Friday 7th November 2025

Welcome Back to Term 2!

We hope you all had a lovely break! The children have come back to school full of energy and have settled quickly back into our routines.

In Drawing Club this week, we have been reading the story “Sparks in the Sky.” As well as drawing and writing about fireworks, we have been making colourful firework and bonfire pictures using chalk and paint, designing and building our own rockets, and creating sparkly playdough fireworks. It has been lots of fun exploring this exciting theme!

Our Star Words for the week were:
⭐ flames
⭐ excited
⭐ celebrate
⭐ spark
⭐ imagine
⭐ marvel

In maths, some of the children have been learning how to add two numbers together to make another number and exploring the composition of numbers up to 8. They used compare bears, ladybirds, and double-sided counters to find different ways of making a given number. The children were encouraged to use the stem sentence:
“___ is a part, ___ is a part, and the whole is ___.”

Others have been using base-10 equipment to make and partition (split) two-digit numbers. They started by making ‘tens’ numbers with base-10 equipment and through their drawings. Then they made given two-digit numbers using the manipulatives. Once they were confident with this, we looked at how numbers can be partitioned and wrote number sentences to show the value of each part of the two-digit number.  All the children have worked very hard in their maths sessions this week.

Our topic this week has been about Remembrance Day. We started by discussing what memories are and shared some of our own special memories. We talked about how we can represent these memories through drawings or objects so that we never forget them.  We then learned about why we wear poppies on Remembrance Day — to remember the soldiers (and animals) who have died fighting for our country. The children painted beautiful poppies to help us remember them. We will be continuing our learning about Remembrance Day next week through our Drawing Club story.

In computing, we have started a new unit all about taking photographs. We began by thinking about which devices can be used to take photos and discussed what makes a good photograph. Together, we came up with some important rules for taking a great photo:

• Hold the device steady

• Make sure your subject is in the centre of the picture

• If taking a photograph of someone, always check that you have their permission before taking the photograph

• Avoid having fingers in front of the camera lens

We then used the iPads to practise our photography skills. The children were asked to take:

• A photo of their friend

• A photo of themselves

• A photo taken up close

• A photo taken from a distance

Afterwards, we looked back at our photos and discussed how well we had followed the brief. The children really enjoyed experimenting with the cameras and learning how to capture great pictures!

We finished the week with a fantastic PE session, where we practised our circus skills! We used different pieces of equipment to improve our balance, jumping, and juggling skills. The balance beam was quite tricky, but our teachers were very proud of the way we kept on trying and didn’t give up.

Well done, everyone, for a wonderful first week back! We are so proud of how hard you have all worked and how brilliantly you have settled back into school life. We can’t wait to see all the exciting learning and adventures that Term 2 will bring! 

Next week:

Monday 10th November  - Bag2school collection and Odd Socks Day

Tuesday 11th November - outdoor PE

Thursday 13th November - indoor PE

Friday 14th November - Children in Need