Dear Parents,

We are delighted to welcome you and your children back to the new school term and trust that you all had a restful and sunny spring break! This term we are pleased to welcome to the Juniors two new students, William and Nicholas, and hope they settle comfortably into our warm and friendly community. The children have some exciting learning to look forward to this term as outlined below.

General Reminders

Could we remind parents that punctuality is very important. We have a few children in the Juniors who are still arriving too late in the mornings. This means they are unsettled when they arrive and time is wasted. It is better for the children to be in school by 8.45am so they can settle themselves in quickly and make a start on morning routines.

Please be aware that some stationery items are now available to buy from Mrs Rigby in the office, this includes glue sticks, pencils and erasers.

We are also keen to promote healthy eating within the school. Snacks and packed lunches should reflect this, please. Crisps and chocolate bars are not to be encouraged. Children should bring a piece of fruit for Morning Break.

Please ensure your child has a water bottle in school, specially important in the summer term, some sunscreen as they spend a great deal more time outside during this term and , of course, a hat to provide additional protection from the sun.

Aral and Aegean

English - Throughout reading lessons this term, Aral children will maintain a focus on strengthening and extending their comprehension skills through Reading Group rotations. The use of ICT will continue to be a large part of daily lessons where children will be using designated websites on the Internet to read and research various topics. Students will also be expected to continue practising their reading skills at home on a daily basis. Aegean students will be working on specific aspects of comprehension this term, including locating key-words, inferencing and evaluating text. Reading strategies will be strengthened with researching, discussion, use of ICT and a range of reading activities.

This term both Aral and Aegean students will take more ownership of their goals in writing. Children will be provided with writing rubrics and will reflect on their progress regularly, choosing goals that are specific to them and conferencing with the teacher and their peers. Aral and Aegean class be working hard on surface features such as full stops, capitals, and paragraphs. We will then move on to deeper features such as editing, smilies, metaphors, and personification. We will be practising these skills through narratives, poems and creative writing.

Regular practice of spelling will continue take place within the classroom, based around specific spelling patterns and chunks. Children will have weekly spelling lists and sometimes activities to practise at home to help consolidate classroom activities. At times, students will learn words related to our topic work.

Maths

This term the Year 3 children will continue working through the KS2 math curriculum with the following outcomes being the main focus. Everyday practice of oral math skills will also still occur.

Aegean will be working very hard to complete the year with sound knowledge in basic facts, including addition and subtraction to 20, and 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s, 7s, 8s, 9s, and 10 times tables and related division facts. This will take some dedication from home as well, but it will pay off when the children are in Year 5 next year.

We will continue to work on partitioning numbers when adding and subtracting, and will revisit fractions, geometry and multiplication and division towards the end of the term.

I.P.C. Topic: The Active Planet

Following on nicely from our topics last term, we will continue looking at a number of aspects of the active planet which span over both geography and science learning areas. Some of the objectives the children will achieve are:

• Know how particular localities and people groups have been affected by earthquakes and volcanoes.

• Be able to use geographical terms when describing earthquakes and volcanoes.

• Understand that earthquakes and volcanoes fit into a wider geographical context.

• Be able to distinguish between solids, liquids and gases in connection with earthquakes and volcanoes.

Spanish

This term we will be doing lots of outdoor games to build/reinforce the children’s knowledge of animals, numbers, the alphabet, foods, parts of the body and colours.

Art

This term we will be printmaking using various methods, string patterns stuck onto wooden blocks, roller prints and lino printing.

Music

In Music, Aegean will move onto tuned percussion, playing boom whackers, xylophone, glockenspiel and marimba. Aral will continue to learn recorder.

Nature Studies

We have managed to dig the entire allotment and have planted parsnips, spring onions, broad beans and potatoes. Inky, with the help of some of the senior boys have erected a wonderful shed - we will now be able to collect water. We continue to bird watch and butterfly watch and will be doing a ladybird survey over the next few weeks.

Sport

With the good weather upon us, the range and variety of sport being taught this term is broader than ever before. The Juniors will consolidate existing skills and gain new ones through cricket. They will plan, use and adapt strategies for small team activities, developing their knowledge of the principles behind them and applying rules and conventions. All sessions will incorporate a good balance of fun and games, coaching, skills and drills.

KINNERZ COACHING hopes that the Juniors thoroughly enjoy their sport in the term ahead, with friendly games, tournaments and events planned and organised when possible.

General

We think this will be an exciting term ahead and are looking forward to the positive relationships that will be made between students, teachers and parents. Assemblies and P.S.H.C.E. (personal, social, health and citizenship education) will emphasis our Golden Rules and encourage the children to develop their social skills and strengthen their self-esteem.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to see your child’s classroom teacher and note that we are available for parent meetings on Wednesdays after school.

Kind regards,

Heidi Hannan and Becky Hamilton

Ben Beeston and Louise Mieszkian