Turtle Class
Welcome to the Turtle Class web page for 2024-2025!
A very warm welcome to our home page!
Turtle class comprises of Year 1 and Year 2 children. We have had a fantastic start to our year as Turtles across Term 1. From new class projects packed full of new learning, Forest School sessions, OPAL play times and a visit from PC Ben - it's been amazing!
We cannot wait to see what Term 2 has in store for us as we approach the festive season.
This page will be updated throughout the year with information regarding our topics and learning for the term ahead. You can find all relevant information regarding out latest term below.
Class team
Class Teacher: Miss Sammy Hughes (Mon-Thurs)Class Teacher: Mrs Michelle Price (Fri)
Learning Support: Miss Lynne Davis and Miss Shelley Simpson
Useful web links
Turtle Class
Our learning
As a school, we follow the Cornerstones Curriculum. Each ‘long’ term (so 3 times a year) the topics change. There is always one main topic (driver project) and several companion units.
In Terms 1 and 2 the driver project is a History unit called ‘Movers and Shakers’. This project teaches children about historically significant people who have had a major impact on the world around us. Individuals such as Neil Armstrong and Christopher Columbus. We will learn to use timelines, stories and historical sources to find out about these individuals and use historical models to explore their significance.
The companion units for this project are ‘Let’s explore the world’ (Geography), ‘Exploring colour’ and ‘Still life’ (Art and Design), ‘Habitats’ and ‘Human survival’ (Science) and Remarkable recipes (Design Technology). The latter will allow us to explore sources of food and tools used for food preparation.
English
Children in Turtles will continue to develop their phonetic knowledge using Read Write Inc. (RWI). We carefully group the children according to their phonic knowledge. This ensures each child is being supported, yet challenges, aiming for excellent reading progress. More information regarding RWI can be found under our Phonics and Reading area here on the website.
Children will have RWI lessons from Monday-Thursday. These lessons are followed by a whole class English lesson, where we will continue to focus on reading skills as well as developing our writing skills. Our English lessons are driven by The Power of Reading – a whole school learning and teaching approach which engages teachers and children in the English curriculum through the use of high quality texts and proven teaching approaches. These texts will vary and change across the terms. On Fridays alongside our whole class English lessons, we will also have a focus sessions on Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPaG), as well as dedicated handwriting and dictation sessions.
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. These will be set on Thursdays. 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 the phonics they are learning. Book bag books are changed accordingly every Monday and Thursday. Therefore 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 at Bethersden, supported with a range of practical activities to ensure that each child has a secure understanding of the concepts taught. We will be teaching each year group in isolation across the year, teaching the Year 1s and Year 2s separately.
Before each Maths lesson we have dedicated time to practise and develop our maths fluency. We will be using the Mastering Number program to do so, which aims to secure firm foundations in the development of good number sense for all children from Reception through to Year 1 and Year 2. A key resource we will be using throughout these sessions include tens frames and counters and rekenreks.
Term 2 coverage
English – Our core text across this term is The Nutcracker. A text inspired by our upcoming class trip to Leeds Castle, that will truly get us into the festive spirit. We will be exploring, interpreting and responding in a variety of ways to support our understanding of this key text. We will be focusing on key characters from this well known story, writing our our character description of the Nutcracker himself and setting descriptions.
Maths – For our Year 1s we will continue to explore numbers to 10 as we have been across Term 1. We will use our understanding of number to solve addition and subtraction within 10. A key resource we will be using in this unit is the tens frame – linking nicely to our exploration in Mastering Number. Our Year 2s will also continue their exploration of numbers to 100, solving addition and subtraction of 2 digit numbers similarly to our Year 1s. They will continue to build upon skills learnt in Year 1, counting in 10s and 1s to support them.
Science – In our unit ‘Human Survival’ we will learn about the basic needs of humans for survival, including the importance of exercise, nutrition and good hygiene. We will also learn how human offspring grow and change over time into adulthood. This links nicely to our PSHE as we learn about the 6 life stages.
History is our main unit within our Cornerstones curriculum, with our driver project ‘Movers and Shakers’. This project teaches children about historically significant people who have had a major impact on the world around us. Individuals such as Neil Armstrong and Christopher Columbus are key individuals we have learnt about across Term 1 as significant explorers. Across Term 2 we will begin to learn about significant activists such as Rosa Parks and Emmeline Pankhurst. We will learn to use timelines, stories and historical sources to find out about these individuals and use historical models to explore their significance.
Art – In our Art unit ‘Still Life’ we will learn about the work of significant still life artists and still life techniques - linking nicely to our History learning as we continue to explore this key term 'significant'. We will explore a wide variety of still life artwork and learn about the use of colour and composition. This will also support us as we build up to creating out own still life arrangements and artwork.
DT – During our first unit ‘Remarkable recipes’ we will learn about sources of food and tools used for food preparation. We will discover why some foods are cooked and learn to read a simple recipe. These skills will help us build towards choosing a making a new school meal that fulfills specific design criteria.
PSHE – Across Term 2 we will be exploring the theme of similarities and differences. We will discuss the big question ‘what are strengths, abilities and stereotypes?'.
Computing – We will be creating media across Term 2, with a focus on digital photography. In this unit, we will learn to recognise that different devices can be used to capture photographs and will gain experience capturing, editing, and improving photos using iPads.
Home Learning
Here 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 typically be due the following Monday. Each week we dedicate time to sharing and celebrating completed home learning tasks, something we and the children always look forward to. The tasks will range from physical activities, discussions, questions to explore – all activities we hope you will enjoy!
Alongside tasks set on Google Classroom, there will also be a weekly spelling ‘assignment’ set on Spelling Shed. We would also encourage children to practice their Maths skills using NumBots. Links to both of these sites can be found here on our class page. All login details can also be found in their yellow reading records.
We are looking forward to continued support with home learning this new academic year.
How can you support your child?
There are many ways that you can support your child to have a healthy, fun filled year in school!
- 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. Our PE day is on Friday, so please ensure your child comes into school on Fridays wearing their PE kit.
- Provide a water bottle (hydrated brains are happy brains!) - Please make sure these are filled with water only and not squash/juice.
- Please provide appropriate clothing for outdoor learning, we will not let the weather stop us!
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 a successful year in Turtle Class – the first with our rebranded classes!
Very best wishes,
The Turtle Team
