Autumn 2-Colour and Light

Welcome back! We hope you’ve had a lovely half term and are feeling well rested. This half term our overall theme is Colour and Light.

We’ll be using the following focus books to help us with our learning

See you all in the morning for some fun and some learning about St James.

Autumn 2-Light and Dark

Welcome back! We hope you’ve had a lovely half term and are feeling well rested. This half term our overall theme is Light and Dark.

We’ll be using the following focus books to help us with our learning

See you all in the morning for some fun challenges and  some learning about St James.

Autumn 1 – Half Term in Review

What a fantastic first half term we’ve had in Year 1! The children have settled brilliantly into their new routines and shown great enthusiasm for learning. Here’s a look back at some of the wonderful things we’ve been up to:

Maths

We’ve been busy developing our number sense – counting all the way to 100, comparing quantities and exploring part–whole relationships. The children have enjoyed using practical resources to understand how numbers to 5 can be made in different ways.

Help at home: Encourage your child to spot numbers around you (door numbers, buses, clocks!) and practise quick recall of number bonds to 5.

English

We’ve loved sharing some brilliant stories: Flat Stanley, The Enchanted Wood, and Hermelin the Mouse Detective. The children have been predicting what might happen next, discussing their favourite parts and beginning to write simple sentences. We’ve also been working hard on pencil control and letter formation.

Help at home: Read together daily – talk about the characters, setting and what might happen next.

Phonics

We’ve learned four new sounds this half term: ay, oy, ou and ea. The children are becoming more confident at spotting these sounds in words and using them in their writing.

Help at home: Try spotting these new sounds in books or on signs!

Science

Our topic on The Senses has been full of excitement and discovery. The children have enjoyed hands-on investigations, testing their sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch and thinking like real scientists!

Help at home: Try a fun senses scavenger hunt! Ask your child to find things they can see, hear, smell, taste and touch around the house or garden. Talk about which senses they used and what they discovered.

Topic

We’ve been geographers, learning all about where we live. The children have explored maps, looked at local landmarks and even conducted fieldwork to find out how people travel to school.

Help at home: Go on a short walk around your local area – notice signs, buildings and different types of transport.

RE

In RE, we’ve been thinking about belonging – what it means to belong to a family, a class, or a community and how we can help others feel included.

Living and Learning

We’ve explored our rights and responsibilities, how to treat others fairly, and what democracy means in our classroom.

PE

This half term we’ve focused on football skills, practising dribbling, passing and, most importantly, working as a team. The children have shown great sportsmanship and energy every week.

Thank you!

A huge thank you to all our parents and carers for your continued support at home – it makes such a difference.

We wish you all a happy, healthy and restful break. We’re looking forward to an exciting and busy Autumn 2!

Training day – Arty Ideas

We thought you’d enjoy hearing a little about what went on during our recent teacher training day! Part of the day was dedicated to developing our art knowledge and skills with our resident art teacher, Mrs Boulton.

Teachers got hands-on with paints, pastels and even soap! There was plenty of colour, laughter, and even a bit of friendly competition as we experimented with new techniques and ideas for upcoming art lessons.

The rest of the day focussed on other important areas too, including maths and inclusion. It was a full, productive day – and we left feeling ready and excited for the next half-term!

Health and Hygiene in Science: The Results Are In

Two weeks ago, Year Two set up a very interesting bread experiment to explore how handwashing helps keep us healthy. We wanted to find out how germs affect the food we touch and what difference clean hands can make.

We compared three slices of bread:

• One untouched control slice (straight from the packet)
• One slice passed around the class before washing hands
• One slice passed around the class after washing hands

When we checked back after two weeks, the children were amazed by what they saw. The dirty hands bread had grown the most mould, the control bread had a few small patches, and the clean hands bread looked the best of all. Exactly what the children predicted!

“The dirty one was covered in green and black bits – it looked disgusting!” – Elsie

“That shows how many germs are on our hands if we don’t wash them.” – George

“The clean bread looked the best. Washing with soap really works!” – Jolyon

Staying Safe

From our experiment, we learned that germs are tiny and invisible but can easily spread and make us ill. By washing our hands properly, covering our mouths when we cough or sneeze and keeping things clean, we can help stop germs from spreading – just like Florence Nightingale taught.

Help at Home

Here are some ways the children can keep practising good hygiene at home:

•  Wash hands with soap for at least 20 seconds – try singing Happy Birthday twice!
• Always wash hands before eating and after using the toilet or playing outside.
• Use tissues to catch sneezes and coughs, then bin them straight away.
• Help keep your room or toys tidy and clean to reduce germs.

Year Two were brilliant scientists throughout this experiment – observing carefully, making predictions, and discussing what they had learned. What a wonderful way to finish our first half-term in Year Two.

Writing: The Eye of the Storm

To end a fantastic first half-term, Year 5 finished our latest piece of writing: The Eye of the Storm. This piece was inspired by a video about a traveller heading towards an eery light in the sky. Our goal was to describe the setting and character to a reader who hasn’t seen the video.

As a class, I am so pleased and proud of their outcomes. A class (who at the beginning of the year stated they struggle with creative ideas) have proved themselves wrong and have shown how good their creative minds can be. The vocabulary is superb – the children took time to substitute words for better synonyms to boost their writing to that next level. Their use of figurative language, such as alliteration, similes and metaphors is amazing. Reading 21 pieces has been an absolute pleasure and I’m really looking forward to Year 5’s next writing adventure in November! Here are some examples of our writing:

Help at home:

Please keep reading regularly at home with your child. More reading means more access to new vocabulary. As you can see from the writing above, new vocabulary unlocks doors to creative thinking and brilliant pieces!

Thank you

Just wanted to say a huge ‘thank you’ for all your support this half term. We have really enjoyed the first 8 weeks of Year 6 and the progress shown has already been superb. Weekly arithmetic checks have been so positive along with the quality of writing, reading records and work in all other areas. We work hard at school but I am so grateful for the support the children receive at home too.

Have a happy and healthy half term.

Writing

In our writing this week, children have been using expanded noun phrases (ENP) to improve their writing and ensure their work stands out.

We reminded ourselves that an ENP uses a determiner, adjective, noun and preposition. We had various images scattered around our classroom and the children really enjoyed experimenting with their writing.

Help at home – ask your child what an ENP is? Show them an image to write an ENP about. Can you find an everyday object and see who can make it sound the most exciting?

Geography – Fieldwork and application of what we have learned to our local area

We have concluded our Geography learning for this half-term with some field work to investigate how land is used in Wetherby.

The children were excellent at identifying the different uses including: commercial, residential, recreational and transport.  We were disappointed not to find any land being used for agricultural purposes near our school.

Later in the week, we were inspired by Poppy’s news that people who live near her have petitioned the council to preserve the use of land for agricultural purposes.  We each decided what we thought the land should be used for and shared our views with the rest of the class.

Help at home: you could take a walk in your local area and see if you can find examples of the different land uses.  Here are some examples we found when doing our field work to inspire you.

Junior Leadership Team

Last week, we took part in a democratic vote to choose our new Junior Leadership Team representatives from year 2.

We wrote some brilliant speeches explaining why we should be chosen to be a JLT member.

Congratulations to the two fantastic and newly elected JLT members.

Here are their speeches that won them their places on the school JLT.

Help at home: What does it mean to take part in a demographic vote?