Hi, my name is Miss Coyne, and I am the Year 2 Nightingale Class Teacher.

I have spent over 11 years teaching in Early Years and Year 1 and have fallen in love with the creativity and breadth of the curriculum. 

At St John's, I lead Phonics and Early Reading, and Music, and I am the Team Leader for KS1. 

I have a passion for listening to and playing music as well as competing in sports events. I have represented Ireland twice for different sports; the 100m freestyle event in swimming and Team Twirling at the Baton World Championships!

 

Other staff working in our class are:

Mrs. Bradshaw - 3rd Teacher and Nightingale Teacher on Fridays

Mrs. Wells - Teaching Assistant

Mrs. Hmar - Teaching Assistant (Monday–Thursday)

 

Our weekly timetable: 

Important dates for the diary this term for Nightingale Class:

PE - Every Wednesday - Please come to school dressed in the correct PE uniform

Week beginning 9th June - Phonics Check week

Tuesday 1st July - Royal Banquet - Dressing as a King or Queen

Our learning this term:

Welcome to Term 6! We cannot believe how quickly this year has gone and how many amazing things we have been up to. This term, our topic is ‘Kings and Queens.’ We will be exploring the kings and queens of England, comparing their role today to their role in the past, as well as learning about the interesting history of the royal family. We will also be experiencing our very own coronation and banquet fit for royalty, which will include making our food linked to DT!

In English, the children will be consolidating their learning from Year 2. They will be using adjectives, conjunctions, adverbs and making sure their writing makes sense. We will be writing narratives based on two books, ‘The Queen’s handbag’ and ‘The Queen’s hat’ as well as recounting some of the exciting things we will get up to his term! Our focus this term is making sure that we include all the skills that we have learnt this year to ensure our writing is the best it can be.

           

 

In maths, the children will be looking at statistics. They will be introduced to tally charts, block diagrams, tables, and pictograms. They will collect their own data to make these charts and answer questions about them.
They will also be looking at position and direction and explaining movements. Additionally, we will be spending some time recapping the children’s learning from this year and getting them reading for the KS2 curriculum.

                                      

 

In Science, Year 2 will be continuing their learning about ‘Materials’. We will be conducting experiments to test the suitability of different materials, conducting electricity, exploring friction and identifying and comparing the uses of everyday materials. We will also be looking at the importance of recycling.

In RE this term, we will be looking at our ‘Universal’ topic. We will explore different religious creation stories and think about how they teach people to care for the world we live in. We will also look at festivals in different religions and how these can be made greener to help the environment. This will help us to answer our big question: How should we care for others and the world, and why does it matter?

Hot weather:

Hopefully, we will have some hot weather this term, so please remember to send your child in with a suitable bottle filled with water (not squash or juice), wearing suncream and a hat with their name in.

                                                               

Learning at home for Nightingale Class: 

Children are expected to read every night for at least 10 minutes.  Reading records should be signed by an adult and brought back into school each day to be checked by a member of staff. Your child will take home 2 books each day – a banded book, and a phonics book.  These will be changed on Mondays and Thursdays.

Spelling Shed and Numbots can be accessed from home using the logins provided on the inside of your child's reading record.  Spelling assignments will be given out each week, which support the Year 2 spelling curriculum.

Spellings will be given out each week and tested on a Monday.  

 

Be ready for learning! In Nightingale Class, your child will need to have these items in school: 

Key Stage One (Years 1 and 2) 

• Book bag (no rucksacks please) 

• PE kit (to be worn on PE day - Wednesday) 

• Water bottle (no squash or juice) 

• Lunchbox (if not having school meal) 

• Wellington boots (to leave in school) 

• Coat (weather appropriate) 

Please don’t bring other items into school, as we do not have space to store them, and it can cause upset if things are lost or damaged. 

School Uniform Checklist:

Please label ALL items of clothing and shoes clearly with your child’s name. This helps even our younger children to take responsibility for and look after their uniform. 

Highlights of our learning so far this year:

Term 1: Lost and Found.  To launch this term, we went on a treasure hunt.  We had to read clues in search of Miss. Coyne's water bottle!  It was stuck up a tree! 

Term 2: Explorers.  This term we went on many adventures outdoors, building and using nature to be creative.  This history topic let us explore Robert Falcon Scott and his amazing exploration!

  

In Term 2, we also lead and performed our Christmas Nativity 'The Honky Tonky Donkey' for the school and parents.

      

We also designed, made and evaluated our own Christmas decorations!  Look at our amazing running stitch!

Term 3: Africa.  We thoroughly enjoyed exploring African Kent cloths!  We practised many different printing techniques using a range of resources before making our own Kent cloth repeating pattern.

    

Term 4:  The Great Fire of London: We learnt all about the events of 1666 and even had a visit from the fire station!    

  Term 5: Canterbury and Beyond: We took a trip all around Canterbury, identifying human and physical features.  Our topic helped us to identify and understand what the differences and similarities are between cities, towns and villages.