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Dear Parents,

The summer term already!  I hope that you had a restful, enjoyable Easter break.  The children have worked very hard again last term and enjoyed many different activities, with lots more to look forward to this term as they finish Year 4.

In English, the children have made an excellent start to the term looking at poems and producing some really thoughtful and fun poetry of their own – ask them!  We will then move onto looking at stories that raise issues, stories from other cultures and finally, persuasive writing.  Along the way we will learn about different types of sentence, more sophisticated punctuation such as semi colons and a variety of spelling strategies.

The vast majority of the class continue to read regularly every night and many more are now recording successfully in their Reading Records with their own comments.  Well done to them and many thanks for the support that you give!  The children enjoy the stickers and house points they receive and Mrs Connor and I are looking forward to seeing if they can keep it up right till the end of term!

Thank you also for your support with weekly spellings.  The lists will still come home on a Monday to be tested the following Monday.  Please continue to support your child in learning these – it is a real dent to their self-esteem if they consistently underachieve in weekly tests.  A tried and tested way for children to learn them is the “look, say, cover, write, check” method but if your child finds this unhelpful, or if you would like ideas for alternative methods, do pop in for inspiration!

Maths will continue as before and homework will still be set on Wednesdays to be returned by the following Monday.  Lots of the children have made excellent progress with learning their times tables, gaining their silver and in some cases even gold award for this.  I know they are all keen to achieve their next certificate (gold or platinum) as soon as possible so any help would be great! 

In Science, we have two topics to cover this term: Moving and Growing, and Friction.  We have started Moving and Growing this week, looking at bones and how they help us.  We will also look at how we use them to move, how we grow and how other animals skeletons differ and work.  As always, we will be exploring these topics through both written and practical means, which allow the children to refine and practise their ability to predict, investigate, measure, record and draw conclusions.

This term’s history topic involves investigating the history of our local area and will be mostly taught by Mrs Swain as she covers the class for my weekly PPA time.  This will be of great advantage to the children as, being local for much longer, she knows a great deal more about the history of the village than I do!  I know that she has already arranged a couple of special visitors to share their knowledge with the children but if any of you have contacts or knowledge/photographs/artefacts that you are willing to share please let us know!

Last term’s Geography topic was a real hit!  We really enjoyed investigating various countries and continents and we hope that you enjoyed sharing this at our recent class assembly.  This term we are moving on from that, to look at how we are connected to some of these other places around the world and how we might communicate with them.  The topic has quite a technological element, which I am sure that the children will enjoy.

The children had great fun designing and modifying chairs for last term’s art.  This term we are more 2D-focussed and will be investigating patterns and working on our observational drawing skills. 

We are particularly fortunate this term to be welcoming two staff from the Intercultural Support Services to run a weekly workshop for the whole term which will incorporate many of the curriculum areas I have already mentioned, along with dance and drama, related largely to our R.E. Sikhism focus and our multi-cultural Literacy studies.  The workshops will culminate in a fantastic, colourful evening performance on Tuesday 11^th July at 7pm, which will replace our class assembly for the term.  A date to remember! As always, we will continue to learn more about Christianity alongside this in our regular R.E. lessons.

Last term, all the children really enjoyed designing and making their own working torches for Design, Technology, to link with our Science work on electrical circuits. Unfortunately, as this involves some quite expensive equipment such as bulbs and batteries, I need to ask for a voluntary contribution of £1 to cover expenses so that the children can enjoy bringing their torch home to show you, which many are extremely keen to do!  This term we will make pop-up storybooks and investigate alarms.

P.E. days have changed!  This first half of term, we will do P.E. on Wednesdays and Fridays, although the children will still need their kit everyday for Fit for Learning which is a shorter period of Physical activity that we do on the other afternoons.  Swimming lessons will begin after half term and will take place on Mondays and Wednesdays (time yet to be confirmed).  We will need a number of volunteers to help watch the pool (head-counting!) and to look after the children in the changing rooms, without which we will not be able to go ahead for legal safety reasons.  Please consider if you can spare us any time on these days and let me know.  I will let you know the timings as soon as possible.  Obviously this will require a CRB check (Criminal Records Bureau) and these can take a number of weeks to come through so if you can volunteer, please contact me as soon as possible to enable us to send the forms off with enough time to spare!

I am currently in the process of arranging one or two trips to complement the curriculum and will let you know details as soon as possible.  Hopefully most other necessary information is clear above but if not, please do not hesitate to contact me.  As this is the last class newsletter this year, I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your support and congratulate you on having such the lovely nature of your well-behaved, motivated children!  They are a credit to you and I have really enjoyed teaching them.  I look forward to seeing you at our open evening on 5^th July if not before and if not, would like to wish you and your family a very happy summer holiday!

R. Crow  (Class Teacher)