Witnesham Class 2

Mrs Peck and Mrs Cooke (Monday-Wednesday) supported by Miss Bolt and Ms Lucas Parker (Thursday and Friday)

Following the play-based foundations of Class 1, in Class 2 we continue to learn through this play-based approach. The children are constantly challenged through complex, guided and collaborative play. This supports the children to continue to develop independence, critical thinking and social skills.

A day in class 2:

In class 2 we begin the day with a phonics session. We learn new graphemes and phonemes and practise reading ‘tricky’ words that are not decodable.

In English we will be using the curious quest as a basis for our writing. Through this approach, children will get to use their imagination and creativity to invent based on the weeks text. Each week children will learn an important skill to help them learn spelling, punctuation and grammar rules for

their year group. Twice a week the children will be heard read as part of a reading group. In these sessions’ children will read a decodable phonics book which links to what we have learnt in our Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Phonics lessons.

Maths is a hands-on and collaborative subject in our class. We explore concepts through a mix of whole-class teaching, small group work, and lots of practical learning.

In the afternoons we have our wider curriculum subjects such as history, science and art and design. These lessons involve a whole class input followed by an activity that we complete in small groups. This work will either be completed in books or practically on seesaw.

As mentioned earlier, continuous provision is an important tool to support our learning in class 2. The classroom is set up with a range of different areas, including the studio area, small world area, role play area, construction area, reading area and a calm corner. These areas are carefully planned to extend the children’s learning further and consolidate previously taught skills. We continue to use Seesaw to record our practical learning in lessons, as well as uploading our discovery time challenges independently.

In Class 2, we continue to nurture the children's emotional well-being. We help them build their emotional literacy through our daily feelings check in, providing a calm space and by using supportive language to guide them through their emotions.

How to help at home

Reading at home is an invaluable way to continue building your child's reading fluency and comprehension skills. Consistent practice reinforces their learning and helps foster a lifelong love of reading. We recommend reading your child’s decodable school book three times a week. It is also important to read a broad range of texts to your child to foster reading for pleasure. 

Each week children will be sent home phonics information sheet. This revisits what the children have covered in phonics during the week and is a fantastic way to consolidate learning.

Our PE day is Friday but you may have extra PE with Premier Sport so please ensure that your PE kit is in school every day. Earrings need to be removed for PE and long hair needs to be tied up.

On Monday’s the children will have outdoor learning sessions in our woodland area. Please make sure children have appropriate clothes for the weather i.e coats and hats in winter and sun hats in the summer.

Please make sure that all items (bags, bottles, jumpers…) are named, so that we can easily reunite any missing items with their owners