Our children are READY for the wider world

At Gray’s Farm, we believe that residential trips provide invaluable opportunities for children to explore new environments, develop independence, and discover their potential. These trips help children build confidence and self-esteem as they learn to take responsibility, make decisions, and experience a sense of freedom. They also gain a deeper understanding of their skills, talents, and limitations.

Residential trips are powerful tools for personal growth, teaching children important life skills, building character, and creating memories that will last a lifetime. Beyond the learning experiences, these trips foster strong bonds between children across the two classes as well as with the staff who accompany them.

At Gray’s Farm our residential takes place in the Spring term of Year 5.  In March 2026 our Year 5 children will be on residential for 2 nights and 3 days away at Rootd, which is an adventure camp, based around the forest school principles.

For one term each, the children in Year 4,5 and 6  will develop their culinary skills and learn how to cook 1-2 healthy, low-cost dishes using the same main ingredient. Across the course of the term, each group will visit the kitchen twice and learn to cook 2-4 meals in total. This year, Non-Allergy children will have a session cooking meat dish(es) and a veggie dish.  For any children with allergies, are vegetarian or have religious requirements, vegetarian options will always be provided in an allocated week to ensure there is no contamination of meats.  

Years 1, 2 and 3 complete taster sessions in the Summer term - with the main aim being for them to understand the importance of hygiene around food and food preparation, to encourage them to try unfamiliar foods and form opinions on their likes/dislikes and to learn some basic culinary skills.

At Gray’s Farm we are proud of our continuing commitment to charity.  

Each year, we take part in various charity events to help support a number of good causes.  

We raise money each time thanks to the generosity and enthusiasm of our children and their families.

There is never an expectation for anyone to donate and we try to be mindful of the cost of everyday living which is why we stick to three main charitable events each year:

1. Autumn term - National Charity 

2. Spring Term - International charity 

3. Summer Term - Local charity 

For 2025/2026 our Junior Leadership Team(JLT) will be voting for the charity they would like to raise money for. 

Last year we organised events to raise money for:  

• Macmillan Cancer Care

• Poppy Appeal 

We want our children to be aware that any size of donation can have an impact, they can reach out to others and show love and compassion and be shown that they can make a difference in the world.

We recognise that our children are the leaders of the future and therefore provide a range of opportunities for children to develop their leadership skills. Children’s voice is valued and promoted – throughout the academic year, our children are given a platform to express the views of their school to help shape its development. We encourage all of our pupils to embrace the wide range of opportunities available to them – and always seek to find new ways that we can further empower our pupils. This enables our children to develop as individuals, as a community and grow the school as a whole. 

We have developed a range of leadership opportunities for our children. For some of our leadership positions, children are elected by their peers through a democratic process. Others require children to apply for posts often requiring a written letter of application, giving a presentation and going through a selection process

Being a Leader at Gray’s Farm Primary means applying the skills of: 

Responsibility / Volunteering/ Service to the community/ Respect / Empathy / Integrity / Initiative / Creativity  alongside our cultural values of: