Birch Class 2025 - 2026

WELCOME TO BIRCH

Mrs Savage is the class teacher

Mrs Turner is our teaching assistant

Miss Davies teaches on a Monday and Tuesday afternoon and Mrs Turner on a Thursday

Mr Parrish teaches PE on a Tuesday 

Follow us on Twitter @WhitegateBirch

In Birch class, the children begin to develop their independence as they grow academically, socially and personally. The children grow in wisdom by building on their previous knowledge through our exciting topics and areas of learning. There will be many opportunities for them to shine through assemblies, worships, practical learning opportunities, trips and experiences over the course of the year. Our current theme is...

Our theme of ‘Beside the Seaside’ will see us find out about the coastline of Britain and identify the seas that surround the UK, in Geography. We will be identifying similarities and differences between different UK beaches and use appropriate geographical vocabulary to describe their features. We will be identifying human and physical features in seaside resorts and comparing and contrasting them with our local area and other coastal regions using maps, aerial image and photographs.

In History we will be comparing and contrasting Victorian holidays to those we take now. This will lead us on to discussing causes for the changes e.g. development of transport, describing how clothing and entertainment has changed over the years at seaside resorts and how we know. We will also be looking at timelines of boats and trains, there development and how this impacted people in the Victorian times and beyond.

Our DT project this term will be around a Victorian picnic, exploring what would have been taken on a seaside holiday in Victorian times and recreating our own picnic meal.

In art, we will be continuing with the theme of paint, using it in an abstract and explorative way including scaffito and impasto painting techniques. With a focus on, ‘Beside the seaside’ the children will be exploring new sketching skills, collage and paint techniques through an exciting still life project. In music, we will be learning about folk music, extending this with our music and movement unit where the children will be dancing around the maypole aswell as continuing to develop their composition skills. 

Our Religious Education focus will be on exploring The Church asking why people gather in the church and why it is a special place for Christians. This unit will also allow us to explore other faiths and their places of worship. In PSHE we will continue to look at the topics of relationships and focus on wellbeing and the differences between boys and girls, male and female. Our No Outsiders text explores respect and communication. 

Computing will continue to look at internet safety as well as safe use of laptops and research skills using the internet and child friendly online search engines. These new skills will support their learning in science as the children will be looking at animal’s habitats from around the world. The children will be researching and exploring rainforests, the poles and ocean habitats and learning how animals survive in these different areas.

English and Maths

In English lessons we are focusing on writing longer pieces which include all the key elements of writing for year 2. The main focus will be recapping known writing skills such as use of conjunctions, range of vocabulary and time words to structure and organise their writing. This will extend to looking at how our writing can have an effect on the reader and a key focus on audience and purpose. We will be recapping writing postcards, recounts and poetry and extending our narrative writing with descriptive writing and story writing. We will be continuing to developing our editing skills through proofreading, revising and peer editing.    

Maths will focus on recapping our multiplication and division unit to secure skills and move onto looking at fractions. We will then move onto measures including length, mass, capacity and statistics. Time will also be a key learning area, taught through daily telling of the time and discrete lessons.

Reading continues plays a fundamental part in all areas of the curriculum. We have our reading display already jam packed with the many, high quality texts we have already read. We will be reading a wide range of fiction and non-fiction books including poetry, within our English, guided reading and topic sessions, as well as our end of the day class read. We have a spotlight author who has been chosen for their high-quality texts. We will have to opportunity to listen to, read and learn more about these fantastic authors.

Helen Ward is our spotlight author at the moment. Her picture books are beautifully written and illustrated making them perfect for Year 2 readers. Her stories explore friendship, kindness, feelings and the natural world, helping children to think about emotions, empathy, and how to care for others. The clear illustrations support children’s understanding of the text and inspire great discussion, writing, and artwork. Having this literacy-rich environment will encourage a positive culture of reading within our class and promote the children's enjoyment of reading. 

Homework

Homework will be set each Friday and will be due in the following Thursday. Please ensure the children's homework books are returned on a Thursday so they can be marked and the children's new homework added. Homework will consist of a personalised spelling list in their homework books. In the spring term this was extended to show the handwriting patterns we had been developing and now, it has been extended once again to support the children's sentence level understanding. Maths will be to work through Numbots. Please also encourage your child to access the Numbots programme, on Story Mode, which really helps to support their basic skills in addition and subtraction. The children can be moving through the levels but also ensuring they have gained 3 stars for previous levels. This will support their speed and fluency as well as recapping previous skills.    

Please ensure your child reads at home at least 4 times per week.  In Birch, we expect the children to be reading aloud to someone at home and for this to be recorded in their Home – School contact books.  

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch. 

Mrs Savage 

 

Below is an example timetable. Please note this is subject to change. Summer term PE is on a Tuesday and a Wednesday.