Brize Norton Primary School
Station Road
Brize Norton
Oxon OX18 3PL
01993 842488
www.brizeprimary.org
Headteacher: Mrs A Fairhurst
Friday 28th April
Dear Parents,
Welcome to the summer term! This letter contains important information regarding the final two terms of the academic year.
At the start of this new term, we would like to remind you of the importance of regular attendance at school. Our target is 95% because it has been proven that children who attend less than this can suffer damage to their education. 95% attendance is still the equivalent of 2 weeks’ missed learning over the year. Children who attend fewer than 90% of sessions can find this having a serious impact on their learning, because that is the equivalent, over a year, of 4 weeks’ missed learning, or 100 missed lessons.
Our new whole school value will be co-operation. We would like to praise all the children in our class for being pretty co-operative already, but we expect we will all benefit from a few tips here and there to make sure we are trying our best to work together!
Please note the following changes to our timetable:
We no longer have swimming on a Wednesday.
Forest School will take place on Tuesday afternoons during the first half term. On Forest School Days, please end your child into school dressed in old clothes with a school sweatshirt. We can never rely on the British weather, so please also make sure that they have waterproof clothing and wellies. Wellies can be left on the welly-holders in the parent shelter this half term, unless your child will need them at home during the week.
PE will be on Friday afternoons; we are very lucky to be receiving some tennis coaching from Excel Tennis Academy, starting this Friday (28th April), as well as a one off Tri Golf session on Friday 19th May. As always, we advise that the children bring their PE kits into school on a Monday, so that they have them all week, but that they take them home again each Friday for washing.
We have a really brilliant topic to take us right up to the summer holidays – The Roman Empire. We will aim to cover the following National Curriculum recommendations, but will probably also look at Pompeii, and if the children’s interests take us elsewhere we may look at other aspects as well!
· Julius Caesar’s attempted invasion in 55-54 BC
· Successful invasion by Claudius and conquest, including Hadrian’s Wall and the power of the Roman Army.
· British resistance, for example, Boudica
· ‘Romanisation’ of Britain: the impact of technology, culture and beliefs.
In English we will begin with non-fiction writing, moving on to using our new class book (Roman Quests: Escape from Rome By Caroline Lawrence) as a stimulus for writing using different narrative techniques. We will fit in some poetry during the term as well. Where possible, English units will focus on the Romans as we have found this approach really engages the children.
In maths we will consolidate the following:
· Know the Roman numerals I, V, X, L, C, D, M
· Know multiplication and division facts related to tables up to 12 × 12 Recall primes to 19. Know the first 12 square numbers.
· Know decimals equivalents of 1/2, 1/4, 3/4
· Know adjacent time facts involving years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds
· Know 12- and 24-hour clock conversions
· Know the names and connected properties of triangles and quadrilaterals
· Know the definitions of acute and obtuse angles. Know angles are measured in degrees.
· Know that area is measured in squares. Know that perimeter is a measure of length.
Our Science topics will be ‘Animals Including Humans’ and ‘Living Things and their Habitats.’ These will be fantastic to study outside in the balmy summer weather…!!
Homework remains the same. Please help us to help your children by ensuring they regularly practise their spellings and times tables when they are sent home– it really does impact on their learning in school when they are comfortable and confident with these basic skills.
DAY RECEIVED / SUBJECT / DAY RETURNEDMon-Thurs, plus one day from Fri-Sun / READING / EVERY MORNING
MONDAY / SPELLING (15 words to learn) / THE FOLLOWING MONDAY
WEDNESDAY / MATHS / MONDAY of the following week.
Please be aware that, due to a back injury, our lovely Miss Kearvell may not be in school consistently over the next few weeks. This may mean that homework and reading records may not be marked as regularly as usual. We will of course do our best to check these as often as we can, but please make allowances if something gets missed.
Dates for our class this term:
Excel Tennis Coaching – 28th April, 5th May, 12th May, 9th June, 16th June
Forest School – 25th April, 2nd May, 9th May, 16th May and 23rd May
Residential – 13th and 14th June
We would like to take this opportunity to say that we are really enjoying our class this year. Your children are a delight to spend time with and to teach. We are really looking forward to the next two terms with them!
Best wishes,
The Class 4 Team
Sophie Kerr Alex Rae Jane Kearvell Rachel Deegan