Dear Parents,

Welcome to Spring 1! I hope that you all managed to enjoy some well-deserved family time and rest this Christmas.

Our topic this half term is focused on the Ancient Egyptian civilisation which will build on the children’s prior knowledge on the Stone Age, Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Greek civilisations studied in Years 3 and 4. I will try to bring this unit to life as much as possible so will apologise in advance for the resource/donation requests that will inevitably be coming your way via ClassDojo over the next few weeks! In Science, we will be looking at:

· Describing the differences in the life cycles of a mammal, an amphibian, an insect and a bird

· Describing the life process of reproduction in some plants and animals.

· Describing how living things are classified into broad groups according to common observable characteristics and based on similarities and differences, including micro- organisms, plants and animals

PE with Mr Bain – Thursdays (Dance)

PE with Mr Burchell – Mondays (Football)

* Please note that PE kit can be worn to school on these days

As I’m sure you are well aware, we have a child in the class with a severe nut allergy, so please remember that, according to school policy, no nuts or products containing nuts should be brought into school at any time. Since this allergy could have extremely serious consequences, please help me keep him safe by:

a) Avoiding giving children nuts or nut products in their packed lunches

b) Avoiding giving nuts or nut products or snacks/bars containing nuts for break time snacks

c) Avoiding supplying the school with cakes or food items containing nuts for birthday celebrations, sales or events

d) Avoiding sending containers such as cereal boxes for DT / Art lessons into school which may have contained produce made with nuts

As in all previous parent letters, reading with your child and questioning them on what they’ve read remains absolutely essential, and I’d politely ask that this be consistently done at home at a minimum of 4 times per week. Continued and regular times table practice at home (using TT Rockstars – all children should have their own personal login details) is also requested, as, by Year 5, the children are expected to know all of their tables (x2, x3, x4, x5, x6, x7, x8, x9, x10, x11, x12) to 12 times.

I think that is all the important information for now. Obviously, with Class Dojo and the tremendous teacher-parent communication that it provides, I will post details, updates (and polite requests!) throughout the year. If there are any specific questions that you may have at this stage, please don’t hesitate in sending me an instant message on Class Dojo or email me at: jamie@stoke-climsland.cornwall.sch.uk.

Thank you

 

Jamie Burchell