Home Learning and Supporting the Curriculum at home

We have attached a selection of Knowledge Organisers for you to use to support your child’s learning at home. These set out clearly what we expect children to learn and remember in that subject. Please use these at home to embed your child’s learning and encourage them to tick off the small steps as they learn them in school. Please encourage your child to log into TT Rockstars on the Sound Check as often as possible. This will help alongside the dedicated sessions we do in school to boost their fluency at times table recall. Children should be fluent in tables up to 12x12 by the end of Year 4. The Sound Check will be similar to the Year 4 Multiplication Check that all children in Year 4 will undertake in June. You will also have log ins for SumDog and Spelling and Maths Shed. We are now using a spelling scheme of work called No Nonsense Spelling that is built on progression of sounds and builds on children’s prior knowledge. Please continue to use Spelling Shed for practice.  

PE— Cricket

Sparrows: Tuesday, Starlings: Wednesday, Swifts: Wednesday

Please ensure your child wears a full PE kit on their PE day:

· White t-shirt/ polo top.

· Navy or black shorts or tracksuit bottoms (or similar)

· School jumper or cardigan.

· Black trainers or plimsolls with white or grey socks.

Reading

In school, children are encouraged to read daily. They take quizzes on Accelerated Reader (AR) about the books they have read and earn points for this. Children are also expected to log on to AR at home to quiz on the books they read at home. At the end of the half term, we will be giving certificates to every child who reaches their own individual target for points earned. To support passion and progression, we expect children to read daily at home for at least 15 minutes. Please support and encourage your child in this by listening to them read aloud often and talking about what they have read to help develop comprehension skills and develop an inquisitive nature about books. It is also beneficial for children to hear you read aloud to them regularly to help develop and maintain a love for reading. Modelling your own love of reading can really help your child’s reading progress.

School Value

This half term, in our Class Assemblies and PSHE lessons, we are learning about the value of Creativity and how we can be creative in school and our personal lives.

British Value

We will be learning about tolerance and linking this to the skill of respect because it is a key skill for life in Britain.

Our Curriculum

Children in Key Stage 1 and 2 will enjoy a long and short enquiry each half term.

Long Enquiries

A long enquiry typically lasts five weeks and allows us to teach a subject, such as history, in depth. Clear expectations of what will be learned, is shared with parents and pupils through a Knowledge Organiser.  At the end of the work, we plan to use Enquiry Quizzes on our iPads to see how much each child has remembered.

This half term, the children will be focusing on History. Our key enquiry question is: How did the lives of the Maya differ from the lives of people living in Britain between 900AD and 1500AD? Children will be learning about the formation of the Maya civilisation and their key achievements. The children will be using a range of historical sources to encourage them to think like a historian and understand how historians form their opinions. They will gain an understanding of life in England in 900AD and use this information to compare the two civilisations. Please use the Knowledge Organiser to guide your child’s learning at home alongside their learning in school.

Short Enquiries

A short enquiry can last anything from 1 – 3 days and adds breadth to our curriculum.

Our Short Enquiry for this half term is  Art. Our key enquiry question is: How can I express my emotions through art? Children will study ‘Scream’ by Edvard Munch and learn how the impressionists used colour and brushstroke to convey emotion. The key skills they will be developing are drawing, painting and use of colour. Children will be encouraged to identify and name a variety of different emotions and consider how we can often feel more than one emotion at one time. They will decide how to portray their emotions through their artwork.

Maths

In Year 3 maths, children are learning to tell the time and solve time problems using the 12 and 24 hour clock. We will then move on to fractions. Children will recap basic fractions before moving on to adding and subtracting fractions. In maths this half-term, Year 4 will be drawing and reading graphs before moving onto learning about fractions. The Year 4 multiplication check will be in June, so please continue to practice tables up to 12x12 with your child.

Please ensure children are practicing their multiplication tables up 12x12 daily.

Literacy

Children will be writing a poem based on ’Beachcomber’ by George Mackay Brown. They will write about a collection of items and will be expected to write in stanzas using a range of descriptive techniques. They will also write a persuasive letter based on a letter written by the RSPB to gather support for their cause. Each child will choose a cause that is important to them to persuade people to help.

Dates to remember

Tuesday 2nd May—Thursday 4th May: Year 4 residential to Dewerstone.

Friday 5th May—Coronation celebrations. Children are welcome to wear red, white and blue to school, or dress as a King or Queen.

Thursday 25th May—Please join us at 2:45pm to see your child’s work. Further details will be sent closer to the time.

Friday 26th May—Whole school photo.

Messages

Please continue to contact the school office by email admin@preston.torbay.sch.uk or phone 01803 607075 with any questions or queries. There is also lots of useful information, as well as event dates and term dates, on our school website https://www.preston.torbay.sch.uk/