Term 1 message to parents and carers: 

Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome to the first term of this school year at St. Andrew’s!  I hope you have had a great summer break with your family and have managed to enjoy the amazing weather. Hopefully children are feeling refreshed and ready to make a great start to a new year.   

Supporting at home:

Parents often ask how they can support their children at home with their learning.  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. This is key for developing the language skills to take on our reading assessments throughout the school year.

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 the objectives we will cover across the term.

Class text: Our class text this term is Leon and the Place Between by Angela McAllister. This text is about a young boy’s trip to the circus, where things take an unexpected and magical turn! We will be using this text to inform our guided reading lessons and will aim to create short pieces of writing in our English lessons inspired by what we have read.

PE:  P.E will be working very differently this term. Starting on September 8^th, KS2 will be going swimming every afternoon at Thornbury leisure centre. Due to high numbers, Year 3 has been split into two separate groups over the two weeks. Please see the previous email for more information about this. Please ensure your child comes to school each day with all that they need for the swimming session so that we are able to leave the school promptly at 13:00 each day.

We also have other exciting P.E opportunities over this term. Each week, we will be having tailored P.E sessions delivered by Leap Active and also Bristol Bears. These sessions will take place on Wednesday and Thursday each week. Please ensure your child is wearing their P.E kit on these days. It is essential your child wears appropriate footwear for these P.E lessons, or they may need to miss out on these sessions. This is for their own safety. School shoes and boots, for example, cannot be worn in these sessions.

Music: This term, Year 3 and 4 we will be exploring music through story telling and setting descriptions. We will be making use of procession instruments to tell the story of a person making the journey up and down a mountain, thinking carefully about how we may show weather and altitude changes. These sessions will be completed with Mrs Moore on a weekly basis.

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 in completing all the tasks set for each week. 

Spelling: Children will be sent home with a list of 10 spelling words for each week of this term. These will include words from our weekly spelling focus, as Common Exception words and words from our Special Skills (such as homophones and apostrophes). Please ensure your child practises these spellings at home in preparation for a short test on Fridays. On the back of your spelling sheets, I have provided a huge list of possible practice activities to make spelling practice fun!

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.  You will have been provided with information about our new online reading tracker we are trialling this term. More information about how this website works can be found here.  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 in 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.

This school year, each class will be recording engagement with the home learning tasks. The above tasks have been carefully planned to aid your child in making the best progress they can, so it is essential they access this work.

Key information:

PE days: Wednesday and Thursdays

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 in 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.

Focus tools (fidget toys): A number of focus tools are available in class for learners who may need them. Please do not allow your child to bring focus tools into class without first checking with the class teacher. These tools must be silent and provide low visual stimuli to be effective in lesson time.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to come and see me at the end of the school day, or email me.

Thank you for your continued support, and I look forward to working with this new class!

Mr Watkins.

 

 

 

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.