Welcome to the Owl Class web page for 2022-2023! 

A very warm welcome to Owl class’s home page! 

We had a tremendous start to the academic year across Terms 1 and 2, as our driver subject ‘Childhood’ inspired our wider learning. Term 2 was a particularly special one as we rehearsed and performed our annual Nativity. This year’s, ‘A Fireside Nativity’, was truly a magical one. Across Terms 3 and 4 our driver subject ‘Bright Lights Big City’ was a rather creative one, making our own London taxis in Design Technology – work that is now proudly on display in the school hall. As Term 4 came to and end, we are looking forward to continuing with this momentum as we move into the final two terms of the academic year.

You can find all relevant information regarding our latest term below.

Our transition day

Our learning

As a school, we are following the new Cornerstones Curriculum. Each ‘long’ term (so 3 times a year) the topics change. There is always one main topic and several companion units.

In Terms 5 and 6 the main topic is a History unit called ‘School Days’. In this project we will be learning about the history of our own school, finding out what our school was like in the past. We will then travel back in time to the Victorian era, to find out what school was like back then – ready to make comparisons with school life today and school life for children in the Victorian times. We are also looking forward to a Victorian themed day in school. More exciting news to follow…

The companion units for this project are ‘Street View’ (Art and Design), ‘Animal Parts’ (Science) and ‘Chop, Slice and Mash’ (Design Technology). The latter will teach us about sources of food and the preparatory skills of peeling, tearing, slicing, chopping, mashing and grating. We will then use these skills to design our very own supermarket sandwich.

English

Children in Year One continue to develop their phonetic knowledge using Read Write Inc (RWI). You may notice that the name has changed slightly from previous communications. This is because the Government require all schools to have fidelity to a scheme. In order to accommodate this all staff have had refresher training and we have made slight tweaks to our practice. We carefully group the children so that each child is being supported, yet challenged, ensuring excellent reading progress.

Children will have Read Write Inc lessons from Monday-Thursday. Our RWI lessons are now followed by a whole class English lesson, where we will continue to focus on reading skills as well as our writing skills. The theme will vary each week, our learning may be based on a story, inspired by a picture, an event or even a piece of music! On Friday alongside our whole class English lesson, we will also have a focus session on Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPaG).

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. 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 their phonics skills. 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, but this is supported with a range of practical activities to ensure that each child has a secure understanding of the concepts taught.

Term 4 coverage

English – Read Write Inc will continue in the same way that the children are used to from Bumblebee class. Our core text for our English learning this term is The First Book of Fairy Tales retold by Mary Hoffman. This collection of fairy tales will allow us to explore this genre of writing. We’re looking forward to listening to and enjoying some of those classic fairy tales, such as Jack and the Beanstalk. Whilst having the opportunity to explore those lesser known, such as The Selfish Giant. There will be opportunities to explore our key text using VIPERS (along with other supplementing texts), as well as inspiring our writing tasks.

In Maths this term we will begin our new units on multiplication and division, an introduction into this mathematical concept as we explore making groups and sharing. We will then be moving onto further units that will allow us to develop our skills and understanding of number, as we work with numbers up to 100. Our previous units on numbers to 20 and 50 will support us.

In Science we will be learning about animal parts. This project teaches children about animals, including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals and invertebrates. They identify and describe their common structures, diets, and how animals should be cared for.

History is our main unit for our project ‘School Days’ – this project allows us to explore the history of our own school, finding out what our school was like in the past. We will be using historical sources to support our learning, using floor plans and site maps of our school from the 1900s. After exploring our school’s history, we will then travel back in time to the Victorian era, to find out what school was like back then – ready to make comparisons with school life today and school life for children in the Victorian times.

In Computing we will be learning about creating media, with a focus on digital writing. We will focus on using a computer to create and change text. We will continue to develop our typing skills using a keyboard, using tools to change the look of our writing, and then consider the differences between using a computer and writing on paper to create text.

In PE this term we will be focusing on Dance. In our sessions we will compose movements, perform demonstrating movement, rhythm and balance, as well as appreciate the work of others recognising the changes in the body when dancing. Starting from this term we have also decided that in order to make PE lessons run more smoothly, children will come into school dressed in their PE kits on their PE day. In Owls our weekly PE session will take place every Thursday. So please make sure that your child comes into school every Thursday dressed in their PE kit.

In PSHE this term we will begin learning about ‘living in the wider world’, progressing from our previous learning on how we can look after the world around us. We will be exploring our key question of the term ‘what can we do with money?’. We will explore what money is and think about the choices people make to save and spend money.

In Art our new project ‘Street View’ teaches us about artwork depicting streets and buildings and focuses on the work of the American pop artist, James Rizzi. We will explore his style of art, taking inspiration from his work to create our own 3D murals.

Home Learning

This academic year saw the reintroduction of Home Learning for every child. 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 be due the following Monday. The tasks will range from physical activities, discussions, questions to explore – all activities we hope you will enjoy!

We are looking forward to continued support with home learning across Term 3.

How can you support your Year 1 child?

There are many ways that you can support your child to have a healthy, fun filled Year 1!

• 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 in school each day.  PE is normally Thursday, but we may have the opportunity to have an extra session some weeks.
• Provide a water bottle (hydrated brains are happy brains!)
• Please provide appropriate clothing for outdoor learning, we will not let the weather stop us!  We are also needing to keep the room well ventilated, so an extra layer, or a blue fleece may be appreciated as the weather gets colder.

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 another successful term in Owl Class!

Very best wishes,

The Owl Team