Bulford St Leonard’s Primary School John French Way Bulford Village SP4 9HP Telephone/Fax: 01980 632309

January 2018

Dear Parents,

Welcome back and happy New Year to you all. We hope you have all enjoyed the festive break and the children are ready to start a fresh new term. This newsletter gives us the opportunity to let you know what the children will be doing over this very busy spring term.

Our topic this term is “To infinity and beyond” which links to the whole school topic of Survival. We will be linking this topic through most subjects e.g. Science, Literacy, Art, Geography and Maths where possible. We will learn about space exploration through our guided comprehension texts and using our science skills to find out more information about our place in the universe. We will be taking a trip to the planetarium in Winchester to support this topic – please look out for further letters with more information on this.

In Literacy, we will begin by studying a unit on the fictional planet of Pandora. Using film clips we will write our own non chronological reports based on creatures who live on this planet. Further into the term we will use picture books to help us create our own space adventure stories including ‘The way back home’ by Oliver Jeffers. We will continue to focus on spelling skills in our spelling groups with a weekly test on a Friday. All children have log in details for Spellodrome (link through Mathletics) and can use this to help support their work on spellings.

We will be having regular handwriting practice in class to continue to join our letters cursively, we can supply additional resources to help with this is you would like to work on this at home.

In Maths we will be spending the whole of term three focussing on Fractions before moving onto decimals and percentages in term four. Longer periods of time on these key areas will ensure children have a secure understanding of these concepts before moving on. All children have access at home to Mathletics.co.uk (which they already have passwords for) this is an excellent site for supporting children in the work

Bulford St Leonard’s Primary School, John French Way, Bulford Village, Wilts, SP4 9HP Tel: 01980 632309 Email: [email protected] Website: www.bulfordstleonards.org.uk

Bulford St Leonard’s is a member of Academies, a multi-academy trust.Registered in No: 10163646 Registered Office: Avon Valley College, Durrington Salisbury Wiltshire SP4 8HH we do in class and we endeavour to update tasks weekly for those children who can assess this at home.

In R.E. this year we will be learning about a variety of different religious including: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism. We will be focussing on a key question and then building our work around this our question in term three is ‘Are Sikh stories important today?’

ICT this term will be integrated throughout the curriculum and we will begin with looking at using the internet safety. The children will also be learning exciting new skills like programming (designing their own educational games) and computational thinking (prototyping an educational toy).

P.E. will be taught on a Monday (swimming) and Thursday for year 5’s and Thursdays for year 6’s with the Thursday session being led by a specialist sports coach. School P.E. kit consists of a white T-shirt and dark (blue or black) shorts. Please ensure that children have a P.E. kit in school during the week, including plimsolls or trainers for outside (weather permitting). Please ensure children have correct foot wear for P.E. lesson so they can take part.

In year 5 and 6 all children are given homework on a Monday (Spelling) and a Friday (Maths). Spellings should be practised throughout the week read for the test on Friday. Maths homework should be completed over the weekend. Children may also be given homework relating to their topic. It is helpful if parents guide and support their child with homework; please check that they know what they are doing, help if necessary, and look over the finished tasks. Children need to be encouraged to put as much care into their work at home as they do with the work in school. Homework will be monitored closely to ensure children are working to their highest capabilities.

We are continuing to have a big push on reading at home this year and we will be continuing with the whole school reading challenge into terms 3 and 4. Please remember that the points will only count if an adult has signed a child’s reading record to show that they have read with an adult at home. Please read with your child as much as possible throughout the year. This will greatly improve their fluency and expression when reading aloud as well as improve their understanding of each text. Look out for further information regarding parent reading drops in at school.

We have a busy term ahead of us and we hope a happy one. If you have concerns at any time regarding your child’s welfare or education please make an appointment to see us through the school office.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter – you may want to keep it for future reference.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Karen Jeffery Mrs Rosie Brady

Bulford St Leonard’s Primary School, John French Way, Bulford Village, Wilts, SP4 9HP Tel: 01980 632309 Email: [email protected] Website: www.bulfordstleonards.org.uk

Bulford St Leonard’s is a member of Salisbury Plain Academies, a multi-academy trust.Registered in England No: 10163646 Registered Office: Avon Valley College, Durrington Salisbury Wiltshire SP4 8HH