Week Ending: 13/11/26

Dear Parents and Carers,

This week in Arctic class, we have been super busy with various exciting trips and activities! We have also focused on themes of remembrance in core curriculum lessons as well as in the wider world with Armistice day. 

This Week – What Have We Been Learning?

English

This week, we have been exploring The Dam by David Almond. It is a wonderful picture book with reflective and thoughtful themes that has pushed us to consider how memories and experiences change perspectives. We have particularly focused on using the correct tense and writing with consideration to the reader. Some of the characters in the book have different memories of the places that are explored, and we have looked at how we can share this through our writing. 

Maths

In Maths, we have been learning about Prime, Square and Cube Numbers. Some children have built on their prior knowledge of, whilst others were new to these concepts at the beginning of the week. Through oracy and revising our mathematical vocabulary, we have also started to look at reasoning questions. As always, we start every lesson with Fluent in 5 questions, which helps us to consolidate learning and the use of the four operations.

Wider Curriculum – Equimundo (Challenging Gender Stereotypes)

As part of our school value ‘justice’, we have been participating and engaging in a programme about gender stereotypes and challenging bias. We spent time discussing key terms and what this means not only as a definition, but to us in our lives and with regard to our personal experiences. As always, with PSHE lessons, we adopted a safe and open environment so that we were able to talk openly and honestly. While we were considering bias, we thought about what we are influenced by and how this might lead us to certain beliefs. We will continue to reflect on this during Antibullying Week, which begins on Monday 16th November.

Additional Curriculum Learning – Year 6 - Junior Citizens 

It was brilliant to attend Junior Citizens at Rewley Fire station this week. We met lots of professionals including police officers, paramedics, fire fighters and people from Great Western Railway. The sessions were very informative and really important and we gained lots of crucial information and saw first hand how these people help to save and support members of the community.

Next Week – What Will We Be Learning?

Next week is the beginning of assessment week. This is a brilliant opportunity to see where the children are currently working and will help teachers to ascertain what their next steps are. Please support your child to be in school on time so that they can be best prepared for the day ahead. 

Assessment week is a really good chance for children to also practise taking exams. Teachers will be advising and modeling good practice to help prepare children for future exams. 

Home Learning – How Can You Help?

Reading

All children have a reading book from the school library. This must come into school each day and be taken home to help with engagement with reading outside of the classroom. The research suggests that best practice is around twenty minutes a day of shared reading. This doesn’t need to be just reading, talking about the book and revisiting unknown words is a great way to support comprehension skills. 

Maths

A sheet has been sent home and should be in your child’s clear, named folder. This is due on Friday and children are expected to sign-in their completed work and submit it in the tray in the classroom. 

Phonics, Spellings or Vocabulary

Spelling and grammar homelearning has also been sent in the folder. We have reached the end of a unit in our spelling lessons and so the word list this week is consolidating learning from the previous weeks. There is also a further writing task to support children’s understanding and application of the words from the spelling list. 

Class Reminders and Important Information

Please remind and support your child to have the necessary clothing and equipment for school, especially with the weather getting colder. Children travelling on bikes need helmets and bright clothing/hi-vis to ensure safety when coming to and leaving school.

Upcoming Dates

• 25th Nov– Cinema Trip for Year 6

• 23rd Nov - 27th Nov – Y6 France Residential 

Please continue to check the school website calendar for the most up-to-date information about school events.

Thank you for your continued support. We look forward to another exciting week of learning.

Beth