Class News

Maths – Commutative Law

This week in maths, Year 1 have been exploring commutative law. We’ve been learning that when we add two numbers together, it doesn’t matter which order we add them in – the total stays the same!

We’ve used lots of representations like cubes, counters and pictures to help us. Sometimes the objects were clearly grouped and other times we had to look carefully and decide how to split them into two parts. We practised writing both expressions, like 3 + 2 and 2 + 3, and talked about what’s the same and what’s different.

The children have been brilliant at explaining their thinking and using full sentences to talk about their maths. They’re getting more confident at spotting groups, splitting amounts in different ways and recording their ideas with addition symbols.

Help at home by spotting maths in everyday life. Try using toys, snacks or socks and ask your child to show you two groups. Can they write (or say) both expressions? For example, “I can see 4 and 1 – that’s 4 + 1 and 1 + 4!”

Happy New Year

The children settled in so well after their Christmas break. They’ve been brilliant at getting back to their usual routines and we’ve been so impressed with their self-care skills. Lots of children can put their coats on themselves, get ready for snack time independently and get ready for home time too.

This week, we’re reading ‘The Gingerbread Man’ and children are already beginning to retell the story.  This story will be our focus for two weeks. If you have a copy of the story at home, please enjoy reading it together. The children have loved to join in with the repeated refrain in the story.  “Run, run, as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread Man.”

For Maths we’ve been building our mastery with number 1! We can represent one using our hands, with Numicon, by making marks and collecting one object.

In phonics our sound box had lots of ‘m’ objects including a marble, a mouse, a map and a mirror.

Help at home-What can you find around the house that begins with the ‘m’ sound?  What other ‘m’ objects could we have put in our sound bag?

Lost and Found

Happy New Year everyone! This half term our theme is Fire and Ice.

Our story this week has been Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers and the weather has certainly helped us learn about cold climates.

In the story, a boy finds a penguin at his door and goes on an adventure to try to find his home, as he thought he was lost. Just like the boy, we explored and learnt about where penguins live and extended our vocabulary by learning a new word: iceberg. We used the globe to find the land and sea and Antarctica and enjoyed finding other interesting places.

“The white bit means it’s very cold, because its covered in ice!”

“Antarctica is right at the bottom of the world, nobody lives there its too cold!”

Phonics

We have begun learning our Phase 3 sounds. This week, we have learnt four new digraphs/trigraphs ai,ee,igh,oa.

Poetry Picnic

Each week we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week’s poem is called Let’s Put on Our Mittens.

Let’s put on our mittens,
and button up our coats.
Wrap our scarves snuggly around our throats.
Pull on our shoes and fasten the straps.
And tie on tightly our warm woollen hats.
Open the door, and out we go.
Out, into the soft and feathery snow.
Crunch, crunch, crunch.

Maths – super subitising!

This week we have been practising our subitising skills. This means, we have been looking and saying how many objects we can see – without counting one by one.

Year 2 Plant Investigations

Year 2 have started learning about plants this half term. This week, the children observed a range of plants and thought about different ways to group them. They grouped plants by size, whether they are trees or not, if we can eat them, and whether they grow fruit. The children showed great curiosity and were excited to share their ideas.

Beau “We grouped by plants you can eat and plants you can’t.”

Louis “Some of these plants have fruit and others don’t.”

Ava “The fruit grows from a flower!”

What is Spirituality?

In RE this week, we have been learning about what spirituality is and how it can mean different things to different people. We discussed how spirituality helps us appreciate life’s deeper meanings and does not have to be linked to a religion.

We explored how symbols can help represent ideas and feelings that are sometimes hard to explain. We also learned that the arts (theatre, dance, music, literature, painting, sculpture, and photography) can all be powerful ways to express spirituality. We also looked at religious symbols and discussed the spiritual meanings they may represent, such as peace, hope, love, belonging, or guidance. This helped us understand how symbols can communicate deep ideas without using lots of words.

The children shared thoughtful ideas about what makes them feel spiritual. Some talked about colours that remind them of a loved pet, special places they have visited, or songs that give them comfort, purpose, or a sense of connection.

Miss Gilliland shared how Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen is a song she always carries with her. Not only does she love the musical talent of ‘The Boss’, but the song reminds her of being a child, singing in the car with her two sisters. It makes her think of home, a place she feels deeply connected to.

It was lovely to hear such personal reflections and to see how respectfully the children listened to one another.

Help at home:
What could you find at home that makes you feel spiritual? It might be a song, a photo, a place, a colour, or a symbol. Talk together about why it is special to you.

2026 Begins!

After a well-earned rest, Year 5 have returned with a fantastic attitude to learning. Children have been focussed, engaged and have asked lots of questions about our new learning in different subjects. Below is a snapshot of our current learning journey. This way, you can chat to your child about their learning in school (and maybe continue this learning at home, too).

Writing

For the first three weeks, the children will be learning all about the features of a persuasive letter, ready to write their own. Our letters will be inspired by our class novel – Viking Boy (by Tony Bradman). Gunnar has sadly lost his father, who was unfairly taken from him by the evil Skuli. Gunnar needs to plea to the gods for his father to return, but will his (our) letters be successful?

Reading

We’ve been using the first chapter of our class novel as our focus text this week. The children have used retrieval and inference skills so far. These have helped us learn more about the characters and the parts they may play later on in the story.

Help at home: Please continue reading regularly at home. The children have regular opportunities to read aloud in class, so reading at home will only boost confidence further!

Maths

The children are currently learning short multiplication. So far, we’ve looked at different strategies to help calculate tricky multiplications: partitioning and column multiplication. Here is an example of partitioning:

17 x 3

10 x 3 = 30

7 x 3 = 21

30 + 21 = 51

Help at home: Please keep practising times tables regularly at home. This learning can be really slowed children if children can’t recall  their times tables facts quickly. Times Table Rockstars is a great platform for some quick, effective practice.

Topic

This half-term, we’re comparing two periods of history that happened at the same time, but in different parts of the world.

The Vikings (their impact on the UK) and the Ancient Islamic Civilisation

So far, we’ve looked at who the Vikings were. Here’s some points from class research:

Viking was an old Norse word, meaning pirate raid – Emily M

The Vikings were farmers, explorers and fierce warriors – Elara

They originated from Scandinavia, which is made up of Norway, Denmark and Sweden. – Kiara

Science

This half term, we’re studying chemistry (properties of materials). Today, the children tested a variety of materials to see if they were electrical conductors or electrical insulators. The results were surprising to say the least!

Welcome Back- Spring Term

Happy New Year and welcome back to the Spring Term! We hope you all enjoyed a restful, happy and healthy break and that the children are feeling refreshed and ready for another exciting half term of learning in Year 1.

We’ve lots to look forward to over the coming weeks:

• In maths, we’ll be developing our understanding of addition, using practical resources and number strategies to help us become confident mathematicians.

• In reading and writing, we’ve some exciting new books to enjoy together.

• In topic, we’ll become historians, learning all about the history of toys and games and how they’ve changed over time.

• In science our focus will be on animals, exploring different types and their characteristics.

• In PE, we’ll be practising our throwing skills, developing coordination and control.

• In RE, we’ll be learning about how different religions welcome new life.

• In phonics, we’ll continue learning new GPCs and tricky words to support reading and spelling.

• In Living and Learning, we’ll focus on British values, consent and respect, helping children develop positive relationships and understanding.

Important Notices

• PE days are Tuesday and Friday – please ensure children come to school in the correct PE kit.

• Please continue to return signed reading records and library books on Thursdays.

• With the unpredictable weather, please make sure your child brings a warm coat to school each day.

• Children should bring a clean, labelled water bottle to school daily.

Watch Us While We Work

We would love to welcome you into the classroom on Wednesday 14th January at 09:00 for “Watch Us While We Work.” This is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate your child’s learning and pick up some helpful tips for supporting them at home.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support. We are really looking forward to a busy and enjoyable Spring Term together!

Happy New Year

I hope you’ve all had a wonderful and restful break.

Here are some important information for the Spring term:

Things to remember each week:

PE – Wednesday and Friday

Reading records – Friday

Spelling test – Friday

Arithmetic check – Friday

Important dates this half-term

Watch us while we work – Wednesday 14^th January 9.00 – 9.30am. The focus of this session will be Feelings First and Reading.

Staying Safe Online (parents’ Zoom meeting) – Monday 19^th January 6.00 – 6.30 pm.

Parent-Teacher Meetings – Tuesday 10^th February and Thursday 12^th February.

Our learning this half term

• Reading – Our class novel this term is Viking Boy by Tony Bradman
• Writing – Persuasive writing and Discussion.
• Spelling – See the weekly homework sheet for details of the words we will be focussing on.
• Maths – We are focussing on multiplication and division. Leading into fractions later in the term.
• History – We’ll be exploring the key historical concepts of trade, invasion and innovation through our study of the Vikings and the Early Islamic Civilisation.
• PE – Dodgeball.
• RE – Our topic is How do Buddhists live a meaningful life?

Reading like Historians!

This week in class we have been reading like historians using the book A Street Through Time. The book shows how one street changes over time, helping us to think carefully about the past and how life has changed.

Although the book has limited written text, the detailed illustrations gave us lots of information to retrieve and interpret. We looked closely at the pictures, asked questions and made predictions.

This linked perfectly to our history topic as we are beginning to learn about the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons. The children loved spotting clues in the illustrations and discussing what life might have been like in different time periods. It has given us lots of excitement and curiosity as we start our history learning journey.

We also talked about how picture books are still an important part of reading at all ages. They help children develop vocabulary, inference skills and deeper understanding by encouraging them to think carefully about images as well as text.

Help at home:

• Share picture books together and talk about what you can see in the illustrations

• Ask questions such as “What do you notice?”, “What might be happening here?” or “How is this different from today?”

• Encourage your child to explain their ideas using evidence from the pictures

• Link reading to real-life experiences, museums or history topics you are learning about

Fire and ice