Learning Experience Rationale: We understand that everyone will have had a different experience of lockdown. We also understand that many children may be worried about coming back to school after such a long time away. Children cannot learn if they do not feel happy. In order to meet their emotional needs, over this half term, the children will be learning all about ‘What makes me happy?”. We will be learning about emotional health and wellbeing, exploring emotions and how to regulate them, as well as different types of relationships they will encounter. We will also be exploring friendships, learning how to be a good friend, and what to do if someone upsets us. As we move through the half term, we will also be doing lots of drama activities to help children express themselves, as well as learning to use all the new apps on the iPads to help us write autobiographies.

Learning Experience Hook and Outcome

Over the Summer Holidays, children will have spent time with their families talking about emotion words. They will also have created a timeline of key events in their own life. The hook for this learning experience will be to present these to the class in the first whole week of term. At the end of the Learning Experience, they will be able to create a mini-movie to share.

Vocabulary – we will be exploring the following topic vocabulary:

Tier 2 – high level words: feeling, worry, friend, likes, dislikes.

Tier 3 – subject specific words -  relationship, articulate, biography, autobiography, delighted, anxious, concerned.

In Assemblies we are learning about Respect.

British Value - This half term, in our Class Assemblies, we are learning about the British Value of ‘The Rule of Law’, by creating a set of class rules.

Maths - Over the first few weeks of school, we will be checking with all the children to see what they know already and what they need to learn next. From this, we will plan to consolidate and extend the children’s knowledge of place value understanding, as well as giving more confident mathematicians a chance to show their reasoning and problem-solving skills in this area.  

Music, art, poetry and film as part of this Learning Experience

As part of this learning experience, we will be looking at haikus – a Japanese form of poetry with a strict 5-7-5 syllable structure.  We will also be watching the Mojo short cartoons exploring Growth Mindset, as well as many opportunities to be creative through art, music and drama.

Wider Curriculum

This half term, our rotation will be focusing on ICT (learning new apps on the iPads); Spanish (What is the weather like?) and Philosophy for Children (P4C). P4C will encourage children to think more deeply about key questions, as well as teaching them how to articulate their ideas clearly.

PE: Tuesday – Swifts, Wednesday – Sparrows and Starlings.

Literacy - Our literacy focus this half term will be autobiographical writing. The children will be learning what a biography is, and will use good examples to help them write their own version about themselves, following the Talk for Writing structure. We will also be really focused on handwriting, ensuring that the children build back any stamina for writing that they may have lost since March. In science, we will be looking at the topic of Light and the children will be investigating and recording their findings in a formal way. Light also lends itself to many creative activities which we hope to explore over the six week half term.

Dates to remember:

Wednesday 23^rd September -  Tempest Photography will be in school to take individual photos. NOTE: Sibling photos will not be allowed at this time.

Reading at Home - This term we will be focusing on increasing fluency and stamina for reading, as well as continuing to foster a love of reading both at home and at school. The children will all be on Accelerated Reader and will be challenged to finish at least one book and pass a quiz on it before the October half term. You can help them by taking them to the library to help them explore and select books that they want to read, and talking to them about your own favourite children’s books.  

Home Learning

We challenge the children to create a self-portrait in the style of an artist. At home, you can choose any artist you want to try and emulate. Please bring these into school by Monday 19^th October.

Messages
*We have a number of children in school with nut and kiwi allergies, so please ensure these products are not brought in to school.
*Absence – should your child be absent due to illness please call the absence line on 01803 607589 and leave a message with your child’s name, class, and reason for absence. Alternatively, you can text this information to 07786 208446. If your child has sickness and/or diarrhoea, they will need to be absent for 48 hours after the last episode of illness. For planned absences of any nature, you will need to complete an absence request form-these are available on the school website.