Dear Families,

I hope you had a wonderful summer and are looking forward to starting a new year at Holbrook. Our RoK topic unit for the autumn term is called the 'World at War'. In the first half of the term we will be studying WW1, mainly how the war started, joining up, trench warfare, censorship, technology and rememberance. We will study WWII in the second half of the autumn term.

Told in the voice of Private Tommo Peaceful, the story follows twenty-four hours at the front, and captures his memories of his family and his village life – by no means as tranquil as it appeared.

Full of vivid detail and engrossing atmosphere, leading to a dramatic and moving conclusion, Private Peaceful is both a compelling love story and a deeply moving account of the First World War.

Spring 2024

In the Spring term our topic is Saving the planet. We will be looking into climate change and the effect this has had on our planet over the last hundred years.

In English we will be reading Holes by Louis Sachar. 

Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys’ detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes.

It doesn’t take long for Stanley to realize there’s more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment
—and redemption.

Summer Term 2024

Our topic for the summer term is Rivers and Explorers. We will be learning about rivers and peaks in the UK, national parks in the USA and famous explorers such as Christopher Columbus and Sir Francis Drake. 

In English we will be reading Kensuke's Kingdom.

When Michael is washed up on an island in the Pacific after falling from his parent's yacht, the Peggy Sue, he struggles to survive on his own. But he soon realises there is someone close by, someone who is watching over him and helping him to stay alive. Following a close-run battle between life and death after being stung by a poisonous jelly fish, the mysterious someone--Kensuke--allows Michael into his world and they become friends, teaching and learning from each other, until the day of separation becomes inevitable.

Morpurgo here spins a yarn which gently captures the adventurous elements one would expect from a desert-island tale, but the real strength lies in the poignant and subtle observations of friendship, trust and, ultimately, humanity.