Welcome to Class 2

Dear Parents,

I hope that you have all had a lovely summer break and are feeling refreshed and ready for  the long autumn term!

In Class 2 this year we have a nice balance of 10 Year 2s and 8 Year 3s. We are delighted to welcome Arlo to our class! Once again, I will be assisted in the classroom by Miss Pennington. I will be having non-contact time for Planning, Preparation and Assessment (PPA) on alternate Fridays. On these days the class will be taught by Miss Pennington and 
Mrs Blackley.

We have a busy and exciting term ahead of us with lots of activities planned, some of which have already got underway! Advance notice for your diaries – parents’ information session, ‘How to help your child learn’ will take place on Monday 25th September at 6.30pm and the whole school Harvest Festival will take place on Tuesday 3rd October at 2.30pm. All of the children in the class will be involved and will shortly have some words to learn at home.

Daily Routines in Class 2

We open the class doors at 8.40am and parents are welcome to drop their children off any time between then and 8.55am when school officially starts. The children should wash their hands at the outdoor sinks when they arrive, come into the classroom and organise themselves for the day – hang coats on pegs, get the things they need for the day out of 
their bookbags, give in homework, change their reading books and so on.

Following register, we all go off into our different phonics groups until 9.30am when our numeracy hour begins. After break we begin our literacy hour at 10.50am which takes us through to lunch.

The afternoon sessions vary depending on the activities. PE and ICT are timetabled due to resources. This term, we have PE on Wednesdays and Fridays, although we recommend that PE kit is in school at all times so that we can take advantage of the good weather when we have it and so that the children have something to change into if the need arises. (Children should have a traditional string PE bag rather than a rucksack or boot bag as we do not have the space to store such bulky items on pegs in the classroom.)

During the second session of Monday afternoon, Mr Harrison and I swap for a lesson – I go up to Class 3 to teach French and Mr Harrison comes down to Class 2 to teach Computing.

Reading

In Class 2 we aim to listen to every child read twice a week. We are very grateful for your support in listening to your children read regularly at home. Little and often is the best way to help your child progress. Children can change their books independently each morning if they have read them at home. We assess when children are ready to move on to the next level by looking at how fluently they read and, more importantly, how well they understand and can talk about what they are reading. In Class 2, progression through the reading scheme slows a little as children read longer books and the focus shifts to comprehension, prediction, inference and vocabulary.

Homework

Reading – Children will bring home their reading book and reading diary every day and I would encourage you to hear your children read as much as is possible, talking about the story and characters as well. Evidence in the reading record of reading at home will be rewarded with stickers on Friday mornings!

Spellings – all children will be given weekly spellings to learn on Fridays for a test on the following Friday. We encourage children to practise spellings every day using the Look, Cover, Write, Check method. Children in Year 3 will also be asked to give the definition of one of the words and put another into a sentence which makes sense.

In Year 3, there is a statutory spelling list which children are required to learn in addition to phonics linked words and these are marked in red. At intervals throughout the year we will give sets of these words as revision.

There is a similar list of common exception words for Year 2. The full list of Y2 and Y3 spellings is available on the school website.

Numeracy- all children will be given a short weekly numeracy task on Mondays to be completed and returned on Wednesdays

Literacy homework – a short weekly literacy task will be given out on Wednesdays to be returned on Friday.

Times tables – Year 3 will continue to bring home weekly times tables to learn. We will ease Year 2 into tables a little bit later in the year when we feel that they are ready, probably after half term. All children have been given or will be given a log-in for Times Tables Rockstars which they can use at home to help them learn their times tables.

To help your child with their homework, you can:

• Set out a quiet work space;
• Provide the right materials to work with, i.e. a pencil rather than a colouring crayon, biro or felt tip;
• Check that your child understands the task and, if not, explain it to them;
• Check through the finished homework and help your child to correct any mistakes;
• Share any concerns with me or let me or Miss Pennington know if homework is posing a problem.

Equipment needed in school

Just a reminder that all children should have the following items with them in school:

• A filled water bottle;
• Wellies (named);
• Spare trousers, preferably waterproof (named);
• Two pairs of PE shoes – trainers for outside PE and plimsolls or another pair of trainers for indoor PE (named);
• An extra fleece during the colder weather;
• A named purse or wallet, (if they want to buy snack).

Name labels

Could I ask that all items of uniform, especially jumpers are clearly named? It is amazing how many jumpers go astray and it is much easier to re-unite them with their owner if they are named!

The Creative Curriculum

Our class context for learning this term is Space. In Class 2 our focus for each subject area will be as follows:

• Art: watercolour techniques, painting and drawing the sky, brushstrokes, Van Gogh Starry Starry sky;
• Computing: e-safety and coding – using Turtle to create animations and games;
• D and T: construction – rockets, vehicles and moon buggies;
• Geography: world mapping, aerial photos, Earth from space, research physical and human features of a chosen place;
• History: the space race, animals in space, Yuri Gagarin, Neil Armstrong and the moon landings;
• Music: exploring long and short sounds;
• PSHE: Healthy relationships, feelings and emotions, valuing difference, British values – respect and tolerance;
• PE: football with Rowan and cricket with Fraser;
• RE: Why do Christians celebrate Harvest? What can we learn from the stories Jesus told? What are the messages of Christmas?
• Science: Light and shadow, light sources, natural and artificial light, the dangers of the sun, UV rays, reflective objects, investigations.

Communication

I am always available for a chat at the beginning and end of the school day, so please do not hesitate to come and see me if you have any queries or concerns, or even if you would just like to know how the day has been. If necessary, an appointment can be made to discuss anything more confidential or simply for a lengthier discussion.

If there is anything at all that may affect the wellbeing of your child please do come and talk to me about it if at all possible. Another option is to drop me an e-mail: fiona.sweetman@irthingtonvillage.cumbria.sch.ukI hope the information contained in this letter is useful but if there is anything else you would like to know just ask! 

Yours sincerely,

Fiona Sweetman