Lilac Class
Teaching Team: Dr. Charles, Ms Swannell and Ms Edmed
lilac@st-barnabas.kent.sch.uk
Summer Term Letter to Parents 2025
Dear Parents/Carers,
Welcome to the Summer term! This term our topic is entitled ‘Life on Earth’ and is predominately a geographical study. In English, we will be writing poems about the sea focusing on the use of personification. For inspiration, Lilac Class will be reading Poems by the Sea edited by JD McClatchy and Under the Moon and Over the Sea edited by John Agard and Grace Nichols. We will be studying facts about the sinking of the Titanic and writing a newspaper article about the disaster. Our exciting whole class guided reading text this term is Shackleton’s Journey by William Grill. It tells the story of William Shackleton’s 1914 trip to the Antarctic on the ship Endurance. The story is not only told through text but also through beautiful illustrations. To complement this text, we will also read Ice Trap! Shackleton’s Incredible Expedition by Meredith Hooper. These texts will also serve as a basis for dual narrative and story writing about this historical event. Lilac Class will also be writing a biography of Ernest Shackleton.
In Maths, we will be learning about perimeter and area, statistics and then geometry work about shape and space and position and direction. We will also be re-visiting decimals and learning about negative numbers.
In Science, our topics are ‘Living things and their Habitats’ and ‘Animals, including humans’. We will be studying the differences in the life cycles of a mammal, an amphibian, an insect and a bird. We will also be describing the life process of reproduction in some plants and animals.
In Time and Place, we will be looking at seas, rivers and oceans and the water cycle. We will be learning about the journey of a river and how it is formed. We will also be studying the key aspects of mountains. This term Lilac Class are going to learn about climate zones and different vegetation belts, focusing on India. We will also be finding out about India’s natural resources and why it was colonised by Great Britain. This will then lead us onto learning about Britain’s natural resources and how natural resources are used to produce energy. In Design and the Arts, Lilac Class will be creating seascapes using a range of different materials to create contrasting effects. We are developing our observation and sketching skills by drawing pictures of the cross section of cabbages using charcoal and we will also be going outside to sketch what we can see. In Music, Lilac Class will be listening to music about the sea and nature, leading to us creating our own group compositions using the same musical ideas. We will listen to such works as Debussy’s La Mer, Britten’s Sea Interludes and Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending for inspiration and stimulus. We will be learning about traditional musical notation and terminology.
In RE this term, Lilac Class are learning about Islam. Our ‘Big Question’ is ‘What do Muslims believe about the way they should live their lives and why?’ We will be finding out about the Five Pillars of Islam and the part the Mosque plays in the Muslim community. We will also be learning about how and why Muslim people show that the Qur’an is important to them. PE will be on Mondays and Thursdays and this term Lilac Class will be involved in improving and developing their field sports and athletic skills. They will also be playing cricket.
Homework will be set on a Thursday and needs to be completed in the Homework Book by the following Tuesday. You will also find it on the Lilac Class Blog at the beginning of the week. The spellings that the children will be given to learn will also be covered in class time. The children will be given weekly Purple Mash activity.
Please can you ensure that an adult at home hears your child read at least twice a week and that the reading record is signed and dated. Reading records need to come into school on Wednesday and Friday to be signed and checked. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any worries, concerns or questions via the Lilac Class email lilac@st-barnabas.kent.sch.uk.
Kind regards,
Dr Charles
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Dear Parents/Carers,
Happy New Year! This term our topic will be the Victorians and we will be reading as a class Berlie Doherty’s Street Child and the sequel Far From Home. Lilac Class will also be reading Victorian poetry about the workhouse, The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear, classics such as Oliver Twist and David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, The Railway Children by E.Nesbit, and You Wouldn’t want to be a Victorian Schoolchild by John Malam. These texts will serve as a basis for our English and topic work. As well as learning about Queen Victoria, Lilac Class will be studying the Industrial Revolution, the development of the railways, medicine, education and life in the workhouse. We will also be learning about Dr Barnardo and what life was like for the children living on the streets of Victorian Britain. We are also aiming to visit The Amelia Scott in Tunbridge Wells for a talk and workshop about the Victorians to develop the work we have covered in class.
In Maths this term, we will be continuing our work about fractions and multiplication and division. We will be learning to solve multiplication and division calculations using formal written methods. We will also be learning how to find the perimeter of shapes and calculating the area of rectangles, compound and irregular shapes.
In Art and DT, Lilac Class will be learning about William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement and other artists of the period. The children will be finding out about Victorian recipes and cooking shortbread using Mrs Beeton’s recipe. We will also be making Victorian samplers using a range of different stitches. In Music, Lilac Class will be singing songs from the musical Oliver! and learning about rhythm and pulse. We will also be listening to and appraising the music of British composers of the 19th century such as Ethel Smyth, Edward Elgar and Frederick Delius.
In Science, Lilac Class are going to be looking at the properties of different materials and solutions. We will be conducting experiments to see how certain materials and solutions change when they are heated and cooled and to also find out which materials make good conductors of heat and electricity. We will also be finding out what a reversible and irreversible change means.
In RE, Lilac Class will be explaining connections between the story of Moses and the concepts of freedom and salvation and will also be thinking about salvation in relation to Jesus and what he did to save human beings. PE will still be on Mondays and Thursdays this term. Please ensure that your child brings in their PE kit on those days. Homework will again be set on a Thursday and needs to be completed in the Homework Book by the following Tuesday. The spellings that the children will be given to learn will also be covered in class time. The children, in addition, will be given a weekly Purple Mash activity to complete that reinforces the work we have covered in class. Please see attached a ‘Wider Curriculum Matrix’ for terms 3 and 4. These are optional activities.
Please ensure that an adult at home hears your child read at least three times a week and that the reading record is signed and dated. Reading records need to come into school on Wednesday and Friday and will be checked. Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any worries, concerns or questions. Thank you for all your continued support. If you have any concerns or questions please do not hesitate in contacting me via the class email address: lilac@st-barnabas.kent.sch.uk
Kind regards,
Dr Charles