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

 Happy Friday everybody! What a super Christmassy week it has been with our Christmas Jumper Day, Chistmas Dinner, meeting Santa and his reindeer and the Christmas Bazaar! Phew! Next week looks to be a bit quieter but please note the change of date to Tulip and Blossom's last Forest School session on Tuesday.

• Friday 19th December - Last Day of Autumn Term/Wellbeing Day - Children home at 2pm
• Monday 5th January - Children back for Spring Term

Next Forest Schools Session

Please remember your change of clothes/footwear on these dates:

• Tuesday 16th December - Tulip
• Tuesday 16th December - Blossom
• Friday 9th January - Sunflower

Homework

The children have all been working so hard this week on their termly assessments! You will receive their progress report on Wednesday 17th December. As they have been working so hard, we will not be sending any homework/spellings out until after the Chrisrtmas Holidays. However, any reading or times tables practice you can do will greatly help your child hit the ground running in January!

We would like to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and peaceful New Year! We look forward to seeing you all again on Monday 5th January 2026!

Mr Jude, Mrs Witherall & Mrs Devlin

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

 Happy Friday everybody! We had an amazing time at the Pantomime this week - a curtain raiser to all the fun activities coming up for Christmas:

• Thursday 11th December - Christmas Jumper Day & Christmas Dinner Day
• Friday 12th December - Christmas Bazaar Day
• Friday 19th December - Last Day of Autumn Term/Wellbeing Day - Children home at 2pm
• Monday 5th January - Children back for Spring Term

Next Forest Schools Session

Please remember your change of clothes/footwear on these dates:

• Friday 12th December - Sunflower
• Monday 15th December - Tulip
• Wednesday 17th December - Blossom

Year 3 Homework

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

GPS - Commands & Exclamations (page 19)

Maths - Using Times Tables Facts (page 27-28)

Year 4 Homework

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

GPS - Question Marks & Exclamation Marks (page 38-39)

Maths - Rounding (page 12-13)

Spelling Homework - Spelling Frame Year 3/4 Rule 12: The Suffix -ous. (Part 2)

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 28th November 2025

 Happy Friday everybody! Christmas season is certainly with us now and things are getting very busy over the last 3 weeks of term! Here are some reminders of what is coming up:

• Tuesday 2nd December - Pantomime Trip - ***Year 3/4 come to school in their PE kit but can wear a Christmas jumper over this***
• Friday 5th December - Non-school Uniform Day - please bring chocolate donations for Christmas Bazaar
• Thursday 11th December - Christmas Jumper Day & Christmas Dinner Day
• Friday 12th December - Christmas Bazaar Day
• Friday 19th December - Last Day of Autumn Term/Wellbeing Day - Children home at 2pm
• Monday 5th January - Children back for Spring Term

Next Forest Schools Session

Please remember your change of clothes/footwear on these dates:

• Monday 1st December - Tulip
• Wednesday 3rd December - Blossom
• Friday 12th December - Sunflower

Year 3 Homework

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

GPS - Noun Phrases (page 15)

Maths - The 3, 4 & 8 Times Tables (page 26)

Year 4 Homework

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

GPS - Noun Phrases (page 16-17)

Maths - Solving Calculation Problems (page 30-31)

Spelling Homework - Spelling Frame Year 3/4 Rule 11: The Suffix -ous.

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 - 21st November 2025

 Happy Friday everybody! It has been another busy week in Year 3/4! We have been writing newspaper reports about Helen Skelton's Amazon kayaking challenge and learning about the properties of solids, liquids and gases in science among other things!

Year 3 Homework

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

GPS - Statements & Questions (page 18)

Maths - Solving Number Problems (page 16-17)

Year 4 Homework

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

GPS - Fronted Adverbials (page 20-21)

Maths - Estimating & Checking (page 24-25)

Spelling Homework - Spelling Frame Year 3/4 Rule 10: The Suffix -sion.

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 14th November 2025

 Happy Friday everybody! It has been an exciting beginning of the second half of the Autumn Term as we have just had (or about to have!) our first Forest Schools lesson! Look out for all the fabulous photos in the upcoming newsletters to see all the wonderful things we have been up to!

Year 3 Homework

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

GPS - Paragraphs (page 64-65)

Maths - Estimating & Checking (page 29)

Year 4 Homework

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

GPS - Paragraphs (page 64-65)

Maths - Using Times Tables (page 26)

Spelling Homework - Spelling Frame Year 3/4 Rule 9: The Suffix -ure.

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 7th November 2025

 Happy Friday everybody! Welcome to the second half of the Autumn Term!

Year 3 Homework

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

GPS - Present Tense & Past Tense (page 26-27)

Maths - Written Subtraction (page 25)

Year 4 Homework

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

GPS - Present Tense & Past Tense/Verbs with -ing (page 26-27

Maths - Area (page 54-55)

Spelling Homework - Spelling Frame Year 3/4 Rule 8: The Suffix -ly.

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.

Samaritans Purse Shoebox appeal

We are collecting items and are hoping that each class can pack a shoebox for one boy and one girl. It would be wonderful if everybody could donate one small item to help us to achieve this. There is information about the items that can be placed into the boxes on the website  here. We would like to thank you in advance for your generosity and kindness.

Have a lovely weekend!

Mr Jude, Mrs Witherall & Mrs Devlin

Tulip, Blossom & Sunflower Blog - Friday 24th October 2025

 Happy Friday, everybody and unbelievably here we are at the end of our first half term! It has been a busy and long week with our trip to the Science Museum but we saw so much there - look for our photos in this week's newsletter!

Cauliflower Christmas Cards

All the children will have come home this week with their Christmas card design attached to the order form. If you wish, these designs can be turned into not just Christmas cards but mugs, books and wrapping paper too! If you do want to have the design realised into any of these items you need to place the order online first. All the details about how to do this are clearly set out on the form that came home. Once you have placed the order online, you must tick the box indicated and return the artwork and form back to school by Tuesday 4th November so we can send it away to be printed. If you do not wish for your child's design to be made into items then you do not need to return the artwork.

The children have worked so hard this half term so we want them all to have a rest over half term. To this end, we will not be sending home homework books over half term and will be carrying over the spellings to be tested on the first Friday back. We would encourage you, however, to read with your child as regularly as you can.

Have an amazing half term and we will see you all back here on Tuesday 4th November!

Lots of love

Mr Jude, Mrs Witherall & Mrs Devlin

Tulip, Blossom & Sunflower Blog - Friday 17th October 2025

 Happy Friday everybody! Final reminder regarding  our trip to the Science Museum next Wednesday! Please remember that we are looking to leave promptly at 8:30am so we are asking all Year 3/4 children to arrive at 8:15am! We hope to be back by 3:15pm (traffic willing!)

Year 3 Homework

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

GPS - Prepositions (page 24-25)

Maths - Written Addition (page 24)

Year 4 Homework

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

GPS - Prepositions (page 24-25)

Maths - Written Subtraction (page 23)

Spelling Homework - Spelling Frame Year 3/4 Rule 7: The Suffix -ation.

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.

WHOLE SCHOOL SUMDOG COMPETITION

Calling all of you amazing mathematicians!

You have been entered into the Maths Week East of England Sumdog Competition. It starts on 17th October at 3.30pm, and finishes at 3.30pm on 23rd October.

Why not have a go and get your class on the school leaderboard?

I will be monitoring how well each class is doing. The winning class will get extra playtime!

Let's show our school what great mathematicians we are!

Good luck.

Mrs Hurley

Have a lovely weekend!

Mr Jude, Mrs Witherall & Mrs Devlin

Tulip, Blossom & Sunflower Blog - Friday 10th October 2025

 Happy Friday everybody! With only 2 weeks left of the first half term, we are all looking forward to our trip to the Science Museum on Wednesday 22nd October. Please remember that we are looking to leave promptly at 8:30am so we are asking all Year 3/4 children to arrive at 8:15am! We hope to be back by 3:15pm (traffic willing!)

Year 3 Homework

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

GPS - Verbs (page 8-9)

Maths - Partitioning (page 13 - don't worry if you did this when you completed p12!)

Year 4 Homework

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

GPS - Verbs (page 6)

Maths - Written Addition (page 22)

Spelling Homework - Spelling Frame Year 3/4 Rule 6: 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 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