Grazebrook Primary School Bulletin
25th September 2023
Message from Mrs Beecroft
Dear Families,
It has been a really positive start to the year with children settling into their new classes and back into their routines. We have been particularly impressed by the amazing start of our new pupils in Nursery, Reception and across the school.
Thank you to those of you who were able to attend the Meet the Teacher sessions at the start of term. If you were unable to attend, the slides from each session have been emailed and can be found in the letters section of our website. The final Meet the Teacher event for our Nursery families will take place this Thursday, 28th September, at 3.45pm in the Nursery.
This year, we are continuing to build partnerships with a range of charities and external organisations to provide our children with an excellent curriculum. All KS2 pupils are taking part in a series of financial education workshops run by the charity My Bnk. We are also working closely with 7 other Hackney schools as part of an Enthuse Science project to further strengthen children's knowledge of working scientifically. Our Reception and Key Stage 1 teachers are taking part in a Mastering Number project designed to further strengthen the children's foundational knowledge in maths. Finally, through our English Hub, we are also taking part in the Herts for Learning Reading Fluency Project which will support all our Year 5 and 6 pupils to be ready to tackle the challenges of the KS3 curriculum.
Alongside these opportunities, we have signed up for a wide range of sports events including: football tournaments, a cycling hill climb competition, a tag rugby tournament, a cross-federation athletics competition, a cycle cross event and a roller cycling derby. In addition, there will be several year group opportunities such as the Sports Inspired festival at Britannia, in which our Year 3 pupils took part last week, and Bikeability cycle training for our Year 5 pupils, which will support them to be confident road cyclists in preparation for secondary school and beyond.
After the success of our whole class instrumental lessons for KS2 pupils, this year, we have expanded our provision. Year 3 and 4 pupils will continue with whole class instrumental lessons starting with the flute, then moving onto drums and finally guitar. Our Year 5 and 6 pupils will have small group instrumental lessons where they will continue to learn either the flute, violin or guitar. Children will also attend weekly singing and composition lessons. EYFS and KS1 pupils will have the opportunity to sing and play a range of woodwind, string and percussion instruments in their weekly lessons.
To those of our community who are celebrating it today, we would like to wish you a fantastic Yom Kippur.
Finally, we would like to extend our thoughts and condolences to members of our community who have been affected by the devastating earthquake in Morocco and the floods in Libya.
Family Events
Other Key Dates
25/09 Year 6 My Money Choices workshops
26/09 Year 4 My Money Choices workshops
27/09 Year 3 My Money Choices workshops
28/09 Nursery Meet the Teacher @ 3.45pm
29/09 Year 5 My Money Choices workshops
29/09 Nursery Family Friday @ 8.50am & 3.10pm
29/09 Reception Family Friday @ 3.10pm
06/10 Year 2 & 5 Fire Safety Workshops from LFB
09/10 Year 6 My Financial Future workshops
10/10 Year 4 My Financial Future workshops
10/10 Reception Road Safety workshop
11/10 Year 3 My Financial Future workshops
12/10 EYFS Come Learn With Me: Physical Development focus
13/10 Individual Photos
13/10 Year 5 My Financial Future workshops
13/10 Last day for Home Learning Projects
16/10 Year 5 Hyde Park Orienteering Trip
20/10 Year 5 Fuel Finance workshops
20/10 Nursery Family Friday 8.50am
23/10 - 27/10 Half Term - school closed to pupils
30/10 - 03/11 Year 5 Cycle Training
02/11 Reception Parents/Carers reading: learning to blend workshop @ 3.40pm
08/11 Nursery Parents/Carers Making the Most out of Storytime @ 3.40pm
10/11 Nasal Flu Vaccinations
13/11 Nursery People Who Help Us workshop
17/11 Year 6 People of Benin History workshops at the British Museum
20/11 EYFS/KS1 Soar Around the World Perform workshops
24/11 Nursery Family Friday @ 8.50am
29/09 Reception Family Friday @ 3.00pm
06/12 Y1-Y6 Aladdin Pantomime Trip to Hackney Empire
06/12 EYFS Travelling Pantomime: The Littlest Christmas Elf
11/12 Year 4 London Mithraeum Roman History Trip
14/12 Nasal Flu Vaccines
15/12 Nursery Family Friday @ 8.50am
15/12 Reception Family Friday @ 3.00pm
The Grazebrook Passport – Our Finances
Last year, the teachers and children designed the Grazebrook Passport. Alongside PSHE and RE, this forms our Personal Development curriculum. One aspect of this curriculum is to support children to understand finances. This week, the children in years 3, 4, 5 and 6 had their first of a series of financial education workshops delivered by the charity My Bnk, whose aim is to build young people’s money knowledge, skills, mindsets and habits. The children learnt about different money mindsets relating to the consequences of everyday spending and saving, how and where we get money, forms of payment, and different bank accounts.
London Design Festival
As part of the London Design Festival, children from years 4, 5 and 6 had the opportunity to meet three artists and a manufacturing company, and take part in three workshops.
The children re-visited previous learning on sustainability and global issues such as climate change and plastic in our oceans. They also discovered how local companies create everyday products in an environmentally friendly way. One manufacturing company recycles plastic waste from the ocean, turns it into PLA for 3D printing usage, and then, through sustainable methods, makes everyday items such as desk pots, clipboards and photo stands. The children quickly learnt about how digital production on demand and short supply chains help to reduce our carbon footprint.
"We learnt about how you can stop the amount of shipping across the world by using products produced in our local area and recycling used plastic to make new things such as pencil cases. This can help because it will stop the amount of pollution by not having people delivering products by aeroplanes." Molly, Year 6.
Sports Inspired at Britannia
Year 3 had the privilege of attending the Sports Inspired festival at the Britannia Leisure Centre. We used the amazing facilities and participated in boccia, wheelchair basketball, martial arts, volleyball, dance and tag rugby. The children all loved playing sports they had never tried before, and said how much fun they had. Thank you to Sports Inspired and the UBS volunteers for an amazing, inspiring day!
This week sees the launch of our new pre-school stay and play groups. These groups are free of charge and are designed for 1 to 4 year olds currently not attending our Nursery. Every Monday from 9.00am to 9.30am, our fantastic PE coaches will be running Tumbling Tots in the main hall, where children wil take part in lots of exciting physical development games. Every Tuesday from 9.10am to 9.50am, our Early Years staff will be running a Messy Stay and Play group. Both are free drop in sessions open to any children living in our local community.
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. 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) or Ms Caireann Conlon (Assistant Headteacher)
Year 1, Year 2, Year 3: Ms Niamh McLaughlin (KS1 Lead Teacher ) or Mr Josh Middleton (Assistant Headteacher)
Year 4, Year 5, Year 6: Ms Simone Bunbury (Assistant Headteacher)
SEND: Ms Caireann Conlon (Assistant Headteacher)
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.