To all our Wonderful Highflyer families,

Wow – what an amazing week we have all enjoyed – including our ‘Home Clothes Day’ today (always a HUGE hit!) to conclude our learning about William the Conqueror from Normandy last week and this; including different types of castles that he built around Britain. We have also thoroughly enjoyed looking at all the different parts, what they were called and why parts of them were included.  In English, this coming week, we will be finding out about Richard III; writing a diary entry of one of Richard III’s nephews in the Tower of London and including what they might have seen/heard/felt etc (remembering that the Tower of London is a Norman castle). An ENORMOUS thanks to all those families who have popped in various books, souvenirs, castle guides and maps – as they have ALL been terrific … and the children have loved looking through all the various bits and bobs (especially the gorgeous book on the Tower of London) …

In terms of phonics, for the remainder of this term we shall be reviewing the phonics taught over the past year - remembering our spelling patterns for differing graphemes that are similar in sounds and, therefore, some of these are planned to reoccur in our spellings over the next three weeks i.e. they will simply be a selection from this year :)

The skills of proof-reading, partner sharing to spot and correct errors and dictation will be also be practiced ;) !

In Maths, we shall be continuing with statistics - looking at data and creating graphs; whilst continuing our practice of our 2x, 5x and 10x tables – also including 2, 5 and 10 as a divisor. However, our daily mastering number focus will still be to revise the children’s understanding of strategies to calculate and help problem solve beyond 100.

Even though Forest School continues on Wednesday morning and P.E. on Thursday afternoon as timetabled (with a focus on athletics with our Performance Sport coaches) PLEASE do see the note below from Mrs Greenwood regarding the gorgeous ‘hot weather’ heading our way soon – and due to arrive by Monday …

Next week is set to be around 30 degrees each day. Children must bring a water bottle to school and have sun cream applied before school. They also need a hat. Children will not be allowed outside without a hat. As it is very hot, we will be relaxing the usual uniform rules from Monday to Friday. Children are welcome to wear whichever school uniform items they find the coolest. If this needs to be supplemented or replaced with home clothes then that is allowed too. The focus is on making sure the children are as cool and comfortable as possible. Please ensure that children still wear secure and sensible footwear - backless shoes such as flip flops or sliders are not safe outdoor shoes. We will be making use of shaded areas, taking regular drink breaks and limiting very physical activities during play times. We may stay in some of the time as well but will judge each day. Thank you for your co-operation. We hope that these measures will help keep everyone stay a little more comfortable during the hot weather.

Please remember to return our weekly Maths homework on any day, of any week – or even any ‘hidden’ Group Reading Books still ‘at home’ – as we would be ssssooooo grateful for your help to complete our class sets!  Especially with our new FFT Whole Class Text – fingers crossed – with you all from this afternoon … ‘Lost’ by Joel Pollen.

Wishing you all a ‘keep cool’ and lovely week ahead.

Best – as always,

Mrs Winters and the HF ‘Team’