Lower Key Stage Two
Welcome to Year 3 and 4!
There are 3 classes in Lower Key Stage Two.
The classes are:
Team Navy - Mrs Wilson
Team Sapphire - Ms Brookes
Team Teal - Ms Green
Mrs Barrington, Miss Burgess and Mrs Fisher also teach across all three classes.
In Lower Key Stage Two, Mrs Brady, Mrs Mann and Mrs Macdonald provide support within classes
and also enhance our provision with small group intervention sessions in the afternoons.
Click here for an overview of what we will be learning in Lower Key Stage Two this year.
Reminders
PE is on the following days for the different classes.
Team Navy - Monday and Tuesday
Team Sapphire - Tuesday and Wednesday
Team Teal - Wednesday and Friday
Please make sure your child has their PE kit in school every day. Our PE kit is black or navy shorts, a white T-shirt and trainers or pumps - in colder weather, a plain black or navy tracksuit can be worn. Kits can be left on your child's peg for the half term.
Toast and milk is available for the half-term via Parent Pay. Please note, this must be ordered in advance and cannot be ordered mid-term.
Your child will have a 'Reading Reward Card' in their reading record. Please ensure that your child reads each day - continuing to read with them is wonderful! If your child reads on at least five days in one week they will receive one stamp. When they have achieved 4 stamps your child will be given a reward in school.
If you are unsure about anything, please speak to a member of the team.
Sacramental Programme
Children at St Edmund's are invited to join the Sacramental Programme in Year Four in order to prepare to make their First Holy Communion. Click here for more details.
Information Briefings
LKS2 Reading Briefing
Click here to view the presentation from this briefing.
Year 4 - Multiplication Tables Check Briefing
Click here to view the presentation from this briefing.
Homework
The majority of our homework is set through online platforms. Click below to access each of these.
Each child has a weekly assignment set on Mathletics, Reading Eggspress and Spelling Shed - these will be monitored and children will be rewarded with dojos in school.
Spring 1
Happy New Year, let’s hope 2025 is a wonderful year for us all. Please click here to see our essential knowledge overview for the half term.
Co-curricular clubs this half term are:
Choir on Tuesdays with Ms Green and Mrs Linforth. We are preparing in earnest for the Young Voices concert, which is on the 6th February.
Handball on Mondays with Mrs Fisher.
Times Tables Club on Tuesdays with Mrs Williams.
Mindfulness Club on Thursdays with Mrs Barrington.
In Science, our unit is Sound and Hearing. We are learning about how sound travels through the air and how our ears convert sound waves into signal which our brain can understand.
In Religion, our unit is ‘Building Bridges’, which focusses on the theme of reconciliation. We are exploring how we can build bridges of friendship and actions we can take to make up with friends if we have a falling out.
Our Bible Studies Scripture this half term is Jesus Heals a Roman Officer's Servant (Matthew 8:5-13). We will be exploring how Jesus recognised the Roman Officer’s faith and how this was rewarded.
Life Skills - this half term we have been focusing on the British Value ‘Individual Liberty’. We discussed our rights and responsibilities.
In Computing, our first unit is ‘Comparison Databases’. We are learning about how information is stored, filtered and presented. We are also comparing paper-based databases with computerised information storage systems and discussing the pros and cons of each method of storage.
In French, our unit is ‘Weather’. We are learning the days of the week and we will be using these to create a weather diary to record the weather across the week.
We are continuing our Whole Class instrumental lessons in music this half term. Our unit focusses on Calypso music and we have been interested to learn the history and origins of Calypso music.
Life Skills: LKS2 are taking part in the Hummingbird Project this half term. It is an initiative run by the charity MedEquip4kids which is helping us to focus on happiness and gratitude. Each week we complete a task in our happiness journal.
Our Geography unit this half term is ‘Australia’. We are exploring the human and physical characteristics of Australia and making comparisons between there and the UK.
Our first English unit this half term focusses on the short film ‘Umbrella’. We have enjoyed exploring the range of emotions portrayed by this very powerful film without words.
In Maths, Year 3 and 4 are both working on division. Year 3 are beginning to use the formal method to divide two-digit numbers and Year 4 are moving on to dividing three-digit numbers with remainders.
In PE, our Beyond the Physical unit is Agility, Balance, Co-ordination.
Our focus sport this half term is 'Kinball', an exciting new sport which has been introduced by Mrs Fisher as part of our involvement in the Salford School Sports Partnership.
Life Skills: our SUMO unit this half term is 'Hippo Time is OK'. We are learning about the importance of taking some time away from difficult situations to help ourselves to calm down and process before moving on. We are learning about different ways we can look after ourselves and ways we can practice mindfulness.
Christmas 2024
We spent an afternoon in pilgrimage round the Advent Prayer stations led by our wonderful GIFT Team. This was an opportunity to explore the true meaning of Christmas using all of our senses.
As always, our Carol Service was a beautiful time, which we shared with our parents, carers, governors and parishioners. Children led the service with readings, hymns and songs, and a tableau to demonstrate the Christmas story.
We have had a wonderful Advent Season, building up to Christmas with a range of activities which have helped us to understand the true meaning of Christmas whilst also having a lot of fun!
Party Day was brilliant. We played traditional party games in the classrooms, then had a disco in the hall.
We enjoyed sharing a delicious Christmas dinner prepared by our fantastic kitchen staff and served by our teaching team.
Our LKS2 choir children visited Pemberton Fold Care Home to sing to the residents. It was lovely to see the residents responding so well to the visit and to know that we had brought such joy to them before Christmas.
We had a very special visitor when Santa came to visit school. Everyone received a lovely present from Santa which gave us something to read over the Christmas holidays!
Autumn 2
Our attendance continued to be excellent this half term and all three classes won the attendance trophy at least once - absolutely fantastic effort everyone, keep it up!
Please click here to see our essential knowledge overview for the half term.
Co-curricular clubs this half term were:
- Choir on Tuesdays with Ms Green and Mrs Linforth
- Christmas Crafts on Mondays with Mrs Brady
- Chess on Tuesdays with Mr Holcroft
In Science, we have been studying Electricity. We began by thinking about the difference between battery and mains electricity and how different appliances run off these. We then began to explore circuits and create our own circuit diagrams using symbols. To finish, we investigated conductors and insulators and made our own switches using a range of materials.
In the first of our art units this half term, Light and Dark, we explored using white and black paint to create tints and shades. We used these different colours to create a 3D effect when painting. We also learnt to use different tools and painting techniques to create effects in our artwork.
We used a range of objects to create compositions for still-life paintings. We thought about positioning and how it affects shadows within the piece. We then used all our painting skills to paint our still-life compositions.
Life Skills: Our second SUMO focus was 'Change Your T-Shirt'. We focussed on ways we can change our mindset when things happen to us, so that we can reach a more positive outcome. We decorated T-shirts with positive slogans which we thought of to help us remember the concept.
Our Religion unit was 'Advent: Visitors'. We explored the Christmas story in great detail and ended our unit with a pupil planned and led reflection about our learning.
Our Bible Studies Scripture was The Annunciation to Joseph Matthew 1:18-25. We explored how Joseph would have felt at different points during the passage and reflected on his commitment to being Jesus' earthly father.
Life Skills: we had a visit from the Salford Road Safety Team, who reminded us about the importance of Being Safe and Being Seen during the winter months when it gets dark early. Everyone was given a reflective star to attach to their coat or school bag to help us be seen this winter.
Life Skills: We have been looking at the British Value 'Mutual Respect' this half term. We worked in groups to explore how we can show respect to others and how we expect others to show respect to us.
Life Skills: in Anti Bullying Week, we explored the theme of Choose Respect. We linked this to our British Values studies this half term.
At the end of term we brought our Experience Passports into class and shared the experiences we have enjoyed so far. Some children shared photographs and videos of their activities outside school. Others talked about how they had played board games or built a den with their family. Lots of children had embraced the idea of preparing food for their family.
In Music, our unit was Developing Singing Technique through Viking Songs. We learned about how notes can be used to represent rhythms on staff notation and combined given elements of notation to create and perform our own Viking songs in groups.
Our second Art unit was 'Power Prints - we explored the work of Henri Matisse and used his preferred techniques to create collages as a basis for our printing patterns. We then used our printing techniques to create Christmas Cards.
In Design Technology, we combined our studies of electrical systems with our ideas for a 2025 calendar. We researched images and created our designs before building a circuit to add a bulb to illuminate the finished product.
Autumn 1
It was wonderful to see everybody back in school looking so grown up and smart in their school uniform. So far. all our classes have been above the school attendance target each week, and Team Sapphire have won the attendance trophy twice. Keep up the good work everyone!
Co-curricular clubs this half term were:
- Choir on Tuesdays with Ms Green and Mrs Linforth
In Science, our first topic is 'States of Matter'. We have been engaging in a range of fun investigations to help us learn about the differences between solids, liquids and gases.
In Religion, we are learning all about 'Family'. We are studying the history of Jesus' family tree and learning all about His ancestors and how their belief in God shaped their choices in life.
Our Bible Studies text this half term is from the book of Genesis. We are learning all about the story of Creation and how the Bible teaches us about God's plan for the Earth and all those who share it. Our core Gospel Value from this text is 'Stewardship' and we will be reflecting on what we can do to take better care of God's amazing creation.
We are excitedly engaging in our whole class instrumental lessons in Music this half term. We have been learning all about staff notation and have been learning to play simple ostinato rhythms on the glockenspiel. We have learned about 'Gumboot Dancing', a popular tradition in South Africa, and we are enjoying learning the Gumboot Dance song and playing along on our instruments.
Our first History topic is 'The Romans'. We have been finding out about the location of Rome, and learning how and why the Romans managed to travel so far and wide while creating their empire.
In Computing, we are learning all about using the block coding language 'Scratch'. The year fours have been excellent role models, helping the year threes to understand how to combine coding blocks to give instructions to the on-screen 'sprites'.
The year threes have been very excited to begin learning French, and the year fours have been excellent at sharing their prior knowledge with their new classmates. Our first topic is 'C'est Moi' and we have been busy learning all about greetings and how to ask and answer simple questions about ourselves when we meet someone new.
This half term's SUMO principle is 'Fruity Thinking'. We have been looking at ways we can develop our mindset to be more positive, and how we can offer ourselves and others positive words of encouragement to keep us motivated.
In PE, our Beyond the Physical topic is 'Inspire, Create, Perform'. We have chosen a jungle theme for our dance topic, and have been thinking of a range of different movements to represent different jungle animals.
Our core sport PE this half term is focussing on Basketball skills. So far, we have focussed on dribbling the ball, pivoting to turn and different types of pass including: ‘chest pass’ ‘over head pass’ and ‘bounce pass.