Welcome to the Foundation Stage Unit & KS1 (Age 2- 7)
Spring Term 2026
‘It’s a Mystery!’
Happy New Year!
I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas holiday. We have an exciting Spring term of learning ahead of us. Miss Dannon, Miss Hutt, Miss May, Mrs Rose and I are looking forward to working with you all and supporting you to “Aim High” with your learning this term. We have a new member of staff for this term. Mrs Waters is a trainee teacher and we are delighted that for this term she will be with us on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. In all that we do, we aim to build Relationships, be Respectful, be Resilient, be Resourceful and be Reflective; these values are also reflected in all areas of our learning and we regularly refer back to them.
Curriculum:
We carefully plan the curriculum to suit the learning needs of all our pupils and make them excited to learn. Where possible, the curriculum areas are linked to provide context to their learning and allow them to delve deeper into the topic.
Our topic this term is ‘It’s a Mystery!”. The younger children will be learning about ‘Space’ in the first half of the term and then about ‘Light and Dark’ in the second half. Throughout the term, we will be exploring the books: Beegu, Whatever Next! and Aliens in Underpants. In maths, the younger children will continue to learn about the numbers up to 10, shapes and the position of different objects. Throughout all of the work that we do, we will be developing the children’s oracy skill and enhancing their vocabulary.
Throughout the term, in Maths, we will look at place value, addition and subtraction and measures. There will be some variation in coverage for each year group. Please support your children by regularly practising their number bonds to 5 for Reception, practising number bonds to 10 for year 1s, and for year 2s, practising counting in 2s, 5s and 10s.
“Reading is the gateway for children that makes all other learning possible” – Barack Obama. A sentiment we share across the Federation and one we want to nurture in our children. The pupils will have daily opportunities to read through Read Write Inc and have access to our class books where the children can explore a wide variety of genres. Please support your children’s learning by regularly engaging with stories and books at home; this can be listening to them read, reading to them or discussing what they have read.
In English, we will begin by exploring the texts: Man on the Moon, The Tiger who Came to Tea and Beegu. Through these texts, various writing outcomes will be generated such as sentence writing, short story writing, letter writing and character descriptions. Throughout the term, we will explore other texts to develop our writing skills and encourage pupils to apply the various grammar, punctuation, spelling and handwriting content taught.
‘Animals, including humans’ and ‘Seasons’ make up our topics in Science this term, with opportunities to work scientifically within the content taught. The class will start by learning about the different groups of animals and the characteristics of these animal groups.
In DT, we will be looking at wheels and axles and the children will have the opportunity to deign, make and evaluate their own moon buggies. Our Art work, will develop the children’s collage skills. Through this we will be learning about different artists and how they create collages based on the space theme.
For computing, the children will be learning all about technology, and the technology around us. We will also be developing early programming concepts. They will explore using individual commands, both with other learners and as part of a computer program. Then they will identify what each floor robot command does and use that knowledge to start predicting the outcome of programs.
Space will be our history topic this term. The children will explore who went to the moon, what the first animal to go to the moon was and why people went to the moon. They will also learn about the ‘Space Race’. In Geography we will be exploring the four countries of the UK and their characteristics. The children will also learn about the capital cities of the four countries and the seas that surround the UK.
In our Religion World Views, we will be learning about ‘Who is Jewish and how do they live?’ Through this unit the children will learn about Jewish worldviews and ways of life. They will learn about texts from the Torah and their importance for Jewish people today. They will find out about the mezuzah and the Shema prayer and what they mean for believers, as well as learning about Shabbat and Chanukah, discussing why Jewish people mark these times, what they learn from stories found in the Torah and why they are important today. Within RSE (relationships and sex education) we will be thinking about how we can keep ourselves safe and how to eat well.
In Music, each unit adapts an integrated approach where games, elements of music (pulse, rhythm, pitch etc.), singing and playing instruments are all linked.PE is planned for a Wednesday afternoons. However, it is always useful if the children have their PE Kit in school for the whole week. We will have Wild Tribe next half term and I will send out a reminder nearer the time.
Homework:
Homework will be posted on Class Dojo on Fridays. This will include:
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Maths challenges through DoodleMaths for both year 1 and 2, this will usually be linked to the work we have covered in our maths lessons that week. Reception will continue to use NumBots but will receive login details for DoodleMaths later in the term.
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Learning spellings. These will be written into spelling journals each week based on either the spellings we are learning in class or the common exception words and will be specific to your child according to assessment. The spelling journals are for practising spelling at home, however it is essential that they are bought back into school every Friday for new spellings. Some strategies that the children have been enjoying to help with their spellings are Rainbow Writing and Pyramid Writing. Although there will be no formal spelling check each week, we will look for evidence within their writing and during morning activities. I will, however, periodically carry out spelling checks to see how the children are progressing. We will continue to stick a copy of the assessment in their spelling journals; the highlighted words being the words the children spelled correctly.
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Reading five times a week with an initial from a parent in their reading records. Reading regularly provides children with the necessary phonics practise (Fred talk/ Sounding and blending). As they grow in confidence reading consistently helps the children develop their on-sight word reading, fluency, comprehension and stamina, which are all fundamental to supporting their progress across the curriculum. Each week the children complete their five reads, they will earn a class point. This will be counted on a Friday.
We have another new member of our class – Freddie Bear. Freddie Bear will go home with a child each week with a book and it would be fantastic if you could work with your child to record some of the adventures he may have whilst staying with you. Show and Tell boxes will go home on Thursdays and Freddie will go home on Fridays.
The children’s well-being is of paramount important to us and as a school we aim to create a happy, healthy environment for all. If you have any worries or questions, please do not hesitate in coming to see me. Please email the school office if you have any urgent concerns to ensure we receive it straight away.
Miss Gee, Mrs Rose. Miss Hutt, Miss Dannon and Miss May
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