1. Thornhill School News Issue 27 News from Miss Clark News from Mrs Colley SCHOOLSCHOOL www.thornhill.cumbria.sch.uk/ This Week - 29 th April Next week – 5 th May News from Mrs Figes Attendance- week beginning 22 nd April Class 1- 98.1% Class 2- 97.3% 3 late marks overall Friday 3 rd May Let’s talk…. I am proud of …… All school clubs are running as normal Thurs- library used for elections. Swimming Thursday afternoon Mon- May Bank Holiday (School closed) Tues- KS1 SATs start Please be aware that the month of May is the time for the annual Assessment tests. KS1 Sats – 6 th May onwards KS2 Sats – 13 th May onwards This week we have completed our literacy unit on fantasy stories by planning and writing our own short stories. Ask your child to tell you about theirs. In numeracy we have collected and presented information about our favourite minibeasts. Miss Marinovich taught the Year 1s and 2s how to create a simple pie chart to show this information. This week we have been looking at writing reviews- we have written reviews which detail good and bad things about TV programmes and computer games. We have also had a go at writing poetry in the form of a School Rap- focussing on rhythm and rhyme, to keep the flow. We will share these in Good Work Assembly since poetry is meant to be read aloud. We have also looked at strategies to improve spelling- rhymes and visualisation can help. As does the old fashioned way- look, write, check. How does your child learn their weekly spellings? This week the children have been focusing on multiplication. We have been learning good short cut strategies such as multiply by 3 and double the answer in order to multiply by 6. We have reviewed mathematical vocabulary and played multiplication games In science the children are looking at the life cycle of plants and what it means to be alive. We have also revised microorganisms, both good and bad. As part of our study of Japan the children watched an animation called Howl’s Moving Castle. By Hayao Miyazaki. In the film the main character has an amazing and fantastical castle. After the watching the children had a wonderful time designing their own castles some complete with shopping malls, cinemas and Jacuzzis!

2. Key Stage Two Sats- how can you help your Year 6 child? SAts Week begins on May 13 th. You can help your child by: listening to their worries and keeping them calm Ensuring they get enough sleep and are in school on time Feeding them a balanced diet to ensure that they have enough energy Practicing spellings, mental maths and reading at home in a non-threatening way Timetable for Year sixes- all tests are in the morning Please note: Writing Levels are Teacher Assessed using a portfolio of work completed this school year, these will be moderated by County in June. Science Assessments will be completed in the week before SATs. If you have any questions please speak to the class teacher. Monday Level 3-5 Reading test Level 6 Reading test ( 2 pupils) Tuesday Level 3-5 Grammar, punctuation and spelling test Level 6 Grammar, punctuation and spelling test ( 2 pupils) Wednesday Mental Maths Levels 3-5 Mathematics paper A Thursday Mathematics Paper B SUMMER TRIPS These will take place on Friday 12 th July. The whole school will travel together to Maryport and the infants will be visiting the Maryport Aquarium in the morning and in the afternoon the Wave Centre to their new indoor climbing facility – Clip n’Climb. The Juniors will take part in Clip n’Climb in the morning and in the afternoon they are going Go Karting. Infant trip £10 Junior trip £20 We will be sending a letter out later in the month with all the details but if you feel you would like to start paying something off each week please see Mrs Toman in the School Office.