Dear Parents,
Welcome to the Spring term of 2023! We have had a fabulous Autumn term, what with the tremendous Christmas performance and the excitement of the party, making it a busy last few weeks!
All routines and arrangements will be as follows:
• Homework (either maths or English) will be given out on a Monday and needs to be completed and handed in by Wednesday morning; and another given out on Wednesday and completed/handed in Friday (leaving your weekends usually free of school work)
• PE will usually be Tuesday (Multi skills with Rowan) and Cricket (with Fraser), but children need their kit in school all the time, as we may have other activities;
• 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 Tuesday.
The curriculum: This term’s topic is called Settling Saxons. We will also be studying Beowulf in Literacy, and we have already watched a performance at the Theatre By The Lakes of ‘The Borrowers’. We will enjoy learning about clothing and armour, gods, food and drink, why they settled and place names.
• RE: Learning from the Carlisle Diocese scheme of work: What does it mean to be a Muslim in British society today? How is the resurrection portrayed as central to Christian belief?
• Science: Electricity;
• PE: football and cricket plus the outdoor activities;
• Geography and History: life and times of the Settling Saxons and where in the UK?;
• Music: Music express- Songwriter; exploring lyrics and melodies;
• Art and DT: Saxon weaving, watercolour and sketching;
• Literacy: a study of Beowulf, retelling, recount, instructional writing, comprehension skills;
• Maths: place value, numbers, addition and subtraction strategies, multiplication and division, problem solving, measures;
• PSHE: Living in the Wider World - Rules, Rights and Responsibilities
• French: General use of the French language avec Mdme Sweetman
Assessments: We conducted our usual end-of-term assessments before the holidays. There will be opportunities to discuss the outcomes at a parents evening scheduled for Monday 30th January.
PE Kit: The children need a pair of PE trainers (in a separate plastic bag) that will be expected to get dirty and very 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 in the hall or on the new rubberised surface. They would also benefit from a couple of pairs of socks so they don’t need to wear the same wet ones.
Residential: We are very excited to be going on a full residential to Hawse End Centre, which is a large, comfortable country mansion, situated on the western shores of Derwentwater, and 3 miles from Keswick, in June later this year. You have all had the initial letter reserving places, and we will have further information with regards to the finer details later on this year. Please feel free to email any questions to me at the address below. To whet your appetite of things to look forward to you can explore:
https://cumbriaoutdoors.org/centres/hawseend.asp
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 beneficial. We have bought brand new books as part of a Cumbria Library Services ‘Spellbinding’ programme, that children will read, have a passport to collect stickers as they review them, and finally vote collectively on the book they judged to be the best. This proved very popular last year.
Equipment: All stationary children require for their daily tasks is provided by school. We are a large class with 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 the Cumbrian weather! Water bottles are still required to travel home after school, and return refreshed the next morning.
Year 6 SAT’s tests: SAT’s tests will occur this year for the Year 6 children.
We will be holding an information evening for the parents of these children on Wednesday 8th February @ 3.00pm, to outline expectations for those of you who haven’t experienced the testing before. We can show you examples of CGP texts that can provide additional support for those wishing to purchase such materials to help prepare, they are very cost effective and closely matched to the SAT’s themselves. Please let me know if you would be interested in ordering some of these books through school at a reduced rate.
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 and it is the best form of communication for anything.
Yours Sincerely,
Mark Harrison
