Dear Parents,
Welcome to the Summer term of 2021! It has been a strange year, but we are ready to have a fabulous final term, with lots of great things lined up.
The children had a busy last few weeks of the Spring term, getting used to the new daily routines of class 3 in order to keep everybody as healthy and safe as possible, something that has proved successful.
In Class 3 you will find myself and Mrs Lupton as staff members, with Mrs Blackley joining us on Fridays too.
During the Easter holiday, Mrs Harrison had an operation on her foot, similar to the one she had in November 2019, and will be recovering at home for the next few weeks. Cover in her absence has been arranged and we will be in regular contact with her.
All routines and arrangements will be as follows:
- Literacy homework will be given out on a Monday and needs to be completed and handed in by Wednesday morning; Maths given out on Wednesday and completed/handed in Friday (leaving your weekends usually free of school work)
- PE will usually be Tuesday, but children need their kit in school all of the time;
- 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 football is now on a Friday, with Fraser continuing with cricket on the Thursdays after half term.
The curriculum: This term’s topic is called Vicious Vikings. To start this learning context with a wow, today we have had a visitor named Hrothgar in school help us to experience first-hand Viking ways. We all enjoyed learning about clothing and armour, gods, food and drink, even managing to learn about fire lighting and fabulous Viking stories, I am sure your children will tell you all about our exciting first day back at school! (Photos to follow very soon).
- RE: Sikhism; we will find out what do Sikhs believe? Look at the religious symbols, the 5 Ks, the holy book and Gurdwara.
- Science: sound and light;
- PE: football, rounders and cricket plus the outdoor activities on residential;
- Geography and History: life and times of Viking living;
- Music: Music express- exploring melodies and scales;
- Art and DT: Viking Longboat models and shields, textiles;
- Literacy: a wide range of texts, including a study of Macbeth, retelling, recount, instructional writing, comprehension skills;
- Maths: place value, numbers, addition and subtraction strategies, multiplication and division, problem solving, co-ordinates;
- PSHE: As outlined in a previous letter outlining the introduction of the new statutory Relationships and Sex Education curriculum, here is a list of each of the RSE lessons to be covered this term.
-
- Growing and changing (1st half term);
- Year 6 will be taught:
- Is this normal?
- Helpful or unhelpful? Managing change
- Boys will be boys? – challenging gender stereotypes
- This will be your life!
- Media manipulation
- Making babies
- Healthy Relationships (2nd half term);
- Year 6 will be taught: Solve the friendship problem
- Work together
- Let’s negotiate
- Behave yourself
- Assertiveness skills
- Don’t force me
- Acting appropriately
- Year 4 and 5 will be taught:
- An email from Harold!
- Moving house
- My feelings are all over the place!
- All change!
- My changing body
- Preparing for periods
- Healthy Relationships (2nd half term);
- Year 4 and 5 will be taught:
- OK or not OK? (2 parts)
- Islands
- Human machines
- Can you sort it?
- Together
Assessments: We conducted our usual end-of-term assessments before the Easter holidays. We will be running some targeted after-school catch-up sessions for a small number of children, and if this applies to your child we will write to you during the course of this week.
PE Kit: The children need a pair of football shoes and for PE (indoor/outdoor) a pair of 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 either need two pairs of trainers/pumps in school or one pair of trainers and one pair of boots. They would also benefit from a couple of pairs of socks so they don’t need to wear the same wet ones.
Residential: As it stands, the residential booked coincides with the date where things could get back to normal. Having liaised regularly with the centre they are preparing to receive visitors, however, schools are guided by the advice supplied from the Local Authority- Health and Safety team, so as soon as we have any further updates we will communicate these to you. Please feel free to email any questions to me at the address below.
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.
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.
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
