Summer 1

Royals and Castles 

We are aligning with our National celebrations for Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee this term, by looking at Royals and Castles through the ages. This is a History-led term, but English, Art and Design and Technology are all entwined with our key theme. We will be passing on our learning in an assembly to parents at the end of term.

In English, we will take our inspiration from a range of non-fiction texts on castles, including ‘Castles’, published by Dorling Kindersley. You may like to research facts at home at the linked website, https://www.dkfindout.com/uk/search/castles/   We will then move onto focusing on the life of Queen Elizabeth II herself, through a beautiful new book by Michael Morpurgo, released for the special occasion of this year’s Jubilee, “There once is a Queen“.

In History, we will look more closely at how castles and lifestyles have changed over the years, looking at monarchs including Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria and of course, Queen Elizabeth II.

In Design and Technology, we will be building castle drawbridges with moving parts to lower and raise the drawbridge, and we will be exploring and designing our own royal flags. Whilst in Art, we will study royal portraits to give opinions and ask questions about works of art, before drawing our own portraits to show how people feel within a piece of artwork.

Forest School continues on Thursdays. Group 1 will have weeks 1-3 and Group 2 will have week 4-5.

Our class club this Summer term will be gardening, to develop and plant our outdoor area. This is a continuation of our Plants topic in Spring 1, where the children identified that they would like to increase our school’s biodiversity. It has been made possible thanks to all the generous parents and staff that helped us raise funds at our school plant sale, to invest in a wide range of plants for our garden.  We would also like to thank Root One Garden Centre in Wallingford, for generously providing us with four bags of compost to get us started!

Gardening club had a great first week, converting the Year 1 sandpit into a salad garden. There is now a mix of leaf colour, textures and scents in this edible garden. And when the chives and rosemary flower, a feast for any local bees. Thank you to our willing gardeners and to Henry Wallace for his extra support! Also, to Root One Garden Centre in Wallingford, for their very generous donation of four bags of compost, to make this planter possible.