Good afternoon everyone,

This week in our liturgies we have been talking about the impression that Jesus left on those he taught because he spoke to them honestly, confidently and showed them a new and better way to live.

We discussed how we too can listen to Jesus’ words from the gospel in church and in our liturgies and do our best to follow Jesus’ example so we too can grow in His love. Our challenge this week has been to show how Jesus has influenced through our actions towards others. This links in with our award theme this week of ‘Care’.

English - We have begun our new writing unit all about the story of The Night Gardener by the Fan Brothers. We made predictions about the characters and events, explored and researched the new vocabulary we encountered, thought about how the writer’s choices impact on us as a reader and also wrote our own poems to compare changes from the start to the end of the story using a range of suffixes.

Maths - In Maths we continue to work on money. This is always a tricky topic for some children, even those who may otherwise be incredibly competent mathematicians, and so we ask that you take any and every opportunity to practise recognising various coins and notes, making amounts out of them and using them to pay for things in the shops! This week we have made amounts of money in pence first, then in pounds before finally making given amounts in a combination of pounds and pence.

Science - In Science we learned about another of our local habitats, an urban habitat. We identified plants and animals we might find in our local environment and considered the adaptations they have which make them suitable to an urban area.

RE - In RE, we linked the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 to his sermon on the mount, particularly the beatitudes. We explored each one and described ways in which we can live these teachings of Jesus. We also looked at the Good News: what this means and how Jesus brought it to the people he met and ultimately, us.

History - We began to learn about Mary Seacole, her contributions and her challenges. We will continue this work next week.

PE - Our Wednesday PE session focused upon hitting a tennis ball to our partner using a racket. Our Friday PE focused on dribbling a ball, turning around and passing.

Computing - We used the copy and paste function to find images in a web brower app and paste these onto a word document.

Art - We used collage techniques to create woodland images.

Please continue to practise counting in 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s.

Please practise the year 1 and year 2 common exception words sent home before half term. The children need to be able to read and write (spelling correctly) each one of these by the end of year 2.

Spelling

No Spelling this week as we are on a times table week.

Times Table Tests

This week’s times table focus is on the ten times table. As always, please learn each fact both ways. For example, 4 x 10 = 40 also lets us know that 10 x 4 = 40.

Maths

Making money by drawing coins worksheet.

Some children have been given a coin detective worksheet to grow their confidence.

Reading

Mary Seacole reading comprehension.

Golden Award -

Writing Award -

Maths Award -

Year 2 PE lessons will take place on Wednesday and Friday. Please come to school in PE kit on these days.

Water bottles - all the children were given a new school bottle. This will come home each night to be cleaned and re-filled. Please only use the school bottles and ensure your child brings theirs each day. Lost water bottles can be replaced at the school office, but I am afraid you will have to pay for those. Year 2 have green tops.

I will not be in class on a Thursday afternoon, as it is my release time. This will be covered by Mrs Bowdell and Miss Andrew and is also when the children will have Music with Mrs Watson.

Party Invitations - I am afraid that Mrs Bowdell and I will not be able to give out party invitations in class. Please do not send your child into class with them for them to give out - it creates upset and fuss about something that takes place outside of school.Thank-you for your understanding with this matter.

Key Rings - please do not put key rings onto your child’s school bag, it creates fuss in class and then upset if they are lost.

School bags - please continue to use the red book bag that your child was given in Reception, we don’t not have the room to store large bags. Many thanks for your help with this matter.

At Our Lady's we like to support our parents/carers in Online Safety matters.

Keeping children and young people safe online is one of the biggest challenges facing society today and it is all of our responsibility to ensure that children are educated to make positive, informed choices when they are online.

This month’s online safety guide gives helpful advice about…

What Parents and Carers Need to Know about Persuasive Design Online - This free online safety guide provides insight on persuasive design – highlighting its potential effect on behaviour and providing some tips to minimise its impact.

We hope you find this guide informative and helpful in promoting the positive use of technology to make the online world a better and safer place for us all.

Safer Internet Day takes place on Tuesday next week - 6th February. This year's theme is: ‘Inspiring change? Making a difference, managing influence and navigating change online’. This is a very important part of our work to keep children safe online. Please spare a few minutes at home on this day to talk about what the children have learnt in school and how they keep safe online. Many thanks.