Turtle Class
Welcome to the Turtle Class web page for 2024-2025!
A very warm welcome to our home page!
Turtle class comprises of Year 1 and Year 2 children. We have had a fantastic start to the academic year across Terms 1 & 2, packed full of Christmas festivities and incredible Nativity performances in the latter!
We cannot wait to see what Term 3 has in store for us as we welcome the New Year.
This page will be updated throughout the year with information regarding our topics and learning for the term ahead. You can find all relevant information regarding out latest term below.
Class team
Class Teacher: Miss Sammy Hughes (Mon-Thurs)Class Teacher: Mrs Michelle Price (Fri)
Learning Support: Miss Lynne Davis and Miss Shelley Simpson
Useful web links
Turtle Class
Our learning
As a school, we follow the Cornerstones Curriculum. Each ‘long’ term (so 3 times a year) the topics change. There is always one main topic (driver project) and several companion units.
In Terms 3 and 4 the driver project is a Geography unit called ‘Coastline’. This project will allow us to explore the physical and human features of coastal regions across the United Kingdom, including a detailed exploration of the coastal town of Whitby, in Yorkshire. We wonder if any Turtles have visited? In this project we will continue to build upon skills introduced in our initial Geography unit 'Let's explore the world'.
The companion units for this project are ‘Beach Hut’ (Design Technology), ‘Flower Head' (Art and Design) and ‘Uses of Materials’ and ‘Plant Survival’ (Science).
English
Children in Turtles will continue to develop their phonetic knowledge using Read Write Inc. (RWI). We carefully group the children according to their phonic knowledge. This ensures each child is being supported, yet challenges, aiming for excellent reading progress. More information regarding RWI can be found under our Phonics and Reading area here on the website.
Children will have RWI lessons from Monday-Thursday. These lessons are followed by a whole class English lesson, where we will continue to focus on reading skills as well as developing our writing skills. Our English lessons are driven by The Power of Reading – a whole school learning and teaching approach which engages teachers and children in the English curriculum through the use of high quality texts and proven teaching approaches. These texts will vary and change across the terms. On Fridays alongside our whole class English lessons, we will also have a focus sessions on Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPaG), as well as dedicated handwriting and dictation sessions.
Reading
Children will have access to two books to read at home. One will be an eBook set by their RWI leader to match their phonic ability. These will be set on Thursdays. Each eBook will be accompanied by a quiz, which provide opportunities for children to apply their phonic knowledge, as well as developing their comprehension skills. Children will also have a RWI Book Bag Book, a physical book that they will take home that is matched to the phonics they are learning. Book bag books are changed accordingly every Monday and Thursday. Therefore each eBook and Book Bag Book will stay with each child for a few days and should be re-read to support fluency in reading.
For those children who have completed the RWI scheme, they will then move onto reading AR (Accelerated Reader) books. These books are equally matched to the child’s reading ability, as an initial quiz provides each child with a reading level. The children will then get to choose a reading book within their book band levels, providing each child with autonomy over their reading.
Maths
We use Power Maths as the main driver in our Maths learning at Bethersden, supported with a range of practical activities to ensure that each child has a secure understanding of the concepts taught. We will be teaching each year group in isolation across the year, teaching the Year 1s and Year 2s separately.
Before Power Maths we have dedicated time to practise and develop our maths fluency. We will be using the Mastering Number program to do so, which aims to secure firm foundations in the development of good number sense for all children from Reception through to Year 1 and Year 2. A key resource we will be using throughout these sessions include tens frames and counters and rekenreks.
Term 3 coverage
English – Our core text across this term is Traction Man is Here by Mini Grey. This story follows a boy who receives an action figure as a Christmas present, which links nicely to the festive period just passed. This inventive picture book shows Traction Man’s exciting adventures. We will be exploring, interpreting and responding in a variety of ways to support our understanding of this key text, including drama and role-play.
Maths – For our Year 1s we will develop our knowledge and understanding of numbers to 20, following on from your previous units within 10. We will use our understanding of number to solve addition and subtraction within 20. Before progressing onto numbers within 50. For our Year 2s, this term they will continue their exploration of money using skills learnt during their time in Year 1. They will be counting money in both pounds and pence, using notes and coins to do so.
Science – In our unit ‘Use of Materials’ we will learn about the uses of everyday materials and how materials' properties make them suitable or unsuitable for specific purposes. We will also begin to explore how materials can be changed.
Geography is our main unit within our Cornerstones curriculum across these next 2 terms, with our driver project ‘Coastline’. This project teaches children about the physical and human features of coastal regions across the United Kingdom, including a detailed exploration of the coastal town of Whitby, in Yorkshire.
Art – In our Art unit ‘Flower Head’ we will explore the visual elements of flowers, including shape, texture, colour, pattern and form. We will also explore various artistic methods, including drawing, printmaking and 3-D forms, using paper and clay. This unit links nicely with our Science unit 'Plant Survival'.
D.T – Our D.T unit 'Beach Huts' links well with the overall Geography driver 'Coastlines'. This project teaches children about making and strengthening structures, including different ways of joining materials such as wood. We will be investigating and making our own beach hut prototype. So any visits to coastal areas with beach huts would be really helpful!
PSHE – Across Term 3 we are having a big focus on cultural diversity across the school as a whole. To support our exploration and understanding of this, we will be using the key text 'Tusk Tusk' by David McKee to help us do so. We have a lot of exciting activities in store across this term as we explore and embrace cultures from across the world; including African drumming, our Cultural Film Festival and Bhangra Dancing workshops... just to name a few!
Computing – We will be exploring robot algorithms across Term 3, with a focus on instructions and the role they play in the digital world. To support us in this learning we will be using the BeeBots as our key resource.
Home Learning
Here at Bethersden our home learning tasks are set each week on Tuesday via Google Classroom. Each child has their own login details to access this (which includes an email address and password – these can be found in their yellow reading records). Once set every Tuesday, the tasks will typically be due the following Monday. Each week we dedicate time to sharing and celebrating completed home learning tasks, something we and the children always look forward to. The tasks will range from physical activities, discussions, questions to explore – all activities we hope you will enjoy!
Alongside tasks set on Google Classroom, there will also be a weekly spelling ‘assignment’ set on Spelling Shed. We would also encourage children to practice their Maths skills using NumBots. Links to both of these sites can be found here on our class page. All login details can also be found in their yellow reading records.
We are looking forward to continued support with home learning this new academic year.
How can you support your child?
There are many ways that you can support your child to have a healthy, fun filled year in school!
- Please make sure that they are on time, have the correct uniform and have had a healthy breakfast.
- Read! Listen to them read, read to them, let them see you enjoying reading – reading in any form will help foster a love of books – something that we are passionate about at Bethersden Primary.
- Please ensure that they have the correct PE kit. Our PE day is on Friday, so please ensure your child comes into school on Fridays wearing their PE kit.
- Provide a water bottle (hydrated brains are happy brains!) - Please make sure these are filled with water only and not squash/juice.
- Please provide appropriate clothing for outdoor learning, we will not let the weather stop us!
Contact us
We are always available after school if you need a quick catch up. If you need a longer or more private meeting, please book this in at the office and we will be happy to accommodate.
If you have a non-urgent message for the team you could email the families email on the address below. This is checked regularly and the message will be passed on to the class team.
families@bethersden.kent.sch.uk
We cannot wait for a successful year in Turtle Class – the first with our rebranded classes!
Very best wishes,
The Turtle Team
