Elder Class 2024 - 2025

WELCOME TO ELDER

Class teacher - Mr M Thomas

Learning Support Assistant - Mrs Rowlands

Mrs Turner teaches on Tuesday mornings and Mrs Rowland and Miss Graves on Friday afternoons.

Mr Parrish teaches PE on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.

Follow us on Twitter @WhitegateElder

Elder class strives to live the values and vision that we have for our school life.  In the thankfulness and trustworthiness we demonstrate around school, we follow our faith that making wise choices and always striving to do the right thing by ourselves and others allows us to grow in confidence and maturity.  The wisdom that comes from endeavouring to make these wise choices enables us to make the most of the many opportunities we have to shine in Elder class.

Currently, Elder are racing across time and the globe as we learn about coasts and how four ancient civilisations (the Shang in China, the Ancient Egyptians, the Indus River Valley Civilisation and Mesopotamia) all depended on rivers for their birth and success. We’ll learn how these ancient peoples made use of these rivers for farming, trade, protection and transport. Our geography work will also see us learning about how rivers interact with coasts and geographical process such as erosion. Our residential will be to the port city of Liverpool where we will see first-hand how humans’ use of the coast and the mouth of a river have changed over time. Our Big Question for this term will be: ‘Do humans have a responsibility to protect coastlines?’

In history, our main focus will be on Ancient Egypt as we learn about their use of the River Nile and how they prepared their pharaohs for the afterlife. This will link to our English as we write instructions for how to make a mummy! In science, our work will see us investigate forces including magnets.

In art, we’ll be designing and sculpting wire sculptures to link to our learning about British Values. In DT, we will create a model to demonstrate the processes of erosion, deposition and transportation. Our RE lessons will see us learning about what it means to be called by God and the rules that He asks us to follow and why.

Computing will see us creating digital presentations about what we’ve learned, focusing on our knowledge organiser for this term.  We will learn how to add text and images to new slides and will practise our public speaking skills as we share our learning.

Our educational visit for this term will be our residential to Liverpool, where we will visit the World Museum, the Walker Art Gallery, the Eureka! Science Discovery Centre, take a ferry ‘cross the Mersey, visit the Museum of Liverpool and end our adventure in a real architect’s office!

Reading plays a fundamental part in all areas of the curriculum and is a gateway to imagation and adventure. Over the year, we will immerse ourselves in high quality texts which will help to drive our learning. In class, we have access to a wide range of fiction and non-fiction books which we are able to use not only within our Guided Reading sessions, but also when appropriate in our curriculum lessons to support our learning. We want our children to develop the love of reading and stories that their wonderful imaginations deserve so we do all tnat we can to encourage positive attitudes towards reading. If you are struggling to motivate your child with reading at home, please feel free to ask Mr Thomas for ideas or pop a note in their home/school contact book.  

Home reading expectations are detailed below, but should your child express an interest in a particular author, series or genre, please let us know and we would be delighted to order books from our library partners free of charge.  Visits to your local library are also encouraged!

PE will take place on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Please ensure your child comes to school in their PE kit on these days.

Homework, reading and spelling

We ask that your child reads at home at least four times a week for 10-15 minutes. For those who are still on the reading scheme, we ask that an adult supports them. In Year 3, children may start to record their own reading in their Home-School contact books; parents just need to sign off each entry. Please ensure that your child has also recorded a word or short phrase that they liked and want to use in their own writing or a word or short phrase that summarises their reading.

NumBots or TT Rockstars should be practiced at least three times per week for a minimum of five minutes per session. 

All Elder children will receive personalised spelling lists to practice at home. These are based on the statutory spelling lists, available at the bottom of this page. Please practise these three times per week in your homework book. 

Previously, there was sometimers additional work linked to English, maths or the term’s knowledge organiser. This has been replaced by the request for your child to practise on their ukulele. 15 minutes each week would help them to make the progress are aiming for.

If you have any questions or wish to share your child’s out-of-school achievements, please don’t hesitate to contact me through the Home-School book. We love celebrating our children' successes!

Elder’s Curriculum Evening Meeting for parents took place on Tuesday 24th September at 6pm in Elder's classroom. A copy of the presentation is available for download via the links below.