Welcome to Class 3

Dear Parents,

Welcome to the Summer term of 2026! 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, 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 trip to Bedes World at Jarrow Hall, along with a climbing competition, a swimming gala, an assembly for parents, and finishing off with some of the Easter traditions such as a trip to forest schools, the egg hunt and a successful coffee morning. I was proud of the way all children contributed at the Easter service too.

All routines and arrangements remain 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 be on Wednesday (cricket with a Carlisle cricket coach), and Thursday class PE on the field for rounders/athletics 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, especially for year 4’s as they will be sitting a SAT’s type test later on in June;
• Rowan’s after-school football is continuing on a Tuesday. 

The curriculum: This term’s topic is called Groovy Greeks. We will enjoy learning about clothing and armour, gods, food and drink, city states, Alexander the Great, with a fabulous Greek food tasting day 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: cricket, rounders/athletics 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: Charanga; You’ve got a friend by Carole King
• 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 information 

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 11th May, Monday to Thursday. 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. Non-muddy trainers will be used on the top playground.

Residential: Our residential booked for Berwick on June 15th for 4 nights grows closer, and as such we will start to provide information about kit lists and things to take via a meeting to be arranged.

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 children enjoyed the variety of these.

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 yellow 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