Dear parents and carers,

Teachers across the school are doing an amazing job of planning high quality work for your children to complete whilst at home (and for those in school).

As you are aware, the government has set very clear guidance regarding the amount of time which should be spent by children on schoolwork.

The amount of remote education should be a minimum of:

• key stage 1: 3 hours a day
• key stage 2: 4 hours a day (this is from Y3-Y6)

We have ensured that a wide range of subjects are covered within this time and are particularly mindful of the need to ensure children have time away from screens.

That said, we remain keen to stress how vitally important it is that your child is reading every single day; and while at home, we have provided online resources to facilitate this.

Reading underpins every subject that is taught in school and is a life skill your child will need above everything else. We have tried hard to ensure that part of your child’s school working day includes meaningful and progressive reading.

Each year group has a specific time each day where your child should be reading. In year four, children have access to Fiction Express (start from level 1) and Oxford Owl to access online books. Please note that Oxford Owl is free to subscribe to and contains books which link to our colour reading bands at school. Every child has a virtual reading diary on Google Classrooms and should be accessing this daily.

Please let us know if you are struggling to access these resources or need more support.

World Book Day 2021

Next month on the 4^th March is the annual celebration of reading across the country! As we expect to still be in a lockdown situation, Newdale would like to introduce an Alice in Wonderland whole school theme. We hope that by having one theme, this will support families who have children in multiple year groups. More information will follow, but we would heartily encourage dressing up for those who enjoy this and of course a mad hatter’s tea party of your own!

Kind regards,

The Year 4 Team

Dear parents and carers,

Teachers across the school are working hard to plan high quality work for your children to complete whilst at home (and for those in school).

As you are aware, the government has set very clear guidance regarding the amount of time which should be spent by children on schoolwork.

The amount of remote education should be a minimum of:

• key stage 2: 4 hours a day (this includes all lessons set on the morning timetable)

We have ensured that a wide range of subjects are covered within this time and are particularly mindful of the need to ensure children have time away from screens.

That said, we remain keen to stress how vitally important it is that your child is reading every single day; and while at home, we have provided online resources to facilitate this.

Reading underpins every subject that is taught in school and is a life skill your child will need above everything else. We have tried hard to ensure that part of your child’s school working day includes meaningful and progressive reading.

Each year group has a specific time each day where your child should be reading.

In year 5, children are encouraged to read daily using Fiction Express or their own books and to then comment on their e-Reading diary which can be found at the top of the “Classwork” section on Google Classroom.

Please let us know if you are struggling to access these resources or need more support.

World Book Day 2021

Next month on the 4^th March is the annual celebration of reading across the country!

As we expect to still be in a lockdown situation, Newdale would like to introduce an Alice in Wonderland whole school theme. We hope that by having one theme, this will support families who have children in multiple year groups.

More information will follow, but we would heartily encourage dressing up for those who enjoy this and of course a mad hatter’s tea party of your own!

Kind regards,

The Year 5 Team

This message is just for those children in Mr Banfield’s class who are in school tomorrow (Thursday 4th February).

We are excited to have a fantastic Forest School session with Miss Taylor tomorrow afternoon. Children will need to bring in warm, waterproof clothing as well as suitable footwear which may get muddy. We would suggest that pupils bring in multiple layers, gloves, hats and wellies/boots. We will be outside for over an hour in the afternoon and will enjoy a fire activity in a controlled and safe environment.

Please send your child into school wearing their forest school kit.

Mrs Arthurs’ class will be completing this session next week (11th February)

Thank you,

Mr Banfield