Birch Class 2026 - 2027

WELCOME TO BIRCH

Miss Davies is the class teacher

Mrs Turner and Mrs Oakes are our teaching assistants

Mrs Turner and Mrs Oakes teach the class together on a Friday afternoon.

Birch class have Pe lessons on a Tuesday and Friday afternoon.

In Birch class, we build on the firm foundations that have been laid in Acorns and Rowan. We continue to help all the children grow, not only academically, but also socially and emotionally. The children grow in wisdom through always striving to make wise choices, reflecting our Christian values and through accessing a broad and balanced curriculum. In Birch we have many opportunities to shine whether it be in our day to day learning, performances, class trips or welcoming visitors to our class.

In English we will be focusing on clear and cosnistent letter formation and handwriting. In Birch we will be developing positive attitudes and stamina towards writing by building short sentences using nouns and adjectives in Yera 1 and growing indepence, adding noun phrases and interesting vocabulary when writing our narratives in Year 2.

Our text this term will be The Queen's Handbag by Steve Antony; using this text we will be using our imaginations and role play to follow the journey of the handbag around cities within the United Kingdom, linking closelty to our geography learning.

Reading continues to play a fundamental part in all areas of the curriculum. In class we have access to a wide range of fiction and non-fiction books which we are able to use, not only within our guided reading sessions, but also when appropriate in our curriculum lessons to support our learning. Throughout the year we engage in spotlight authors who have been chosen for their high-quality texts and will have to opportunity to listen to, read and learn more about these fantastic authors. One of our spotlight authors this year is the award-winning author and illustrator Julia Donaldson who is known for books such as The Gruffalo. Having this literacy-rich environment will encourage a positive culture of reading within our class and continue to promote the children's enjoyment of reading. If you can, please do take advantage of visiting your local library too.

Phonics is taught daily to our Year 1's and a daily recap of phase 6 in the Autumn term to our Year 2's using our accredited Ready Steady Phonics scheme. We will be revisiting and identifying alternative graphemes for know phonemes as well as split-diagraphs.

Tricky words:

Phase 3 Phase 3 Tricky Words Song Say Hello To - YouTube

Phase 4 Tricky Words Song Sight Words Song for said, have, like, come, some, what, when - YouTube

How to pronounce pure sounds Phase 3 https://youtu.be/WuDgZwQoZVA

The Phonics Screening Check takes place in June and we will continue to be busy learning the sounds and how to apply them to support them with their reading.

In maths we will be exploring place value and securing the knowledge of numbers up to 10 in Year 1 beyond 20 in Year 2, moving onto addition and subtraction later on in the term. We continue with our daily fluency session in order to embed number facts.

During our science lessons we will be exploring seasonal changes and humans. We will look at how our envrionment chnages and prepares for seasonal changes and what our bodies need for healthy survival.

Our religious education focuses this term will be Harvest as we prepare for our harvest service.

Our PSHE lessons will continue to explore the topics of relationships, diversity and sharing our world through our No Outsiders text. We will also be exploring how to keep our bodies clean, how we change over time - looking at growing from young to old as well as exploring different types of families and knowing who to ask for help.

Through our geography lessons we will be exploring the United Kingdom. Linking closely to our English text, we will be naming, locating and identifying the characterisitics of the four countries and capital cities of the United Kingdom.

Whilst learning about the geography of the United Kingdom we will also be looking at its history as we answer our one big question this term:

WHY DO WE REMEMBER?

Our key question will see us find about the local history of school, church and Vale Royal Abbey. We will be exploring how historians find out about the past and become history detectives ourselves. The children will be learning about significant people, places and events including Rememberance and Guy Fawkes.

In computing we continue to focus on e-safety, using technology safely and keeping personal information private as well as coding, learning directional vocabulary and symbols.

In art we will be exploring watercolour. The children will be introcuted to watercolour through an open and exploratory approach. They will n ot only discover what watercolour can do, how it acts and how they can "control" it but also how the watercolour itself can help reveal the "story" of the painting.

In Dersign and Technology we will be exploring textiles and how we can attach fabrics in different ways. Taking inspiration from our key question about rememberance we will be creating poppies.

Finally in music we will learning how to keep a stready pulse. The children will be taking part in music and movement actitivies inspired by their favourite things. We will also be working hard on our KS1 christmas production.

Please note, PE continues to be on Tuesday's and Friday's. Please make sure that your child's PE kit is in school so that they have the correct kit to get changed into.

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 work to aid current classroom learning and Numbots, which really helps to support their basic skills in addition and subtraction.

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

If you would like any tips on how to support your child in reading you will find suggested strategies in the Home-School contact book.

Our door is always open, please come and see us or write in your child's home-school contact book with any concerns, no matter how small you feel they may be.

Thank you, Miss Davies, Mrs Turner and Mrs Oakes.

Below is an example Summer timetable for Birch. Please note this is subject to change.