Spring Term

Welcome back!

Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome back! I hope that you have all had the most wonderful break over the Christmas holidays. The children have LOVED telling us everything that they have been up to in these first few days back in school! One thing we did talk about in school before Christmas was that, after completing the term, we have made it through our first uninterrupted term as a class since Autumn 2019! The children could not believe it had been so long!

The aim of this letter is to explain some important things to help us all through the upcoming term. Please note that lots of the information will be available on our school website: https://www.st-giles.staffs.sch.uk/

This coming term our Curriculum Vehicle will be focusing on explorers and the impact that they have had on our world today!

English

In our English lessons this term we will be continuously recapping our basic skills, with a real push on our handwriting, pencil grip and presentation – which will not just be a focus in English lessons, but across all of our subjects. We will expand our descriptive language and move on to more interesting phrases and word classes, in order to make our sentence more exciting! The children will also be looking at new ways to extend sentences and will be introduced to different types of conjunctions. The texts we will focus on are ‘The Dark’ by Lemony Snicket and ‘Diary of a Killer Cat’ by Anne Fine. We will also explore visual texts and poetry in order to inspire our writing. Our reading will still be led by Read, Write, Inc and children will continue to improve their fluency throughout the term. Please remember that it is policy to read with your children each night – don’t forget to write in their diary so that we can see how they are getting on.

Maths

Whilst we will be moving away from Number, Place Value and Addition and Subtraction this term, we will still be recapping it each lesson, as well as through homework activities. Our new learning in Maths will be Multiplication and Division, before then looking at Fractions. The children may not have covered this much in Year 1, so we will explore it together using many different concrete materials to allow them to better understand it.

In RE we will dive in to the New Testament, starting with the importance of the Christmas story, specifically the Magi and the journey of Mary and Joseph. We will then look carefully at the different types of Parables and Miracles from the Bible, reflecting on the message that Jesus was trying to convey. Following this we will be looking at the Special Celebrations that are a key part in the Catholic life of the children, before starting Lent preparations towards the end of the term.

Science

Our Science units this term are both looking at the wonders of different materials! The best part of these units is that we get to mess and play with things, as we find out how bendy, stretchy, squashy and twisty things are! We then will try to grasp and understanding of the suitability of different materials, considering why they have been chosen to complete a particular job.

History

Our History unit this term is all about exploring! We will learn about the significant impact of specific explorers from around the world, whilst also understanding why they explored where they did. We will hopefully get to meet a real life explorer and ask them questions – maybe one day the children ill explore too?!

Geography

Geography will give a focus on our wonderful country of the United Kingdom. We will learn the individual countries within it, as well as their capital cities and famous landmarks. On top of this we will also discover the incredible mountain ranges that each country within the United Kingdom has to offer!

Art

Through our Art lessons this term we will be looking closely at the work of David Hockney The children will explore how he used different colours and textures, eventually they will be using their explorations to design and create their own version of Pop Art in order to show what they have learnt.

Design and Technology

Our Design and Technology work this term will centre around free standing structures! We will firstly look at different structures around the country, as well as our local area. Of course, we will also be MAKING structures – following our evaluative process along the way. This process is important, so that the children know that we cannot just make a structure and leave it at that.

PE will start by continue to look at basic skills, however this time the skills will be quickly incorporated into a game-based setting. This allows children to think about simple tactics and team related decisions. Please remember that PE kit should be in school every day – this will be left in lockers throughout the week when they are not being used.

Computing

Our Computing lessons this term will be driven by Purple Mash, but we will also be exploring other software. In our Spreadsheets unit we will be looking at how we can use spreadsheets for functions in society, as well as seeing Excel in comparison.

A few more important things for this upcoming term:

Please ensure that your child is reading as much as possible, as this is especially important at this stage in their learning. This should be written in the child’s diary each night as these are checked each day by myself and Mrs Leese.
Please remember that, along with Class Dojo, diaries are a key form of communication between yourselves and us – if you wish to speak to me directly then please get in touch through the school office.
Homework will be given out on a Wednesday and due in the following Monday. Homework will include a Maths and English question – most of which will involve discussion and an explanation, as well as some optional ideas to complete as a family! It might be the case the Homework will be set via Education City, however you will be made aware of this via Class Dojo.

As always, thank you all for your continued support with your children – we reall could not do it without you!

Many thanks,

Mr Hammersley and Mrs Leese

Year 2