Good afternoon everyone,

I would like to begin this week’s post by simply saying how incredibly proud we are of every single Year 2 child over this past fortnight. These children have never sat exams before, yet they completed their SATS tests carefully, positively and conscientiously. A huge congratulations to all of you - you should be incredibly proud of yourselves, just as we are! We have finally finished our SATS work and are ready to settle down back into our normal classroom routines. Thank you parents for your support, thoughtfulness and understanding as we have completed our work. We are a team and couldn’t do it without you!

This week we celebrated the Ascension of our Lord by going to a special Mass on Thursday. We heard how Jesus was taken up back to heaven to be with his Father and how we are now all teachers whose job it is to not just tell people about Jesus but also show them through our actions. We must “love one another as [Jesus] has loved [us]” by showing others care, kindness and respect. As Father said, this isn’t always easy but as long as we always try to treat people well then we know we are making a difference in our world.

This week we continued our ‘special work’ in groups in the Library. Because of this, we have had a big focus on revision, handwriting and our arithmetic skills in lieu of our normal week.

English - This week we have revised our skills in using commas effectively, selecting adverbs to improve our descriptive sentences, used apostrophes to show possession and have planned our own return narratives based upon Grandad’s Island.

Maths - In Maths we have had done more work on finding quarters, began to look at three quarters, learned how to read scales in increments of 2s, 5s and 10s and have learned how to interpret scales with missing numbers. We have also looked at graphs and interpreted the data represented.

Science - We observed and recorded the growth of our seed and bulbs that we planted earlier this half term. We also learned about the different ways plants can spread their seeds.

Computing - We created our own stop motion animations using two different animations running at the same time. This was very tricky to design and program but we worked incredibly hard on it.

PE - In our first PE lesson, we practised striking a ball with a racket and began to develop rounders-based games. In our second lesson, we focused on our fundamental movement skills of hopping, kicking a ball and underarm throwing.

Art - We began to create our own collage animal and also learned about a new artist, Bridget Riley.

Please continue to practise the Year 1 and 2 Common Exception Words - both reading and spelling!

Please practice learning the 2, 3, 5 and 10 times tables as later this half term we will be having times table tests on these.

Other Tasks

Times Tables - Please practise the 4 times table for a test on Friday.

Handwriting/spelling - Please practise the ed, ing, er and est suffixes where the last letter of the root word is doubled using your best handwriting.

WE HAVE NOTICED THAT SEVERAL CHILDREN SEEM TO HAVE STOPPED READING AT HOME. PLEASE CONTINUE READING AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. THE BRAIN IS A MUSCLE AND, JUST LIKE OTHER MUSCLES, IT NEEDS TO BE WORKED REGULARLY TO MAKE SURE IT STAYS AT ITS STRONGEST. THANK YOU!