Year 1

Welcome back!😊

Thank you to all the children who completed their holiday challenge, the teachers have enjoyed reading all about the exciting adventures over half term.

Our first week of this half-term has been very stimulating as we started all our new topics alongside STEM week. For the maths aspect of STEM, we learnt about tessellations and how to recognise them in our environment, the children coloured in their own tessellations.  We were looking at how animals adapt and change to their environment; with our guest scientist we observed how well animals adapt to their environment and how well they can be camouflaged. The children had a great time experimenting whether 4 hands were better than 2 hands, working in pairs they attempted to complete different tasks using 4 hands. For English, we have been exploring the story The Storm Whale, continuing to explore our sequencing and use of time conjunctions. We have become much better at remembering to use capital letters at the beginning of our sentences and for names, finger spaces and full stops at the end of our sentences. To make our sentences a ‘super sentence’ we have been using adjectives and connectives such as ‘and’ to join clauses and ‘because’. Our new topics for this half-term are history where we will be learning about the Victorian era, D&T where we will be learning about eating healthily and RE where we will explore Christianity. In PSHE we have been identifying similarities and differences between people in our classes. On Monday we participated in a Remembrance Day assembly which included being respectful and quiet for 2 minutes at 11 am.

  

  

w/b 04.11.24

Keywords: addition, equal, fact families, part-whole model, word problems, time conjunctions, adjectives, tessellation, camouflage, animals, similarities 

Sounds: ea, oi, a-e, i-e, o-e, u-e

 

w/b 11.11.24

Keywords: animals, differences, Christianity, religion, Victorian era, commutative, number sentences, healthy eating, fruits, vegetables, conjunctions (and, because). 

Sounds: aw, are, ur, er

 

Messages: 

• Please ensure your child brings their reading folders in with their reading record and books on Mondays. 
• The reading record should be signed by an adult five times. 
• All hair needs to be tied up - not half up and half down, it needs tying completely back. 
• Please ensure your child has a book bag - we cannot safely house rucksacks due to our limited space. 
• If you would like to watch some videos to support phonics teaching at home, please check out: https://www.youtube.com/@MrTsPhonics
• After Christmas holidays Year 1 children will not be having an afternoon snack, they can either have the school fruits or one from home at morning snack.
• As the weather has become colder can all children bring appropriate clothing for Vineyard Adventures and welly boots, thank you. 

 

Dates: 

St Matthias Church visit: Friday 22/11/24 from 9:30 to 11:30

Labeled costume brought to school for our dress rehearsal: Monday 25th November.

Victorian WorkshopDay: Thursday 28/11/24

 

Amber Christmas concert: Monday 9th December at 9:30 

Diamond Christmas concert: Tuesday 10th December at 9:30 

Sunstone Christmas concert:Tuesday 10th December at 2:15

 

Year 2

Year 2 have started their second half-term with plenty of energy and enthusiasm! We've had a busy fortnight, filled with exciting activities such as STEM week and Anti-Bullying week. During STEM week, we focused on how anyone, regardless of background, can develop an interest in STEM. The children explored the contributions of influential thinkers like Florence Nightingale and René Descartes, discovering how their ideas have shaped the mathematics we use today. In our science lessons, we investigated the use and importance of arms, comparing humans to species with more than two sets of limbs, such as octopuses and centipedes. The children took part in five fun tasks that asked, "What if humans had more than two arms?" They worked together in teams to record data, make conclusions, and explore the possibilities of a multi-limbed world!

This week, we’ve been marking Anti-Bullying week with a focus on the ‘odd socks’ concept, to help the children appreciate individuality. They had great fun decorating their own odd socks, participating in an interactive anti-bullying workshop where the children learned the important difference between friendship issues and bullying. We discussed how bullying is intentional, repetitive, and involves an imbalance of power. The children showed super understanding as we explored direct forms of bullying, such as physical aggression, and indirect forms, like deliberately excluding others. They were also fantastic at offering advice on how to handle unkind behaviour, showing maturity and empathy throughout the session.

In the classroom, we’ve been working very hard. In maths, we’ve made great strides in learning how to add by making ten and crossing ten—skills which Mr Jackson describes as some of the most challenging in the curriculum! The children have approached these concepts with focus and determination, and as a result, they are starting to master them. In English, we’ve been learning how to use ‘when’ as a subordinating conjunction and exploring the past tense of verbs. These skills will support our upcoming project, writing a fact-file  about Marcus Rashford. The children have been engaged throughout all our lessons, and we’re excited to see their hard work pay off. 

Finally, we're practising daily for our Christmas performance, and we ask that you check the costume details sent home and help your child learn their lines if possible. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out—we are so excited for what’s ahead!

  

  

                                       

Key messages: 

• Please see the dates below for our Christmas performances. Due to limited space, it is important that you are aware of the assigned date for your child. Any concerns, please reach out. 

Monday 9th performance 1: Amethyst 9:30 am

Tuesday 10th performance 2: Turquoise 9:30 am

Tuesday 10th performance 3: Pearl 2:15pm

• As cold weather approaches, please ensure your child comes to school with a coat. 

• There was a drop in reading record completion last week. Please remember that we are expecting to see a minimum of 4 entries a week. 

• This term, we are making healthy pizzas as part of our DT curriculum. If you work in food and/or a kitchen, please get in touch as it would be so cool for the children to hear about your work!

 

Key words: 

WC 11th Nov: British Empire, enslaved, free person, alive, dead, fact-file, buddhism, precept

WC 18th Nov: doctress, medicine, hospital, habitat, temple, pizza topping

 

English focus: 

We will look at apostrophes for contractions, when apostrophes are used to remove letters. For example, "do not" = "don’t." This week, we'll focus on contractions while retelling key events from Mary Seacole’s life. This use of apostrophes should not be confused with apostrophes for possession, like in Seacole’s, as we’ll cover that later in the year.

 

Maths focus: 

Adding by making ten. 

When teaching addition, we ask children to get to the next multiple of ten by partitioning the number they are adding. For example, 28 + 5 = 33: what’s the next multiple of ten? 30. What do we need to add to 28 to reach 30? Tip: number bonds! Let’s split 5 into 2 + 3. 28 + 2 = 30 and then 30 + 3 = 33. 

This is a challenging yet extremely helpful skill. Please help us embed it by asking your child to teach you!