The Carey Federation

Class 2 (Y1&Y2)

Spring term 2025

 

Welcome back Class 2 and Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a magical Christmas holiday. We have another exciting term of learning ahead of us including a whole Federation trip to see Mary Poppins in Plymouth!

 

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.

 

Throughout the term, in Maths, we will look at: place value, the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) and position and direction. There will be some variation in coverage for each year group. Please support your children by regularly practising their addition and subtraction fluency to and within 10 and if they feel confident with this practise to and within 20.

 

Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or duty. It should be offered as a precious gift” – Kate DiCamillo.

The pupils will have daily opportunities to read through Read Write Inc and have access to our ‘Reading Garden’ where the children can explore a wide variety of genres. For children who are no longer on the Read Write Inc programme, the children will have daily opportunities to read and develop their comprehension skills; we use VIPERS (Vocabulary, Inference, Predict, Explain, Retrieve and Summarise). It is so exciting that they will also now have access to Reading Buddies to support independent reading at home.

Throughout the week we also enjoy listening to a variety of books as a class which we can then discuss altogether. 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. Please can records and books be bought into school every day.

 

In English, we will begin by looking at the story of ‘Tell me a dragon’ to develop our own dragon descriptions. Throughout the term ‘George and the Dragon’ followed by ‘Lost and found’ and ‘Could a penguin ride a bike?’ will also be used to inspire a variety of writing outcomes such as story writing, character descriptions and explanations. Within each teaching sequence we aim to develop our writing skills and apply the various grammar, punctuation, spelling and handwriting content taught.

 

‘Everyday Materials’ and ‘Living things and their habitats’, make up our topics in Science this term with opportunities to work scientifically within the content taught. The class will start by exploring materials and the properties, and learn more about the recycling process and how new materials are developed.

 

We will be taking a trip to the medieval times in our History topic learning about Launceston Castle. We will be exploring, why the castle was an important historical place and the links the castle has with the English monarchy. Inspired by our History topic, in DT we will be designing, building and evaluating our own Motte and Bailey castles. We are looking forward to seeing the children show off their creativity in their designs.

 

In Geography, we will be learning about Cold Places, where the children will learn about the differences between the Arctic and Antarctica. Our Art will focus on the work of Anne Atkinson and will also take inspiration from our Geography topic to create a landscape paintings. The children will explore mixing colours learning how to create cool and warm colours.

 

For Computing, the children will be exploring programming using Beebots with Mrs Matthews on a Thursday afternoon.

 

In Music, each unit adapts an integrated approach where games, elements of music (pulse, rhythm, pitch etc.), singing and playing instruments are all linked.

Madam Clark will teach the children French on a Tuesday afternoon where links are made to class topics and texts as well as basic French words and phrases.

 

In our Religion World Views, we continue to follow units within the Devon Agreed Syllabus. The units: Who is a Muslim and how do they live? And What is the good news Christians believe Jesus brings’ will be taught and explored. Within RSE (relationships and sex education) we follow Scarf materials. We will be discussing ‘Keeping Safe, before moving onto ‘Rights and Respect’.

 

PE is planned for a Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. However, it is always useful if the children have their PE Kit in school for the whole week.

 

Homework:

Homework will be posted on Class Dojo on Tuesdays. This will include:

  • Maths challenges for both year 1 and 2, this will usually be linked to the work we have covered in our maths lessons that week.
  • Learning spellings. These will be written into spelling journals each week based on the common exception words. The spelling journals are for practising spelling at home, however it is essential that they are bought back into school every Tuesday for new spellings. 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 stick a copy of the assessment in their spelling journals; the highlighted words being the words the children spelled correctly.
  • 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 five dojo points.

Children receive ‘John Fire superstars’ as our rewards points. Rewards may link to our Carey Qualities, it may be for fantastic work or using super language. There are endless possibilities.

Fraser Bear is ready for more exciting adventures, please do not worry if you’ve not had a weekend with Fraser yet. It has been wonderful to see Fraser’s diary entries and all the fun he has had so far. Fraser will go home on Fridays and the diary and photos will be shared the following week. Show and Tell bags will be sent home on Thursdays, please only bring in one item to share.

 

The children’s well-being is of paramount importance 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 R Preece (Class Teacher) and Miss T Farrow (Teaching Assistant).

Class 2 – Timetable

Class 2 Long Term Planning