Watch Helena Blake read ‘Ali’s Story’. Click on Assemblies!

Dear Parents/Carers,

As many of you will know, we have worked with Pop Up (a fantastic not-for-profit literacy organisation) since 2011-2012 and have met a wealth of authors during the last 10 years. Each year has brought an exciting new version of the Pop Up experience; the aspect that has remained the same is every class having a book or books by an author, who they later get to meet at an exciting location.

As London has such an enormous number of places to visit, we have been able to visit museums (eg Cartoon, London, IWM, British, Grant, Transport, Migration, Immigration and Diversity), art galleries (eg Courtauld, National, Crypt), London Zoo, Regents Canal, The Magic Circle, Kensington Palace, Leighton House, Hackney Pirates, Greenwich… and many more.

Pop Up staff have always worked closely with us, to design and deliver a diverse programme that will suit our children, teachers, school and wider community. We have had lots of ‘spin off’ opportunities with Pop Up, including CPD (from artists, illustrators and authors), family events (festivals, art projects, film-making projects, writing projects) and additional trips for the children eg to The Guardian.

Due to the impact of Covid-19, Pop Up looked a little bit different this year; classes met their authors via Zoom, during the autumn term, and unfortunately visits to venues had to be cancelled. As an exciting additional opportunity, we have booked live author events from the ‘Pop Up Presents’ schedule:

Reception – James Mayhew, Thursday 17th June@9.30

Year 1 – Emily Gravett, Tuesday 15th June@9.30

Year 2 – Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler, Wednesday 16th June@9.30

Year 3 – Sita Brahmachari & Jane Ray, Friday 18th June@10.00

Year 4 – Jay Hulme & Sahar Haghgoo, Friday 18th June@11.00

Year 5 – Ben Miller, Friday 18th June@14.00

Year 6 – A.M. Dassu, Monday 14th June@14.00

These events – and all Pop Up visits and trips – support the work we do in fostering a love of reading at Grafton. Hopefully, we will be able to take the children on trips to meet authors in person next academic year.

Kind regards,

Bea Symes

Deputy Headteacher/English Coordinator

Thursday 22nd April is Earth Day.

Monica Bell-Lara, in year 6, has created a fascinating video about climate change and plastic pollution. Well done, Monica!

THE LINKS: