Grazebrook Primary School Bulletin
Monday 28th February 2022
Message from Mrs Beecroft
Dear Grazebrook families
It was a delight to see all the children back at school and working hard after their half term holiday. With so much uncertainty in the world at the moment, we are making every effort at Grazebrook to focus on kindness and to provide the children with a familiar and stable school environment.
Our weekly Reading Breakfasts have been a great success, with many families attending each week. We are looking forward to welcoming Year 5 families this Friday, 4th March. Due to the popularity of these events, we will be bringing back our 'Come Learn With Me' workshops starting with Reception in the week beginning 14th March. On Thursday 17th March, 'Come Dine With Me' will also return. Please look out for a letter with more details and information about how to book these events later this week.
A reminder that Parent Consultations for this term will be held on Thursday 31st March. We are planning for these to be face-to-face so that you can meet with your child's class teacher and look through your child's books.
This Thursday, 3rd March, is World Book Day. We are asking as many children as possible to dress as a favourite book character to help us celebrate our whole school love for reading together. Please do not spend too much time or money on costumes. Instead, reuse, up-cycle, make and be creative. Here is a link to some ideas for home-made costumes, which you may find helpful. If you have any outgrown costumes or dressing up clothes that you would like to donate for other families to make use of, please drop them off to the school office by Wednesday morning. We will put any costumes we receive out on tables in the KS1 playground on Wednesday after school for you to take away and reuse.
Our book swap and bake sale after school on Thursday will now take place in the Key Stage 2 playground to give everyone plenty of room to browse for a book to take home and buy a cake or two!
Key Dates
Spring Term 2
Week beginning 28th February
28/02/22 - Guildhall Maths Challenge - Year 5 Maths Team
01/03/22 - Year 6 Secondary School Offers Day (by email)
02/03/22 - Key Steps Gymnastics Competition - selected pupils
02/03/22 - Year 4 Apollo Music Workshop
03/03/22 - World Book Day: Dress Up As Your Favourite Book Character, Book Swap, Bake Sale
04/03/22 - Year 4 Portals from the Past Anglo Saxon Workshops
04/03/22 - Year 5 Reading Breakfast - 8.30am in the Main Hall
04/03/22 - Nursery Family Friday
Week beginning 7th March
08/03/22 - Year 1 In-School History Workshops
08/03/22 & 09/03/22 - Year 4 Mock Multiplication Times Table Check (MTC) Assessments
08/03/22 - 6G National Theatre Hamlet Workshop In-School
09/03/22 - 6B National Theatre Hamlet Workshop In-School
10/03/22 - Eco Council Action Plan Workshop
11/03/22 - Year 6 Reading Breakfast - 8.30am in the Main Hall
11/03/22 - Nursery Family Friday
11/03/22 - Parent Council Meeting
Week beginning 14th March
RECEPTION COME LEARN WITH ME
17/03/22 - Come Dine With Me (speak to the school office to book)
18/03/22 - Nursery Family Friday and Reading Breakfast - 8.30am in the Main Hall
Week beginning 21st March
Assessment Week - Y1-Y5 PiRA and PUMA tests and Year 6 Mock SATs
22/03/22 - Year 4 Apollo Music Trip at Hackney Empire
24/03/22 - Year 6 Hamlet Trip to the National Theatre
24/03/22 - Come Dine With Me (speak to the school office to book)
25/03/22 - Nursery Family Friday
Week beginning 28th March
31/03/22 - Parent Consultations
01/04/22 - End of Spring Term 2 (2.00pm finish - No Our Space)
19/04/22 - Start of Summer Term at 8.55am
Our Learning
EYFS
Just before half term, the Reception children took part in an amazing Circus Skills workshop run by one of our parents. The children used their fine and gross motor skills to balance, twist and turn. Thank you Heidi for sharing your talent with the children. They had a brilliant morning.
Science in Key Stage 1
Both Year 1 and Year 2 have begun their new plant science topics. Year 1 went on a plant hunt around the school grounds identifying plants, bushes and trees. They used an identification chart to name some of the plants they found. Year 2 made careful observations of common plants and trees and identified similarities and differences. The children are really looking forward to researching plants they can grow inside and outside their classroom as the weather gets warmer. They will hopefully be able to eat some of their produce too!
Science in Key Stage 2
Year 3 have continued their science unit on rocks this half term. They have used research, scientific enquiry and local field trips to build their knowledge of different types of rocks. They created non-chronological reports to share their knowledge with others. Year 4 have continued their topic on States of Matter by exploring evaporation and condensation and identifying these processes in the water cycle. Year 5 pupils created models to demonstrate the movement of the Earth and Moon around the Sun as part of their new topic, Earth and Space. Year 6 have been identifying inherited characteristics in living things.
Meet our Eco-Council
Ferah, Fred, Josephine, Ottoline, Ina, Maksim, Aaron and Thomas have been busy auditing our school in preparation for writing our sustainability action plan later this half term. They will work alongside our Learning Council to provide the staff with pupil feedback and drive school initiatives.
We are delighted to announce that one of the names put forward by the school for Hackney Council's 'Name A Hackney Grit Truck' competition has been chosen. Look out for 'The Great Gritsby' on our local streets next winter.
Playground Friends
As part of our Kindness Project, our sports coaches invited children from Year 5 and 6 to apply to become Playground Friends. These children will lead sports and games at playtime, help other children find activities in the playground, and set up and put away equipment such as books, Lego bricks and drawing materials each day.
Congratulations to: Blakey, Elisa, Tom, Jake, Harsika, Tasrifa, Elwin, Violetta, Lola, Rico, Sasha, Ummayma, Thomas, Aiden, Berk, Arran, Francesca, Isla S, Asta, Leila, Oisin, Tabitha, Ferial, Keah, Talia, Fiona, Ela K, Lily Rae, Millie D, Alfie, Rahmatullah, Rosie, Daniyal, Rex, Patryk, Ria, Harrison, Amelie, Darcey, Moriah and Ayoub.
The children will work one day a week following a rota. They will be assigned to an area of the playground and will wear high-vis Playground Friend vests so they are easily identifiable to the other children.
Local Sports Clubs
Calling all cricket and football fans. Take a look at some of the after school opportunities available to you in Hackney.
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, Reception and Year 1: Ms Joanna Ichim (Interim Assistant Headteacher)
Year 2: Ms Becki McCready
Years 3, 4, 5 and 6: Mr Duncan Kilty (Deputy Headteacher)
SEND: Ms Lindsey O'Shea (SENCo)
All email queries 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.