St. Mary’s Broughton Gifford

Voluntary Controlled

Church of England

Primary School

Friday 9thSeptember 2016

Dear Parents/ carers,

Welcome back and I trust you all have relaxed over the summer. I am really excited to be joining the team at St Mary’s and look forward to a fantastic year of fun and learning. This letter is to make you aware of what we have planned for Term 1 and my expectations on home learning. The Foxes teaching teamMr Hunt, the teaching assistant and myself. We are looking forward to getting to know your child in our class and to the busy year ahead.

On Friday 16th September at 4pm in Foxes Class, I will be having a “Meet the Teacher and Information” session for parents/ carers for approximately half an hour where I will explain what a typical school day for Foxes Class looks like and my expectations forthe children’s learning this year. This is an opportunity to ask any questions you may have about the year ahead. Please also refer to the attached topic web.

Topic:

In History this term Foxes Class will be learning about Ancient Egypt. Our Key question is: How can we re-discover the wonders of Ancient Egypt? Children will receive a homework project related to this topic which will be on the website.

Science:

In Science this term we will be learning about Light and working on a Crime Lab Investigation applying our understanding of how light travels.

PE and Forest School

Our class PE day will be Tuesday afternoon (which will be taught by Grassroots). On Friday afternoons children will alternate weekly between a Forest School session and a PE session. I would advise children to bring their PE kits to school on Monday and keep them in all week. Children will have their first Forest School session on Friday 16th September.

Home Learning:

Children will be given home learning tasks every week, usually on a Monday. These will consist of reading, spelling/sentence work and maths every week. In addition to this children will also be given a topic related task which will be completed over several weeks.

  • Spelling- Children will be grouped this year for spelling. Your child’s spellings will come home on Mondays in their homework book. These need to be learnt at home using the Look, Say, Cover, Write. Check strategy. These words will be tested on Mondays and new words given each week. The children also need to write a range of sentence types using their spelling words that shows that they understand the meaning of these words.
  • Reading- I am a firm believer in reading for pleasure and believe that reading is a vital skill to accessing learning across the curriculum. Your child has been given a Reading Record book to record their home reading and at school will be completing a Reading Genre Checklist to ensure that over the year they read a variety of text types. Children can record what they have read and any comments, as can parents who hear them read. It is important that children get an opportunity to discuss their reading regularly with an adult at home so new vocabulary can be discussed. These books will need to come to school daily.
  • Maths – This homework will be handed out on Mondays, completed in the Homework Book and returned to school for marking on Fridays. Homework will be related to the previous week’s Mathematics topic and/ or times tables to reinforce children’s learning. Therefore it is important that all children make an effort to complete this work. Sometimes children may need more than one session to complete this work.
  • Should you wish to write me a note regarding any homework, this can be written in the homework book. Your child will need to ensure that they show such messages to me in the morning, so I can act on them.

As part of our learning there are occasions when children will watch videos to enhance their learning across the curriculum. Sometimes these may be rated Parental Guidance. I will inform you when such occasions happen. However if you have any objects to your child viewing a PG rated film, please inform me.

If you have any concerns or would like to discuss your child’s progress then please do not hesitate to contact me directly or by contacting the office to make an appointment. I look forward to an exciting and fun year of learning and hopefully meeting you all on Friday 16th September.

Yours sincerely

Ms Wilson

The Academy Trust of Melksham; a company limited by guarantee. Registered in England and Wales Company No.08153550.