Squirrels

Welcome to the Squirrel Class! 

Meet Our Teachers

Miss O'Kane is our teacher in the Squirrel Class and works Monday-Friday. 
We are supported in class each morning by a TA. On a Wednesday this is Mrs Ward and on all other mornings this is Mrs Holmes. 

On Wednesday afternoons we are taught by a KS2 teacher during Miss O'Kane's PPA time. This changes on a half termly basis. During Autumn 1, we are being taught RE and Art by Mrs Love. Holly and Miss O'Kane run our forest school sessions on a Thursday afternoon. 

Weekly Routines

We have PE on a Friday afternoon and Forest School on a Thursday afternoon. Please ensure that PE kits and Forest School kits are weather appropriate. Children may leave their Forest School clothes at school for a half term on our outdoor storage if you wish. Children are to come into school on a Friday in their PE kits. 

Homework

• Try to read with your child as regularly as you can during the week and write a comment in their reading record. Reading is so important for this age group, reading little and often at home really can make a huge impact. 

• Maths tasks will be sent home each Friday and are to be brought back to school, completed, by the following Friday. This term we are working on our 2 times tables facts, please support your child with this where necessary but encourage them to independently have a go. Again, little and often throughout the week will be a great way to complete these tasks. 
  Top Marks is a great free online resource for extra maths practice at home. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years

• Practice spellings - these are given out on an Monday and tested the following Monday. The more the children practice these at home the more confidence they will have for their spelling test. 
  Spelling Training allows you to input your child's spelling list for the week and then play games using those specific words. https://www.spellingtraining.com/

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.

We recommend you have our school app in order to recieve the most up to date information about events happening within the school. Reminders about kit, changes to our schedule or teacher requests are sent out on there regularly. 

Rewards

Each class in school uses an online platform called 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. 

The Houses, and House Leaders are: 

Autumn Term 2024

English

In English we will be looking at a variety of model texts and writing for a number of purposes throughout the term. 
These include: 

• Writing to Entertain - Poetry and Non-Fiction texts. 
• Writing to Persuade 
• Writing to Inform 
• Writing to Explain 
• Writing to Instruct

Sometimes, our audience for writing might be parents via our class blog, so keep an eye out for updates on here! 

Topic

Our topic this term is a mixture of a geographical study of the local area and a historical study of the local area, before moving onto learning about the changes to homes (and schools) throughout history.

The children will explore how to use and read maps before using them to navigate around our local area on a school trip around the village. They will also look at the key changes which have taken place over time in our local area and investigate why these changes may have occurred. Children will then deepen their historian knowledge by researching how homes have changed over time, making a note of key dates and events, before investigating why certain changes may have happened.

Science

Our topic in science this term is Seasons and Space.

We will be learning when the different seasons occur, the weather we can expect during them and discussing if this is the same all around the world. 
After half term, we will be learning the names of the planets and specifically looking at the Earth, Moon and Sun in relation to one another. 

We will be extending our learning in Science by writing fact files about the moon landing in English.