Class teacher- Mrs Gainford

Class teaching assistants- Mrs Kelly and Miss Sykes

Welcome to Beethoven's class page. Here we will keep you updated on what is happening both in school and within our class. However, if you have any questions about anything, please feel free to catch up with us at the beginning or end of the school day. Mrs Browning will be teaching the class every Monday, but Mrs Gainford is available throughout the rest of the week.

Book changing and NumBots

Pupils will have the opportunity to change their books twice a week on a Monday and a Thursday. We encourage pupils to read each night and to read the Phonics Read Write Inc books 3 times before they change them to consolidate their knowledge of sounds and build fluency and expression. Once your child has finished the Read Write Inc scheme, they will be assessed on their reading fluency, expression and comprehension and will move on to 'banded books' when they are ready. Your continued support at home with reading and NumBots practise will help your child progress further and develop more confidence with reading and number knowledge. If you have misplaced your child's password, please see Mrs Gainford for a new copy.

PE 

On PE days, if your child has their ears pierced can they remove them if possible or bring tape to cover them for safety reasons. If children are taking their PE kits home to wash on Fridays please can you make sure they are back in school on Mondays. Our PE sessions are on Monday and Wednesday.

Additional Information 

Children are able to access and drink water throughout the day. It is important that children bring in a refillable water bottle daily.  With the weather getting colder, every child must have a jumper and coat in school so we can enjoy the outside, whatever the weather! Please can you make sure these are clearly labelled with your child's name so that they can be returned easily if they are misplaced.

If your child has an inhaler, please could you make sure that it is clearly named and in date.  Their inhaler needs to be in school so that it can be accessed at all times.  If your child requires any other medication please could you make us AND the office staff aware. For any medication, a medical form is required to be filled in. You can get this from the school office.

Spring Term 1

Mr Frith will be a student teacher in our class all the way until February half term. He will also be available at the beginning or end of the school day if you have any questions.

Topic

Our topic for Spring 1 is all about the children's choice. We listened to their ideas, hobbies and interests and have planned a unit based on their suggestions. Lots of children wanted to learn about animals and the sea, so we have created an 'Ocean Odyssey' Topic. We will start by looking at some Geography focused on the oceans and compass points. We will touch upon some History of the Titanic and what the causes and consequences were of this ocean disaster. We are going to learn about pulleys and how they support lifeboats and create some fantastic ocean inspired art.

English

Learning to read is a life-long skill and a key thing your child will learn at our school. Everything else depends upon this skill, and so, at Bourton, we put as much energy into ensuring that every single child not only learns to read but learns to love reading!

Phonics is the key to unlocking reading and writing, and that is why we have chosen to use the Read Write Inc (RWI) phonics and writing scheme at our school. Children have daily RWI lessons, which includes an English lesson (made up of reading and writing) and a Phonics session (made up of sounds, words and spelling). Children are assessed termly to identify their progress. Learning to read is a life-long skill and the most important thing your child will learn; we encourage you to embrace your child's journey with phonics, and have included Set 1, Set 2 and Set 3 sounds below:

          

Those who have completed the RWI scheme and have moved to the literacy groups will be using high quality texts to support both their reading and writing. 

As always, there will be regular reading and handwriting practise throughout the term.

Maths

Our Year 1 and 2 children will be split a little bit this term with regards to their Maths learning.

Year 1

In Year 1 we are going to start looking at place value to 50, addition and subtraction and move into doubling and halving.

Year 2

In Year 2 we will be looking at writing numbers to 100, statistics and recapping the 4 number operations.

Important dates:

Tuesday 6th January - Children return to school

Wednesday 7th January - Children will have their first PE lesson of the term

Friday 13th February - Break up at 3.15pm