Tulip, Blossom & Sunflower Blog - Friday 3rd October 2025

 Happy Friday everybody! Amazingly we have arrived in October! We have been enjoying looking at teeth in science this week as well as looking at acrostic poems in English.

Year 3 Homework

Please complete the following pages and return to school by next Wednesday.

GPS - Conjunctions with main clauses (page 20-21)

Maths - Mental addition & Subtraction (page 22-23)

Year 4 Homework

Please complete the following pages and return to school by next Wednesday.

GPS - Conjunctions (page 22-23)

Maths - Roman Numerals (page 15)

Spelling Homework - Spelling Frame Year 3/4 Rule 5: More Prefixes

Your child's new spelling list is inside their small spelling book. Use the website Spelling Frame to help practise these words ready for a test on Friday. Login details are stuck inside the front cover of your child's reading diary.

Have a lovely weekend!

Mr Jude, Mrs Witherall & Mrs Devlin

Tulip, Blossom & Sunflower Blog - Friday 26th September 2025

 Happy Friday everybody! It has been another busy week in Year 3 & 4 and hopefully you all received a letter this week about our exciting trip to the Science Museum on Wednesday 22nd October! Please let us know if this got lost on the way home!

Year 3 Homework

Please complete the following pages and return to school by next Wednesday.

GPS - Sentence Practice (page 44-45)

Maths - Ordering and Comparing Numbers (page 10-11)

Year 4 Homework

Please complete the following pages and return to school by next Wednesday.

GPS - Sentence Practice (page 40-41)

Maths - Ordering and Comparing Numbers (page 10-11)

Spelling Homework - Spelling Frame Year 3/4 Rule 4: Prefixes

Your child's new spelling list is inside their small spelling book. Use the website Spelling Frame to help practise these words ready for a test on Friday. Login details are stuck inside the front cover of your child's reading diary.

Have an awesome weekend!

Mr Jude, Mrs Witherall & Mrs Devlin

Tulip, Blossom & Sunflower Blog - Friday 19th September 2025

 Happy Friday everybody! It has been a busy week in Year 3 & 4 and all the children have settled well into their new routines. We have been looking at Mola Art, a traditional art of the Cuna tribe, in our Art lessons as well as finding out more about the rainforest this week!

Year 3 Homework

Please complete the following pages and return to school by next Wednesday.

GPS - Capital Letters & Full Stops (page 38-39)

Maths - 10 or 100 More or Less (page 9)

Year 4 Homework

Please complete the following pages and return to school by next Wednesday.

GPS - Capital Letters & Full Stops (page 36-37)

Maths - 1000 More or Less (page 9)

Spelling Homework - Spelling Frame Year 3/4 Rule 3: /^/ sound written as ou.

Your child's new spelling list is inside their small spelling book. Use the website Spelling Frame to help practise these words ready for a test on Friday. Login details are stuck inside the front cover of your child's reading diary.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mr Jude, Mrs Witherall & Mrs Devlin

Tulip, Blossom & Sunflower Blog - Friday 12th September 2025

 Happy Friday everybody! It has been lovely to celebrate Roald Dahl Day and all the children looked fantastic in their costumes as well!

Year 3 Homework

Please complete the following pages and return to school by next Wednesday.

GPS - Adjectives (page 5)

Maths - Partitioning (page 12)

Year 4 Homework

Please complete the following pages and return to school by next Wednesday.

GPS - Adjectives (page 5)

Maths - Counting in Multiples (page 6)

Spelling Homework - Spelling Frame Year 3/4 Rule 2: /I/ sound written as y.

Your child's new spelling list is inside their small spelling book. Use the website Spelling Frame to help practise these words ready for a test on Friday. Login details are stuck inside the front cover of your child's reading diary.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mr Jude, Mrs Witherall & Mrs Devlin

Tulip, Blossom & Sunflower Blog - Friday 5th September 2025

 Happy Friday everybody! It has been lovely to welcome everybody back to school this week! All the children have settled in extremely well and have been working hard. The children have looked ever so smart - just a reminder to ensure that all items of clothing are labelled with their name - this makes a HUGE difference! Thank you for taking the time to read this blog - we use it to share important information about homework, upcoming events and any other important news regarding Year 3 and 4.

Roald Dahl Day - Friday 12th September

Next Friday is Roald Dahl Day and children may come to school dressed up as a character from a Roald Dahl book if they wish to! They may instead bring in a prop representing a character or a favourite Roald Dahl book if they prefer this to dressing up. We look forward to seeing all your gloriumptious ideas!

School Council Elections

Next week in class we will be electing our class representatives for the School Council. If your child would like to stand for election, they may wish to use this weekend to write a speech, create a poster or think about the qualities they have to make a great class councillor. Results will be announced in next week's Celebration Assembly.

Year 3 Homework

Your child will have brought home 2 homework books today - a Maths and a Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling book. Please complete the following pages and return to school by next Wednesday.

GPS - Inverted Commas (pages 58-59)

Maths - Place Value (page 6)

Year 4 Homework

Your child will have brought home 2 homework books today - a Maths and a Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling book. Please complete the following pages and return to school by next Wednesday.

GPS - Punctuating Speech (pages 60-61)

Maths - Place Value & Partitioning (page 8)

Spelling Homework - Spelling Frame Year 3/4 Rule 1 

Your child has brought home a small spelling book as well today. Inside are the words they need to learn. Use the website Spelling Frame to help practise these words ready for a test on Friday. Login details are stuck inside the front cover of your child's reading diary.

Accelerated Reader

At Down Hall we use the Accelerated Reader to help support your child's reading. Children take a book home matched to their current reading levels. Once they have read the book, they can take a quiz in school and if they achieve 90% or more they have passed the quiz! If your child achieves 3 passed quizzes, they will move up a level. Please note, the children do not have access to the book during the quiz so they must be confident that they know the book well before they take the quiz. 

We monitor how many quizzes are taken by the children each half term and encourage them to quiz regularly. Successful quizzes contribute to the children's weekly word count and this is celebrated during Friday's Whole School Assembly!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mr Jude, Mrs Witherall & Mrs Devlin

Friday 27th June 2025

 

Friday 27th June 2025

  Dear Parents

Happy Friday! We have had a great week this week and particularly enjoyed our visit to Writtle College for their Food and Farming Day - photos to follow in a future newsletter

Gentle Reminder

We have loved the sunshine this week and hope it will continue so could we please ask that you make sure children wear hats and sun cream when the weather is warmer and  bottles are brought in each day - with water, not juice.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Upcoming Events

• Thursday 3rd July - Open School 3:30-5:00pm
• Friday 18th July - PTA Disco
• Monday 1st September - INSET Day
• Tuesday 2nd September - Children return to school

Please follow the link below for your chance to get a signed copy of Andy Shepherd's new book "The Wood Where Magic Grows."

Click Here

PSHE

For the rest of our PSHE lessons on changes, we will be looking at how our body changes, both on the inside and the outside, as we get older and how we feel and cope with these changes.

Year 3/4  Homework Tasks -

Year 3: English - Put your spellings into sentences. Maths - Complete the addition and subtraction sheet to recap on the written methods of these 2 operations.

Year 4: English - Pages 26 - Present and past tense Maths - Complete the addition and subtraction sheet to recap on the written methods of these 2 operations.

Spelling Frame Rule 25 - https://spellingframe.co.uk/

This week we would like the children to focus on: Spelling Rule 26. Your child has their login details glued into their reading diaries. They will be tested at the end of every week on these spellings so PLEASE practise at home. These have been stuck in your child's little blue book. If your child did not have theirs in school, they were given the spelling list.

Multiplication Practise

Please practise your times tables at home regularly.

Reading: 

Remember 15-20 minutes everyday is super important but we understand this is not always manageable. Make sure you are reading as much as you can - at least 3x a week and recording what you read in your child's reading record. These will be collected by teachers and checked regularly.  When you have finished your Accelerated Reader book, you can take a quiz at school. Remember that you need 3 100% scores to move up a level.

Times table practice - Please log on to TTRS and complete your challenges.

Can Do
Continue logging on to TTRS and Sumdog -  your logins are stuck in the front cover of your reading records. 

Reading Skills

Every week we encourage you to keep up all your reading at home as this makes such a huge difference. We wanted to spend a little time this week speaking more about reading skills.

Understanding what they have read (or comprehension) is vital for the children  and we support this through our VIPERS reading skills. This stands for:

Vocabulary    Infer    Predict    Explain    Retrieve    Summarise

You can explore these ideas with your child after reading using some of the following question prompts:

Vocabulary - have a good range of vocabulary in order to understand the text

• What does the word _____ mean in this sentence?
• Find a word that means _____ on this page.

Infer - understanding reached through reasoning about what you have read

• Why was _____ feeling _____?
• Why did _____ happen?
• How do you know?

Predict - what you think will happen based on what you have read

• What do you think will happen next?
• How will this character's action affect what will happen next?

Explain - what your thoughts and opinions are about the book

• Who is your favourite character? Why?
• Would you like to live in this setting? Why?

Retrieve - discuss the characters, events and setting of the story

• Who did _____?
• Where did _____?

Summarise - pick out the key events

• Retell the story in your own words.
• Pick out the important parts.

We hope this helps you discuss the books your child reads at home as the more they practice these skills the more fluent in comprehension they will become.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Harvey and Mrs. Devlin

Friday 13th June 2025

  Dear Parents

Happy Friday! It seems like only yesterday that we were enjoying our trip to Barleylands. The children were fantastic and we had a great time.  Be sure to take some time to look at all the photos on this week's newsletter. 

Gentle Reminder

We have loved the sunshine this week and hope it will continue so could we please ask that you make sure children wear hats and sun cream when the weather is warmer and drink bottles are brought in each day.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Upcoming Events

• Monday 16th June - Book Fair begins (after school)
• Friday 20th June - Sports Day Click here for the letter from this week)
• Tuesday 24th June - Years 3 & 4 Essex Food & Farming Day
• Friday 18th July - PTA Disco
• Monday 1st September - INSET Day
• Tuesday 2nd September - Children return to school

Year 3/4  Homework Tasks -

Year 3: English - Keep practising spellings on spellingframe Maths - Keep practising times tables. A sheet on 'Time' will be given out on Monday

Year 4: English - Pages 96 + 97 - Homophones Maths - Page 64 + 65 - Finding Lines of Symmetry / Completing Symmetrical Shaped

Spelling Frame Rule 25 - https://spellingframe.co.uk/

This week we would like the children to focus on: Spelling Rule 25. Your child has their login details glued into their reading diaries. They will be tested at the end of every week on these spellings so PLEASE practise at home. These have been stuck in your child's little blue book. If your child did not have theirs in school, they were given the spelling list.

Year 4 Multiplication Tables Check

Year 4 have completed their MTC check and should be very proud of themselves as all their practice paid off and they did themselves proud. Very well done to everyone! 

Reading: 

Remember 15-20 minutes everyday is super important but we understand this is not always manageable. Make sure you are reading as much as you can - at least 3x a week and recording what you read in your child's reading record. These will be collected by teachers and checked regularly.  When you have finished your Accelerated Reader book, you can take a quiz at school. Remember that you need 3 100% scores to move up a level.

Times table practice - Please log on to TTRS and complete your challenges.

Can Do
Continue logging on to TTRS and Sumdog -  your logins are stuck in the front cover of your reading records. 

Reading Skills

Every week we encourage you to keep up all your reading at home as this makes such a huge difference. We wanted to spend a little time this week speaking more about reading skills.

Understanding what they have read (or comprehension) is vital for the children  and we support this through our VIPERS reading skills. This stands for:

Vocabulary    Infer    Predict    Explain    Retrieve    Summarise

You can explore these ideas with your child after reading using some of the following question prompts:

Vocabulary - have a good range of vocabulary in order to understand the text

• What does the word _____ mean in this sentence?
• Find a word that means _____ on this page.

Infer - understanding reached through reasoning about what you have read

• Why was _____ feeling _____?
• Why did _____ happen?
• How do you know?

Predict - what you think will happen based on what you have read

• What do you think will happen next?
• How will this character's action affect what will happen next?

Explain - what your thoughts and opinions are about the book

• Who is your favourite character? Why?
• Would you like to live in this setting? Why?

Retrieve - discuss the characters, events and setting of the story

• Who did _____?
• Where did _____?

Summarise - pick out the key events

• Retell the story in your own words.
• Pick out the important parts.

We hope this helps you discuss the books your child reads at home as the more they practice these skills the more fluent in comprehension they will become.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Harvey and Mrs Devlin

Friday 23rd May 2025

 

Friday 23rd May 2025

  Dear Parents

Happy Friday! We have had a shorter but still very busy half term. Have a lovely week off!

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Upcoming Events

• Monday 2nd June - INSET Day (School Closed)
• Friday 6th June - Whole school trip to Barleylands (see here for the letter)
• Friday 13th June - PTA Father's Day Sale
• Friday 13th June - Father Day Tea at 3:15pm
• Friday 20th June - Sports Day
• 
  

Year 3/4  Homework Tasks -

For homework this week you have been asked to research a Pharaoh and present this however you choose. It can be a written report, poster, Google Document or on Google slides. Please bring your homework with you when you return after half term.

Year 4 Multiplication Tables Check

This year the children in Year 4 will be participating in the multiplication tables check (MTC) in June. The purpose of the check is to determine whether the children can fluently recall their times tables up to 12, which is essential for future success in mathematics. It will also help your child’s school to identify if your child may need additional support. The Times Table Club is taking place on a Thursday after school (3:15 to 4:15), to help them prepare for this.

Reading: 

Remember 15-20 minutes everyday is super important but we understand this is not always manageable. Make sure you are reading as much as you can - at least 3x a week and recording what you read in your child's reading record. These will be collected by teachers and checked regularly.  When you have finished your Accelerated Reader book, you can take a quiz at school. Remember that you need 3 100% scores to move up a level.

Times table practice - Please log on to TTRS and complete your challenges.

Can Do
Continue logging on to TTRS and Sumdog -  your logins are stuck in the front cover of your reading records. 

Reading Skills

Every week we encourage you to keep up all your reading at home as this makes such a huge difference. We wanted to spend a little time this week speaking more about reading skills.

Understanding what they have read (or comprehension) is vital for the children  and we support this through our VIPERS reading skills. This stands for:

Vocabulary    Infer    Predict    Explain    Retrieve    Summarise

You can explore these ideas with your child after reading using some of the following question prompts:

Vocabulary - have a good range of vocabulary in order to understand the text

• What does the word _____ mean in this sentence?
• Find a word that means _____ on this page.

Infer - understanding reached through reasoning about what you have read

• Why was _____ feeling _____?
• Why did _____ happen?
• How do you know?

Predict - what you think will happen based on what you have read

• What do you think will happen next?
• How will this character's action affect what will happen next?

Explain - what your thoughts and opinions are about the book

• Who is your favourite character? Why?
• Would you like to live in this setting? Why?

Retrieve - discuss the characters, events and setting of the story

• Who did _____?
• Where did _____?

Summarise - pick out the key events

• Retell the story in your own words.
• Pick out the important parts.

We hope this helps you discuss the books your child reads at home as the more they practice these skills the more fluent in comprehension they will become.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Harvey and Mrs Devlin

Friday 16th May 2025

  Dear Parents

Happy Friday! Well another lovely sunny week has flown by and we have only one more week until we can enjoy a well-earned break.  As the sunshine is expected to continue next week, could we please ask that you make sure children wear hats and sun cream when the weather is warmer and drink bottles are brought in each day.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

• Friday 23rd - PTA Doughnut/Cookie Sale
• Friday 23rd May - Wellbeing Day (come to school wearing comfy clothing)
• Friday 23rd May - Last Day of Term
• Monday 26th May - Friday 30th May- Half Term Holiday
• Monday 2nd June - INSET Day (School Closed)
• Friday 6th June - Whole school trip to Barleylands (see here for the letter)
• Friday 13th June - PTA Father's Day Sale
• Friday 13th June - Father Day Tea at 3:15pm
• Friday 20th June - Sports Day

Year 3/4  Homework Tasks -

Year 3: English - None set this week Maths - Double-sided Time Sheet

Year 4: English - Pages 20 + 21 - Fronted Adverbials Maths - Page 56 + 57 - Money

Spelling Frame Rule 24 - https://spellingframe.co.uk/

This week we would like the children to focus on: Spelling Rule 24. Your child has their login details glued into their reading diaries. They will be tested at the end of every week on these spellings so PLEASE practise at home. These have been stuck in your child's little blue book. If your child did not have theirs in school, they were given the spelling list.

Year 4 Multiplication Tables Check

This year the children in Year 4 will be participating in the multiplication tables check (MTC) in June. The purpose of the check is to determine whether the children can fluently recall their times tables up to 12, which is essential for future success in mathematics. It will also help your child’s school to identify if your child may need additional support. The Times Table Club is taking place on a Thursday after school (3:15 to 4:15), to help them prepare for this.

Reading: 

Remember 15-20 minutes everyday is super important but we understand this is not always manageable. Make sure you are reading as much as you can - at least 3x a week and recording what you read in your child's reading record. These will be collected by teachers and checked regularly.  When you have finished your Accelerated Reader book, you can take a quiz at school. Remember that you need 3 100% scores to move up a level.

Times table practice - Please log on to TTRS and complete your challenges.

Can Do
Continue logging on to TTRS and Sumdog -  your logins are stuck in the front cover of your reading records. 

Reading Skills

Every week we encourage you to keep up all your reading at home as this makes such a huge difference. We wanted to spend a little time this week speaking more about reading skills.

Understanding what they have read (or comprehension) is vital for the children  and we support this through our VIPERS reading skills. This stands for:

Vocabulary    Infer    Predict    Explain    Retrieve    Summarise

You can explore these ideas with your child after reading using some of the following question prompts:

Vocabulary - have a good range of vocabulary in order to understand the text

• What does the word _____ mean in this sentence?
• Find a word that means _____ on this page.

Infer - understanding reached through reasoning about what you have read

• Why was _____ feeling _____?
• Why did _____ happen?
• How do you know?

Predict - what you think will happen based on what you have read

• What do you think will happen next?
• How will this character's action affect what will happen next?

Explain - what your thoughts and opinions are about the book

• Who is your favourite character? Why?
• Would you like to live in this setting? Why?

Retrieve - discuss the characters, events and setting of the story

• Who did _____?
• Where did _____?

Summarise - pick out the key events

• Retell the story in your own words.
• Pick out the important parts.

We hope this helps you discuss the books your child reads at home as the more they practice these skills the more fluent in comprehension they will become.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Harvey and Mrs Devlin

Friday 9th May 2025

 

Friday 9th May 2025

 Dear Parents

Happy Friday! We enjoyed celebrating VE day with a lovely assembly with Mr. Jude. It was lovely to see the children wearing red, white and blue. 

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Friday 23rd - PTA Doughnut/Cookie Sale

Friday 23rd May - Wellbeing Day (come to school wearing comfy clothing)

Friday 23rd May - Last Day of Term

Monday 26th May - Friday 30th May- Half Term Holiday

Year 3/4  Homework Tasks -

Year 3: English - Pages 44 + 45 - Sentence Practice Maths - Page 38 + 39 - Fractions of Amounts

Year 4: English - Pages 40 + 41 - Sentence Practice Maths - Page 42 + 43 - Rounding and Comparing Decimals

Spelling Frame Rule 22 - https://spellingframe.co.uk/

This week we would like the children to focus on: Spelling Rule 23. Your child has their login details glued into their reading diaries. They will be tested at the end of every week on these spellings so PLEASE practise at home. These have been stuck in your child's little blue book. If your child did not have theirs in school, they were given the spelling list.

Year 4 Multiplication Tables Check

This year the children in Year 4 will be participating in the multiplication tables check (MTC) in June. The purpose of the check is to determine whether the children can fluently recall their times tables up to 12, which is essential for future success in mathematics. It will also help your child’s school to identify if your child may need additional support. The Times Table Club is taking place on a Thursday after school (3:15 to 4:15), to help them prepare for this.

Reading: 

Remember 15-20 minutes everyday is super important but we understand this is not always manageable. Make sure you are reading as much as you can - at least 3x a week and recording what you read in your child's reading record. These will be collected by teachers and checked regularly.  When you have finished your Accelerated Reader book, you can take a quiz at school. Remember that you need 3 100% scores to move up a level.

Times table practice - Please log on to TTRS and complete your challenges.

Can Do
Continue logging on to TTRS and Sumdog -  your logins are stuck in the front cover of your reading records. 

Reading Skills

Every week we encourage you to keep up all your reading at home as this makes such a huge difference. We wanted to spend a little time this week speaking more about reading skills.

Understanding what they have read (or comprehension) is vital for the children  and we support this through our VIPERS reading skills. This stands for:

Vocabulary    Infer    Predict    Explain    Retrieve    Summarise

You can explore these ideas with your child after reading using some of the following question prompts:

Vocabulary - have a good range of vocabulary in order to understand the text

• What does the word _____ mean in this sentence?
• Find a word that means _____ on this page.

Infer - understanding reached through reasoning about what you have read

• Why was _____ feeling _____?
• Why did _____ happen?
• How do you know?

Predict - what you think will happen based on what you have read

• What do you think will happen next?
• How will this character's action affect what will happen next?

Explain - what your thoughts and opinions are about the book

• Who is your favourite character? Why?
• Would you like to live in this setting? Why?

Retrieve - discuss the characters, events and setting of the story

• Who did _____?
• Where did _____?

Summarise - pick out the key events

• Retell the story in your own words.
• Pick out the important parts.

We hope this helps you discuss the books your child reads at home as the more they practice these skills the more fluent in comprehension they will become.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Harvey and Mrs Devlin

Friday 2nd May 2025

 Dear Parents

Happy Friday!  We hope you have had a lovely week like the children, enjoying the sunshine. Please remember to read the newsletter as it's been a busy week with lots going on. Also, just a reminder that Thursday we will all be wearing red, white and blue to celebrate VE day - see the newsletter for more details.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Monday 5th May - Bank Holiday (school closed)

Friday 23rd - PTA Doughnut/Cookie Sale

Friday 23rd May - Wellbeing Day (come to school wearing comfy clothing)

Friday 23rd May - Last Day of Term

Monday 26th May - Friday 30th May- Half Term Holiday

Year 3/4  Homework Tasks -

Year 3: Please continue to practise your times tables and spellings.

Year 4: English - Pages 20 + 21 - Fronted Adverbials Maths - Page 32 - Counting in Hundredths

Spelling Frame Rule 22 - https://spellingframe.co.uk/

This week we would like the children to focus on: Spelling Rule 22. Your child has their login details glued into their reading diaries. They will be tested at the end of every week on these spellings so PLEASE practise at home. These have been stuck in your child's little blue book. If your child did not have theirs in school, they were given the spelling list.

Year 4 Multiplication Tables Check

This year the children in Year 4 will be participating in the multiplication tables check (MTC) in June. The purpose of the check is to determine whether the children can fluently recall their times tables up to 12, which is essential for future success in mathematics. It will also help your child’s school to identify if your child may need additional support. The Times Table Club is taking place on a Thursday after school (3:15 to 4:15), to help them prepare for this.

Reading: 

Remember 15-20 minutes everyday is super important but we understand this is not always manageable. Make sure you are reading as much as you can - at least 3x a week and recording what you read in your child's reading record. These will be collected by teachers and checked regularly.  When you have finished your Accelerated Reader book, you can take a quiz at school. Remember that you need 3 100% scores to move up a level.

Times table practice - Please log on to TTRS and complete your challenges.

Can Do
Continue logging on to TTRS and Sumdog -  your logins are stuck in the front cover of your reading records. 

Reading Skills

Every week we encourage you to keep up all your reading at home as this makes such a huge difference. We wanted to spend a little time this week speaking more about reading skills.

Understanding what they have read (or comprehension) is vital for the children  and we support this through our VIPERS reading skills. This stands for:

Vocabulary    Infer    Predict    Explain    Retrieve    Summarise

You can explore these ideas with your child after reading using some of the following question prompts:

Vocabulary - have a good range of vocabulary in order to understand the text

• What does the word _____ mean in this sentence?
• Find a word that means _____ on this page.

Infer - understanding reached through reasoning about what you have read

• Why was _____ feeling _____?
• Why did _____ happen?
• How do you know?

Predict - what you think will happen based on what you have read

• What do you think will happen next?
• How will this character's action affect what will happen next?

Explain - what your thoughts and opinions are about the book

• Who is your favourite character? Why?
• Would you like to live in this setting? Why?

Retrieve - discuss the characters, events and setting of the story

• Who did _____?
• Where did _____?

Summarise - pick out the key events

• Retell the story in your own words.
• Pick out the important parts.

We hope this helps you discuss the books your child reads at home as the more they practice these skills the more fluent in comprehension they will become.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Harvey and Mrs Devlin

Friday 25th April 2025 

Dear Parents

Happy Friday!  Welcome back to another term! We hope you had a lovely Easter break.

TTRS Day - Next Friday 02.05.25

We are going to be celebrating TTRS day as a school next Friday. The children will be offered additional time to take part in activities that allow them to rehearse and join in activities using their times tables. We invite the children to dress up as a 'rock star' for the day. It has always been celebrated with our pupils in the past and hope to see all of our pupils take part in our fun-filled day.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Friday 2nd May - TT Rockstars Day (come to school dressed as a Rock Star)

Monday 5th May - Bank Holiday (school closed)

Friday 23rd - PTA Doughnut/Cookie Sale

Friday 23rd May - Wellbeing Day (come to school wearing comfy clothing)

Friday 23rd May - Last Day of Term

Monday 26th May - Friday 30th May- Half Term Holiday

Year 3/4  Homework Tasks -

Year 3: English - Pages 38 and 39 if this hasn't been completed or Sentence Practice Maths - 36 + 37 - Adding and subtracting fractions

Year 4: English - Pages 40 + 41 - Sentence practice Maths - Pages 38 + 39 - Decimals

Year 4 Multiplication Tables Check

This year the children in Year 4 will be participating in the multiplication tables check (MTC) in June. The purpose of the check is to determine whether the children can fluently recall their times tables up to 12, which is essential for future success in mathematics. It will also help your child’s school to identify if your child may need additional support. The Times Table Club is taking place on a Thursday after school (3:15 to 4:15), to help them prepare for this.

Reading: 

Remember 15-20 minutes everyday is super important but we understand this is not always manageable. Make sure you are reading as much as you can - at least 3x a week and recording what you read in your child's reading record. These will be collected by teachers and checked regularly.  When you have finished your Accelerated Reader book, you can take a quiz at school. Remember that you need 3 100% scores to move up a level.

Times table practice - Please log on to TTRS and complete your challenges.

Can Do
Continue logging on to TTRS and Sumdog -  your logins are stuck in the front cover of your reading records. 

Reading Skills

Every week we encourage you to keep up all your reading at home as this makes such a huge difference. We wanted to spend a little time this week speaking more about reading skills.

Understanding what they have read (or comprehension) is vital for the children  and we support this through our VIPERS reading skills. This stands for:

Vocabulary    Infer    Predict    Explain    Retrieve    Summarise

You can explore these ideas with your child after reading using some of the following question prompts:

Vocabulary - have a good range of vocabulary in order to understand the text

• What does the word _____ mean in this sentence?
• Find a word that means _____ on this page.

Infer - understanding reached through reasoning about what you have read

• Why was _____ feeling _____?
• Why did _____ happen?
• How do you know?

Predict - what you think will happen based on what you have read

• What do you think will happen next?
• How will this character's action affect what will happen next?

Explain - what your thoughts and opinions are about the book

• Who is your favourite character? Why?
• Would you like to live in this setting? Why?

Retrieve - discuss the characters, events and setting of the story

• Who did _____?
• Where did _____?

Summarise - pick out the key events

• Retell the story in your own words.
• Pick out the important parts.

We hope this helps you discuss the books your child reads at home as the more they practice these skills the more fluent in comprehension they will become.

Have a lovely weekend.

Miss Harvey and Mrs Devlin