Throughout your child’s last year at St George’s School we will work hard but also have lots of fun. We will continue to develop a love for reading, become even more efficient writers and mathematicians, learn new and interesting things and continue to be thoughtful and caring friends.
This is an outline of curriculum coverage for the Spring Term 2020 and also clarifies routines and events which take place during each school week.
Spring Term
2019/20
Mrs Barber (Darwin Class)
& Mrs Yendell (Newton Class)
Dear Parents and Guardians,
Happy New Year to you all! We hope everyone had an enjoyable and relaxing Christmas holiday. We would like to say a massive thank you for all the lovely presents and kind wishes received at Christmas.
Spring Term 2020 is underway and in this letter we will outline the topics planned for this term.
Literacy and Maths
In both Literacy and Maths we will continue to work from the National Curriculum. We try as much as possible to make sure the children’s learning is cross-curricular, so there will be many elements of Literacy and Maths included within our Science and Topic sessions. One unit of our Literacy topics this term is based on Traditional Stories, so any extra exposure to these stories at home would help enrich your child’s knowledge of this genre. Your children will be using some of the story telling techniques of Pie Corbett to help bring these classic stories to life, and will eventually be writing some of their own.
Topic
Our Amazing World
Geography
The children will learn about the location of countries, continents and oceans of the world in relation to the position of the UK and children's own locality. Children will develop global awareness by looking in detail at the position of the seven continents and five oceans of the world, understanding that the world is spherical and creating their own journeys across the world.
History
Children will learn about the significant explorers such as; Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong. The children will learn about their discoveries and the impact this had on the world.
Art and Design and Technology
Children will learn that indigenous people, such as the Native Americans and the aborigines in Australia, painted on rocks. They painted images to communicate stories and record events. Children will explore ways of painting on rocks.
Children will look at modern sculpture artists such as; Patrick Dougherty, Andy Goldsworthy and Jaakko Pernu. They will use natural materials to make their own sculptures.
Children will learn about the origins of dream catchers and will use natural materials to create their own dream catchers.
Science
Plants
We will look at the conditions plants need to grow in our local environment. This will link with our main topic about the World. The children will plant seeds and bulbs, observing and monitoring their growth in a variety of controlled conditions. They will also begin to describe how plants mature and reproduce.
Science – Forest School
Newton Class will be taking part in Forest School during the first half of the Spring Term and Darwin Class during the second half. This will be on a Thursday every week beginning 9th January 2020.
Computing
Questioning
This topic will involve learning about data handling tools that can give more information than pictograms. Children will be constructing a binary tree to identify items and then use this to answer questions.
Online Safety
All children will gain an understanding of how to keep themselves safe online and keep their personal information private. Children will be learning how to use the search tool to find resources on Purple Mash. They will be sharing work to an online display board. They will be using 2Respond (2Email) to start to communicate by email on Purple Mash and they will be learning about what a digital footprint is and how to think about the information that they leave online.
Spreadsheets
Children will be learning to open, edit, save sheets, enter data into cells and allocate a value to an image. They will also manipulate data using copying and pasting allowing them to solve puzzles Children will also use images and can present data in a variety of ways.
Music
Children will be learning verse and chorus songs with opportunities for adding dance moves and sounds focusing on aspects of singing, playing, improvising, composing and listening. They will also be learning to play a tuned instrument.
PE
Darwin Class have PE on a Friday and Newton Class have their session on a Monday this term
Gymnastics
Children will practice rolling, jumping, balancing and travelling skills. These techniques can then be combined to form a sequence of movements.
Please ensure all children come to school with full and labelled PE kit.
Children with long hair must have their hair tied back.
Pupils wearing earrings should either remove them
or cover them with micropore tape during PE.
RE
Is it important to celebrate the New Year?
Children will explore the ways that different people and different faiths celebrate New Year
How should the Church celebrate Easter?
Children will explore how and why the church celebrates Easter
Library and home reading
Library day will continue to be a Wednesday.
Please remind your child to change their home reading book, if necessary, and hand their reading record in as soon as they come into school in the morning. Many children are in this routine already but there are a few who need reminding!
Homework
For homework we will be sending home new topic grids to do with our theme of ‘Our Amazing World’. The work that the children did at home last term really helped to enhance our class displays and learning. Many thanks for all the hard work done at home.
Parent Helpers Needed
If you can help at all in school, it would be greatly appreciated, particularly with hearing children read. A DBS check will be needed so please speak to your child’s class teacher if you think you can help on a consistent and regular basis
Yours sincerely,
Mrs Barber Mrs Yendell