3rd March

Hello everyone! I trust that you managed to spend some extra quality time with your children during half term. They have certainly returned with energy and are working very hard.
I wince at mentioning the S word (SATs) but this is the key half term of revision prior to these tests which are in the week of the 9th May (just a couple of weeks after the Easter holidays). Should you wish extra home revision materials, the best publications are CGP and Rising Stars ones which are widely available online and from WH Smith. All past papers are freely available online KS2 SATs Papers - SATs Papers KS2 [1999-2022] - Free Downloads (sats-papers.co.uk) and on other sites. Obviously, I don't want them to use them as tests at home but to have questions to practise. The reading papers are brilliant as they are all limited length extracts at exactly the right level of difficulty.

However, we are having a lot of fun with our class novel Smith and writing composition pieces for the coming half term will include several pieces based on the book.

1. A story chapter involving a lot of discussion and argument amongst the 4 main characters about whether Smith should share his newly acquired 'document' with his highwayman friend, Lord Tom (We're really having to get inside the characters for this one).
2. A recruitment poster for new pickpockets for the Ludgate Hill gang.
3. An information leaflet about how to be a highwayman.
4. A description of a scene in Newgate gaol.

This all sounds a bit dubious, I know, but it's all in the spirit of a bit of swashbuckling fiction. You could help out by discussing ideas for the key attributes of a Georgian street- urchin pickpocket or a  highwayman.

In Maths, the remaining topics to cover this half term are reading time in 12 and 24 hour formats and calculating time differences; Measure (mass, capacity and length) including reading scales that are calibrated in different amounts and being able to convert between units of measure ( e.g. ml to l and vice versa) and Ratio and proportion (ratio can be explored in a fun way by scaling recipes up and down).
 Most importantly, it is crucial that times tables facts are quick so please regularly quiz your children at home and encourage regular Times Tables Rockstars practice.

Don't forget that World Book Day is next Thursday - children do not have to dress up for the day but they may if they choose to.  We will be having a special day filled with bookish joy. We will be welcoming a pop up bookshop from our friends at The Bookery in Crediton who will introduce children to some fun, age -appropriate books and give them a chance to buy a book from the shop. The bookshop will remain open until four o'clock at the end of the day in case any parents or carers would like to visit it. To buy a book children need to bring cash in a sealed, named envelope and give it to the class teacher at the start of the day. Children will be able to buy one book for six pounds or two books for ten pounds.


On that note, we shall be sharing favourite books in class that day and I would like to invite the children to bring in a book with a synopsis and recommendation to go with it - this can be in written form or as an oral presentation. It would be great if they could think about books they've read that others would probably not have so as to inspire and inform our wider reading.

Above all, let's enjoy the longer daylight hours and hopefully some more Spring-like weather.