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Preston
Primary School
Academy

Unit 2 Spring 1 Newsletter

Unit 2 (Years 1 & 2) Newsletter, Spring 1 2023

Home Learning and Supporting the Curriculum at home

We have attached a selection of Knowledge Organisers, for you to use to support your child’s learning. These set out clearly what we expect children to learn and remember in that subject. Please use these to reinforce and help embed your child’s learning.

Please support your child’s learning by reading with them at least three times a week. They will bring home a RWI book or a ZPD book, and a library book to share. We have also set a reading project on MyOn, with lots of books that will support your child’s learning over this half term.

We have history and science home learning projects this half term, some examples are below-please see Teams for further information. Please choose from the list, there is no expectation for you to complete all the activities. You can upload your child’s work to Teams, or bring it in to class to show.

History—a fact file on Sir Francis Drake, Queen Elizabeth I or King Henry VIII, or a map of the British Empire, or a painting of Armada ships, or a self-portrait in the style of Elizabeth I or Henry VIII.

Science—a fact file or biography of a key Scientist, or a fact file of a global habitat, or a drawing of a food chain from a global habitat.

Woodland camp & PE

Children are to come to school in their PE kit on PE days. Snowy and Little Owls PE day is Monday, Tawny Owls is Tuesday. 

Our woodland camp day is Monday. The children will have an opportunity to use the woodland camp as often as possible.

Additional apps to support learning

Children have access to many apps, including TT Rockstars, Sumdog, Spelling shed, Maths shed, MyOn, Letterjoin, and Oxford Owls.  Please encourage your children to practice on these apps during the week, as it can really benefit their learning to have this re-enforced at home.

Maths

In Year 1 we will be finishing off addition and subtraction to 20 before moving on to some geometry learning about 2D and 3D shapes, then some measurement of length, before returning to addition and subtraction of numbers up to 40.

Year 2s will be starting Spring 1 by finishing Multiplication and Division. Please encourage your child to spend some time on the TTRockstars app to help them learn the 2s, 5s, and 10 times tables, and related division facts. After this, we will be learning about measure, including length and mass.

School Value

This half term, we are learning about Independence by exploring different solutions to a problem and learning from our mistakes. We are encouraged to use different resources to help ourselves.

British Value

This half term, in our Class Assemblies and PSHE lessons, we are learning about the British Value of Individual Liberty, by understanding how to set our own goals and achieve success.

Our Curriculum

Children in Key Stage 1 and 2 will enjoy a long and short enquiry each half term.

Long Enquiries

A long enquiry typically lasts five weeks and allows us to teach a subject, such as history, in depth. Clear expectations of what will be learned, is shared with parents and pupils through a Knowledge Organiser.  At the end of the work, we plan to use Enquiry Quizzes on our iPads to see how much each child has remembered. Our first Learning Enquiry this term is History—Why is there a Spanish Barn at Torre Abbey? The children will be learning about the Tudors and the Spanish Armada, along with our local link, Sir Francis Drake. The Knowledge Organiser is attached. Please use it to reinforce and repeat the learning at home.

Short Enquiries. A short enquiry can last anything from 1 – 3 days and adds breadth to our curriculum. Our short enquiry will also have a History focus, and we will learn a little more about what the Commonwealth is and which countries are part of the Commonwealth. We will then learn why we celebrate Commonwealth Day.

Literacy

Our literacy is linked to a text, Little Red Riding Hood. (Nosy Crow; illustrated by Ed Bryan).  The children will write a similar story changing some of the details.

Later in the half term, we will be exploring a non fiction text, The Slime Book. The children will be using the layout of the book to produce a similar page about a new Slime recipe.

As a school we are particularly focusing on improving the children’s handwriting and spelling, our literacy lessons will be reflecting this.

Dates to remember

Reading for PleasureChildren's Choice Every child will have the opportunity to share their favourite book from home with their class. This could be fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or a magazine. Your child’s teacher will organise a timetable and let you know via Teams.

Trip to Torre Abbey & Spanish Barn—TBC

Last day before half term holidays—Friday 10th February

School returns after the holidays—Monday 20th February

School News

Thank you to everyone who recently completed the Parent Survey. Following the results of this, we are pleased to say we are now offering a wider range of sports clubs after school.

Watch this space for news on Parent Meetings, and also about Seesaw.

Messages

Please continue to contact the school office by email admin@preston.torbay.sch.uk or phone 01803 607075 with any questions or queries. There is also lots of useful information, as well as event dates and term dates, on our school website  https://www.preston.torbay.sch.uk/

Please remember to order your child’s lunch online.

The gates open at 8.40am—children are welcomed into class at 8.50am.  The class teacher is available at the end of the day for any quick queries or messages.

Address
Preston Primary School Academy
Old Paignton Road
Torquay
Devon
TQ2 6UY

Phone
01803 607075