Welcome to Class 3

Dear Parents,

Welcome to the Summer term of 2025.

First of all, I would just like to thank you to you all for making me feel so welcome. I have loved getting to know the children over the past term - they are a great bunch to work with! I know the children are all looking forward to Mr Harrison coming back - not too long now - but sadly, this means that I will shortly be saying goodbye. I have really enjoyed my time at Irthington. You are lucky to have such a great school and staff team on your doorsteps.

All routines and arrangements for this term 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)
• This term, PE will usually be Tuesday (Multi skills with Rowan); Wednesday - Cricket (with Fraser) and Thursday will be tennis this term (with Bethan). The 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, especially for year 4’s as they will be sitting a SAT’s type test later on in the year;
• Rowan’s after-school football is continuing on a Tuesday.

The curriculum: This term’s topic is called Remarkable Romans.

• RE: Learning from the Carlisle Diocese scheme of work: what difference does the resurrection make to Christians;
• Science: evolution and inheritance;
• PE: football, cricket and tennis;
• History: Why did the Romans invade Britain and what was their impact? 
• Geography: Equator, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, lines of latitude and longitude;
• Music: Charanga, an exciting new music scheme based around ‘Dancing in the streets’
• Art and DT: mosaics; levers and linkages;
• Literacy: escape from Pompeii; followed by ‘The Night Mail’, 
• Maths: multiplication and division, problem solving, shape and measures;
• PSHE: valuing difference and rights and respect;
• French: A la plage!
• ICT: spreadsheets.

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.

Reading: I would like the children to continue 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 is proving popular again.

Equipment: All stationery 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 Cumbrian weather! Water bottles are still required to travel home after school, and return refreshed the next morning.

Year 6 SAT’s tests: week beginning May 12th.

Year 6 Induction Day at William Howard: Monday 30th June all day

Cyclewise: This will involve pupils in Years 5 & 6 from Monday 30th June. Pupils will need a roadworthy bicycle and a helmet to take part. These can be brought into school on the first day of the course (Year 5: Monday 30th June / Year 6: Tuesday 1st July) and left in school until the end of the course (later that week).

Parents of pupils taking part need to provide consent for their child to take part. In previous years the pupils have been sent home with consent forms to be completed and returned. Cyclewise have introduced an online consent form this year, which can be accessed using a QR code or website link, which has been emailed to parents on Tuesday 29th April (and again today – 1st May - for those who had not already given consent). All pupils taking part must have been given consent by Tuesday 6th May at the latest.

If there is anything you wish to let us know, please stay in touch. Emails to the office at admin@irthingtonvillage.cumbria.sch.uk or head@irthingtonvillage.cumbria.sch.uk are the best forms of communication for anything.

Yours sincerely,

Jo Trotter