The Rissington School Vulcan Class
Vulcan
Useful information:
PE is on Monday and Friday
Outdoor Learning is on Friday
Spellings are tested on a Monday
Maths homework is set on Fridays to be completed by Mondays
Welcome back to the Summer Term. Hopefully everyone has had a good Easter break and is returning to school full of energy and enthusiasm.
The Curriculum: Our main focus this term will be answering the question” What was achieved during Queen Victoria’s reign?” We will explore the following questions;
Who was Queen Victoria and when did she reign?
What did Queen Victoria and Prince Albert achieve in their time?
What Technology was invented in Victorian times?
How did people travel in Victorian times?
What did Victorian homes look like?
What was it like to be a child in a Victorian school?
Alongside this in Science we will be finding out all about what grows and how to look after what grows. We will begin by getting straight out onto the school grounds and planting our very own vegetables and flowers. Throughout the summer term, we will learn how to look after our plants and will watch and observe how they grow.
In English, we will be linking our work to our history question. We will explore non-chronological reports and complete our own about Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. We will use both history and English lessons to learn and research facts to support our knowledge as well as understand the features and aspects of a report. We will read the texts ‘The Teacher Pleaser’ and ‘Until I met Dudley’ to create our own explanation texts on an invention of our choice.
Phonics will continue to follow the Success for All Phonics Programme of study – do remember that you can access our parent portal for more information and guidance as to how we teach phonics at The Rissington School. https://parents.fft.org.uk You can also access this resource through the phonics page on the school website: https://www.therissingtonschool.org.uk/Phonics/. Year 2 will continue with daily spelling with the jungle club lessons and weekly spelling tests will carry on every Monday. As always there will be daily reading and handwriting practise throughout the summer term. Year 1s will be required to undertake the Phonics Screening Test in June. In addition any Year 2 children who did not pass last year are required to take it again.
We start the summer term with a Design and Food Technology focus to make a ‘dips and dippers’ plate. Here the children will learn about how vegetables grow and explore the taste, texture and smell of a variety. Children will then investigate, design and create their own crudités plate with a yummy herb dip. Moving on into art where we will focus on garden sculptures, exploring the work of Andy Goldsworthy. The children will learn about technique and textures finishing off with a clay sculpture each.
In Science the main focus is plants and animals, including humans. Year 1 will also consolidate their leaning about the four seasons.
Summer term sees us in summer uniform, which should comprise of a school blue polo-t-shirt, grey shorts, trousers, summer dresses in blue check; black/dark coloured school shoes. As usual in the second half of the summer term, we start to think about moving on to our new classes and we will be doing lots of activities to prepare us for this.
PE days will continue to stay the same and we will be learning: Net and Ball skills, and preparing for Sports Day with athletics. It is important that your child comes to school in appropriate and correct PE kit. Summer PE kit should comprise: blue t-shirt, shorts/skort, long socks and suitable outdoor training shoes. Sun cream and a hat is also required as most of our PE will be outside. Forest school sessions will continue to run on Fridays, although PE kit should be worn, children must ensure they have a long sleeve top and trousers to cover their arms and legs during the session. These can be brought in a bag and children can change just before the lesson. This is for their safety to limit cuts and scratches from the natural resources.
Homework:
Expectations are:
READ EVERYDAY: We expect that a supporting adult spends time reading and listening to your child for at least half an hour each day and make a record of any reading in their reading journal. The reading journal will be monitored by an adult (teacher, reading volunteer, teaching assistant) during guided and individual reading sessions each week.
The children’s books will be closely monitored and re-reading a book will form a key part of reading for fluency and understanding as well as de-coding the words on the page. As a guide, phonically decodable or banded reading books are likely to be changed each week and the children will also be asked to choose their own sharing book to take home.
Spelling lists will be sent home each week. Children should learn their spellings at home using the “Look, Cover, Write and Check method” as well as oral recall. This will give them a chance to practise their handwriting too. The children should be ready for a spelling test on a Monday, there will also be an expectation that the learnt spellings will be used in their written work too. In addition, a copy of the common exception words has been sent home already – further copies can be found on the class DB Primary page should you need them.
Maths: This will be set on Mathletics each Friday to be completed over the weekend. Please let your class teacher know if you do not have access to the internet/computer.
CLASSROOM ORGANISATION: Bags, lunch boxes and pencil cases. Cloakrooms and classroom space is very limited, especially as coats get bigger in the Autumn and Winter months. It is important that we minimise the amount of equipment brought in from home. Our cloakroom area can become cluttered VERY quickly. Please ensure that you use the school book bags and any lunch boxes brought into school are of a reasonable size. All personal property must be clearly named. We do provide individual frequent use stationary and ideally pencil cases should be kept for use at home.
Further classroom information regarding all trips, events and visits will be sent separately. Make sure you continue to check your email, text or the school website for more important school dates for your diary.
Additional Information
Coughs and colds are always frequent during the winter months. The children will be expected to maintain good hygiene and to hand sanitise throughout the day, should your child be sensitive to the school soap and hand sanitiser you may want to provide their own. This must be for your child’s use only and should be clearly named.
Children are always able to access and drink water throughout the day, as such children should bring a named, and refillable water bottle each day. Water bottles must be taken home and cleaned thoroughly each evening.
If your child has an inhaler, please could you make sure that it is clearly named and in date. Their inhaler should be in school to be accessed at all times. If your child requires any other medication please could you make us AND the office staff aware.
Class DB primary pages are also kept up to date. Children have their own logins for this page and the easiest way to access our page is by clicking on the link at the bottom of the school website home page. https://rissington.greenhousecms.co.uk/
Formal parent evenings will be held in February to discuss your child’s progress this year. However, if you would like to discuss any aspect of your child’s education or have any concerns at any time throughout the term, please do not hesitate to make an appointment with your class teacher.
Phonics Screening Check & Optional National Key Stage 1 Assessments