Welcome to Gorman Class

Our class is named after American poet Amanda Gorman. From an early age, Amanda loved to read. Growing up with an auditory processing disorder and a speech impediment, Amanda found school difficult and had to work hard.  After hearing her teacher read aloud to the class, she knew that she wanted to become a poet, and that nothing would stand in her way. Amanda became America’s first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate at the age of 19 and even performed her inspiring poem ‘The Hill We Climb’ at the Presidential Inauguration in January 2021. 

Meet the team

Class teacher – Miss Holliss 

Class teaching assistant – Mrs Hoffman     

1-1 teaching assistant – Miss Jones

1-1 teaching assistant – Mrs Miles

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.

Key information

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 every night and to read the Phonics Read Write Inc books 3 times before they change them to consolidate their knowledge of the sounds and to 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 when ready, will move on to 'banded books'.

Your continued support at home with reading and Numbots practise will help your child progress and further develop their confidence in reading and number knowledge. If you have misplaced your child's Numbots password, please see Miss Holliss for a new copy.

PE and outside learning

On PE days, if your child has their ears pierced, please could they be removed. If this is not possible, please provide tape so they can be covered to prevent injury. 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 session is on Wednesdays. 

With the changing weather, children can wear jogging bottoms on top of their shorts so that they do not get cold.

 We will also be taking the children to the woods once a week to enjoy some outside learning. Our outside learning session will be on Thursdays.

Please can children bring in a coat (on chilly days) and a pair of wellies for this session to prevent their school shoes getting dirty. 

 

Additional Information 

Children are able to access and drink water throughout the day. It is important that children bring a refillable water bottle daily. Please can children come to school in a clearly labelled jumper or cardigan. If children could also bring in a coat as we often enjoy the outside, whatever the weather.

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.

Autumn 1

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 it 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:

          

Video links you may find helpful when practising phonics at home with your child:

How Read Write Inc. Phonics works - a parent/carer’s guide

How to help your child to learn the Read Write Inc. Phonics sounds

Read Write Inc. sound blending tutorial using phonics flashcards

 

Those who have completed the RWI scheme and have moved to the literacy group will be using high-quality texts to support both their reading and writing. In this group we focus on building confidence and reading fluency. Children are also taught the skills needed to become confident writers.

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

Maths

Place Value

This term will be working on numbers within 100. We will be identifying, representing and estimating numbers, reading and writing numbers to 100, comparing and ordering using greater than, less than and equals and recognising each place value in a 2-digit number.

Topic

Beyond the School Gate

This term we will be learning about where we live and our local environment.

In geography, we will begin with a focus on Bourton on the Water.  We will create maps of Bourton, describe Bourton in terms of its location in the UK as well as its physical and human features. We will then locate Bourton and the UK on maps and learn the names of the countries and cities of the UK and locate them on a world map.

In history, we will be learning all about 'Bourton Betty', an Iron Age girl found on the school site during an archeological dig.

In ICT, we will be learning how to type on a Word document, how to copy and paste an image and how to save and print our work.

In art, we will be learning about different types of line. During these lessons, we will be looking at artwork by Bridget Riley and how she uses line to create her art. We will use what we have learnt to sketch one of the bridges in Bourton. We will then look at some examples of aboriginal art and how they use dots to create their artwork. We will then create our own dot masterpieces on top of an image of Bourton. 

Science

Throughout the year we will be learning about the changes of the seasons and the weather associated with each season. 

RE

We will be having weekly RE sessions.

This term our big question is: 'Who do Christians say made the World?'

Important dates: