Teaching Team: Mrs Barter   chestnut@st-barnabas.kent.sch.uk

 

Chestnut Class - Summer term 2025

Welcome back to school after the Easter break. This is just some information about what we will be covering this term, and always feel free to speak to me if you have any further questions.

English

The majority of our English time at the start of term will be spent in preparation for our show in a week, Alice in Wonderland.  This will really strengthen our speaking, listening and performance skills.

Once our show is over, we will be linking our English work to our topic theme of the Anglo Saxons.  We are reading an adaptation of the Anglo-Saxon epic, Beowulf.  We will be looking at the conventions of hero myths and creating our own versions.  We will also be dipping our toes into poetry writing, based on the children’s poems by Ted Hughes and will be reviewing the classic story, Treasure Island and Robinson Crusoe.

Our whole class guided reading will continue to be Lob.  This whole class approach gives us the opportunity to immerse ourselves in a text and to develop not only reading fluency but also comprehension skills such as retrieval, inference and prediction.

Spelling will focus on the statutory Year 3 & 4 list, adding suffixes, prefixes and looking at unusual spelling patterns.

We will be covering a wide range of the technical aspects of writing in our grammar sessions including standard English, organising paragraphs, revising apostrophes for plural possession, conjunctions and fronted adverbials.

Maths

We will be completing work on decimals, time, money and geometry.  This term all children will be taking the national times tables assessment.  We will have some dedicated time to work on times tables fluency, but it is very important for children to practise these little and often at home to support this.

RE

We will be focusing on the Hindu religion, learning what Hindu people believe about god, including learning about some sacred texts.  We will also be looking at worship and celebration within the Hindu religion.

Science

We will complete our work on states of matter and then our topics will be animals, including animals (teeth and the digestive system) and habitats.

Time and Place

We will be learning about the Anglo-Saxons, including where they were, where they came from and why they invaded.  We will think about the struggle for power in Britain and how kingship changed.  We will be learning about the conversion from paganism to Christianity and other aspects of Anglo-Saxon culture.

Art and design

We will be working on typography and combining it with map work to create raised 3-D maps.

Music

We will continue to have weekly ukulele lessons with Mr Lawrence.  Instruments are provided by the school.

ICT

We will be completing units on photo editing and repetition in games.

PE

Our PE session will take place on a Monday morning and Thursday afternoon.  Please ensure your child’s PE kit is labelled with their name.

Homework and reading

Homework will be issued on a Wednesday and is due back on Monday.  It is not intended to be overwhelming, but gives your child an opportunity to consolidate on the learning they have done during the week.  It will usually consist of English, spelling and Maths activities.  We expect your child to read for a minimum of 10 minutes a day.  We would like them to complete the reading log by making some comments on what they have read each day.  This will be checked on a Tuesday and a Thursday.  In Year 4, we ask that children take responsibility for changing their books themselves if they are reading from the classroom selection.

If you have any concerns relating to your child and their learning, please do get in touch via the class email address chestnut@st-barnabas.kent.sch.uk .  Alternatively, you can speak to me at release time now that restrictions are more relaxed.  If your query is urgent, please contact the school office in the first instance.

I am really looking forward to another exciting term with the class!

With best wishes,

Mrs Barter and the Chestnut Class Team