Welcome back! We hope you all had a great Easter and you made the most of the excellent weather. We were a bit depleted at the end of last term, so I hope a bit of sunshine, rest and relaxation has helped to get all of the children and their families fighting fit once again. We are looking forward to a brilliant summer term and hope the children are too.
Swimming
This term will see Otter Class head to Ashford School every Wednesday morning for swimming lessons. Please make sure your child arrives at school on these days with their swimming outfit and towel, preferably in a waterproof swimming bag. Boys will need swimming shorts or trunks, whereas girls must have a one-piece swimming costume. Goggles, swimming caps and nose pegs are permitted should children wish to use them, but anything they choose to take to the swimming pool will be their own responsibility to look after. Children will also need to follow the advice of their instructor at all times and it may be that the swimming coaches request goggles etc. to be removed. Boys and girls will get changed separately but in communal changing areas rather than individual cubicles. Otter Class will be split into two groups for swimming sessions, so will not all be travelling to and from the pool at the same times. This means that on Wednesdays, children will complete their Power Maths lesson with either Mr Cook or Miss Simpson whilst the other half of the class is swimming. Please inform Mr Cook or the school office as soon as possible if your child will be unable to attend swimming sessions on any given week, and be aware of medical conditions that may affect your child’s ability to participate. Children in Group 2 for swimming sessions will have their break time upon their return to school at 11:30am – as this will be their first opportunity to have a snack, please ensure they have had a good breakfast on these days!
Daily Routine Reminders
Children should arrive at school between 8:30am and 8:45am. The earlier the better, as learning time for the children begins straight away. The children’s break time is from 11am until 11:15am. They may bring a snack to eat at break time but please remember this must be a piece of fruit, vegetable, or a healthy substitute, i.e. not chocolate bars, crisps or sausage rolls. All children should bring a full water bottle to school. Please also ensure that children’s PE kits are in school on Monday morning and remain in school all week, as our timetable is subject to change and children should not be missing out on curriculum lessons due to absence of the correct kit. The school day ends for the children at 3:10pm and they will be led out onto the playground to be collected from there.
Timetable
Mr Cook is out of class on Thursday afternoons this term, during which time Miss Simpson will teach a combination of Music, French and/or RE. Miss Simpson also teaches Art for the first session on a Monday morning. PE lessons are scheduled to take place on Monday afternoons but, as already mentioned, please ensure your child’s PE kit remains in school all week. PE in Term 5 is indoors, so shorts, a t-shirt and plimsolls should suffice. Earrings must be removed or taped over during PE lessons (preferably removed) and children are required to do this by themselves. Children’s second PE session each week is Swimming, as outlined above, and earrings must be removed in order for children to participate.
Home Learning
Children are expected to read regularly at home and practise their times tables. They also have a set of spellings to learn each week which are set for them on a Monday morning, and they should be bringing these home in their Contact Book. Sadly, there are a number of children who are not doing any practice of their spellings at home each week. This may result in the setting of more formal home learning activities, or children having to spend some of their own time in school doing the work that they are not doing at home.
Learning in Terms 5 and 6
In Science we will be learning about “Animals and their habitats” and we have already begun by looking at the characteristics of living organisms – can the children remember what each letter in MRS GREN stands for? This acronym tells us the seven features that all living organisms share. Our History / Geography topic for the next two terms will be a study of the Mayan civilization, which will be very interesting to compare to The Romans, as well as modern-day Britain. Our reading sessions will be using the book Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Elliot, whilst our first English text of the summer term is Rumblestar by Abi Elphinstone. Our class story to start Term 5 is Wild Boy by Rob Lloyd Jones. In Power Maths at the moment we are multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000, by understanding how the place value of each digit changes. By the end of the year, we hope to have covered topics such as Money, Angles, and Graphs. What a busy few months we have ahead of us!
I hope the children have a brilliant end to Year 4 and I look forward to seeing them continue to learn and grow as they prepare to transition to Year 5.
Mr Cook and Miss Simpson