Welcome Back!
We have had a wonderful and exciting start back to school since the new year, starting with a science week all about forces and magnets. We then followed the week with a Viking and Anglo-Saxon day, where the children came dressed in fabulous outfits and participated in a fun and fact-filled day! The children are now excited and ready to start learning about this history topic over the next few weeks.
We’re looking forward to seeing you during our Learn With us afternoon on Thursday 12th February 2026
This term our class book is ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ by Cressida Cowell.
English
LKS2 have started the term reading different Norse sagas, this has then allowed them to create their own Norse Gods and Goddesses. Once they have created their fantastic character they will make their own saga based on ones we have already read together as a class, as with most sagas, theirs will need to have a hidden message or lesson weaving throughout it.
After this, the children will be completing a diary entry from the point of view of a Monk in Anglo-Saxon Britain, witnessing the Viking invasion of Lindisfarne. This will give the children an opportunity to practice writing in the first person and use emotive language to express their feelings about the event.
Throughout the writing process, the children are encouraged to proofread their work—either independently or with a partner—to check for spelling and punctuation errors. They also make use of the ARMS and COGS strategies to improve their writing by Adding, Removing, Moving, or Substituting words and checking for Coherence, Organisation, Grammar, and Spelling.
Spelling
It is important that children apply the spelling rules they have learned during their daily lessons. Please continue to support this by regularly practising the specific rules noted in their logbooks each week.
Maths
The principal focus of mathematics teaching in Lower Key Stage 2 is to ensure that pupils become increasingly fluent with whole numbers and the four operations, including number facts and the concept of place value.
Year 3
In Year 3, the children have been learning their 3s, 4s and 8 times tables and have started to use this knowledge on further multiplication and division, multiplying and dividing 2-digit numbers.
After this, children will use their knowledge of the four operations and apply this to length, mass and volume.
Year 4
In Year 4, the children are continuing to further their learning on multiplication and division, multiplying and dividing 3-digit numbers with renaming and remainders.
After multiplication and division, children will go on to learn about graphs and fractions.
Year 4 multiplication check
In Year 4, children will take part in the Multiplication Tables Check in June. This assessment evaluates their recall of times tables up to 12 × 12. To support their success, it is important that they practise regularly at home.
Times Tables Rock Stars is an excellent online platform designed to help improve fluency in multiplication.
Science
We had a great science week focused on forces and magnets. The children loved learning about the different forces, such as gravity and fraction, and how these affect our everyday life. A lot of children already had amazing magnet knowledge and were thoroughly engaged when testing magnet strengths and types.
History
This term we are learning about Vikings, Anglo-Saxons and Scots, their arrival into Britain and their impact on daily life.
We introduced our Viking, Anglo-Saxon and Scots topic with a brilliant jam-packed History Day. The children came in some wonderful costumes. We completed a range of activities from finding out their own Viking/Anglo-Saxon name, writing a secret message in runes, reading and acting out Viking sagas, playing a Viking maths board game and creating Viking/Anglo-Saxon shields.
Throughout this topic, the children will develop their historical enquiry skills by investigating a series of thought-provoking questions:
- Who were the Anglo-Saxons and why did they invade England?
- What was life like in Anglo-Saxon Britain?
- Who were the Vikings and why did they invade Britain?
- What was life like in Viking Britain and how did it compare to Anglo-Saxon life?
- How well did the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings get on with each other?
DT
This term our Design and Technology focus is CAD (Computer-aided Design). To weave this into our topic focus, the children will be designing a pattern for their own Viking coin or wrapping paper, something that looks authentic and could be sold at a Viking museum like the Jorvik centre. The focus for this topic is the design, make and evaluate.
The children started the unit by examining different types of coins, looking at the designs, patterns, images and writing on them. We were lucky enough to be able to view some coins from different countries all around the world thanks to Miss Cooper’s amazing collection. Children also looked at British coins and Viking replica coins.
Next, they will have a go at creating their designs on computer software such as Paint.net and Autodraw.com before using printing techniques to bring their design to life.
Computing – Photo Editing
Throughout this and their previous unit (Audio Production), the children’s focus is creative media. Children will start to develop their knowledge and skills on why and how photos are edited, can they recognise when a photo had been changed? How does it make them feel? Is it always morally correct to edit a photo?
Using the software Paint.net, children will experiment with different tools to edit an image such as, crop, rotate, clone, recolour.
Spanish
Our topic over the Spring term is called ‘Tell Me When’. In this unit children will focus on: learning numbers to 31, days of the week and how to say yesterday, today, tomorrow. This will then give children the knowledge and vocabulary needed to say when their birthday is or what the date is in Spanish.
PE
Hockey
This unit of work will develop pupils’ ability to apply the principles of attack vs defence, with a particular focus on creating simple attacking tactics in order to move the ball up the court, creating an attack that results in a shooting opportunity. Children will also develop life skills such as trust and cooperation as they collaborate with others and apply the rules of the game.
Mindfulness
Alongside Hockey, children will focus on Health and Wellbeing through Mindfulness. This unit of work will focus on exploring positive and negative emotions and managing them through using mindfulness techniques such as visualisation, using music, meditative balances, mime and deep breathing. Pupils will be able to bring these emotions to life and understand how we can manage them.
Music
This Spring term LKS2 will be taking part in Super Sing lead by Miss Brown. We have already had our first session and it was lovely to see the children using their singing skills from previous years to show off what they know.
The children will be learning a variety of skills to prepare them for their Spring Sing next term.
Alongside this, Stingrays have also been taking part in weekly music sessions with Leeds Education, learning the ukulele.
RE
Over this term we are focusing on the enquiry question of: What do Christian’s believe about a good life? This unit introduces pupils to the importance of the Bible for Christians – what it is and how it helps Christians to live their lives. They will explore Jesus’ teachings about rules and behaviour in relation to a variety of Bible stories and parables.
