Autumn Term2017

Curriculum Notesto Parents

Welcome to the first edition of Curriculum Notes to Parents for this New Year at school in 2017/18.

This booklet is given to all our families and it gives details about the areas of work and topics to be covered by all the classes during the

Autumn Term. I also try to share other useful and relevant information with you too.

I hope you find this booklet useful in supporting the learning of your child(ren) through a variety of ways, such as getting library books

on topics being studied, researching on the internet, using resources from home and most valuably talking to your child(ren) about their learning. Your child(ren) love how interested you are in

their school work and it will add to their engagement and motivation.

Each year we have a School Improvement Plan which sets out our key priorities for the year ahead and how we are going to achieve them. These priorities are shared with you in this booklet. I have

also included a section that includes Top Tips of things to remember at the beginning of the new term and year, which I

thought would be useful.The very back page has “Dates for your Diary” and I have tried to

go long term with this and put in all events that I know until Christmas!!!

Hopefully this means you will not miss any of them but please look carefully at the weekly newsletter for dates and times of other

events. Newsletters are sent home every Monday but spares are kept in the reception area of the school and it can also be found on

the school website.I hope you find all the sections useful and they help you support your child(ren) with their learning and also allows you to find out

more about our school. Thank you in anticipation of your invaluable support with everything we do.

Sarah BamberOak Class

Our whole school topics this term are ‘What a wonderful world’ and ‘Let’s Celebrate’Personal, Social and Emotional Children will learn the rules and routines of the classroom so they feel safe and secure in their environment. During ‘Key Worker Time’ they will get to know the other children in the class, looking at how they are the same and different. During ‘getting learning’ time we will support the children so they are able to share, take turns and play with other children in the class. As part of PSHE work we will be using the SCARF resources from the Life Education Bus, focusing on the topics Healthy Lifestyles and Move your body.

Communication, Language and Literacy - This term we will be looking at a range of texts including Room on the Broom, Once There Were Giants, Rosie’s Walk, Funnybones and Noah’s Ark stories. We will work with Year 1 and 2 to plan a wedding based on the story ‘The Scarecrows Wedding’. Children will have a daily 20 minutes phonics session in a small focused group. In this session the children will learn all the letter sounds and begin to

blend these together for reading. I will be running a Phonics Workshop on 14 th September at 9am to support you with helping your child with phonics and reading. We will be learning that books have titles, authors and illustrators and children will re-enact and retell a range of stories in the correct sequence. Children will learn to recognise and write their own name. We encourage the children to look at print all around them and they will begin to understand that this print has a purpose. The children’s writing skills will develop through various fun activities involving sand, gloop, slime, paint, finger painting, chalk, water and sky writing. We want to encourage your child to develop a love for writing and an eagerness to write for lots of different purposes.

Physical The children will begin to experiment with different ways of moving including like a frog, bunny, crocodile, bear, caterpillar and learn to follow instructions by playing games like ‘Follow my Leader’. They will learn to follow instructions and be able to stop and find a space. They will learn to dress, undress and manage their own personal hygiene (knowing when to wash their hands and how to do this correctly). They will learn to travel around, under, over and through apparatus and begin to discuss why it is important to keep healthy. The children will learn about healthy eating and the importance of a balanced diet. The children will have lots of opportunities to use large equipment, including the bikes, learning how to use these safely. The children will work hard on their fine motor skills with activities involving threading and playdough to strengthen the muscles in their hands. The children will make anticlockwise and vertical movements with a pencil, moving onto forming recognisable letters. When using large equipment for den building, the children will learn how to move equipment safely.

Mathematics The children will learn to recognise and record numbers 0 – 5 moving onto 5 to 9. Through a variety of practical activities they will begin to count up to 10 objects and learn to check their counting. The children will learn to count in different groups of 1s, 5s and 10s. When ready, we will begin to look at which number comes before and after another number to 10. The children will learn to recognise 2D (triangle, circle, square and rectangle) and 3D shapes (cube, cone, cylinder and cuboid). We will play lots of sorting and matching games (sort socks by size or pattern, shoes with or without laces) and talk about patterns on clothes, wallpaper, wrapping paper, toys. We will begin to look at the language of addition and what addition is.

Understanding the World – As Scientists the children will be learning to name and label parts of the body. As Historians, we will be looking at how we have changed since we were a baby and how we are going to change in the future. We will look at our family tree and compare our families. We will also learn about the Hindu festival of Diwali and how this is celebrated. We will have a ‘Colour and Music Day’ on the 19 th October. With Year 1 and 2 we will learn about ‘People Who Help Us’ focusing on the different emergency services. They will use ICT to investigate changes to leaves etc. Your child will have daily opportunities to use tape recorders, laptops, computers, photocopiers, keyboards, and cameras as part of their learning.

Expressive Arts and Design -The children will have lots of opportunities to work together to build their own role plays both inside and outside the classroom, through den building, small world play and the mud kitchen. During all lessons we encourage all children to join in and sing familiar songs and take on the role of different characters in stories we have read. When reading the story ‘Room on the Broom’ the children will design, plan, make and evaluate their own broom. The children will learn the skill of colour mixing and shading for our Winter Display.

Please can PE kits be in school every day as we have access to the hall every morning. Children will be read with in school as much as possible so can reading books come to school every day. Your child will read with their Reading Buddy every Friday afternoon which I know they will love!

Thank you Lisa Kelly, Rachel Harding & Claire Bowerman

Beech ClassLiteracyIn our work in Literacy this term we will be developing our skills in reading and writing. Throughout the term we will develop our confidence and fluency in reading whilst providing opportunities to talk and show our understanding of what we have read; we will do this by listening to your child read on a one to one basis but also in small guided groups which will support discussion. We will use a range of texts using the children’s interests as a starting point and link them to our whole school topics too, for example during the first half of the Autumn term our topic is ‘What a Wonderful World’ so we will read stories where characters go exploring such as in Jack and the Flumflum Tree by Julia Donaldson. During the second half term our topic is ‘Let’s Celebrate’ so we will use some non-fiction texts to learn about different reasons and ways people celebrate. In our writing we will be doing lots of sentence work focusing on the use of capital letters, full stops and finger spaces and our letter formation too. We will work on thinking about what we want to write and practice saying our sentences before trying to write them. This will help us to write a sentence we can read and help us to think how we can use different grammatical features in our writing, such as using the conjunctions ‘and’ and ‘because’. We will also try to develop our language by adding describing words to our sentences. To support our reading and writing we will work in groups to continue to develop our knowledge of phonics; this will then be supported through continuous provision as well as having guided groups and support throughout the week. On the weekly homework you will be able to see what we will be focusing on in the following week so you can support and prepare your child at home.NumeracyIn Beech class we will become budding mathematicians in our learning! We will be reading, writing and ordering numbers to 20 and then to 100 or beyond. As well as this, we will be counting in twos, fives and tens and finding one more and one less and ten more and ten less of numbers. We will be learning different strategies to add and subtract and will be learning our doubles and halves of numbers to 20 and beyond and investigating pairs of numbers that make 10, then 20. We will be naming and describing 2D and 3D shapes and using them to make patterns and pictures. We will be sorting and recognising coins and using them in simple shopping activities. We will also be estimating, measuring and comparing weights, heights, lengths, widths and capacities of objects. We will use these skills to help us solve problems where we will have opportunities to apply what we have learnt. Weekly homework is sent out which often shows what we have been doing during the week so you can continue to support your child at home. Homework is also used to let you know what we will be working on in the next week.Science

Our first topic in the opening half term of the year is ‘What a Wonderful World’. As Scientists we will be learning about our local environment and places we like to visit nearby; we will learn about the changes that occur throughout the year, for example the changes in weather and seasons and how these effect the animals, plants and wildlife that may live there. As well as looking at different habitats we will learn about different animals; texts such as Handa’s Surprise and Brown Bear, Brown Bear will get us thinking about lots of different animals. We will also learn about people too and what living things need to survive, grow and thrive. This will link to a themed week called ‘Who Am I?’ICTComputing continues to play an important part in our classroom on a daily basis as we develop how we use a range of different resources available including laptops, ipads, cameras, voice recorders, etc. We will be learning how to log on and off a computer and how to open and close software programs as well as navigate round websites which can be used to help us in our learning; as part of this we will learn the importance of safety on the internet. We will be developing our mouse and keyboard skills and we will use a range of different resources as part of our learning including iPads, laptops, Beebots, cameras and voice recorders.PEWe will be doing games activities in which we will develop our throwing and catching skills as well as bat and ball skills. We will develop our dance skills by listening to different kinds of music and finding different ways to move to it. PE takes place on Monday mornings and Thursday afternoons. There are also other opportunities for extra sessions and the occasional club which is brought into school so please could you make sure that your child has their PE kit in school at all times. On our allocated PE days please could you make sure that your child does not wear any earrings. Thank you.PSHEAs part of our PSHE work this year we will be developing skills across areas including resilience, responsibility, being reflective, resourcefulness, reasoning and readiness. During the Autumn term we will focus on resilience and responsibility and link this to our whole school topic of ‘What a Wonderful World’ through learning about rules, rights and responsibilities, caring for the environment and a focus on money too. During this term we will also link our learning to Anti-Bullying Week and Remembrance Day too.REIn RE we will explore different religions, including Christianity, where we will have the opportunity to explore different beliefs about God, worship and the world around us; we will do this by asking the question “What do people say about God?” We will read a range of stories and explore artefacts. We will also use RE as a time for reflection; where we can ask questions and develop a sense of wonder about the world using our imagination. We will think about what is important to us, reflect on our own feelings and experiences and develop a sense of belonging. At the end of this term there will be our Infant Nativity too which is a part of our class entitlement.Creative CurriculumOur whole school topic for the first half term in Autumn is ‘What a Wonderful World’ so in Beech Class we are going to think about journeys and adventures! We are going to celebrate the places that we like to visit and what it might be like to become an explorer. We visit new places, meet new people and learn new things and this happens daily. We will use this as an inspiration for our learning. We will learn about different places around the UK; its different countries and its capital cities as well as different places that we like to visit. We will learn about how things have changed over time, for example in our local environment, transport, etc. This will also link to a themed week called ‘Who Am I?’ where we will develop skills in history where we will look at changes in the past and present and put events in chronological order. Our creative curriculum allows us to explore the interests of children in Beech class which will help us develop our skills across a number of areas of the curriculum. This will take place during our History, Geography, Art and Design Technology lessons. Keep an eye out for updates on newsletters, in diaries and on tapestry to find out about exciting learning that is taking place in class throughout the Autumn term. During the Autumn term we will also try and on a visit to a place in our local area as part of our entitlement too!Please could you: Encourage your child to read for ten minutes each night and write in your child’s diary; they are a great way for us to keep in touch. Also, please could you make sure that reading bags are brought into school everyday; we will change reading books every Monday and Friday. Homework will be sent home on a Friday ready for the Big Write the following week so make sure you support your child in gathering lots of ideas. Maths homework will be sent home too whilst information on the weeks phonics words can also be found in your reading diary.

Thank you in advance- Mr Moulding, Mrs Winter & Mrs Richards

Rowan ClassThe whole school topics for this term are “What a Wonderful World” and “Let’s Celebrate…”

English The children will have Big Write homework which will be sent home on Fridays and will then be used to complete an independent piece of writing on Mondays. This gives an opportunity for you to work with your child, talking about what they will be writing about and also gives an excellent opportunity for you to help with researching subjects through library visits or using the internet. Every other week the children will be doing an Independent Write where they will be doing a completely independent piece of writing based on the genre we are doing. Spellings will be sent home weekly and assessed the following week. We will be exploring the different genres of literature such as stories with familiar settings, poetry and non-chronological reports. Children will have opportunities to be story tellers, actors as well as authors. The children will continue to work in their phonics groups daily as well as having Guided Reading sessions and new whole class reading comprehension weekly lessons to help develop your children’s inference and deduction skills. There will also be opportunities for independent reading and developing their comprehension skills. We will be trying to make our ‘writing more exciting’ by using conjunctions to make simple sentences more interesting as well as adding adjectives and adverbs and developing different types of sentences.Mathematics This Autumn Term sees the introduction of the new whole school Mathletics programme. It should give the children opportunities to consolidate things learnt in the maths lessons to try at home. It is full of exciting games and challenges and we welcome your support in working with your children on this. The children this term will be consolidating number bonds as well as formalising the 2x, 5x and 10x tables during Mental Maths sessions. They will be working on reading and writing numerals up to 100 and representing 2-digit numbers using concrete and pictorial methods. The children will develop a familiarity of the + - x ÷ = signs to calculate number sentences. Children will also be developing their knowledge of the properties of shapes and using money and measurement to solve problems. Science As scientists we will be looking mainly at ourselves. We will be investigating how we grow and develop and what we need to survive. Your children will have the opportunity to plan investigations into how exercise and nutrition help humans to develop. They will also be looking at how we can keep ourselves safe in the home, out and about, in school and when we are on the Internet. They will also be looking at materials and their properties and finding the best materials for different jobs. Computing Children will be using elements of computing and technology on a daily basis. We will begin by looking at Hector’s World and how to make ourselves as safe as possible when using the internet. The children will be making their own algorithms and will be using the iPads for research and consolidation throughout the whole curriculum. Your children will also be creating digital books to display their stories. Digimaps and Google Maps will be used to find where they live in the world.

PE Our sporty superstars will be working hard this term acquiring ball skills during games. In gymnastics we will be looking at planning, performing and evaluating sequences using skills such as travelling, jumping, balancing and rolling using both small and large apparatus. They will also be understanding how exercise affects their bodies alongside science investigations.RE In this term we will be looking at different religious festivals including Diwali and the Christmas Story. We will also be looking at stories from the Old Testament including the story of Noah’s Ark.PSHE There will continue to be a huge focus on helping children to become resilient, happy learners and as part of a whole school focus the children will be developing their attitudes to learning. Your children will be helping to create class rules and to understand feelings and actions. The children will be learning about health and well-being, healthy life styles, growing and changing and keeping safe.Creative Curriculum: As part of Year2’s Creative Curriculum we will be concentrating on developing our skills in History, Music, DT Art and Geography. We will be looking at where we live and features of maps and plans of the local area, even finding our homes on Google Maps. We will be learning about Florence Nightingale as well as finding out about people that help us. Hopefully we will have some special visitors. The children will be designing and making Room on the Broom wands as well as making vegetable soup to tie in with the story of The Enormous Turnip. As musicians children will have the opportunity to develop their singing skills. We will be performing at the Harvest Assembly as well as working with Oak and Beech classes to produce the Christmas Nativity. The children will be producing Christmas decorations which will be available at the Christmas Fayre.Targets for this term: Learn 2x and 10x tables Recite number bonds of 10,20 and 100 Write simple sentences with capital letters, finger spaces and correct punctuation in cursive handwriting.Please help and encourage your child to:

Read every night at home. Practise the things they find hard at home and support them with remembering their homework. Talk with your children and help them plan their Big Write. Checking the spelling of the key vocabulary they want to

use.

I really look forward to meeting you all and working with you to ensure all your children continue to be successful, independent learners. Please come and say hello and if there is anything I can do to help please come and see me in class or email me at aogrady@strikelane.lancs.sch.uk

Thank you for your support Anna O’Grady & Vicky Ashworth

Top Tips for a Successful Start to our School YearAll pedestrians must enter and exit school through the path and pedestrian gate, not through the car park gates please. All our children must be able to enter and leave school safely. Children on bicycles or scooters need to dismount at the pedestrian gate please and push their bicycle or scooter into school.

Winter UniformThis must be clearly labelled and please can we ensure all children wear ties.

Boys GirlsGrey Trousers Green or Grey skirt/trousers/pinaforeWhite shirt and tie White shirt and tieGreen sweatshirt Green sweatshirt or cardiganBlack shoes Black low heeled shoes

P.E. Kit- Please ensure that this is always in school ready for P.E. lessons. Hair must be tied back and jewellery must not be worn.Black shorts, coloured P.E. shirt and black pumps. (All labelled)

Reading Bags- These must be in school everyday so reading books can be changed and monitored. Please comment in their home/school diary about how they have read at home as communication between home and school is essential. Phonics support is in the home/school diary too.

Homework- This is given on a regular basis and includes Reading, Spellings, Times tables, Talk for Write and Massive Maths homework and Topic tasks. Parental co-operation and support is imperative so we can ensure homework is completed and understood. All the children have reading/homework diaries so please look in these and initial/ write comments so we can help your child(ren). Talk for Write homework and Massive Maths homework is always on the school website for each week. Mathletics (log in details were sent home before the Summer holidays) is also on the school website which helps bring Maths alive and is interactive so there is text questions, animations and activities for each topic. Please make sure you look carefully at these and thank you in anticipation as we really rely on your partnership.

Attendance- Attendance and punctuality are vital. Please ensure your child has opportunities to play with their friends from 8:50am before school starts. If your child is absent please inform school and follow up with a letter. We really want all the children to receive full time education.

Car & Road Safety- It is important that when bringing or collecting your children by car that we must all observe simple rules. We must not bring cars into the school grounds or drop off/park on zig zags, double yellow lines or on the red box.

Walk to School Wednesday- We will continue with our Walk to School Wednesday where we meet at Freckleton Methodist Church at 8:40am and we all walk to school together- staff, parents and children.

Home/School Diary- Every child in class now has a homework diary which includes their reading log, homework, home/school agreement and pages to support them with their learning. Please complete and ensure that these are in school every day. Please encourage your child(ren) to complete the reading challenges, show their times tables talent and sporting accomplishments. There is also a new section on 25 things to do before your 7 and 50 things to do before your 11 ¾! I look forward to seeing all the exciting things achieved!

School Improvement Plan Priorities 2017/18

At Strike Lane Primary School we are totally committed and dedicated to improving the life chances of all our children and strive to provide them with the best education possible. We want to ensure that they have lifelong learning skills and that they achieve everything they are capable of and reach their dreams. Our School Improvement Plan shows how we will achieve this through our priorities for this year.

Our Priorities are:-1. To embed the children’s skills in Literacy and Maths across the

curriculum.2. To ensure all children across the school make the most

progress possible and all provision is put in place to meet their needs.

3. To develop our PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) across school to meet the needs of the children.

4. To embed all aspects of our behaviour and safeguarding procedures and policies.

These will ensure all our children fulfil their potential and are well supported by all our stakeholders. This is our commitment to excellence as well as providing a safe, happy and secure learning

environment which fosters independence, confidence and responsibility.

Maple Class‘What a Wonderful World!’ and ‘Let’s Celebrate’

English: In English this term we will explore a range of different genres of writing including: recounts as we recall a day in the life of the ‘Hodgeheg’, job applications as we apply for our classroom monitor roles, biographies as we find out about Christopher Columbus and historical stories as we meet ‘Ug’ and ‘The Stone Age Boy’. Wherever possible we will link these genres to our topic ‘What a Wonderful World?’ and ‘Celebrations’. Our daily SPaG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar) input will focus on the use of conjunctions (when, if, because, although) to add extra information to sentences. Grammatical terminology we will use includes: adverb, preposition, conjunction, word family, prefix, main clause, subordinate clause, consonant, vowel, inverted commas (or ‘speech marks’). In our Phonics work we will be investigating a range of prefixes and suffixes and how these are added to root words. Our class reader will be ‘Gulliver’s Travels’’ and we will develop our comprehension and ‘talk for writing’ skills based on this text.

Mathematics: At the start of our new term, the focus will be place value as we explore numbers that ‘The Hodgeheg’ might encounter as he explores his neighbourhood. We will become experts at reading, writing numbers up to 1000, comparing and ordering numbers and partitioning numbers in a variety of ways e.g. 56=26+30 or 16+40 etc. The children will develop their addition and subtraction skills solving real life and practical problems. We will develop written calculation methods, adding and subtracting numbers using htu. The children will apply addition and subtraction strategies learnt to help them solve money related problems. We shall also be recalling and using our multiplication and division facts for the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 times tables. There will be opportunity to practise solving missing number problems using all four number operations, developing the children’s use of the ‘inverse’ to help them check their answers whilst working independently. We will become very efficient mathematicians!

Science: Our focus in Science will be health and nutrition. We will investigate that animals, including humans, need the right types and amount of nutrition, and that they cannot make their own food; they get nutrition from what they eat. To do this, we will compare the diet of hedgehogs and humans and make a healthy packed lunch to share on a picnic. There might even be a trip to Tesco to take part in their ‘Farm to Fork’ project.

Creative Curriculum: Our whole school topic this term is ‘What a Wonderful World’ where there will be lots of new and exciting things to learn and lots of opportunities to develop skills across a range of subjects. During our themed week ‘Who am 1?’ we will map our life as a journey so far and discover what type of learners we are. We will make models of the brain as we discover ‘how’ we learn. In geography, we will take a close look at our village and its location within the county of Lancashire and it’s location within England and the United Kingdom and the World. We will also look at volcanoes and their location around the world and discover how and why they erupt. In history this term we will travel through time to the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age to discover where the Early Britons settled and how they lived. We hope to have a Stone Age ancestor visit us and spend some time with us in the classroom too!In ICT, we will have a focus on e-safety and use these skills to embark on research tasks to find information to support our history topic as well as copy and paste images as we create information leaflets about volcanoes. In art and design, we will use clay to make models of volcanoes and a little bit of science to help them erupt. In music, we will all play the recorder whilst learning to understand tempo, timbre, pitch and rhythm. The children will have the opportunity to create, perform and analyse short descriptive compositions. We hope to perform a short piece by the end of the autumn term. In Religious Education, our question is ‘Who should we follow?’ and we will link this to the different leaders in our wonderful World and different religions. In PSHE, as we embark on our learning journey in the juniors, we will identify what we think is a ‘healthy relationship’ and develop skills for getting along and restoring situations if we fall out. As we study the theme of ‘resilience’ we will be finding real life examples of this in our classroom to discover our weekly ‘Values V.I.P’.

PE : This term we will explore different ball skills, practising passing, shooting and dribbling. We will also look at strategies and tactics deployed in team games. This year PE will take place every Monday and Thursday.

Entitlement: During this half term we will visit Cuerden Valley to experience life in Victorian times. Throughout the term, we will all help to look after our new residents, some African land snails.

Please help and encourage your child to: Learn times tables – 3, 4 and 8s (including the 2,5 and 10s they learnt in year 2)

Read regularly at home and discuss the text read (this is just as important now that they are in the juniors )

Complete Big Write homework in preparation for Big Write every Thursday and complete Maths homework which is sent home on a Friday.

Thank you, Mrs Scott, Mrs Thompson & Mrs Francis

Willow Class Hello and welcome to what I know will be a super year in Willow class; both myself and Mrs Jones are very excited about the year ahead! - I am really looking forward to working alongside you again and this year feels particularly special to me as I am excited to see how much the children have grown and developed since my first year with them in Oak Class. This first half term’s school topic is What a Wonderful World and this will be linked to our work across the Curriculum with a particular focus on Geography and Science, the second half term’s topic is Let’s Celebrate.

Literacy – During the second week of autumn term, our class will be celebrating the wonderful children’s story Charlotte’s Web. We will have lots of opportunities to explore setting and character descriptions, planning and story mapping and expanding our use of creative language and vocabulary in our own stories. With daily Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar at the beginning of each literacy lesson, the children will not only be learning new grammatical terms and spellings patterns but they will also have the time to apply their new literacy skills. To link in with our school topic during the second half of autumn term, Willow class will be reading a range of short stories celebrating different religions. In Guided Reading we will using extracts from both Charlotte’s Web and The Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpurgo (another favourite of mine) to help develop our active reading skills and improve our inference and deduction. Through our Big Writes, we will continue to explore and practice our writing skills across a variety of genres, including persuasive writing, instructional writing on how to make ceramic sculptures, poetry linked to the Independence day, flashbacks/diary entry linked to history, report writing and descriptive writing covering a range of story-types including religious stories and events.

Numeracy – The first week back is ‘All About Me’ and this, as you know, will help to ease the children back into school and gives me a chance to learn all about them, again. I have found that this is the perfect opportunity to assess the children and begin to recap the basics and get a sense of the children’s understanding of numbers. As we move away from the initial week, the rest of the first half term will be taken up with geometry. This will give chance to explore different methods of problem solving, getting to grips with shape and data handling as well as ‘touching on time’ which is always a tricky objective to cover. We will develop our mental strategies and have a big push on times table recall and each Friday, along with their BIG write, there will be a times table test each week. We will extend our problem solving and reasoning skills by using and applying our mathematical knowledge by ‘threading’ the skills through our daily maths/mental maths sessions.

Science – We will be studying living things whether that be our surrounding environment (British wildlife/flowers and habitats) or in the wider environment looking at contrasting continents; we will be doing plenty of curriculum links with literacy as we study the story The Butterfly Lion, a story set in East Africa. In Willow class we will be trialling a new focus in Science; Vocabulary. It is a very important part of this subject and we will be trying to collate as much varied vocabulary as we can throughout each topic. As part of a ‘getting excited about science’ initiative in our class, my aim is that each child will have a ‘scientist coat’ (also known as a large white shirt) that will be worn during each science lesson. My hope is that any words that are relevant and crucial to the topic will be recorded in pen, onto our coats as a permanent reminder and record, vocabulary of our on-going learning.

Creative Curriculum – As our first school topic is focusing on geography and the influence on ‘What A Wonderful World’, whether that be cultural or geographically, we will be investigating the effects of earthquakes, the worlds Green Belts and how the environment can change dramatically due to external influences. We will also be developing a range of historical and geographical enquiry skills learning about the historical events that have made significant changes to our local history with the use of a variety of sources and timelines. We will look closely at examples of Viking civilizations, towns and settlements. ‘What A Wonderful World’ topic enables us to link together not only our first themed week of the new academic year, (Safety Week) focusing on our local environment but also will allow us to investigate and discover the wider world. Through geography we will be studying mainly the continent of Africa and with the use of atlases and interactive maps/fact files, we will be looking at direct comparison with the UK by investigating climate, population, environment and global impacts, this will link nicely with our class text through the second half of the term, The Butterfly Lion. Through our art this term, we will be encompassing geography and art together and create sculptures based on geographical features and areas of natural beauty.

PE – In PE this term we will be looking at enhancing our precision in throwing and catching with accuracy and confidence then progressing on to invasion games where we can execute those skills.

Entitlement- In Autumn term, Willow class will be receiving additional musical experiences and have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument and as we nearer Christmas, the children will be giving to the community in the form of singing carols to the residents at the local residential home. As part of our entitlement curriculum, Mrs Sarah Bamber has kindly arranged for Year 4 to receive external music lessons this year with the wonderful, Mr Collet. This year, Willow class will get to become keyboardists for an hour a week which will be a fantastic opportunity to experience music in a way they may not have encountered before and make some wonderful music- hopefully!

RE – In RE we will be looking at people who are guided and seek guidance either through their religion or during their everyday lives. We will start this learning with some important, thought-provoking questions that will encourage the children to think carefully about who guides us and others.

French- For the first half of autumn term, we will be focusing mainly on conversational French and how to communicate simply, introducing your self and ‘all about you’, your likes and dislikes. Opportunities to practice French will be whether it is in response to the register, voicing your opinion on a particular piece of work or greetings and goodbyesPSHE– As you are already aware, each year in school is another opportunity to learn and grow but also to develop more tolerance and understanding for others. I am keen to focus on PSHE this year and help to develop teamwork skills, listening and responding appropriately to one another and being respectful of others despite religions, opinions and backgrounds. The children will continue to grow as young citizens and we will be doing a community project in our local area to allow them to demonstrate this.

As we move into Year 4, homework will become more of an independent task for the children based on the learning from the previous week or preparation for the following week. I know that you will all support your child in their learning but I also want to try and encourage independence. I have a very ‘open door’ policy so if you have any questions regarding homework, please feel free to come and see me. Homework will be given on a Friday to be handed in the following Thursday.

Thank you in advance of your support and encouragement- Mrs Kershaw & Mrs Jones

Sycamore Class

Hello and welcome back after what was hopefully an enjoyable summer break; we’re looking forward to our autumn term in Sycamore Class and hope you are too. Miss Jenkinson is pleased to be back at work after maternity and Mrs Thompson is eager to start in her new role as Year 5 teacher.

Literacy – In Literacy this term we will be focusing our work around two texts; a modern classic story 'Aquila' by Andrew Norris and a Fantastic Book Awards book which is a surprise. Through our Big Writes, we will continue to explore and practice our writing skills across a variety of genres, including narrative, information texts, newspaper reports, persuasive writing and poetry. In Guided Reading we will develop our skills of reading and interpreting our class novel as well as additional non-fiction texts, recognising the different language and organisational features. We will look at PEE – Point, Evidence and Explanation to ensure that we can answer questions referring to the text. Throughout literacy we will continue to work on our spelling, punctuation and grammar using daily differentiated spelling lessons to concentrate on spelling patterns. Numeracy – In Numeracy this term we will be looking at place value, different angles, perimeters and using our knowledge to solve related word problems. We will continue to consolidate our written calculations for all four operations, using and applying these skills in problem solving looking at one step, two step and mathematical puzzles adopting a systematic approach. We will recap on fractions and learn more about decimals as well as expanding our knowledge of shape and space and data handling. Differentiated daily mental maths sessions will focus on quick recall of time tables, mathematical facts and calculation strategies.

Creative Curriculum

Geography- This half-term our whole school topic is What a Wonderful World with a Geography focus where Year 5 will be concentrating on rivers as a natural feature. We will look at rivers around the world, the features of rivers and use a range of maps, atlases, globes and digital maps to plot a river’s course. Incorporating our art and DT skills we will also make a river basin model to bring our topic to life.

Science – Linked to our wonderful World, we will initially be studying Earth and Space looking at light and astronomy. Next half term we will examine forces looking at friction, air resistance and how these are used by different mechanisms. We will link this to our celebrations topic looking at how fireworks, lanterns and kites are used in celebrations around the world. We will be going on a school trip to the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester where we will look at forces in action.

Art and DT – We will link our art and DT to our geography topic using clay to create a model of a river basin. We will also be undergoing a course on food hygiene and safety so we can help serve at the salad bar at lunchtimes

ICT – This term we will continue to develop our basic typing and word processing skills as well as using the internet for research. We will also be looking at networking and e-safety.

French – We will continue to learn the basics of conversational French looking at vocabulary linked to the home and local area.

PE – Our topic this term is invasion games namely hockey - PE will be on a Wednesday and Friday each week. Please remember to always have PE kits and pumps in school.

RE – In RE we will continue to explore what is it to be human focusing on how we live our lives and the values and morals that underpin this. We will then link our questions and findings to different religions comparing, contrasting and making links between our own attitudes and that of different religious communities. Next half-term our whole school topic is Celebrations around the world where we will be comparing and contrasting different religious traditions. In our themed week 'Who am I’ we will reflect on what it means to belong.

PSHE – Linked to our RE work, in PSHE we will be looking at the skill of resilience looking at our responsibilities as an individual, a class and a school as a whole looking at how to manage our feelings, solve problems and never giving up.

Please help and encourage your child's learning by: Being positive and enthusiastic about their learning and actively participate in your child’s home/school diary. Reading a wide variety of books together and check unfamiliar words and exploring vocabulary with a dictionary. Learning times tables and number bonds. Encouraging them to be independent and develop their general organisational skills. Ensuring they complete ongoing homework tasks. Helping with their talk for writing homework given on Wednesday in preparation for the Big Write the following Monday

morning. Helping to learn spellings given from phonics ready for a test on Friday.

Thank you in advance of your support and encouragement. Miss Jenkinson, Mrs Thompson & Miss BrownHornbeam Class

Literacy – In the Autumn Term we will be covering Fiction genres and extending narrative. This includes recount, information and discussion texts – knowing and using the key features for each text type and these will be linked to our Creative Curriculum Topic – What a wonderful world. The children will be firstly basing their Literacy around the book’ There’s a boy in the girl’s bathroom’ and also a given unknown book from the Fantastic Book Awards (FBA). The children will have the opportunity to write from different viewpoints, write emotively through letters and diary entries whilst tailoring their writing to become more skilled and mature in their approach. The children’s BIG WRITE this term will cover news articles, instruction, recounts, persuasion and poetry, taking notes on and using ideas from across a text to explain events or ideas; understanding underlying themes, causes and points of view, inferring writers’ perspectives from what is written, and from what is implied. We will also learn how to use connectives and a variety of sentence openers in a deliberate and organised way to support the meaning of a text; to

develop the range of vocabulary used to make the text come alive. We will also be focusing our attentions on writing to inspire and captivate a given target audience. This will allow us to work heavily on our sentence structure, description and how we engage with an audience. Mathematics- As Mathematicians this term we will use mental and written calculations to solve addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems and explain whether a number will be in a sequence or not using the correct mathematics vocabulary. We will learn how to be able to use simple formulae in words and symbols, to read scales and convert from one unit to another, to represent data in different ways and understand its meaning, working out different types of average and to solve multi-step word problems of all operations, choosing and using the most appropriate calculation strategy at each stage including calculator use. We will also be learning how to find the perimeter and area of single and compound shapes, find fractions and percentages of amounts, and be able to write a large number as a fraction of a smaller one, and simplify fractions and put them in order of size. In addition to this we will be learning to apply these skills to a range of situations in science and DT, particularly measuring, volume and working out scales and interpreting graphs/data. Science –As Scientists our topic of focus this half term is electricity. The children will be using different equipment to create electrical circuits whilst using different scientific language to write up their findings. They will also be looking at circuit diagrams and how to construct these using the correct scientific symbols.ICT – We will be creating multimedia presentations linked to our Literacy and Topic work. The children will be focusing on designing for a targeted audience, the use of text, colour, image manipulation and design. These will be talked about and presented to the other children, allowing the children to develop their presentational skills.

Creative Curriculum (Art, DT, History, Geography, ICT and Music) – ‘What a wonderful world’ & ‘Let’s Celebrate’- The children will be learning all about mountains. In this topic we will be focusing on famous mountain ranges around the world and using our Geography skills to find these using atlases. We will be looking at the inhabitants of these and how life in mountain ranges can be extremely tough. We will also be looking at how mountains were created and why they stand so grandly in many of our world’s landscapes. During our second half term and our celebrations topic we will also start to begin our learning about The Battle of The Somme in preparation for our French residential. This will also continue after the Christmas break and be ready for the children to use on their journey to France. This work will help the children upon their arrival in France as they will be visiting many of the memorials and battle sites used during this period. The children are going to be focusing upon the events of that time, how they unfolded and what print these left on our country. We will be looking at different war writers and poets and how these were used to help spirits and morale as well as creating our own art and design pieces from war time Britain. The children will also be planning their own tea dance. This will include them learning all about these events and why they were so special, then planning and holding their own in school. Dressing up, writing invitations, learning to dance and wartime music are all aspects that the children will be learning about and then re-creating in 2017 Britain which should be great fun! The children will also be taking part in a number of key stage based activities such as music and ICT mornings and having the opportunities to work with different children to share their experiences and look at what other classes in KS2 have been learning about, PE – Games: net and wall sports skills. The children will be aware of space and how it is used effectively to work as a team. There will be skill development across a range of ball based sports such as hockey; football and rugby so that they have an understanding of how these games are played. They will develop communication skills so that they become a more effective team member, to appreciate that a team is a sum of its parts and can’t work effectively if all aren’t focused together. The year 6 children will also be continuing their swimming lessons until Easter 2018. RE – In RE this term we will be focusing on exploring the question ‘In what ways is life like a journey?’ The children will be looking in depth at this question and linking their learning through stories, role play and personal experiences. French - The children will look at the blocks of conversational French, such as what I like to do, where I’ve been on holiday and to be able to ask the questions to get these answers to work towards being able to have simple conversations. They will be able to introduce themselves, their family members and state facts about their lives both orally and in written form too. These short conversations will allow the children to use their learnt language when we go on our Paris residential. PSHE – Our topic this term is health and well-being: Healthy lifestyles. Throughout this topic the children will be learning about the 5 ways to well-being and how to create and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Please help and encourage your child to: Read for ten minutes every day, and encourage to read a variety of genre types Complete all their homework that they are given and return on time to school PE kits are to be in school at all times (Taken home at half term for washing) Practise times tables regularly and learn any given spellings from their phonics groups Complete their homework. (BIG write/ Maths given out on Friday and returned the following Thursday)

Thank you for your support and encouragement, Mr Williams, Mrs Johnson & Mrs McFarlane

Dates for your Diary Tuesday 12th September- 6pm- Friends Meeting. Tuesday 19th September- 8:45-9:30am- Helen Shaw, School Nurse Drop-in. Friday 29th September- 2:45pm- Fun Run. W.C. Monday 2nd October- Yr5 Bikeability. Friday 6th October- 7pm- Casino Night. Tuesday 17th October- 8:45-9:30am- Helen Shaw, School Nurse Drop-in. Thursday 19th October- 10:00am-11:30am and 6:00pm-7:30pm- Open Day/Evening for

Reception children for September 2018. Friday 20th October- 8:30am onwards- Tempest Photography in school for individual and

family photographs. Thursday 26th October- 6:30-8pm- Halloween Disco. Friday 27th October- 2:30pm- Harvest Service. Friday 27th October- Finish for half term and return to school on Monday 6th November.

Week beginning 13th November-Themed Week- A day in the life of…………….. & Anti-Bullying Week.

Friday 17th November- Parents and Family members welcomed into school for lunch and an afternoon in class followed by a celebration assembly at 2:30pm.

Monday 20th- Friday 24th November- Book Fair in school. Tuesday 21st November- 8:45-9:30am- Helen Shaw, School Nurse Drop-in. Tuesday 21st November- 3:30-5:30pm & Thursday 23rd November- 5-8pm- Parents

Evening. Friday 8th December- 2:45pm- Christmas Craft Fair. Friday 8th December- 7:00pm- Christmas Bingo. Tuesday 12th December- 8:45-9:30am- Helen Shaw, School Nurse Drop-in. Tuesday 12th December at 1:30pm and Thursday 14th December at 6:00pm- Infants

Christmas Nativity . Wednesday 13th December- Pantomime in school. Friday 15th December- Christmas Lunch & Save the Children Christmas Jumper Day. Thursday 21st December- Christmas Parties. Friday 22nd December- 2:30pm- Christmas Carol Service. Friday 22nd December- Break up for Christmas and return on Monday 8th January.

Parents Meetings

Year One (Beech Class)-Tuesday 12th September- 2:30pm- Mr MouldingReception (Oak Class)- Phonics Meeting- Thursday 14th September- 9:00am- Mrs KellyYear Two (Rowan Class)- Thursday 14th September- 2:30pm- Miss O’GradyYear Four (Willow Class)- Wednesday 20th September- 2:30pm- Mrs KershawYear Five (Sycamore Class)- Monday 18th September- 2:30pm- Miss Jenkinson & Mrs ThompsonYear Six (Hornbeam Class)- Monday 25th September- 2:30pm- Mr Williams

Please look carefully at the weekly newsletter for other events and times of events.