We are delighted to welcome back the new Roses Class - this year it is Year 3 and Year 4.
The children have already made a great start! 

The Roses Staff Team are : 
Mrs Chapman- Teacher :Monday and Tuesday 
Mrs O'Grady - Teacher : Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 
Mrs Griffiths - Teaching:  Assistant Monday to Friday 
Mrs Harding - Teaching Assistant : Monday - Friday ( mornings) 
Mr Dyhouse  - Teaching Assistant: Monday- Friday 
Please see a copy of our September letter to parents below:

Dear Parent,
 
Welcome back! We hope you all had a lovely summer break.
 
Mrs Chapman is going to teach on a Monday and a Tuesday,  Mrs O’Grady is going to teach on a Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. 
 
PE
This year we have increased the amount of PE lesson time that children will receive – so your child will have 2 hour sessions of PE every week -one hour on Tuesday afternoon and one hour on Thursday afternoon. There will sometimes be additional opportunities to take part in interschool sporting fixtures on Wednesday afternoons. Please ensure that your child has a full PE kit in school (shorts, t-shirt, trainers, jogging bottoms) every week. PE kits should be brought in on Mondays and taken home for washing on Fridays.
 
History – Awesome Ancient Egyptians
This term we will be stepping back in time to the land of the pharaohs and discover a world of mummies, magic and myths. Though examining archaeological evidence and historical research, we will find out about the building of the great pyramids and the evidence we can discover from hieroglyphics. We will be learning about the lives of ordinary Egyptians, and some of the most famous pharaohs and of course we will be learning about mummification!  We will explore the British museum Egyptian exhibitions online and work in our Mantle dramatic fiction as archaeologists discovering Tutankhamun’s tomb and Egyptologists commissioned to create an interactive museum exhibit for the British Museum.
Class Novel/ Reading Mastery
We will be using exciting adventure the novel ‘ The Ancient Egyptian Sleepover’ by Stephen Davies for our Reading Master lessons and to inspire our literacy work, writing diaries of our adventures on a night in the Egyptian exhibition of the British museum, Here’s the blog from the front cover… it’s going to be an exciting read
 
‘ Mo has won a very special prize: an Ancient Egypt sleepover in a museum. However, he has no clue how dangerous it will turn out to be. With a mystery to solve, hieroglyphic codes to crack and priceless treasure to save, one thing is for sure: Mo will not be getting any sleep tonight!’
 
It would be great if children could  to have their own copy of “‘ The Ancient Egyptian Sleepover’” to read in school. A brand new copy of it can be purchased through school for the discounted price of £5.00. (£5.58 new on Amazon) Or you may wish to purchase a used copy on Ebay which may be slightly cheaper. 
 
Art
Our artwork this term will be inspired by Picasso.  Children will be learning about this artist, looking at his work and learning about his style and techniques.  They will then be practising drawing and painting their own self-portraits, creating a finished piece using Picasso’s work as inspiration.
 
Science
Mrs O’Grady will be teaching science this term.  Your child will be learning about SOUND during the first half term.  We are going to find out about how sounds are made and how they travel through a medium into our ears. We are going to find out about volume and pitch and explore what happens to a sound as it travels over a distance.  After half term, we will learn about ELECTRICITY.  We will build and explore different types of electrical circuits, find out how switches work and investigate materials to see which ones are conductors and which ones are insulators.   
 
Geography
In the second half of the Autumn term we will be environmentalist studying the great River Nile; learning why the Nile is so important and working to help protect this essential natural resource.
 
French/Music
We will be learning French as our modern foreign language for the first half term of every term this year and studying music for the second half term. 
 
HOMEWORK
 
READING HOMEWORK: Regular reading at home and discussions about their book is essential to enable your child to improve their reading fluency and comprehension.
 
For this term we have an Ancient Egyptian themed reading challenge. In class we will be building a reading pyramid and children will gain pyramid points every time they read. Every week children who have read the most can be ‘Pharaoh for a day’ and there will be a special reading reward trip to Booka at the end of term for those children working hardest at their reading.
 
Children will be challenged to read at home and have parents record their reading in reading record their books. We would want your child to be reading at home most evenings. (target 3x a week) Please ensure you sign your child’s book to show that they have read at home and talked about their book with you.  
 
Reading record books will be handed in and checked every Monday. Mrs Chapman will be holding a ‘catch up’ lunchtime reading session on Tuesday lunchtimes for any child who has not had their book signed to say they have read to an adult. 
 
TT ROCKS HOMEWORK
 
Your child should be regularly practising their times tables at home by doing the TT Rocks games online. TTRocks gets to know your child and pitches the questions so that they are practising the right tables for them.  GARAGE is the easiest game and the game that issues the most coins, which they can then spend in the virtual shop.  If your child is in Year 4, they should begin to play the SOUNDCHECK game as this replicates the government Times tables test that all Year 4’s sit in May.  Playing the SOUNDCHECK game at home will mean that the children won’t be too daunted when faced with it in the summer term.  Mrs O’Grady would love the children to challenge her on the ROCKSLAM game too. 
 
Mrs O’Grady will check each week that your child has been online to play the games.  Children who have not been online will complete the paper TTRocks sheets during Wednesday lunch times.   
 
SPELLING HOMEWORK
Your child will be given spellings to learn every. They will practise the spellings in class each morning, and then take them home for a final practise over the weekend ready for a test on the following Monday.
 
If you have any questions or concerns, please let us know and we will arrange a meeting as soon as possible. We are looking forward to a fantastic term. 
 
Kind Regards
 
Mrs Chapman and Mrs O’Grady
 

The team are of documentary makers are commissioned to make a documentary about the Anglo Saxon invasion and settlement in Britain up to the end of Anglo Saxon rule in 1066. As you will see from the photos camera men, script writers , editors , re-enactment actors and historical researchers are hard at work on the film set!

The team re-enacted the famous Battle of Hastings and the tense night before the battle. As you can see , Normans are praying sharpening and preparing weapons and trying to get some rest before the history changing battle ! 

Read some examples of the fantastic in role writing Roses Children have done -
The Night Before the Battle of Hastings : Cooper Littleford and Alfie Jones 
​I Fought at the Battle of Hastings : Amelia Eccles and Albie Jones 

This afternoon the children in Roses explored the five main faiths of the world; Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and Hinduism. We explored the faiths and looked at the similarities and differences between them. In groups the children created mind maps to share the information they found. 

Please see this term's key geography learning below:

We thought about the sorts of locations people visit for holidays in Europe- here are some of the brochure photographs we created. 

We became Roman soldiers in our drama and learned some of the important battle formations .....The Wedge...The Repel Cavalry... The Tortoise and The Orb. We are all set for battle! 

We thought about how games and toys are marketed for either boys or girls- pink and fluffy for girls - blue and exciting for boys! We didn't think this was right so we designed some of our own posters which challenge the idea that girls have to play with certain toys and boys with others

Dear Parent/Guardian,
 
Welcome back! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and a very Happy New Year.
 
We begin this term by being Mantle of the Expert and travelling back in time to Roman Britain.
A Roman soldier, stationed on Hadrian’s Wall, sits alone in the barracks of a hill fort carefully carving a small statue of an elephant. As he carves he thinks of his home and his family, remembering his life in Rome and hoping one day to have children of his own…
 
In our drama we become a legion of Roman soldiers our client is: The Emperor of Rome and our commission is: to protect the northern border of the Roman Empire in Britain.
 
In class will find out all about the Ancient Roman Empire and its impact on Britain, focusing on these key concepts: Conflict, Conquest, Empire, Emperor, military, religion, settlement and trade.
 
Our historical research will include investigating archaeological evidence and evaluating primary and secondary source material. As part of our research we hope to visit Wroxeter a Roman archaeological site.
 
Our Literacy work will cover a range of fiction and non fiction reading and writing genres and will be inspired by the Ancient Roman myths and legend our historical and research and our class novel, “The Thieves of Ostia” from the excellent series the Roman Mysteries by Caroline Lawrence. The book is set in Ostia, a port just outside the city of Rome in AD 79.  The main character Flavia is the inquisitive daughter of a Roman ship’s captain. She and her friends become self-styled detectives solving Roman crimes.

SCIENCE
 
Mrs O’Grady will be teaching “Earth in Space ” in Science children will be looking towards to stars, describing the movement of the earth and other planets and learning about our solar system. We will also be learning about the movement of the moon relative to the earth, they will learn how we have day and night.
 
ART
 
This half term we are going to be learning about mosaics.  We will begin by looking at the Roman mosaics that were found in the ruins of Pompeii.  We shall practise drawing sea creatures and then use our drawings as a basis for creating our own mosaics.   
 

In our new MoE drama, we met two elderly people who's homes were at risk of flooding. We also went on a rainy fact finding field trip  to look at the River Morda