Dear parents,

I hope you all had a lovely half term! We’re really looking forward to an exciting last term of the year. There are lots of things to tell you so I apologise in advance for the length of this letter!

Our IPC unit for this term is called ‘What Price Progress?’- which focuses on development. During this work, we will be looking particularly at technology, history, society, science, technology, art and music.

In Technology, we will be:

• Evaluating technology
• Assessing its impact on everyday life
• Designing and making products

In History, we will be:

• Finding out about technical innovations which changed society
• Finding out about different ideas and beliefs about society and nature
• Finding out about famous people whose ideas caused social change

In Art, we will be:

• Finding out about the responses of artists to technological progress in the early 20^th century
• Using paintings to gather information about society and technological progress through history
• Painting and introducing our own pictures and collages

In Music, we will be:

• Listening to classical music
• Responding to music by different composers
• Composing our own expressionist music
• Finding out about the development of musical instruments

In Science, we will be:

• Finding out about historical and modern scientific ideas and processes
• Finding out about positive and negative effects of scientific developments
• Identifying evidence and opinions
• Debating scientific issues

In ICT, we’ll be

• Surveying the impact ICT has on our lifestyles
• Finding out how much ICT impacted on our parents childhoods
• Using ICT for research and communication

All of the work we are going to do has been specially written to help your child research the learning goals. Children will work individually, with a friend, in a small group or as part of a large group, researching, interpreting and presenting information and ideas.

We may ask for your support in helping your child with this unit in different ways. Please support and advise your child with interest, experiences and enthusiasm! Your child may ask you about your childhood home, what you did when you were young and how changes in society have affected childhood activities. They may need help interpreting information about current scientific developments or ask your opinion about specific subjects. It may be useful to listen to or watch the news with your child, especially with regard to international development or scientific developments.

By the end of this unit, we hope that the children have a greater understanding of their world and its interconnections.

We will also be completing the long awaited fairground rides next week, so children may want to bring in things from home to help with this. On that note, we are very fortunate to have another trip to look forward to – on 26^th June, we will be going to Wicksteed Park, to try out the rides and as a treat after all of the hard work over the course of the SATs. More details will follow very shortly.

The Rose Queen festival takes place on Saturday 5^th July – a letter with further details will be sent out next week.

Sex Education will take place this term. There will an opportunity for parents to view the video used for these lessons at 3:30pm on Tuesday 24^th June ( a reminder with reply slip will be sent out prior to this).

The final commendation assembly of the year will be held on Thursday 17^th  July.

SATs results will be sent out in reports on Friday 18^th July, the day of our Summer Exhibition.

As I’m sure you’ll have heard, we have decided on our theme for this year’s Leaver’s Assembly – ‘Disney’. The children have decided on the characters they would like to be – we have a large group of pirates, some Disney princesses, dalmations (not quite 101!) and Mary Poppins. The assembly will be held on the last day of term: Wednesday 23^rd July in the morning. Exact times and details will be sent out nearer the time.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at school. Many thanks for your continuing support,

Miss R Eyles