Beech Grove Primary School
Summer Term 2025
Head Teacher Message
Happy New Year everyone and welcome to spring term 2025. The time has flown since children started their new classes in September! This Spring term will fly even faster no doubt as the evenings become lighter and the daffodils start to poke through putting a smile on everyone’s face.
As Head teacher of your school, I continue to be so proud of all of the children and the way they have started back since returning from the Christmas break. Their resilience and adaptability remain outstanding.
This was picked up on and noticed in abundance during the schools Ofsted Inspection on the 22nd and 23rd of October. The HMI Ofsted Inspector was blown away of what he described to us as ‘school is an oasis of calm’ for all children at Beech Grove.
“Pupils at Beech Grove are proud of their school, welcoming visitors with exemplary manners and conduct. They understand the school’s ‘next-door neighbour’ principles and the school’s five golden rules well. Pupils consistently show high levels of respect to adults and to one another. They are happy and safe. Highly trained staff put pupils’ needs first in all they do. Pupils thrive in the warm and nurturing environment that the school fosters.” Ofsted 2024/25. What a fantastic first paragraph of the Ofsted Report to read. I’m sure you’ll all agree.
This term we hope to pick up where we left off before Christmas with our children achieving good progress within their core subject areas, due to the tremendous hard-working attitude of themselves and the dedicated staff team here at school.
“Leaders have created a culture of high expectations for pupils’ achievement. Pupils meet these expectations… Behaviour across school is of a high standard. Well-trained staff create a purposeful learning atmosphere. Pupils’ learning is not disrupted by others. ”Ofsted 2024/25.
Children’s classroom and corridor manners remain amazing which continues to maintain a lovely, positive and caring atmosphere around school. The schools “Next Door Neighbour Qualities” of Respect, Tolerance and Kindness are certainly being upheld. The children take great pride in this in and around school and it is wonderful to see. Please keep having a bit of fun at home and test the children regularly on what it takes in school (and the community) to be a good “Next Door Neighbour”!
This term we will also be hoping for some lovely spring sunshine so that children can make full use of our Secret Garden in lesson time and maybe plant some wonderful spring flowers for us all to enjoy (even the ducks!!!). I always think that spring flowers with their vibrant colours and freshness cheer everyone up from the gloom of the long, dark and wet winter months. They are a sign that lighter nights and warmer weather is on its way! (fingers crossed)
Our teachers have lots of interesting activities planned for this term and hope that you will enjoy hearing what children have been working on at consultation meetings/phone conversations, and will support them with their homework and reading outside of school.
Please, please, please x10000 keep encouraging your child to read at home. Reading is the key to everything! The children are showing such a passion and love of reading in school, we hope you will continue this with them at home.
We also hope that every effort is made by you for every child to attend school regularly. It is so important for your child’s development. We can’t continue to stress this enough. (95% and above is GOOD attendance). As a school we need to bet better on the first and last day of terms. Far too many children have these particular days off.
In addition to this being ON TIME every day for school is absolutely vital so that your child does not miss any of their learning. It can be really upsetting and frustrating for children if they come into a lesson that is part way through and they’ve missed vital teacher input and modelling. It can cause them great distress and being left with a feeling of not understanding what is expected of them.
Its really pleasing to see that our ‘lates’ are reducing and that you are all working really hard to support school on this issue. Well done everyone. Keep up the great efforts. Let’s have all the children in on time every day!
Here’s to a really positive Spring term!
John Dixon
Our work for this term:
English
We are focused on developing our reading and comprehension skills ready for our SATs and transition into secondary school. Writing will also continue to be a big focus in Y6 and we have lots of exciting writing opportunities coming our way to allow us to showcase our writing and grammar skills, including a letter from an evacuee based on our class novel ‘Letters from the Lighthouse’. We will also be writing a newspaper report also based on the book.
Maths
This term will be continuing to work on our arithmetic skills daily as well as covering statistics. We will look, in detail, at reading line graphs and pie charts as well as calculating the mean in statistics. In each lesson, we will also continue to strengthen our reasoning and problem-solving skills.
Science
Science will look at the effects of diet and exercise on our bodies, particularly the heart, and the features that we have inherited from our families.
Topic
Our Topics this term is Child’s War this topic will teach us what it was like to live in Britain, particularly from a child’s point of view, during the war in 1939.
Art and Design will also feature, where we will be looking at the artworks of McKenzie Thorpe, Banksy and Picasso. We will be focussing on our painting and drawing skills throughout these sessions.
Keeping Safe and Healthy (This section will tell you what we are teaching children about lifestyle choices)
All girls and boys will be having a Puberty talk this term where we will carefully address any questions the children may have about hygiene and changes to their body.
We will also be continuing to support the children during our weekly Jigsaw (PSHE) sessions and preparing them for secondary school and their upcoming SATs.
Dates for your Diary
Summer Term: Monday 28th April 2025 – Monday 21st July 2025
Half Term: Monday 26th May 2025 – Friday 30th May 2025
May Day: Monday 5th May 2025
SATs week: Monday 12th May – Thursday 16th May 2025
Career Carousel Thursday June 12th 2025
Secondary School Transition Week: Various dates – Pupils will be informed of the dates concerning them.