Welcome to Year 4

By J Summers21st September 2015

IMG_02192 September 2015

 

Dear Parent/Guardian

I hope you have had a lovely summer and that your child enjoys Year 4. I write to inform you of some details relating to year 4.

  1. PE. will take place on Wednesday’s in Autumn Term – full BedeBurn PE kit is expected.
  2. Swimming: Children will have swimming lessons weekly, on a Thursday, beginning 10th
  3. Homework: Children will receive weekly homework. Maths homework will be given out on Fridays, to be returned Monday – this will largely relate to their times tables skills and knowledge. English homework will be given on a Monday, this will relate to spellings. Children will be given spellings to learn, which will be tested on Thursday of that same week. Additionally they will be given a related spelling activity, in their spelling book, which can be returned Friday.
  4. Exiting school: Year 4 will leave school via the Year 4 fire exit (the door that opens onto the yard), but they will enter the building through the double doors on the yard (as in Year 3) at all other times.
  5. Curriculum:

Topic this term will be the Romans, specifically their invasion of England. This Topic will link into other curriculum subjects resulting in Roman Mosaics in art, Roman Newspaper accounts and report writing in Literacy, and Roman Numeral work in maths.

Science will explore human digestion and teeth, which will help discussion of healthy eating and looking after your body.

Literacy We begin the term looking at books by the author Michael Foreman and writing our own story based on his style. Later we will look at humorous poems, develop our creative writing through spooky stories as well as improving our non-fiction writing skills. Children will read weekly in a group and this replaces their individual reading with their reading journals. It is hoped you will be able to read regularly at home with your child and record their progress in their reading journal.  Reading a text and answering questions about it is also a key skill in Year 4, we will regularly complete and discuss reading comprehension activities and it is hoped your questioning and discussion about books at home will support this.

Maths   A key focus of this term is the children learning their times tables with increased speed and accuracy and your support in this is much appreciated. In class we will be exploring shape, reading graphs and improving our measuring skills. Calculations will involve increasingly bigger numbers and children will use written methods to solve calculations and they will consider best methods and use their skills in problem solving scenarios.

RE  (religious education) focuses on what Christians believe about God and how this informs  their behaviour. Year 4 will be invited to question all beliefs discussed and reflect on thier own beliefs about life and the world.

French – Mrs Richardson will continue to support Year 4 with their conversational French skills, this terms focus is on animals.

ICT: E Safety will be a primary focus and children will use variables and repeats to create and manipulate a programme.

If you have any questions feel free to catch me in the playground at home time or in the morning or leave a message at the main office. I am really looking forward to teaching my new class and hope your child makes good progress and enjoys Year 4. I hope to meet you at this term’s forthcoming open evening.

Kind Regards

Miss Summers

Year 4 Class Teacher

What we are up to in Reception this term.

By J Evans18th September 2015

Following a successful first few weeks at school we are ready and raring to go, well, until about half past 2 when our eye lids start to feel heavy and our thoughts drift towards home time, tea and snuggles! Undeterred, our first topic is ‘Bears’, developed through familiar stories and rhymes. We will be doing lots of art work to brighten up the classroom and finding out all about bears around the world.

Soon, the children will be starting their first reader, which they will bring home to share. We will be holding parent workshops this term to enable the children to show you what how we do it in class. We have been working through the first phase of the phonics program, developing listening skills and exploring rhyme. There are lots of fun activities you can do at home to support your child like sound games and making up silly rhymes.

In Numeracy, the focus is on developing vocabulary through practical activities, including counting rhymes, sorting and matching activities and number recognition games with a little help from our number characters which I hope the children will tell you all about over the next few weeks.

Alongside these activities, the children have lots of opportunity for investigative play and reinforcement activities, as well as sessions in the ICT suite and regular PE lessons. Most importantly they have time to get to know each other and to gain their confidence with us.

Thank you for your support.

Jill Evans

Y6 Science Show

By Mr G Mcintosh18th September 2015

On Monday, Year 6 walked across to Hebburn Comprehensive School to watch a science show by Professor Brainstorm. What a show! Everyone, including Miss Smith who came with us, learnt something new. Do you know what happens when an inflated balloon is immersed in liquid nitrogen and then removed from it? We didn’t. Did you know you can use a banana to hammer in a nail? We didn’t!

Professor Brainstorm also showed us how to make a ‘spud gun’ of epic proportions using just a piece of copper pipe, a wooden stick and a ‘spud’! We were all learning science without even knowing it.

Many thanks to Hebburn Comprehensive for inviting us along!

Mrs Todd

Y6 Termly Overview

By Mr G Mcintosh18th September 2015

September 2015

Dear Parents and Children,

Welcome to a Year 6! I am very much looking forward to teaching this class again, and, as I know the children so well already, we are in a perfect position to launch straight into the new curriculum and get a head start.

Year 6 is a little different to every other year in primary school. We will be working towards the SATs in May so there will be a little more of an emphasis on English (reading, writing, spelling, punctuation and grammar) and Maths. We will, of course, still be continuing our topic work, science, music, PE and French etc. lessons throughout the year.

Our English lessons this term will be centered around two very different texts. We will be starting with ‘There’s A Boy In The Girl’s Bathroom’ by Louis Sachar which should hopefully inspire lots of writing from the point of view of a very confused fifth-grader called Bradley Chalkers. After that, we will link together our Topic work with our English and make a study of a narrative version of the longest epic poem written in Old English, ‘Beowulf’. The version we will study is by Michael Morpurgo with excellent illustrations by Michael Foreman.

To complement Y6’s text studies we will be working hard on revising and learning new punctuation, grammar and spelling rules and conventions. These are a prominent part of the New Curriculum and it is essential that we spend the time getting to grips with these!

Topic and English will be intertwined over the course of this term; our trip to Lindisfarne, the site of the first Viking raid on our country in 793, should provide a real incentive to write both fiction and non-fiction.

Other aspects of Viking life we will look at will be where they came from and where they raided and settled. We will also look closely at the struggle for power in England between the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons and the eventual unification of our country. In DT we will endeavor to look closely at the design on a Viking longship, evaluate it for its effectiveness and try to make our own!

PE will be taken by an external coach on Monday afternoons and by Mrs. Arthur on Friday afternoons – she is well known for her fast-paced, dynamic, competitive PE lessons so this should prove to be fun for all!

Science this term will be focused on the circulatory system i.e. the function of the heart, lungs, veins, arteries and capillaries and on keeping healthy by looking at the effects of alcohol, drugs and lack of exercise on the body.

Weekly homework will be sent home every Wednesday – this could be English, Maths or a combination of both. Children will receive a homework book which should be used to record all homework and should be treated just like an exercise book in school i.e. neat handwriting in blue pen, dated and underlined etc. Homework books should be returned every Monday. Spelling books will also be sent home on Wednesdays to be completed and returned by the following Monday. All children should have a reading book at all times – this book should be a book that interests and challenges you / your child. It is entirely the children’s responsibility to change these as needed. Reading diaries should be written in regularly by both the children themselves and parents.

The door to Y6 will be opened every morning at 8.30, children are very welcome to come in to our classroom at that time to get themselves sorted for the day and to make an early start on work.

All children should have a water bottle, clearly named, in school at all times which should be taken home regularly to wash!

If you need any further information or have any questions or concerns at any time, the Y6 door will be open from 8.30 every morning and at 3.15 every evening – feel free to catch me then,

Thank you

Mrs. M Todd

Year 5 Autumn Term Synopsis

By Mr G Mcintosh17th September 2015

Autumn synopsis

 Dear All,

Welcome to Year Five!

I’m thrilled to welcome you all for the new school year. I thought I would let you know what we have planned from now up until Christmas. If you have any questions or concerns that are not answered below, please feel free to come along and ask me. I will be at the Key Stage 2 door most days at hometime.

Homework

Homework will usually be provided on a Friday, to be completed by the following Wednesday. It will generally involve completing a page in the spelling book and possibly also practicing English or maths skills learned in class, or occasionally researching topics.  I expect homework to be completed with a suitable pen (black or blue ink) or pencil and to be returned in good condition in our brand new homework books.  In addition, there will be a spelling test and mental maths test every Friday. Children will be given a list of spellings to learn, focussing on a particular spelling rule or letter pattern, linking to the spelling book homework. In preparation for the maths tests, children should practise their times tables facts up to 12×12. Speed tables sheets are available from me to help with practising at home, or I can suggest other methods including chanting to music, quizzes or simple games.  Once tables are known by heart, we will move on to division tables, eg 60 ÷ 5 = ? With both spellings and tables, I have found that short, regular bursts of practising usually work best and really do make a big difference.

Reading

As in previous years, it is expected that your child will read for at least 15 minutes every night.  The books chosen can be school books or books from home, but should be good quality texts that interest your child.  If your child comes across unfamiliar words they should be encouraged to use a dictionary to find the meaning, improving their vocabulary. Reading records will be checked regularly. Children are responsible for bringing their reading record to school each day and for changing books when necessary.

English

In class, we will be building upon what the children learned in year four and extending their skills of reading comprehension, grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, spelling, handwriting and writing composition. This will include studying quality texts together and using them to inspire our own writing; for example our first English unit this term will be based on the novel ‘There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom, by Louis Sachar. This is one of my personal favourites and I am confident that the children will really enjoy it! Later in the term we will get our writing inspiration from a wide range of other sources including an animation video and various texts linked to our first topic, ‘World War Two’. We will be writing fiction, non-fiction and poetry, focussing largely on improving our vocabulary and sentence structure initially.

Maths

This term we will begin by further improving our understanding and application of place value and the four operations of number. We will also practise how to calculate mentally with increased efficiency. We will then progress to developing written methods of calculation. We will also learn about perimeter and area, fractions and line graphs as well as sharpening our problem-solving skills.

Topic

Our first topic in year six is ‘World War Two’.  This is a topic that I personally love and am sure the children will too. From children’s experiences as evacuees to the events of D-Day, from wartime songs to World leaders, we will immerse ourselves in this fascinating period in British history. Our topic will further develop the children’s knowledge of historical events, but will also provide many great opportunities for exciting drama work, detailed written work, historical text studies, art, design technology, music and ICT.  We will also enrich our studies with a trip or two and a very special World War Two day, in full fancy dress! More details of these will follow but adult helpers will be a must so get planning those costumes now! Also, if any relatives of the children would like to come in and tell the class about their wartime memories, this would be greatly appreciated. It has always gone down very well with children in the past as it really brings the topic to life. Please let me know!

Science

Our first two science units of year 5 are called ‘Forces’ and ‘Materials’.  In ‘Forces’, we will investigate friction, air-resistance, upthrust and other forces through practical investigation and design. In ‘Materials’, we will classify materials using their properties as well as investigating reversible and irreversible changes. In addition, we will learn about some separation techniques including evaporation and filtering before trying them ourselves. Both units allow lots of practical exploration as well as improving our written investigation skills and promise to be lots of fun.

Music

This term we will listen to and analyse music from World War Two, and also learn to sing some wartime songs, as well as composing our own lyrics in a similar style. Additionally, we will learn a number of fun singing games and work on our rhythm using percussion instruments.

Other Subjects

We will also find time to enjoy lots of Art and Design work, RE, PSHE, British Values, Computing and French!

PE

Our PE lessons will take place on a Wednesday and a Friday.  Please provide your child with a water bottle, indoor kit and outdoor kit in a suitable bag. PE bags can be left on your child’s peg all week and washed at weekends, ensuring that your child has their kit if any changes in schedule need to be made.

Thank you for your continued support,

Mrs N Faulkner

Crazy Sock Day

By J Evans7th September 2015

First of all, thank you to all of our Reception parents for helping your children settle so well into school. We have had a lovely first week and have lots of fun activities ready to keep the children busy and make their first full week fly over.

Also, a big thank you for getting involved in our ‘Crazy Sock Day’, not only did it make it easier for the children to find their shoes after PE (a cunning plan!) but gave us lots to talk about. An extra well done to all our ‘Sock Stars’ who managed to get both their socks back on all by themselves.

Can the children spot their socks in the pictures below?IMG_2734 IMG_2735 IMG_2736 IMG_2737 IMG_2739 IMG_2740  IMG_2743 IMG_2744 IMG_2745 IMG_2746 IMG_2747 IMG_2748 IMG_2749 IMG_2751 IMG_2752 IMG_2753 IMG_2754 IMG_2755 IMG_2756 IMG_2757 IMG_2758 IMG_2759 IMG_2760

Foundation of Light ~Celebration

9th June 2015A Lenney

On Tuesday, Years 2 and 3 set off for Temple Park in South Shields to take part in the Foundation of Light Celebration. This was to mark the end of our coaching in school with Scott. We had a fantastic time, joining with another school from South Shields and all the coaches who were there. Everyone took part and all the teachers were really impressed with the behaviour and enthusiasm displayed by all of our children, they never stopped running for nearly 2 hours!!! The teachers were exhausted just watching them. Well done Year 2 and Year 3.

Overview of topic ~ Reception

1st May 2015J Evans

Our topic this term is ‘Life Cycles’. We have already started thinking about Spring and have been planting new life so hopefully the outdoor area will not only be bursting with learning opportunities but also with flowers! Of course wherever there are flowers there are always minibeasts to investigate and we will be finding out how some of these creatures help the flowers and how others don’t!

The focus in literacy is stories to develop reading and writing skills but also to encourage children’s love of books and to appreciate the magical worlds they can take us too. We will also be using information books to help us to find out more about minibeasts and other living things, giving real purpose to our reading.

In number work we will continue to explore patterns in numbers and build confidence in recognising and sequencing bigger numbers. Calculations will be linked to problem solving tasks to develop confidence in using and applying mathematics and also develop mathematical vocabulary.

Opportunities for investigative play and child initiated learning will continue to be a central part of daily classroom activities.

Thank you so much for all your help and support so far this year.