Badgers

Welcome to Badger Class!

Badger class is taught by Miss Finlinson (Monday to Wednesday) and Mrs Gale (Thursday and Friday), with Mrs Wildey for 1.5 hours on a Tuesday morning. Teaching support is provided throughout the week by Mrs Mattinson.

We strongly recommend parents have both the school app for parents and access to Seesaw - and regularly check these for information and updates. Please feel free to contact us if you need to for any reason - either by talking to us at the gate, putting a note on Seesaw, or by emailing us (please make sure to email both of us so we can ensure your matter is dealt with in a timely manner by whomever is working in school that day).

nicola.gale@langwathby.cumbria.sch.uk

s.finlinson@langwathby.cumbria.sch.uk

Class Information

Weekly Routines

PE

We have PE on a Monday and (on those half-terms where we don't have Forest School) a Friday too. Please ensure that suitable PE kit uniform is worn coming into school and that any earrings are taped/covered/removed on these days for safety reasons.

Forest School 

We have Forest School in blocks of several weeks on a Thursday afternoon in each term throughout the school year; specific dates for these sessions will be sent out to families using the school app. On these days, children will need to bring a warm and waterproof coat, wellies, waterproof trousers/mudsuits if possible or at least be wearing trousers that day rather than a skirt or dress to protect legs. 

Rewards

As well as individual - class specific - weekly awards, the whole school uses Class Dojo. Dojo is a points system that allows us to reward effort, consistency, demonstration of our core values, growth mindset and kindness. As well as collecting points individually, the children are also collecting points for their newly allocated School House. The House with the most points at the end of the year will win the House Cup. 

Homework

• Try to read with your child as many times a week as is possible and please note this down in their reading record. Reading is paramount for this age group and little and often at home really can make a huge impact.
• Practice KIRF targets. Whilst we provide opportunities to practice in the week, it is incredibly important that our learners secure their knowledge of Key Instant Recall Facts in maths through home practice also. Ideas of ways to do this are on the KIRFs page. Records of testing of KIRFs in school will be made in the back of your child's reading records. 
• Practice spellings - these are reviewed and tested each week.
• Complete the 6 optional creative challenges offered over Seesaw.

Please do talk to us if there are any issues with completing homework and we will try our best to help. For more support and explanation of our home learning policy, please see the parents section of the website and view the school's KIRFs and home learning video guide. 

Learning

Our Learning Topic for Autumn Term 2023 is...

We enhance our learning this term using the exciting topic of 'quests', with lots of opportunities to inspire children's ideas through visitors, visits, and practical opportunities, such as castle trips, Medieval days, visits from medieval re-enactors, setting up our own museums, and walks to see local sites such as the bridge and Long Meg that link to our learning. Our class novels will explore quests throughout time - Robin Hood, Alice in Wonderland, and Fantastic Mr Fox. In Literacy, we learn about myths and legends and develop skills in narrative writing as well as reports and information texts. This links in to our work on word processing in Computing. In Science, we become geologists and learn about rocks and soil using loans from Tullie House. In History, we think about what life was like locally for children in the Middle Ages. We'll explore portraits in a historical setting and the engineering behind bridges in Art and DT. In RE, we think about Creation and what we can learn from the religious stories around this. In PE, we develop skills in Invasion Games (including football!) and Gymnastics. Alongside this is our core work on phonics and Maths, using Twinkl Letters and Sounds and White Rose Maths schemes respectively. We also have Forest School sessions with Mrs Labbett (aiming to achieve even more nature awards). It's definitely busy and exciting!

Useful websites for at home

Some highlights from our learning shared with families on Seesaw...