Chestnut Class – Year 1/2
Welcome to Chestnut Class! We love playing and learning together, exploring and discovering as we go...
Our Long Term Plan…
https://www.stjuliansprimary.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Cycle-A-LTP-1.pdf
Our learning in Term 1.
This term in History we will be learning all about the Wellow railway which includes going on a welly walk around the village. In Art, we will be studying colour theory – mixing primary and secondary colours before looking at our modern artist in more detail (Wassily Kandinsky) who will inspire a final piece of artwork. In addition, our learning will also cover the world of modern technology in Computing. How to identify it, what it looks like and what it does for us. In Music we will be continuing to expand our knowledge on beats and rhythm by using percussion instruments, particularly focusing on the glockenspiel.
In Science we will be looking at animals (including humans) and how we can classify them into groups as well as looking at the human senses. ‘Being Me In My World’ is our Jigsaw theme for this term. This focuses on hopes and fears before moving on to learn about our actions and the consequences of those.
In Maths both year groups will focus on place value, addition and subtraction. We will be constantly focusing on fluency to support understanding, which will then be followed by reasoning and problem solving to consolidate learning. In RE we will be learning about exploring ‘What do Christians believe about God/creation.” We will also focus on harvest and shall celebrate in church with a whole Harvest Festival Service which we welcome you to attend.
In English, we will be ensuring that Year 1 start to create good sentences with emphasis on correctly using full stops and capital letters. In Year 2 the focus will be on ensuring these things are in place with our writing before building on this to elongate our sentences and use exciting noun phrases. This builds on the children’s knowledge and use of adjectives. Phonics will begin again in Year 1, along with reading groups; whereas Year 2 will start with Spelling and Whole Class Guided Reading using a range of texts.
Important dates:
- Wednesday 17th September – Mobile Library
- Monday 29th September – Bath Literature Festival trip
- Wednesday 1st October – Mobile Library
- Monday 6th October – Harvest Festival Service
- Tuesday 14th October – Egg Theatre trip
- Wednesday 15th October – Mobile Library
- Monday 20th October – Whole school individual photos
- Thursday 23rd October – Last day of term
Please note:
- PE lessons will be on Mondays and Wednesdays. Please send your child to school wearing their PE kit.
- Children need to have in school every day a spare pair of shoes or wellies as well as waterproof trousers for our adventure play and paddock areas in wetter weather.
- It is important that children always have a coat in school as we will be outside as much as possible in all weathers.
- Contact books/reading records are required in school every day.
Weekly Home Learning Tasks
It is really important that children spend some time at home each week consolidating their learning at school and it is helpful if they have a quiet space to do so. You can find a copy of our Home Learning Expectations on the policies section of our website. In our class the expectation is:
- Two reading books – linked to current phonics phase or book level and one to share together. Reading one or both of the books 5 times per week at home with a greater focus on the levelled phonics phase book.
Reading, Spellings, Phonics and Times Tables:
Year 1:
Children will bring home two reading books. One book will be fully decodable and chosen by an adult to increase fluency. This book will be sent home on Wednesdays and will need to be returned to school on Mondays. This book will be familiar as we will have read the book three times in school before going home. They should be reading the book fluently, with 90% of the words being read without the need to segment. As a result of this increase in fluency, speed and accuracy, comprehension improves as cognitive overload is reduced. The second book the children will bring home will be a ‘sharing book’. This will have an ‘s’ sticker on the front. This is a book chosen by your child to encourage a love of reading and can be changed at any time. This book will not be fully decodable, therefore this is a book you can read together. Please ensure you sign the purple home-school contact book/reading record each time you read with your child.
At the beginning of the term we will send home a list of the phonemes covered each week in our phonics sessions. We will also send home a list of words containing these phonemes. Children can then practise reading these words at home.
Year 2:
Your child will have two reading books that they use at school. One will be a levelled scheme reading book that will go home and be brought into school every day. The other will be a book that they keep at school to read for pleasure. Your child will be assessed on their book level by the class teacher and teaching assistants at regular intervals throughout the term. We will listen to your child read individually or within a small group every week.
Reading books need to be in school every day and this will be changed weekly if the book is finished. Please add the signature of parent to confirm your child has read the entire book at home, and do add any useful comments.
At school all children receive discrete spelling and grammar lessons every day. Each week focuses on a specific spelling pattern or rule.
You may have noticed Spellings are no longer part of our home learning expectations. However, we realise that many families like to complete additional work at home by practising the week’s spelling rule or pattern. Therefore, every week a list of spellings will be stuck in the Home Contact Book.
Year 2 children will be taught and assessed on their times tables alongside their Maths lessons so will not have a regularly scheduled times table test. By the end of this year, children in Year 2 are expected to know and recall at speed the multiplication facts in the 2, 5 and 10 times tables.
Login information for any online resources has been stuck into the inside cover of your child’s reading record.
What we have read so far….
Chestnut Class Teacher:
Mrs Moss
HLTA: Miss Lindsay
PPA Cover:
Covered by Miss Lindsay
Week A: Every Thursday & Week B: Every Thursday
YEAR 1 MORNINGS ONLY
Class Teacher:
Mrs Parker
HLTA: Miss Lindsay (Mon – Fri AM )
TA: Mrs Tiley (Mon-Wed) Mrs Ward (Thurs-Fri)
TA: Mrs Winchester (Mon- Fri AM only)
If you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to contact Miss Webb on Class Dojo. However to report absences, illness or update on medical appointments or results, please phone or email the school office.
Helpful links:
BBC games both aimed at improving Maths and English skills.
Small Town Superheroes
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zd63xyc/articles/zncgvk7
Karate Cats Maths
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zwdvwsg/articles/zdp4pg8
Times table practice x2, x5 and x10:
