Welcome back and a very Happy New Year to everyone.

It’s great to have all the children back and settled into their routines- it’s always a bit tougher on these damp, dark mornings but at least we are now the right side of the shortest day! 

We have started our new year as we mean to go on, by reminding everyone of our 4 key values: to be kind, safe, respectful and ready to learn. The children are working hard as a team to collect their 100 marbles in the jar as well as individually earning dojo points, stickers and certificates for their efforts. 

As the children come in every morning, they have quiet reading time, with opportunity to share reading books and complete Accelerated Reader online quizzes independently. This also gives staff the opportunity to ‘check in’ with individuals, making sure everyone is feeling ready to start their day, with opportunity to offer support if needed. 

In Maths this half term we continue to practise our addition and subtraction as part of our daily ‘Basic Skills’, whilst at the same time moving on to our new topics: Money and then Multiplication and Division.  Remember you can always support at home by helping your child with free online activities such as: TT Rockstars, Prodigy Maths and TopMarks Maths. 

Our English lessons for the next half term will be based around two brilliant, high- quality texts: Grandad’s Camper by Harry Woodgate and Tadpole’s Promise by Jeanne Willis, both of which have underlying themes of relationships and change.  Grandad’s Camper is a wonderful story about love, loss and adventure whilst reminding us that every family is different.  Tadpole’s Promise is a different kind of love story, with a rather bitter ending!  This book ties neatly in with our science topic for the spring term: Living Things and their Habitats.

Whilst some children continue to have daily phonics sessions, following the RWInc programme, many of Year 2 are now ready to move on to RWInc spellings and whole class guided reading sessions in line with what happens in KS2. In these lessons we will be focusing on the development of reading skills such as vocabulary, prediction, questioning, inference, summarisation and comprehension as well as encouraging increased fluency and expression. We will also be making time for daily handwriting sessions, ensuring correct letter formation is in place and embedded. 

Throughout our recent history topic, the children have been learning what it means to be a ‘history maker’ and they have loved finding out about famous figures such as Marie Curie, Malala Yousafzai and Emmeline Pankhurst.  The ‘Little People, Big Dreams’ books are a wonderful way of reminding children that however small you are, you should always follow your dreams and reach for the stars! Even though we have finished this topic, we will continue to share these books and encourage all our pupils to have high aspirations and to ‘be the best they can be’. 

We now move on to our geography topic: Why don’t penguins need to fly? in which we will identify features of hot and cold places, locate different regions on a map and learn how different animals are adapted to life in contrasting environments.  We will also enjoy a range of fiction and non-fiction books that tie in with this theme. 

Following our work to find out why Christmas matters to Christians, weekly RE lessons will move back to learning more about Islam, developing an increased understanding of the similarities and differences between the many faiths within our community. 

This half term also sees a move from DT back to Art, focusing on painting and colour mixing skills as well as learning how to create different textures and patterns. The children continue to enjoy weekly PE lessons with our PE coach Nathan, as well as computing with Miss Finch and singing with Mr Martin and Mrs Higson.    

Please continue to monitor Class Dojo for updates and remember you can contact us via this app if you have any questions or queries. 

Thank you as always for your support and cooperation, 

Mrs Smith, Miss Finch and all the team.