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

Monday 21st April - Easter Monday (Bank Holiday)

Monday 5th April - Bank Holiday

Trip around Canterbury - TBC - will take place during school hours, so this will not impact dropping off or picking up the children.

 

Our learning in Term 5:

Our topic this term is ‘Canterbury and Beyond’. We are going to be exploring the local area, finding out what makes a place a village, town or city and recognising human and physical geographical features. We will be taking a trip around Canterbury, seeing the sights and stopping at landmarks and even visiting the library to get our own library cards!

This term in English, the children will start by looking at an adventure book called Journey that does not have any words, and then planning and writing their own story to describe what is going on. Then they will be able to write their own adventure story based on this. We will also be writing and recording our own ‘vlog’ about Canterbury. Our focus in English this term is to let our creativity shine through our work, including interesting vocabulary and making sure we are writing coherently.

In Maths, the children will begin to learn about fractions. They will be recognising halves, thirds and quarters. The children will be using these skills to find a fraction of a set of amounts. We will also spend some time recapping their learning of Year 2 so far, to make sure they are ready to progress with their learning.

                              

 In Science, Year 2 will be learning about ‘Materials’. We will see what materials we have around our school and explore what properties these materials have. We will set up different experiments to see the suitability of materials and what we can use them for.

In RE this term, we will be learning about Humanism. We will be exploring what Humanism is and how Humanists live their lives.

                     

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.