A warm welcome back to Term 2 we hope you had a restful and enjoyable break.

As always it promises to be an exciting and busy term. Our topic theme is called, 'Let's Celebrate'. The theme will look at how and why we celebrate and make links with celebrations form different cultures and how they are similar and different. The theme will have History links by looking at celebrations linked to the past. There will also be an Art focus during the term looking at pattern and shape. Towards the latter part of the term we will be developing our Design and Technology skills designing decorations for a Christmas party. We are grateful to those of you who have already contributed some special and memorable family celebrations via Showbie for the children's personal timelines. If you haven't done so, please add these during the first week so that each child has a memory to add during our upcoming timeline lesson. These occasions could be weddings, special birthdays, special holidays, Christenings, births or any notable date personal to your family. You could spend time talking with your child about these dates and helping them to understand how long ago these took place.

Our PE days will remain the same. The children will be continuing to practise skills in Games and be exploring a 'Disco' dance theme.

It has been great to see how many children have been using the Phoenix Maths games to support their quick Maths skills with number bonds. Don't forget to colour in the 'perseverance' letters at the back each time you play a game and to return to us to award the special stickers. You should also have received your Mathletics login so hopefully you have already been able to access the site and complete some activities. We look forward to celebrating the successes as you collect points.

Please can we ask that you continue to log reads on the Go Read app. It is so important that the children practise fluency in their reading. We encourage children to read their Read Write Inc book three times to allow for this confidence in reading to develop. We are able to track the number of reads which of course help us to reward the children with the rainbow reading certificates and awards. We would also encourage you to use other reading material to enhance the reading experience for the children. Please log these too as it all counts towards their number of reads.

As always should you need to contact us for us for any appointment we encourage you to do so via the school office, or of course for quick queries to catch us at drop off or pick up times.

We look forward to a happy and successful term working together.

With best wishes

Key Stage One Team.

Term 1 2021 - Treasure Island

Welcome back to a new school year. We hope you have had an enjoyable Summer break.

Our topic this term is, 'Treasure Island'. The main subject focus will be Geography with the children working on their knowledge of the world. The children will also explore healthy foods and consider why a pirate's diet was unhealthy. Please take time to read through and share the Knowledge Organiser with your child. At home you might want to talk about, and show, places you have visited with your child and find these on a map. You might discuss whether these places are near the coast or inland or if they are towns or villages. When sharing meals you could encourage the children to link these to the food groups as shown on the Knowledge Organiser.

Our PE days will be Wednesdays and Fridays. Robins children will need to ensure their PE kits are in school during term time as they will be practising getting changed and looking after their belongings. Kingfishers and Puffins children will continue to wear PE kit to school on those days. Please ensure all items of school clothing are clearly named so that we can quickly return them to the rightful owner should they become lost.

The children will be set homework via our Showbie platform. Homework will be set on Friday and we ask that is completed on Showbie by the following Wednesday. Homework will comprise of spellings to include the common exception words for year 1 and 2, as well as the other National Curriculum spelling requirements for those year groups. The children will also have a Maths activity to complete. There will be further information about this in due course as we appreciate many of you will be new to Showbie.

We are currently assessing the children in preparation for our Read, Write Inc programme. The assessments will inform us which reading book is most appropriate for your child to bring home to practise their reading skills. The GoRead app is used for recording your child's reading journey. It is simple to use and keeps a record of the books the children have read and the number of reads, as well as highlighting any challenging words they have encountered. We look forward to celebrating their achievements with our Rainbow Reading Challenge awards throughout the year. 

We look forward to sharing further information with you during 'Meet the Teacher' on Thursday 9th September. This will provide an opportunity to ask any questions you might have.

As always should you have any queries or concerns, for a longer appointment please contact the office where an appointment can be made to see the teacher. If it is a quick query we are always happy to see you at drop off or pick up.

We are looking forward to working with you to ensure a happy and successful year.

Kind regards

Key Stage One Team

Knowledge Organiser

We used objects to press patterns and draw into clay to create a pirate coin. We will paint our coins gold for doubloons or silver for pieces of eight.

Year 2 have been making 3D shapes and describing them using faces, edges and vertices.

Year 1 have loved naming 2D shapes and creating pictures from different shapes. 

We enjoyed experimenting and making patterns with objects in play dough. We will use our discoveries to help us to design a pirate coin with a pattern which we will make out of clay. 

We have learnt all the names of the 7 continents.