Elder Class 2025 - 2026

WELCOME TO ELDER

Class teacher - Mr M Thomas

Learning Support Assistant - Mrs Rowland

Mrs Turner teaches Maths and Science on Monday mornings

Mr Parrish teaches PE on Thursdays and Mrs Shapland will teach PE on Wednesdays

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 learning about the Ancient Greeks and comparing both ancient and modern Greece to the UK’s counties and cities.

Our Big Adventure took place in Liverpool at two museums where we gathered facts to answer our One Big Question: ‘How did the Ancient Greeks influence the Western world?' We loved handling artefacts and learning about Chares Le Brun's amazing painting Atalanta and Meleager which inspired further work back in school. Our DT project will be to plan, cook and serve a Greek Banquet for our lucky parents as part of our One Unselfish Act.  

Our art lessons will see us learning to sketch different types of Ancient Greek architectural columns and our writing vehicle text is Joe Todd Stanton’s captivating Leo and the Gorgon’s Curse. Our science lessons will focus on electricity and sound. Our music lessons will be focused on learning how to play simple chords on the ukulele which we will combine to play a variety of familiar songs. We will also learn about the incredible music performed at the London Olympics. Alongside our usual e-safety lessons, our computing work will see us create Minotaur Mazes in Scratch Jr and PowerPoints comparing Greece and the UK.

Our RE lessons present us with a chance to link our previous learning about how Jesus stood up to authority as we learn about rules for living and discuss and debate which ones we should follow. In maths, we will focus on applying our tables knowledge to multiplication and division as well as mastering fractions.

Our Courageous Advocate for this term is Wangari Maathai who was a Kenyan environmentalist, scientist and advocate for the Earth and for people. She founded the Green Belt Movement, which encouraged people to plant trees to protect animals, rivers and habitats, and to improve people’s lives at the same time. Even when her work was criticised or challenged, she showed great courage and trust in doing what was right. In 2004, she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, inspiring others around the world to stand up for the planet and for one another.

Reading plays a fundamental part in all areas of the curriculum and is a gateway to imagination 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 Wednesdays and Thursdays. 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 practised at least three times per week for a minimum of five minutes per session. This will be checked on Friday mornings. 

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. There will also be a SPaG or Knowledge Organiser worksheet to complete each week in their homework books. Homework books will be sent home on Fridays and returned on the following Thursdays.

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!