Welcome back to the new Class 3 - after an utterly unprecedented and difficult last six months!  A special warm welcome to Francesca who joins us for the first time in Year 6.  Everyone has settled in brilliantly and returned with a super attitude. I couldn’t be more proud!

After completing lots of research over the lockdown, we are going to trial using Jane Considine’s ‘The Write Stuff’ and ‘Hooked on Books’ which are systems to teach writing and reading skills in a very scaffolded, supported way, with lots of modelling and structure. This involves an hour a day on writing (including grammar and punctuation) and half an hour per day on Book Talk – guided, modelled and shared reading. Encouraging a love of reading for pleasure is our ultimate goal and our reading challenge of at least three reads per week remains our expectation. Spelling tests will be on Thursdays.

In Maths we will continue on our Mastery journey to develop a deep understanding, confidence, resilience and competence to provide secure learning and sustained progress. We begin the Autumn term with Number and Place value, progressing on to the four calculations. Each mathematical topic develops children’s fluency, reasoning and problem solving. We will continue to practise our times tables as quick recall in this area is a fundamental, non-negotiable skill.

Science lessons will focus on Scientists and Inventors and the topic of ‘Properties and Changes of Materials.

 Our CLT (Creative Learning Time) is a whole school topic entitled ‘Lincoln and The Romans’ involving cross-curricular work over the Autumn Term, It is hoped that a whole school external visit will still be able to take place, with due risk assessments!  ……. Art will be incorporated into this subject, as will a whole school Food Technology day on bread making and a KS2 DT project designing and making a controllable Roman chariot. In Music the pupils will be composing and performing a Roman Rap……… I can’t wait for that one!

 We will be learning French this year and cannot wait to show off our new language skills to you at home!  Our topics will include: in the classroom, finding your way around a French town, asking for directions and buying souvenirs.

In RE we are looking at Worship and Sacred Places with an emphasis on Local Religion and in PSHE we will be discussing VIPs and Rights and Responsibilities.

 During P.E. – on a Monday and Friday afternoon for KS2 -   we will cover a range of skills through the sports of Invasion Games, Tag Rugby, Football, Dance and Circuit Training. The Friday sessions will be delivered by our outside provider: MSP.  Children are asked to come to school in PE kits on those days. We will have to see if the usual sporting activities normally arranged throughout the year for Class 3 as part of the Tuxford family PLT will still be able to take place– more details will be published if and when this is possible.

 We are all looking forward to an exciting, stimulating and successful year.  We have made a fantastic start – the children have come back in a brilliant frame of mind and are giving 100% effort already!!  We are eager to watch them grow socially, emotionally and academically – whilst having lots of fun – and all retaining social distancing!

Regards,

Jill Woolnough