Teaching Assistant: Mrs. Spry

Autumn Term - 2020

Dear Parents and Carers,

We hope you had a lovely summer and survived the lockdown without too many hiccoughs! Lots of fun and interesting learning is planned for our first term and, as always, I would love it if you could encourage your children to engage in some related activities at home. Home Learning - Maths and English (spelling) tasks  -  will usually be sent home each Monday and will also be posted on Microsoft Teams, expected back by the following Monday.  It can be returned online here too, or via paper copy returned to school, but I would strongly encourage you to use MS Teams because if were we to go back into lockdown again, learning would be posted here.  Microsoft Teams can be downloaded at: https://www.microsoft.com/…/mi…/microsoft-teams/download-app  

Home Learning:

Please complete this on Microsoft Teams.  If you can not access this then you can photograph the work and send it to pbaxter@vrpsp.co.uk

The two most important pieces of Home Learning are to learn times tables and to read every day.  Your child will bring home a book.  Children have a Reading Diary which they should use and you can also use for communication.  Please support your child in reading together or independently preferably daily, recording the reading in the Reading Diary (which should be in school every day). They are enrolled on Accelerated Reader which provides comprehension quizzes.  The results of these can be viewed at home.  This program has a special feature called Renaissance Home Connect, which you can access outside of school from any computer with an Internet connection. Renaissance Home Connect is fun and easy to use. It allows the teacher, and you, to share information about children's progress on Accelerated Reader.  You can log in to Renaissance Home Connect from any computer with an Internet connection and compatible browser. Children have been given their usernames and passwords which are in their Reading Records.  To log in to Renaissance Home Connect Website: https://Ukhosted102.renlearn.co.uk/2236540/HomeConnect.  If you'd like to receive emails showing your student's quiz or test results, click the Email Setup link.  At present there is also free access to MyOn reading resources here – online texts they can read.  Also, they can access Times Tables Rockstars online to practise at home: https://ttrockstars.com/login

Our topic this term is Waterworlds – environmental and Geographical awareness. It links to our text “Floodlands” by Marcus Sedgwick and our work in geography as well as science (see Topic Web).  Our class reader is “Tom’s Midnight Garden” by Phillipa Pearce. 

The first week and a half of the term will be spent getting the children used to the classroom again, addressing any issues from lockdown and assessing what the children now need to do to fill in the gaps caused by six months away from school. 

Our P.E. will be on Mondays and Thursdays.  However, please try to make sure your child is able to take part safely and comfortably, by ensuring that they have their PE kit in school at all times. 

If you would like to discuss your child’s progress with us at any point this term (which I am very happy to do) , please feel free to make an appointment at the office.  Enjoy the Autumn term!   I’m looking forward to it.        

Mr Baxter