Year 1

Welcome back to school after the Easter holidays! It has been so lovely seeing everyone return with big smiles and lots of enthusiasm for learning. We have also been very lucky to come back to such beautiful, sunny weather, which has made our first week even more enjoyable.

We started the term with an exciting STEM Week. The children explored lots of new ideas, including learning about AI and how it can sometimes make mistakes. We carried out a science project on nest building and thought carefully about how birds create safe homes. We were also very fortunate to have Zoolab visit us, where we met a range of fascinating creatures—from a tarantula to a snake! The children were incredibly brave and curious.

We were also visited by Dr. Saskia, a real-life scientist, who taught us all about the brain. The children asked some fantastic questions, and it was wonderful to see such curiosity. Thank you to all the families who supported the children with their science projects—sharing these with the class was a real highlight.

In English, we have started reading Meerkat Mail. We have been focusing on days of the week and using adjectives to create detailed setting descriptions. The children have also written letters in first person, as Sunny the meerkat, describing his adventures—there has been some fantastic writing!

In maths, we are learning to count in 2s, 5s, and 10s, which will eventually lead to grouping and sharing. Please continue to practise counting 2s, 5s and 10s at home to build on fluency. 

Our artist this half-term is Andy Goldsworthy, and we have been spending time outdoors collecting natural materials to create our own land art. It has been a wonderful start to the term—well done, Year 1!

   

   

                       

  

w/b 13.04.26	w/b 20.04.26
Keywords: STEM, curious, AI, Andy Goldsworthy, sculptures, expanded noun phrase, days of the week, 2s, 5s, 10s, families   Sounds: oa/ew, ire/ear, ure, tion/c/tious CEW: by, my	Keywords: seasonal changes, spring, weather, letters, adjectives, conjunctions, equal groups, natural materials   Sounds: ea/oi, a-e/i-e, o-e/u-e, aw/are CEW: they, here

 

Messages: 

• Reading folders need to be brought in on Monday and will be sent back home on Tuesday.

• The reading record should be signed by an adult five times. 

• Please make sure your child’s snacks are nut-free as we are a nut-free school. 

• The Learning Garden gates will close at 8:50am, where we will promptly be taking the register. If you are late, please go through the office to not disrupt the register or learning.

• PE days: Wednesday and Thursday

• Library days: 

  • Diamond: Monday

  • Sunstone: Tuesday

 

Dates: 

• 7th May: Open classroom (8.45 - 9.15)

• 8th May: Family picnic - David Attenborough’s 100th (3.30 - 6)

• 1st June: Class group photo shoot

• 4th June: Geography field work day

• 5th June: Y1 Kew Gardens trip

• 19th June: Living things workshop in classroom

• 25th June: Festival of sport (1.45 - 3)

• 3rd July: Vineyard walk

• 17th July: Last day - school closes at 1.30

 

Year 2

STEM Week kicked off the summer term with a bang (literally!), with a brilliant range of experiments and projects created by the children and their families. These ranged from space models to volcanic explosions. In class, the children explored air forces by creating a range of gliders, helicopters, and planes, all made from paper, which we then tested on the playground. It was wonderful to see their curiosity sparked as they asked a range of thoughtful and inquisitive questions.

In maths, we had a special space-themed lesson where we created rockets using different 2D and 3D shapes, spotted doubles with aliens, and practised preparing for blast-off by counting in 2s, 5s, and 10s. In addition to this, we have been exploring the topic of fractions. This has involved identifying and creating halves, thirds, and quarters, as well as drawing representations of these. We have also been exploring the language of denominators and numerators, using manipulatives to support understanding of this new vocabulary.

In English, we have continued to work with our new story, The Journey Home. We have explored writing a character description based on an endangered animal, focusing on using ambitious, emotive, expanded noun phrases. We have also introduced the suffixes -er and -est to convey comparative and superlative adjectives. 

In our week 1 geography lesson, we explored São Paulo’s location, looking at its position in relation to its country, continent, and hemisphere. This was followed by our Earth Day lesson, where we explored how the climate and seasons in São Paulo differ from our four seasons in the UK, building on last week’s learning.

In science, we discussed the growth of plants over time, using our observational skills. We shared our experiences of looking after our sunflower plants over the Easter holidays. It was wonderful to hear from the children how they had developed and to discuss the changes we had noticed.

In design and technology, we completed our sewing projects by making animal-themed finger puppets. We carefully used the running stitch to join our materials and finish our creations. Many thanks to the parent helpers who came in to thread needles (and re-thread them dozens of times over!).

   

   

                                       

w/c 13.04.26	w/b 20.04.26
Keywords: STEM, curious, AI, part, whole, equal parts, unequal parts, numerator, denominator, adjective, noun, suffix –er, suffix -est, Space, air force, São Paulo, Brazil, South America, and Southern hemisphere   Spellings: The suffixes -ment, -ness and -ful enjoyment sadness careful playful plainness argument merriment happiness	Keywords: numerator, denominator, half, third, quarter, expanded noun phrase, rainy seasons, seasons , tropical, rainfall, temperature, Kandinsky, feelings, shape, colour    Spellings: The suffixes –less and –ly badly hopeless penniless happily lovely joyless slowly quickly

 

Messages: 

• Reading folders need to be brought in on Monday and will be sent back home on Tuesday.

• The reading record should be signed by an adult five times. 

• Please make sure your child’s snacks are nut-free as we are a nut-free school. 

 

Dates: 

• 7th May: Open classroom (8.45 - 9.15)

• 8th May: Family picnic - David Attenborough’s 100th birthday (3.30 - 6)

• 1st June: Class group photo

• 4th June: Geography field work day

• 25th June: Festival of sport (1.45 - 3pm)

• 3rd July: Vineyard walk

• 17th July: Last day - school closes at 1.30