Year 2: What We Have Been Learning

Year 2: What We Have Been Learning

What a fantastic start to the new school year! We are so proud of how brilliantly the children have settled into Year 2. They walked through the door with huge smiles, enthusiasm, and a readiness to learn that has set a wonderful tone for the year ahead.

Moving into Key Stage 1's final year is an exciting milestone, and our new Year 2 stars have already shown fantastic independence, teamwork, and kindness towards one another.

Have a look at what we have been learning this week!

Maths

Year 2 have kicked off the Autumn term by diving into Place Value up to 20, building a crucial bridge from Year 1 before tackling larger numbers. The children practice counting and ordering numbers to 20, using hands-on equipment like Base 10 blocks and visual tools like Part-Whole models. Mastering this concept of partitioning into tens and ones gives children a solid, confidence-boosting foundation for all future maths learning.

Literacy

In Literacy this week, we have been learning about The Adventures of the Egg Box Dragon. This week, the children stepped into a world of imagination, creativity and descriptive language as they began exploring the story of the Egg Box Dragon. They learned how authors build characters using everyday materials, and how writers use powerful adjectives, verbs and expanded noun phrases to bring those characters to life.

PSHE

Starting a new school year is full of big emotions for six- and seven-year-olds. To help our children feel secure, Year 2 has spent the week learning about "Me and My Relationships". The children have been focusing on helping children understand how their choices shape our classroom. the children worked together to design their very own Class Pledges.

Creating pledges helps them understand why positive behaviour matters:

Rights and Safety: Children learn that everyone in our school has a right to feel safe, listened to, and included.

Shared Ownership: When children choose their own classroom values, they feel a sense of pride and are far more likely to stick to them.

Empathy: Discussions around scenarios encourage children to think about how their actions impact their friends.

Through role-play, story prompts, and circle-time chats, the children identified what a happy classroom looks and feels like. They then agreed on key pledges for the year.

Computing

In computing this week, the children have been learning how to keep themselves safe when using devices. The children have been developing practical strategies for managing their feelings -- good, bad and everything in between. They have been learning how to recognise the different kinds of feelings they can have when using technology and knowing what to do when they don't have a good feeling when using technology.

A Few Reminders for the Term Ahead

Our PE days are Tuesdays and Thursday

Reading Books: Every child has been given a reading book and a reading folder. Please ensure that your child brings their reading book to school on their reading day. We encourage reading for 10–15 minutes each evening at home.

Water Bottles: Please send your child with a reusable, named water bottle each day.

Thank you to all our parents and carers for your support in making this transition smooth and joyful. We have an incredible term planned, and we can't wait to share more updates as our journey continues!

Year 1: What We Are Learning!

Year 1: What We Are Learning 

What a fantastic first full week in Year 1. This week in maths, the children have been learning all about sorting objects. They have been exploring how objects can be sorted by colour, shape, size and other features, while explaining their reasoning and noticing similarities and differences. 

We even took our learning outside and practised sorting natural materials we found in our environment. The children did a wonderful job working together, discussing their ideas and deciding how best to group the objects. 

We are so proud of how enthusiastically the children have approached their first week of Year 1 maths! Well done, everyone!

This week our literacy focus book has been: Beegu, by Alexis Deacon

We have had an exciting start to our Literacy lessons in Year 1!

The children arrived at school to discover that a spaceship had crash-landed in our school! We became detectives and looked for clues to find out what had happened.

We soon discovered that the spaceship belonged to ‘Beegu’, a little alien from our story.

      The children used their imaginations to talk about Beegu and came up with lots of fantastic adjectives to describe her such as small, yellow, cute, lonely and friendly.

 We then used our adjectives to write sentences describing Beegu. The children have been fantastic storytellers and writers! 

In PSHE, we have been learning about how to make our classroom a happy, safe and positive place. We talked about why classroom rules are important and how they help us to learn and play together. We have also been practising active listening, learning to look at the person speaking, listen carefully and take turns. Finally, we explored different emotions, such as happy, sad, angry, worried and excited. We learnt how to recognise our own feelings and understand how others might be feeling too.

Well done Year 1 for an amazing week - keep up all your brilliant work! 

Year 1: What We Are Learning!

Year 1: What We Are Learning 

This week in Maths, we have been learning how to compare numbers that have the same number of tens. We have been looking carefully at the ones digits to decide which number is greater than, less than, or equal to another. The children have been using place value knowledge, practical resources, and mathematical symbols (<, >, =) to explain and justify their thinking. 

This week in Literacy, pupils wrote their own version of The Snail and the Whale. Using the story as an inspiration they created imaginative new adventures thinking carefully about their characters and settings. The children worked hard to use descriptive language, capital letters and full stops to make their writing engaging and clear. We were all impressed with their creativity and wonderful ideas they brought to life!

This week in Geography, pupils became weather presenters! Working collaboratively in small groups, they explored the different types of weather experienced across the UK before creating and presenting their own weather forecast report. It was wonderful to see their teamwork, creativity and enthusiasm shine through!

Well done Year 1 for an amazing week - keep up all your brilliant work! 

Year 1: What We Are Learning!

 

Year 1: What We Are Learning 

In RE this week, Year 1 have been learning about how Muslims pray and the importance of a prayer. They have explored the special items Muslims use, including prayer mats and subhah (prayer) beads, and learned about the importance of Makkah. The children also discovered that Muslims pray five times a day and learned about wudu, the washing ritual carried out before prayer. They have enjoyed developing their understanding of another faith and showing respect for different beliefs and traditions. 

This week, Year 1 had a wonderful hands-on learning experience as we explored how plants grow by planting our own tomato plants. The children learned that tomatoes grow from seeds and discovered what plants need to survive, including sunlight, water, air, and healthy soil.Each child carefully planted a tomato seedling and discussed how to look after it so that it can grow strong and healthy. We also talked about where our food comes from and the important role that farmers and gardeners play in growing the food we eat. The children thoroughly enjoyed getting their hands dirty and were excited to become young gardeners! We look forward to watching our tomato plants grow over the coming weeks and observing the changes together.

This week, Year 1 had to design a fruit product, choosing between a fruit salad, kebab, or cocktail. The children wrote a 3 step preparation plan and then brought their ideas to life by creating annotated  drawings explaining their ingredient choices. Through this delicious project, they are mastering the ability to intentionally design, plan, and communicate a product from concept to creation! 

Well done Year 1 for an amazing week - keep up all your brilliant work! 

Year 2 - Learning blog

 

This term, the children have been learning all about statistics. They have practised creating tally charts and block diagrams, and they’ve been challenged to work out the difference between results — a great way to strengthen their addition and subtraction skills.

This week’s lesson was especially exciting: the children used Smarties to collect real data. They investigated how many of each colour were in their tubes and compared the ratio of colours. It quickly became clear that Smarties are not packaged with equal amounts of each colour, which led to lots of discussion and curiosity. Using real objects made the learning hands‑on, meaningful, and fun.

Despite the warm sunshine making the classroom feel a little hot and uncomfortable, Year 2 have shown fantastic effort and enthusiasm. We are very proud of how hard they are working.

Rowan Class:

Mulberry Class:

Pine Class:

Here is a fun Mini Movie to watch at home: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF_dBk8EPDk

 

Year 1: What We Are Learning!

 

Year 1: What We Are Learning 

This week in Literacy, our young writers plunged into the wonderful world of storytelling as we explored the rescue of the whale in the Story of The snail and the whale, focusing on sequencing events, adverbs of time, and becoming adjective detectives.

The children "uplevelled" everyday adjectives like big, small, sad, and happy into much more exciting vocabulary!

Once the children knew the sequence of the story, it was time to write sentences about it. The children did a fantastic job of orally rehearsing their sentences out loud before using their time adverbs to bring their writing to life!

This week in Maths, the children have been learning about unitising, which is an important skill for recognising the value of coins and preparing to work with money.

To support this learning, the children used pre-money counters in our class shop. They practised grouping and counting the counters to "buy" different items, helping them understand that one object can represent a value, just like a coin.

Next week, we will begin learning about money, where the children will apply their understanding of unitising to recognise coins, count amounts, and make simple purchases. You can support your child at home by looking at different coins together and talking about their values.

This week in Science, our Year 1 children explored where our food comes from and the journey it takes from farm to fork. They learned that food can come from plants or animals and discovered the different stages involved in getting food from farms to our plates. 

Well done Year 1 for an amazing week - keep up all your brilliant work! 

Year 1: What We Are Learning!

 

Year 1: What We Are Learning 

Our Year 1 athletes brought endless energy and bright smiles to this year’s Sports Day! The field was buzzing with excitement as our little superstars tackled a fantastic lineup of events. We saw incredible focus during the walking with a quoit on the head challenge, plenty of laughs and steady hands in the classic egg and spoon race, and fantastic teamwork during the fast-paced relay races. The children also loved showing off their growing coordination, clearing the hurdles with giant leaps, launching foam javelins down the field, and aiming high to throw balls right into the net. It was a wonderful afternoon filled with cheers, determination, and, above only else, a brilliant display of sportsmanship from our youngest competitors! 

This week in PSHE, Year 1 have been learning about how to keep themselves healthy and why it is important to look after their bodies.

We discussed the importance of getting a good night's sleep, taking part in regular exercise, and eating a balanced diet, including 5 portions of fruit and vegetables each day. The children talked about how these healthy habits help us to grow, stay strong, and feel our best.

As part of our lesson, the children completed a sorting activity. They cut out different picture cards and sorted them into three categories: 'Things We Need to Keep Alive', 'Things We Need to Be Healthy', and 'Things We Can Have Occasionally'. This helped them to understand the difference between essential needs, healthy choices, and treats that should be enjoyed in moderation.

The children showed excellent understanding and enjoyed discussing ways they can make healthy choices every day.

This week in Geography, Year 1 explored different types of weather and discussed how weather can change from day to day. The children learned why it is important to wear suitable clothing for different weather conditions, such as coats for rainy weather, hats for sunny days, and warm clothes when it is cold. They enjoyed matching different items of clothing to various weather types and talked about how the right clothing helps us stay comfortable and safe. 

Well done Year 1 for an amazing week - keep up all your brilliant work! 

Year 1: What We Are Learning!

Year 1: What We Are Learning 

This week in Literacy, the children enthusiastically began exploring a new story about a very small but adventurous snail. They developed their comprehension skills by answering retrieval and inference questions, discussing where the snail lives, what she dreams of seeing, and how she feels as she gazes out at the vast sea. Using a "Role on the Wall" activity, the children explored the snail’s appearance and personality, describing her as not only tiny but also curious, brave, and adventurous. They then used these ideas to inspire their own descriptive writing, supported by phonics lessons focusing on the ‘ai’ sound in words such as snail and trail, and the ‘y’ suffix in words like silvery, tiny, and swirly. We were incredibly proud of all our writers, who challenged themselves to write simple descriptive sentences, listen carefully for sounds in words, and share their wonderful vocabulary and ideas with confidence.

 

This week in RE, the children have been learning about Muslim beliefs and Allah. We discussed how Muslims believe in Allah and explored the idea that not everything that exists can be seen.

To help us understand this, we used a balloon as an example. The children could not see the air inside the balloon, but they could see the effect it had by making the balloon expand. We talked about how, in a similar way, Muslims believe that although Allah cannot be seen, He is always present.

After learning that Allah is important to Muslims, the children enjoyed sharing the people who are important to them and the reasons why. 

In our science lesson, the children learned about day and night and how the length of daylight changes during the summer. They created a Day and Night Paper Plate Craft by drawing a daytime scene on one half of a paper plate and a nighttime scene on the other. The children added a rotating arrow to show whether it was day or night. To deepen their understanding, the children took part in a practical demonstration. One child held a torch to represent the Sun, while another child acted as the Earth and slowly turned around. They observed that when their face was towards the Sun it was daytime  and when their back was towards the Sun it was nighttime. This helped the children understand that the Earth rotates and that the Sun shines on different parts of the world at different times creating day and night.

Well done Year 1 for an amazing week - keep up all your brilliant work! 

Year 1: What We Are Learning

 

Year 1: What We Are Learning 

During Art this term, we have been  exploring exciting ways to develop and enhance their watercolour paintings by combining them with a variety of other materials, including chalk, oil pastels and pencil crayons. They have been experimenting with different watercolour techniques, learning how colours can blend, layer and create beautiful effects. The children showed fantastic creativity and enthusiasm throughout the project, and they are incredibly proud of the amazing artwork they have produced. Their finished pieces are full of colour, texture and imagination! 

Year 1 ALSO… 

This week in RE we have been bringing all our learning together from the last five weeks. We shared a wonderful story about a curious boy who peeks through a keyhole to discover what is hidden inside both a church and a mosque. We talked about the special features, symbols and objects he might spy inside these buildings.

 The children then drew their very own views of what they would see if they peeked into a church or a mosque. They did a fantastic job remembering the things we have explored over the last five weeks. 

This week in Science, Year 1 pupils explored the trees in our school. The children went on a walk around the school field, where they observed and identified different types of trees. They practised using their observation skills carefully and learnt that trees can be recognised by features such as their leaves, bark and shape. 

Well done Year 1 for an amazing week - keep up all your brilliant work! 

Year 1: What We Are Learning

 

Year 1: What We Are Learning 

In year one this week, we have been learning about germs and why handwashing is our best defence against getting sick. 

To see germs in action, we conducted a ‘Pepper and Soap’ experiment. We used black pepper to represent germs floating on water. The children were amazed to see that when they touched the water with their fingers, the “germs” stuck to them! However, once we added soap to our fingers, the pepper instantly moved away from our fingers to the edge of the bowl!

In KS1 each week, our pupils have been taking part in the University of Broadford Sports, which is designed to develop and strengthen new skills. Every Thursday from 2:00 pm to 2:45 pm, classes will rotate through a variety of exciting physical activities. From the high-energy Interactive Squash and Athletics to the mindful movements of Yoga and Dance, there is something for everyone. Pupils develop skills such as mastering skipping and and participate in Fun Fitness challenges.Each session is underpinned by our 4Rs of Resilience, Reflectiveness, Resourcefulness, or Reciprocity, helping pupils grow both physically and mentally.

In science this week, Year 1 learned about deciduous trees. The children explored what makes a tree deciduous and talked about how these trees lose their leaves in autumn. They learned that as the weather becomes colder and there is less sunlight, trees stop making as much food. The leaves change colour, dry out and eventually fall off helping the tree to conserve energy through the winter months. The children enjoyed sharing their ideas, describing what they noticed about different trees and explaining how seasonal changes affect the natural world around them. 

Well done Year 1 for an amazing week - keep up all your brilliant work! 

Year 1: What We Are Learning

 

Year 1: What We Are Learning 

In Art this week, we have been diving into the fluid and

experimental world of watercolour. The children have been

exploring how paint behaves when it meets water,

discovering that art can sometimes be a series of

"happy accidents".The children experimented with

several professional techniques:

Wet on Dry: Painting onto dry paper

for sharp, controlled marks.Wet on Wet: Dropping paint onto damp paper

to watch the colours bleed and bloom.

We have looked at the work of professional artists

Paul Klee and Emma Burleigh. By discussing

their styles, the children learned how artists use watercolour to

express feelings and tell stories, which they then applied

to their own explorations.

This week in maths we have been focusing on halves and quarters through engaging and practical activities! We started with some paper folding and cutting to master the art of making two equal halves. Next we used playdough to introduce quarters to the children, as they found different ways to cut the playdough shapes into 4 equal parts. This allowed the children to investigate various methods of partitioning. Next we will move onto finding a half and a quarter of a quantity! 

In History this week, we learned about why the World Wide Web is important and how it helps us find information quickly. We tried different ways to find answers like using books, iPads and asking an adult or a friend. We talked about what was easy or tricky and discovered that iPads can be the quickest way to find information while books and asking others can also be helpful but be more challenging and time consuming.

Well done Year 1 for an amazing week - keep up all your brilliant work!