Welcome to Maple Class!
Maple Class is home to our Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 learners at Langdale. We enjoy learning in lots of exciting ways through our bespoke and enriched curriculum.
This year, the adults in Maple Class are:
Teachers: Mrs Turley and Miss McGraw
HLTA: Mrs Western
TA: Mrs Blakeney
PE: All children should bring their PE kits to school on Monday for use throughout the week. All children will need appropriate wet weather clothing and footwear for outdoor learning, which occurs frequently throughout the week.
To learn more about life in Maple class, please see our ongoing learning blog below.
Learning Overview
Here you will find information about what Maple class will be learning during the half term. The Maple staff team will upload this information at the start of each new half term so that you are aware of the teaching and learning opportunities and how best you can support your child/ren at home.
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Summer 1 Learning Overview | [pdf 513KB] |
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March 2026
Common Farm Visit
Thank you to Gareth from WoodMatters for our guided tour of the National Trust's Common Farm, Windermere. We connected with nature by sketching the landscape and went on to explore land use and food production in group activities. As well as learning how to stay safe around farms, we used the visit to contextualise the science learning that Maple Class have been doing this half term on animals and habitats; and it was even sunny!
Glow Dodgeball
Maple had a brilliant time at the Glow Dodgeball event held at The Lakes School. Teamwork, honesty and passion were shown in abundance with smiles and laughter galore.
Edinburgh Residential 2026
February 2026
Young Voices - Manchester 2026
What an incredible evening we had in Manchester at Young Voices!
Highlights of the night included the guest performances, the amazing dance routines by Urban Strides, and of course the choir vs audience hip-hop dance off… which we obviously won!
January 2026
Bird hides
During their weekly forest session, Maple were tasked with designing and building functional bird hides. A key aspect of this was differentiating between a shelter and bird hide and what made each unique. They then used this to adapt their original shelters to incorporate elements of the bird hides.
They took an approximate measurement of their face width and used this to ensure there were no gaps within their structure or frame greater than half of this measurement to ensure that their bodies and faces were broken up enough to not spook the birds.
When the snow came!
Maple took the opportunity to use the snow in their learning when it blanketed the school grounds in abundance.
Year 3 and 4 explored their knowledge of factor pairs by creating large scale models on the playground.
Year 5 and 6 explored spherical shapes, by blowing water and observing it freeze into bubbles and by creating snowballs. This learning tied in with their science topic on Earth and Space.
December 2025
Plant Reproduction - Year 5 and 6
Year 5 and 6 had a super science lesson this afternoon when they headed into the polytunnel to clone some plants. Mr Clayton spoke to them about the different processes of natural and artificial reproduction before they took to the snippers to have a go at creating 'cuttings'. Everyone successfully created clones of the parent plant and we look forward to seeing how they develop over the coming weeks and months.
River Study - Day 2
At the start of December, Maple class took to the road again to explore the middle and lower course of the river. The first stop off was at Skelwith Bridge, where we explored the concept of a flood plain before observing the river narrowing and speeding up. At this location, we saw waterfalls and 'eddies'.
Next, we travelled to the edge of Windermere, stopping in Ambleside to see the confluence of the Rivers Brathay and Rothay. We spent time talking about why flooding occurs and the impact of this on our local landscape and infrastructure.
Finally, we set off to observe the final section of the river. We travelled down to the Leven Estuary to see the difference of the river in it's lowest course. Here, we saw the River Crake confluence with the estuary and the river becoming very wide and calm as it approached the mouth. Brilliant examples of transportation and deposition could be seen with the silt travelling in different directions, depending on the water flow.
November 2025
The last week of November saw Maple take to the hills to explore the upper course of the river. Although it was a tad windy and wet, spirits never dipped as everyone talked and sang their way up and back down the valley, pointing out the features of the river as they went. We cannot wait to completed the second stage of our study, as we follow the river through the middle and lower course at the start of December.
Maple had an 'out of this world' adventure when they were joined by astronomer Stuart. He gave a fascinating talk about everything star and space related and everyone asked superb questions, deepening their knowledge ready for the science topics after the Christmas break. The session culminated with a STEM activity, with everyone creating a spaceship that could be flown with the power of a single (big) breath. It quickly became a competition to see who could send their rocket the furthest, with some brilliant measuring and recording by the Y3s.
Maple class had a fabulous time when they took a trip to Chester Zoo this month.
The trip linked closely to the learning taking place in KS2 science. Year 3 and 4 explored food chains and looked closely at the teeth in different animals, while Year 5 and 6 focused on life cycles and how the zoo keepers recreate elements of the animals' natural habitat in the zoo.
The children had an incredible time exploring, learning and spotting their favourite animals. The children thoroughly enjoyed their visit, with many finding it hard to choose their favourite part!
We loved our session with KidzFit on Thursday 6th November. We were able to showcase our PE and science learning by answering questions about how our bodies respond to exercise and how we can keep our bodies and brains fit and health. We had great fun taking part in the fitness session, testing our strength, agility, flexibility and speed.
This half term our learning question is 'How has the Langdale Valley changed over the years?'
October 2025
As part of our Ancient Egypt topic, we have loved getting creative in our art lessons. We have been learning about the techniques of weaving and sewing.
On the 14th October, we took part in an eco-reporters workshop with Nick Greenall. We began the session by talking about the things that we had been learning about in school and topics that were interesting us in the world. We then spent time learning about how reports are created, from the behind the scenes script creating to presenting confidently in front of the camera. We really enjoyed creating the report and the video can be seen on our Facebook page.
On the 10th October, the whole school took part in Hello Yellow Day, promoting the importance of mental health and wellbeing. We spent the day taking part in activities aimed at emphasising the importance of talking, embracing the calmness of nature and celebrating our uniqueness.
September 2025
Maple class took to the school grounds to look for tangible examples of figurative language. They photographed the examples that they found before verbally rehearsing their simile and personification sentences.
They then used their knowledge of similes and personification in their narrative writing, about the explorer 'Tadeo Jones'.
This half term, our learning question is, 'Was Ancient Egypt the birth place of farming?'
We have been exploring this question by finding out more about what life was like in Ancient Egypt and researching about the importance of the River Nile. Did you know that they were the first people to use irrigation to support their crop growth and farming? Definitely something that farmers still use today!