different features before creating maps of the park back at school.
Year 4 had a great day at Alexandra Palace conducting fieldwork by recording topographical features and noise levels across different areas of the park.
Year 5 mastered cycling on the roads gaining their Bikeability Level 2.
Our Key Stage 2 athletes showed fantastic focus and collaboration to achieve silver at the New Wave sports day.
Our Year 5 and 6 Boys' Football Team are through to the Young Hackney finals to defend their title. Go Team GB!
Our tenpin bowling champions. Well done Kaylen for being the highest scorer.
We loved the circle dancing at the Barn Dance. Thank you to our amazing PSA for organising the event and to those who helped tidy up in the rain!
Learning across the Curriculum
Year 4 investigated factors that alter volume and pitch in their science lessons.
Year 2 used continuous drawing techniques to sketch natural materials in their art lessons.
Reception children collaborated to explore how artists show their feelings.
Nursery children have been learning to identify numbers and to count objects.
Nursery children have been taking journeys together inspired by their class book The Train Ride.
Reception children made a Colour Monster inspired by their class book.
We have been impressed by how quickly Year 5 have learnt to read musical notation and play simple tunes on the flute.
They have been focused and collaborative in their music lessons. Well done!
Our Junior Road Safety Officers hosted an event for other schools and learnt about sustainable travel and how to stay safe.
Our Digital Leaders have been busy learning about e-safety and getting the iPads ready for home learning.
Year 2 enjoyed reading together at our first Reading Breakfast of this academic year.
Thank you Year 2 families for sharing a story with us this week.
The children have been listening to samba music and practising call and response drumming in our music assemblies.
The Learning Council will be enhancing our history curriculum through mini museums and guided learning tours.
Our Home Learning
We have been so impressed by the quality of the geography home learning this half term and the number of projects we have received from children across the school. The staff would like to thank all the children and all our families for their focus and creativity in making their maps and models, which clearly show how much the children have learnt. Some of the projects will remain at school for our school museum which will help children remember and talk about their learning across the year. The remaining projects will be coming home soon.
Admissions - September 2023
If your child is currently in Nursery with a birthday between 01/09/2018 and 31/08/2019 you should apply for a Reception place by the 15th January 2023. Details of how to apply can be found here on Hackney Education's website. If you would like support with making your application, please contact the school office on 020 8802 4051 or email gboffice@newwavefederation.co.uk.
A reminder that if you child is currently in Year 6, the deadline for their secondary school application is Monday 31st October. The office team have been making contact with all families who have not yet applied to offer support with the application. Please let us know if you are having and difficulties with this or would like advice.
Key Contacts
If you have any queries regarding you child's learning, the first point of contact is your child's class teacher. You can speak to them at the end of the day or contact our school office to arrange a phone call or face-to-face meeting with them. At times, you may wish to contact the member of staff in charge of your child's year group. At Grazebrook, these are:
Nursery and Reception: Ms Hasina Khan (Deputy Headteacher)
Year 1 and Year 2: Ms Niamh McLaughlin (Lead Teacher)
Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6: Mr Joshua Middleton (Assistant Headteacher)
SEND: Ms Hasina Khan (Deputy Headteacher)
All email queries including those for the attention of Mrs Beecroft or Mrs Reid should be sent to gboffice@newwavefederation.co.uk in the first instance with the addressee and/or topic in the subject line. These will be forwarded to the relevant member of staff.