On Friday, we were extremely excited to have some very special guests at Grazebrook. Nursery, Year 1, Year 2 and a selection of KS2 pupils were thrilled to meet a wide range of animals including a skunk, meerkats, a giant snail and a snake. The children showed incredible focus when learning about the animals and were very kind to them, stroking them gently and not making too much noise. The children will use this experience to develop their scientific understanding of the features of different animals and their habitats. 

Many thanks to the families of Grazebrook for funding this fantastic day by holding bake sales earlier in the year. 

This year, we would love for the children of Grazebrook to submit entries into the BBC 500 Words Story Writing Competition. The competition is open to any child aged 5 to 11. Children should write a story that they would love to read themselves. They need to be as creative as possible - their story could make the judges laugh, cry or just be blown away by what they are reading. Here are the competition rules: 

All the stories must:

• Be 500 words or less (the title is not included in the number)

• Be written by one child and not a group of children 

• Be the child's own original idea

• Be prose, not a rap or poem

Stories must not:

• Give any personal details of the child, including their name

• Recount an historical event (but they can use a real person or historical character as a source of inspiration)

• Be created, written or developed by AI

All stories will be judged on the following criteria:

• Characterisation

• Plot

• Originality

• Language

• Enjoyment

The 50 finalists will be invited to the grand final at Buckingham Palace in February next year, where the bronze, silver and gold winners in each category will have their stories read out by celebrities. Each finalist will win books and the gold winners will receive 500 books for their school! The winning stories will receive an original illustration from Dapo Adeola, Nigel Parkinson, Lydia Monks, Momoko Abe, Rob Biddulph or Yasmeen Ismail.

Stories can be handwritten or typed. Finished stories should be handed to your child's class teacher by Tuesday 5th of November with their full name and age included at the end of the story. The school will then upload the stories submitted onto the competition website.

Good Luck Grazebrook! 

If you have any queries regarding your 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. 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 Kelly O'Callaghan (EYFS Leader) 

Year 1 and Year 2: Ms Caireann Conlon (Assistant Headteacher)

Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6: Ms Simone Bunbury (Deputy Headteacher) 

SENCo: Ms Caireann Conlon 

All email queries, including those for the attention of a class teacher or school leader, 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.