Welcome to Kestrel Class

The Kestrel Class team

Class Teacher: Miss Newbould

Class Teaching Assistant: Mrs Bird

PPA Cover Teacher: Mrs Chastney on Tuesday afternoons

Together, we work hard to create a classroom environment which inspires confidence and a love of learning. Our learning is theme-based and this is reflected in the look and feel of our classroom. From surviving Prehistory to flying over France, we use our Geography, History and Art topics to draw together our other learning.  

We are passionate about creativity and are always thinking about the next artistic project we can do as a class. We believe that learning should be fun and that the new skills learnt should be applied in real life situations and challenges.

How we learn in Kestrel Class

• We focus on building their independence and the children will be taught how to use different resources to help themselves (word banks, dictionaries, maths resources). 
• Much of our learning involves teamwork and children having the opportunity to discuss their thinking.
• We will be supporting the children to develop confidence and resilience. We talk a lot about Growth Mindset and the importance of believing that everyone can improve with effort and practice.
• We love feedback in Kestrel Class and children are encouraged to give each other helpful feedback, improve their own work and listen to the feedback from adults.

Spring Term 4 2024-25

Tiny Worlds

This term, much of our learning will be connected to our core texts in English about tiny people. We will be reading the books The Borrowers and the Hans Christian Andersen fairy-tale Thumbelina. We will also find out about the mysterious events surrounding the Cottingley Fairies photographs. 

In our art topic, we will find out about the scultures of Barbara Hepworth and explore why they were so influential. We will be learning clay skills and creating our own abstract sculture inspired by tiny details in nature. 

In Science, we will zoom in on the plants around us by looking at their structures and life cycles. We will find out about the different parts of flowering plants and explore their requirements for growth.

Our RE work will centre around the Christian story of Easter as we explore why the day Jesus died was called 'Good Friday'. 

In our Geography work, we will be finding out about the counties and cities around the UK, learn about their physical and human features, their industries and histories and compare life in Gloucestershire with life in Trinidad and Tobago. 

Knowledge Organiser

These Knowledge Organisers show all of the sticky knowledge (facts that we want to stick in the children's heads) and vocabulary that we want children to be able to know by the end of the topic. You might like to ask your child about some of these words or ideas at home. Find this term's knowledge organisers for RE, Science and Geography by scrolling to the bottom of the page. 

Reading in Kestrel Class

When children first join us, we assess their reading and support them to choose books from a selection that closely match their reading level. Adults in class regularly talk to children about their reading and support them to find books that they are interested in and motivated to read. Over their time in Kestrel Class, the children will move up through these reading stages. We call these books 'Daily Readers' as we expect the chidlren to be reading at home a little every day. 

Reading Passport

Kestrel Class Padlet Reading Passport

Our reading passport books in Year 3 and 4 have such a range of exciting fiction and non-fiction texts. These will always be available for your child to read and borrow from class. Once your child has read seven of these books themselves, they can bring their passport into school to be awarded a £5 book token. 

Our texts this term

Thumbelina by Hans Christian Andersen

We will use an abridged version of Thumbelina as our model text for this term, inspiring our own adventure fairy-tales. We will also explore some of Hans Christian Andersen's other iconic fairy-tales. 

The Borrowers  by Mary Norton

We will be reading The Borrowers in guided reading lessons and in our story time at the end of the day. If your child enjoys this story, they might like to read some of the others in the series. 

The Cottingley Fairies by Ana Sender

This picture book introduces the story of the Cottingley Fairies in an engaging and creative way. We will also be exploring real newspaper reports from the time, along with other reports of fairy sightings. 

Important information

PE Days

Kestrel Class will have PE (swimming this term) with Mrs Chastney every Tuesday afternoon. Please send your child into school in their PE kit on this day. On weeks with no Forest School, Kestrels will also have PE on a Friday. Please can children also come into school in their PE kits on these days.

Uniform

General uniform:

Dark blue sweatshirt/cardigan, light blue polo shirt, grey trousers/skirt/shorts, grey/navy/white socks or tights, dark coloured school shoes or boots in winter. Your child also needs to have a waterbottle in school every day.

PE kit:

Randwick PE Shirt, navy shorts/cycling shorts/skirt, trainers, change of socks (white/grey)

In cold weather, navy blue joggers/leggings and a school sweatshirt are recommended

Forest school kit:

Navy blue joggers, usual t-shirt and school jumper. They can wear their shoes/trainers to school and bring their wellies with them in a bag. Don’t forget a waterproof coat!

- Please clearly name everything -

Helpful Websites

These are websites that we use to support your child's learning in school. Your child might like to build on thier learning at home and complete thier own projects. Do get in touch with me if you would like a copy of the children's school log in details. Most of these websites will also allow you to set up free accounts for projects at home. 

On Scratch, children can use coding to build a whole range of creations:  https://scratch.mit.edu/

Book creator allows children to make thier own eBooks: https://bookcreator.com/

Brush Ninja is brilliant for creating animations: https://brush.ninja/

Chrome Music Lab allows children to explore music and compose thier own pieces. We particularly use the Song Maker app: https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/

DK Find out is an online encyclopedia for children. We often use it to complete research for science, history and geography topics: https://www.dkfindout.com/uk/

Spelling frame supports children with learning the spellings for their year group and has a range of games that the children enjoy: https://spellingframe.co.uk/

Doodle Maths and Tables

All children from Year 1 upwards have a Doodle Maths and Doodle Tables account set up. We ask children to practise doodling regularly at home to build on their maths learning in school. Each week, one class will be awarded the trophy for 'Top Doodling Class' for the most number of children in the 'Green Zone'. There is also a certificate and small prize for the child who has impressed us with regular practice at home. 

You might like to download the apps at home if you have a device your child regularly uses.  Please get in touch if you need another copy of your child's password. 

https://doodlelearning.com/

Guardians - Defenders of Mathematica is a brilliant gamified maths program created by BBC bitesize: https://www.bbc.co.uk/games/embed/guardians-mathematica?exitGameUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fbbc.com%2Fbitesize%2Farticles%2Fzn2y7nb

Get in touch

If you wish to contact me, please use this email address: [email protected]