Dear Parents,

 Welcome back to what I hope will be a happy and successful second term in Class 2. Let me begin by wishing you all a Happy New Year and thanking you very much for all your kind cards and gifts at Christmas.

 We firmly believe that children learn best when they are happy. With this in mind if you or they have any problems at all please let Mrs. Rookes or myself know so that we can hopefully deal with small problems before they have a chance to become big ones.

 We will of course be covering all of the subjects of the National Curriculum this term and adopting a cross-curricular approach whenever possible. Our topics in Religious Education are Special People, Meals and Right and Wrong Choices. In Education for Personal Relationships we will continue to use the Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning materials. This term our topics ‘Going for Goals’ and ‘Good to be Me’ focus on building self-esteem, setting and achieving personal goals and being aware of the feelings of others.

 In Literacy we will build on the reading and writing skills already learned, developing independent writing, extending use of grammar and continuing to work on handwriting skills. I am sending home a copy of the Key Vocabulary that the children should be able to read and spell by the end of Year 2. I would ask you to keep this copy to hand and to spend a few minutes each day reading and writing a few words to slowly build up a sight and spelling vocabulary.  The test of whether the children retain and understand these new words is whether they can use and adapt the knowledge when writing in class. The children will continue to bring home reading books daily. I know it is difficult and we all lead busy lives but it does make a real difference if the children have the opportunity to enjoy and share their books with their parents. Even when a child can apparently ‘read’ there is still a range of skills still to be developed.

 In Numeracy we will continue to consolidate previous work and will then cover 

1. Number - reading, writing and ordering numbers to 100 and then 1000, tens and units place value and addition and subtraction, simple fractions, addition and subtraction to 20 mentally, repeated addition and early multiplication and division. We will be concentrating on knowledge of number bonds to 20 ( i.e. the children should be able to add and subtract any two numbers up to twenty without having to use any apparatus including fingers!) and will continue to learn the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 times tables.
2. Shape, Space and Measures – recognising hexagons, pentagons, cubes, cuboids, cylinders and spheres and describing them in terms of vertices, sides/edges and faces; recognising right-angled corners in 2D and 3D shapes; understanding rotation of angle; turning through right angles ¼, ½ and whole turns; recognising different types of movement including  translation, rotation and reflection.

 In History our topic is the Great Fire of London. All of the children responded to our history topic last term very enthusiastically so we hope to harness this enthusiasm in our new topic. Our Geography topic ‘An Island Home’ will give us the opportunity to look more closely at island life in the Channel Islands as well as comparing and contrasting it with our own lives in Devon. This topic will be the main focus of our work in the afternoons.

 In Science we will be studying ‘Health and Growth’ looking at what our bodies need if we are to remain fit and healthy. In Art and Design we will be designing and making our own version of a map of an island, painting with watercolours, drawing from pictures taken with the digital camera and painting portraits of each other. In ICT we will continue to develop keyboard and control skills, finding information and controlling a floor turtle.

 Again a few practical requests! Please ensure that your children’s clothing is clearly marked and encourage your child to take full responsibility for their belongings. It is school policy not to bring toys to school. We have invested in a wide range of play equipment so the children are very well catered for during break times.

 Finally I must say a huge thank you to Kathleen Wilson who has worked tirelessly since October covering for Mrs Rookes. She has been great fun to work with and we will all miss her energy and enthusiasm. I am delighted to say that Mrs Rookes daughter and grandson are home from hospital, the baby is doing well and Caroline will be back with us on Monday 11 January.

 I hope we will all have a very good term. Please do not hesitate to contact either of us if you have any queries at all.

 Mrs. C. Doyle.                                                                               Mrs. C. Rookes.