Hello, I am Miss Cooper and I teach Year 2 Starling class.

This is my third year at St Johns and I love it! I feel very grateful to be part of an amazing team, teaching amazing children.

This year I am looking forward to teaching Art and I cannot wait to see the beautiful creations the children make, especially during our Africa topic. I lead PSHE and RSE across the school which is something I feel very passionate about.

Outside of school, I like to create my own Art, listen to music and spend time with my family and friends.

Other staff who work in our class: Miss Alcock (TA) and Mrs Bradshaw (3rd Teacher).

Our weekly timetable:  

Important dates for the diary this term for Starling 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 in Term 6:

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; seeing what their role is today and in the past, as well as some exciting history of the royal family. We will also be experiencing our very own coronation and banquet fit for royalty, which will include the food we make in 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. The children 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, friction and identifying and comparing the uses of everyday materials. We will also be looking at the importance of recycling.

In RE this term, 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. 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 (no squash or juice), wearing suncream and a hat with their name in.

Learning at home for Starling Class: 

Children are expected to read every night for at least 10 minutes. This has a huge positive impact on their reading progression, so please help your child to be the best reader that they can be!  Reading records should be signed by an adult and brought 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 Times Tables Rockstars can be accessed from home using the logins provided on the inside of your child's reading record book.  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 Starling 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) 

• 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

Building habitats with our parents and carers in science. 

Identifying micro-habitats and finding different creatures in them.     

Ordering the creation story and retelling it in groups. 

Improving our drawing skills by recreating illustrations by Oliver Jeffers. 

Term 2: Explorers

Many adventures outdoors, building and using nature to be creative, learning about Robert Falcon Scott and his amazing exploration, performing our Christmas Nativity 'The Honky Tonky Donkey' for the school and parents, and we designed, made and evaluated our own Christmas decorations! 

Term 3: Africa

Visit from an African land snail, printing in art, learning to play Djembe drums, creating dream and goal birds in PSHE, learning about Uganda and reading our own poems in English. 

Term 4: The Great Fire of London

Visit from firefighters, writing diary entries as if we were present during the great fire, looking at artefacts in History, learning to play chime bars in Music, growing our own plants in Science, learning about the Easter story in RE, and creating Easter cards that include mechanisms in DT.

Term 5: Canterbury and Beyond

Trip around Canterbury to identify human and physical features, drawing the Cathedral, egg drop experiment in Science, making clay sculptures and using water colours in Art, making vlogs about Canterbury and writing our own adventure stories in English and creating PowerPoint about Canterbury in Computing.