Year 1

What a busy and exciting first week back we have had in Year 1! The children have returned full of enthusiasm and have already enjoyed not one, but two fantastic trips!

Year 1’s Fieldwork Day was an exciting learning opportunity to explore our local environment. The children were tasked with identifying physical and human-made features around us. They carefully recorded their observations using tally charts and then returned to the classroom to collect and discuss their data. They showed excellent observation skills and worked collaboratively to compare and analyse their findings.

During our second trip to Kew Gardens the children explored measuring distances using trundle wheels. They practised counting in metres and enjoyed timing each other in seconds and minutes while investigating the gardens. The children loved exploring the beautiful surroundings and especially enjoyed smelling the colourful flowers and discovering the different plants.

In English, we have been enjoying our new book, The Smile Shop by Satoshi Kitamura. The children have loved exploring the story and using it as inspiration for their own narrative writing. We have been creating our own imaginative characters and thinking carefully about their personalities, adventures and special qualities. The children have shown fantastic creativity and enthusiasm as they develop their own stories. We are very excited to see their final outcomes!

In science, we have been exploring different materials and learning to describe their properties. The children investigated a range of everyday objects and used scientific vocabulary such as hard, soft, rough, smooth, waterproof and transparent to describe them. They enjoyed discussing the similarities and differences between materials and thinking about why certain materials are used for particular purposes. 

We are incredibly proud of all the hard work and enthusiasm the children have shown this week and we are looking forward to the busy final term of the year ahead!

  

                             

w/b 01.06.26	w/b 08.06.26
Keywords: narrative, character, adjectives, part - whole models, tens, ones, materials, metal, plastic, wood, rubber Sounds: ea/oi, a-e/o-e/u-e/aw/are CEW: friend, school	Keywords: 50-100, tens and ones, adjectives, personality, properties, hard, soft, shiny, flexible, rigid Sounds: ur/er/ow/ai/oa/ew/ire/ear CEW: push, pull

 

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: 

• 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

With the half term heatwave behind us, the year group have enjoyed a busy, fun-filled fortnight back in school. Once we had shared news about different activities from the half term break, our focus turned to last week’s geography field trip.

We were fortunate in being able to combine several curriculum areas in our field trip learning. Most notably, children were investigating the different uses of the buildings we observed in Richmond. This linked directly to our learning about Richmond and its human features, including buildings. The children kept count of the buildings we saw by making a tally chart, which was something that we have learnt about in their new maths topic, statistics. Finally, we were able to look ahead to this half term’s dramatic history learning when we visited the site of Richmond Palace, the favourite residence of the Tudor monarchs. Many thanks to our parent helpers for accompanying the classes - and braving the forecast of almost-guaranteed rain! 

In English, we have been reading The Bear and The Piano, a charming story about a bear who travels from his forest to the bright lights of New York City, becoming a famous performer on Broadway. Will the bear become spoilt by the trappings of fame and wealth, or will homesickness get the better of him? The children have been practising using apostrophes to show possession - such as the children’s desk. One misconception we saw this week is that lots of children mistakenly believe that plurals, lots of which end in s,  need apostrophes too. Something to continue practising at home!

The children enjoyed their first taste of their new D&T topic, which is windmills. This will combine well with our science topic, materials, so children will have a good understanding about which materials will and won’t be suitable for their own windmill construction. 

All classes enjoyed their first foray into practising for the Festival of Sport and will enjoy honing their skills across the different events over the coming weeks.

  

  

  

This week:	Next week:
Keywords: statistics, information, tally chart, data, narrative, possessive apostophes, Tudor, Royal, palace, windmill, structure, Brahman, Hinduism, vortex, vortices.    Spellings: Homophones and near homophones be  bee quite quiet bear bare won one	Keywords: arithmetic, four operations, -ness suffix, unkindness, darkness, business, Henry VIII, Hinduism, truthfulness, respect, gratitude, windmill, structure.    Spellings: Homophones and near homophones night knight blue blew hole w because so

 

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 per week, please. 

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

• On Thursday 2nd July, we will be going to Hampton Court for the day, travelling by coach. If you have DBS clearance and have had school training and are able to help on this trip, please let your class rep know.

 

Dates: 

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

• Thursday 2nd July: Y2 trip to Hampton Court Royal Historic Palace

• Friday 17th July: Last day of summer term (school closes at 1.30pm)