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 the academic year across our first 3 terms and are now officially half way through our year.
We cannot wait to see what Term 4 has in store for us as we say goodbye to Winter and welcome Spring!
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
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 3 and 4 the driver project is a Geography unit called ‘Coastline’. This project will allow us to explore the physical and human features of coastal regions across the United Kingdom, including a detailed exploration of the coastal town of Whitby, in Yorkshire. We wonder if any Turtles have visited? In this project we will continue to build upon skills introduced in our initial Geography unit 'Let's explore the world'.
The companion units for this project are ‘Beach Hut’ (Design Technology), ‘Flower Head' (Art and Design) and ‘Uses of Materials’ and ‘Plant Survival’ (Science).
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 Power Maths 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 4 coverage
English – Our core text across this term is The Secret of Black Rock by Joe Todd-Stanton. This text has cross-curricular links with our current Geography topic 'Coastline', as the story follows Erin Pike, a girl who sneaks onto her mum's fishing boat which takes her on an underwater adventure to try and uncover the secret of Black Rock. Whilst developing our reading comprehension and understanding of this text, we will be writing information texts, diary entries and narratives inspired by the story.
Maths – For our Year 1s we will develop our knowledge and understanding of numbers to 50, following on from your previous units within 10 and 20. We will develop our understanding of place value as we explore tens and ones within 2 digit numbers. We will utilise a range of resources to support us, including tens frames and counters and Dienes equipment. For our Year 2s, this term they will continue to learn about multiplication and division we they progress from counting in 2s, 5s and 10s, to multiplying and dividing by 2, 5 and 10. They will explore the use of grouping and arrays to support their learning.
Science – In our unit ‘Plant Survival’ we will learn about the growth of plants from seeds and bulbs. We will also draw upon previous learning about seasonal changes as we explore changes within plants from Winter to Spring. We will observe the growth of plants firsthand, recording changes over time and identifying what plants need to grow and stay healthy.
Geography is our main unit within our Cornerstones curriculum across these next 2 terms, with our driver project ‘Coastline’. This project teaches children about the physical and human features of coastal regions across the United Kingdom, including a detailed exploration of the coastal town of Whitby, in Yorkshire.
Art – In our Art unit ‘Flower Head’ we will explore the visual elements of flowers, including shape, texture, colour, pattern and form. We will also explore various artistic methods, including drawing, printmaking and 3-D forms, using paper and clay. This unit links nicely with our Science unit 'Plant Survival'.
PSHE – This term we will be exploring the concept of 'caring and responsibility' as we consider and discuss special people in communities. We will learn about the roles within communities that are there to help us, as well as begin to identify what part we play within our community and how we can help and support others around us.
Computing – This term we will be creating media, though as opposed to photography from Term 2, we will now be creating digital music using Chrome Music Lab. We will make patterns and use those patterns to make music with both percussion instruments and digital tools. We will create different rhythms and tunes, using the movement of animals for inspiration.
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 contact the school office and the message will be passed on to the class team.
Very best wishes,
The Turtle Team
