Dear Parents,
Welcome to the Summer term of 2023! I am sure you will agree that time has shot by, but rest assured there are more great things to come. We are looking forward to the upcoming summer fair, sports day, our residential visit, a Coronation afternoon tea, sports competitions and events at William Howard school, and to finish with; a summer musical and leavers celebrations!! Phew, what a lot to do!!
In the previous term the children have enjoyed a theatre visit in January, a trip to Bedes World at Jarrow Hall, along with a climbing competition and finishing off with some of the Easter traditions such as the egg hunt and a successful coffee morning. I was proud of the way all children contributed at the Easter service too.
The familiar daily routines of class 3 have helped to keep everybody as healthy and safe as possible.
All routines and arrangements will be as follows:
- Maths homework will be given out on a Monday and needs to be completed and handed in by Wednesday morning; Literacy given out on Wednesday and completed/handed in Friday (it may switch around, depending on work completed in the class);
- PE will be Tuesday and Wednesday in the first half of term, and switch to Monday and Tuesday in the second half, but children need their kit in school all the time, as we will have more different activities as the weather gets nicer;
- Spellings will be given out on a Monday for a test on a Friday – it is much easier for the children if they do a little bit every night rather than cram on a Thursday night;
- Times tables will be tested on a Friday. This skill is also vitally important;
- Rowan’s after-school football is continuing on a
The curriculum: This term’s topic is called Groovy Greeks. We kicked off the topic with a fabulous Greek food tasting day this week. We will enjoy learning about clothing and armour, gods, food and drink, city states, Alexander the Great, and anything else the children discover along the way!
- RE: Learning from the Carlisle Diocese scheme of work: God’s creation and ‘what do different faiths teach about care and respect for others?
- Science: properties and changes of materials;
- PE: football, tennis and cricket plus sports day and lots of other outdoor activities;
- Geography and History: life and times of the Groovy Greeks, mapping with a study of Greece, both modern and ancient;
- Music: Music express- exploring lyrics and melodies;
- Art and DT: Food testing, cooking, clay work and sketching, painting and drawing;
- Literacy: A study of the book ‘The Odyssey, by Gillian Cross; writing a tourist information booklet about Greece, to include retelling, recount, instructional writing, comprehension skills;
- Maths: place value, numbers, addition and subtraction strategies, multiplication and division, problem solving, measures;
- PSHE: Health and wellbeing, growing and changing;
- French: General use of the French language avec Mdme Sweetman;
- ICT: learning about networks; presenting
Assessments: We conducted our usual end-of-term assessments before the holidays and will have fed back any issues or concerns we have at this stage.
SAT’s: As year 6 will be aware they will be taking their SAT’s tests the week commencing 8th May, Tuesday to Friday (after the Bank holiday. Please could you help them by ensuring an early night before and get up with plenty of time for a good breakfast. We will keep the tests as low key and informal as possible.
PE Kit: The children need a pair of PE trainers (in a separate plastic bag) that will be expected to get dirty and muddy after use on the field, so please don’t send in expensive shoes. The footwear for Rowan’s will be used on the field and therefore cannot be used for PE on the rubberised surface on the top playground.
Residential: Our residential booked for Hawse End on June 26th for 4 nights grows closer, and as such we will start to provide information about kit lists and things to take.
Reading: I would like the children to read every night (including weekends). However, I appreciate this can be difficult, so a minimum of twice a week recorded in the reading records would be essential to support their learning. The ‘Spellbinding’ programme of books we bought proved successful, and we finally voted collectively on the book they judged to be the best. This proved to be a close call, with 2 books chosen; ‘The Last Bear’ by Hannah Gold, and ‘Grandpa Frank’s Great Big Bucket List’ by Jenny Pearson. I hope you enjoyed hearing your children read these as much as we have.
Equipment: All stationary children require for their daily tasks is provided by school. We are a large class with storage space at a premium, so please can children only bring into school items they are required to, including reading books and records daily, spelling records and purple spelling activity books, and Friday test books for spelling and times- table tests on Fridays. Please check book bags as letters often remain in there for several weeks!
Spares, wellies and bottles: Thank you to all parents for providing children with the above items, we have now 100% of children fully equipped. Just a quick note that some wellies are getting a little small, and spares damaged, even though we are approaching Summer we still require these in school thanks to the uncertainty of Cumbrian weather! Water bottles are still required to travel home after school, and return refreshed the next morning.
Finally, my email address is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
If there is anything you wish to let me know about please stay in touch. I check my emails daily.
Yours Sincerely,
Mark Harrison
