Term 6 message to parents and carers: 

Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome to the final term of this school year at St. Andrew’s!  I hope you have had a relaxing break with your families and your children are ready for a great new term.  

Supporting at home:

Parents often ask how they can support their children at home with their learning.  Reading is the most important thing you can do at home with your child.  Please continue to share books with your child and also discuss their personal reading with them.  Reading should be for pleasure, so please come and see me if you would like support in choosing books your child may enjoy.  Please find below some questions you could ask your child to further develop their reading skills: ​

What we will be learning this term:

Please see the medium-term plan for this term which contains information about all the subjects and what the children will be taught this term. This can be found on the school website and includes all of the objectives we will cover across the term.

Class text: Our class text this term is The Barnabus Project by The Fan Brothers. This text is about a group of creatures designed to be sold at the perfect Pet Shop, only Barnabus and his friends are considered failed projects and must escape.

We will be using this text to inform our fiction and non-fiction writing, as well as using this text in our guided reading sessions.

PE:  Each Thursday, we will be completing athletics sessions as a class. These sessions will involve preparations for sports week with the goals of making continuous improvements to our skills. Each Friday we will be improving our Ultimate Frizbee skills. Our skills will progress over the term and prepare us for an in-class match to show what we have learned. With this in mind, please ensure your child is wearing their P.E clothing and shoes on Thursdays and Fridays each week.

Music: This term, Year 3 and 4 we will be exploring Calypso Music. We will spend time exploring the history of the music, listening to and singing examples, and build on these skills to write and sing our own song.

We will also be providing support for the KS2 end of year performance. In class, we will be practising the sons for this performance to support year 5 and 6.

On the 4^th of July, year 3 and 4 will be attending a music event where we will be able to hear the music we composed as a class, played with real instruments. More information around this event is due to follow.

Home Learning and Spelling:

Homework is set to allow children to revisit learning from school to help embed it.  Children need several opportunities to practise their learning to allow them to build confidence and recall it better at a later date.  Please do support your child to complete all the tasks set each week. 

Spelling: Children will be sent home each week with a list of 10 spelling words. These will include words from our weekly spelling focus, as well as 5 selected words from our Common Exception words. Please ensure your child practises these spellings at home in preparation for a short test on Fridays.

Reading: Please support your child to read for 20 minutes per day, at least 5 times per week.  Tips for supporting your child with their reading are detailed above.  Please remind your child to record their reading in their reading diary and to bring this into school daily so we can also record in it when we read with your child in school.  Please initial next to each entry your child makes at home.  We will collect these in on Fridays and celebrate the children who have read 5 times that week.

Maths: Please complete the 4 activities set on Mathletics each week as well as 30 minutes of Times Table Rock Stars.  This has more impact in short 5-minute bursts over the week, rather than one 30-minute session.   Later this year, all year 4 children will complete a Times Table check. Spending time on Times Table Rock Stars will allow your child to feel more confident about this test.

Key information:

PE days: Thursdays and Fridays

Wellies: Need to be in school all the time.

Drinks: Water bottles should be brought into school and taken home daily.  Water only please.

Jewellery: Only stud earrings and a watch to be worn into school.  Earrings to be removed or taped up for PE.

Coats: Please ensure your child comes to school with a coat when cold weather or rain is expected.

Snacks: A number of children have begun to bring in sugary snacks, such as cookies and chocolate bars. Break time snacks should be fruit and vegetables only, unless agreed otherwise by Mr Pike or the class teacher.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to come and see me or to send me an email.

Thank you for your continued support.

Mr Watkins.

 

Term 5 message to parents and carers: 

Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome to another term at St. Andrew’s.  I hope you have had a relaxing break with your families and your children are ready for a great new term.    

Supporting at home:

Parents often ask how they can support their children at home with their learning.  Reading is the most important thing you can do at home with your child.  Please continue to share books with your child and also discuss their personal reading with them.  Reading should be for pleasure, so please come and see me if you would like support in choosing books your child may enjoy.  Please find below some questions you could ask your child to further develop their reading skills: ​

What we will be learning this term:

Please see the medium-term plan for this term which contains information about all the subjects and what the children will be taught this term. This can be found on the school website and includes all of the objectives we will cover across the term.

Class text: Our class text this term is ‘Flood’ by Mariajo Illustrajo. This text is a short picture book about a suddent flood taking over a small down, seemingly from nowhere. No-one seems to mind a bit of water, until it starts to cause problems! This text will inform both our Fiction and Non-fiction writing for this term, and will also be used as the focus of our Guided Reading sessions.    

PE:  Each Thursday, we will be completing short Dance sessions as a class. These sessions will involve controlling our bodies in rolls, turns and jumps while we also consider space around us and movement in tie with music. Each Friday we will be improving our Cricket skills. Our skills will progress over the term and prepare us for an in-class match to show what we have learned. With this in mind, please ensure your child is wearing their P.E clothing and shoes on Thursdays and Fridays each week.

Music: This term, Year 3 and 4 have some brilliant learning opportunities lined up to further develop their growing music skills. As a class, we will compose our own piece of music which will be played to us later using real instruments.

We also have a visit from the Frampton Shantymen this term, where we will complete a range of workshops whilst singing pirate sea shanties.

When returning to normal lessons, we will explore some simple jazz music, and understand some of its history.

Home Learning and Spelling:

Homework is set to allow children to revisit learning from school to help embed it.  Children need several opportunities to practise their learning to allow them to build confidence and recall it better at a later date.  Please do support your child to complete all the tasks set each week. 

Spelling: Children will be sent home each week with a list of 10 spelling words. These will include words from our weekly spelling focus, as well as 5 selected words from our Common Exception words. Please ensure your child practises these spellings at home in preparation for a short test on Fridays.

Reading: Please support your child to read for 20 minutes per day, at least 5 times per week.  Tips for supporting your child with their reading are detailed above.  Please remind your child to record their reading in their reading diary and to bring this into school daily so we can also record in it when we read with your child in school.  Please initial next to each entry your child makes at home.  We will collect these in on Fridays and celebrate the children who have read 5 times that week.

Maths: Please complete the 4 activities set on Mathletics each week as well as 30 minutes of Times Table Rock Stars.  This has more impact in short 5-minute bursts over the week, rather than one 30-minute session.   Later this year, all year 4 children will complete a Times Table check. Spending time on Times Table Rock Stars will allow your child to feel more confident about this test.

Key information:

PE days: Thursdays and Fridays

Wellies: Need to be in school all the time.

Drinks: Water bottles should be brought into school and taken home daily.  Water only please.

Jewellery: Only stud earrings and a watch to be worn into school.  Earrings to be removed or taped up for PE.

Coats: Please ensure your child comes to school with a coat when cold weather or rain is expected.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to come and see me or to send me an email.

Thank you for your continued support.

Mr Watkins.