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 Tuesdays and Mr Thomas 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 Chronicles of Narnia and the Ancient Greeks.

Our first Big Adventure will first be an early-January adventure to the Lowry Theatre in Manchester to see the stage production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. This will be followed in class with lots of drama which will in turn inspire writing containing dialogue. The Chronicles of Narnia will also inspire our artwork for a new display outside the classroom. Our second Big Adventure will take place in Liverpool at two museums which each host a different hands-on workshop about the Ancient Greeks. We will gather facts to answer our One Big Question: ‘How did the Ancient Greeks influence the Western world?' Our DT project will be to plan, cook and serve a Greek Banquet for our lucky parents as part of our One Unselfish Act.  

Additional art lessons will see us learning to sketch different types of Ancient Greek architectural features. Our writing vehicle texts will be The Lion, the Witch and Wardrobe and Joe Todd Stanton’s Leo and the Gorgon’s Curse. Our science lessons will focus on animals and their habitats, as well as humans. 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. Alongside our usual e-safety lessons, our computing work will see us create Minotaur Mazes in Scratch Jr.

Our RE lessons will see us learning about why Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God. We will also develop our understanding of Easter and explore the question: is Easter a story of betrayal or trust. In maths, we will complete our work on addition and subtraction as well as focusing on multiplication and division.

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!

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 that 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.  

PE will take place on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. 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!