Our Christian Value this term is ‘Respect.’

Our value for this term is Respect. Being respectful is one of the key ingredients to being the best person you can be. “Every human being, of whatever origin, of whatever station, deserves respect. We must each respect others even as we respect ourselves.”

Respect is also one of our school rules (Ready, Respectful and Safe) and is a value we hold dear in school. The children learn to recognise respect in others, while also showing respect themselves.

“Respect other people's feelings. It might mean nothing to you, but it could mean everything to them.”  Roy T. Bennett.

They also learn the importance of showing respect to our belongings and to our environment. The children are developing their understanding of how we can respect our beautiful world and what we can further do as a school, as a Plastic Free School.

When it comes to climate change, “be the change you wish to be in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi.

 

*Our Learning for this term*

Autumn Term 2 2025 

A Starry Night!

Our second exciting topic for this school year is ‘A Starry Night’. As part of this we will be incorporating our school value of ‘Respect’, exploring safe relationships and considering how to respect ourselves and others. We will be using Natterhub as part of our PSHE/ RSHE and computing curriculum, exploring how we can show respect online also with sessions on ‘It’s nice to be nice’ online. We will also be learning what algorithms are and what debugging means. We will apply these skills using a Beebot, programming it and noticing when we need to solve a problem or make a correction. In Geography we will be finding out about the United Kingdom, discovering and locating the countries within it and their capital cities. The children will also be developing their Geographical skills by using world maps, atlases and globes. In Science we will be investigating the seasonal changes and signs of Autumn, including temperature and the length of the day. We will then move on to study trees, naming their different parts and finding out about evergreen and deciduous trees. Our DT focus for this term will be deigning, making and evaluating our calendars. In our RE sessions we will be looking at festivals and celebrations, with a particular focus on Christmas and Hannukah. We will be finding out about traditions and how stories and celebrations are linked. In PE we will be continuing our sessions with the sports coach with a focus on movement. Our Forest School journey will also continue throughout the term. Please ensure that your child has their forest school things with them on their days. We also have many carefully selected high quality texts for story time that link to A Starry Night, we cannot wait to start reading them. These include Peace at last, Grandad’s Island, Owl Babies, Can’t you sleep little bear, What the Ladybird heard, Funny Bones and Laura’s Star.

English

Through Talk for Writing, our focus story is ‘How to catch a Star’. We will become very familiar with the story through re-telling it orally and using a number of different writing styles to put our own spin on the story! We will also be developing our understanding of spelling, punctuation and grammar, the use of adjectives, verbs and imperative verbs. The children will be encouraged to write carefully composed sentences.

Children are continuing to practice correct letter formation in their handwriting, ensuring that letters are the correct size and are all facing the correct way. We are continuing to look at the sizing of our letters, focusing on ascenders and descenders.  

Maths

In Year One we follow a maths scheme called White Rose Maths. This term, we will cover:

Addition and Subtraction and Shape. These units of work will further develop knowledge and skills in addition and subtraction. We will continue our learning of fact families looking at the eight facts. We will also name and identify both 3D and 2D shapes and learn about patterns with shapes.

Each term the consolidation of pervious knowledge is also planned into the curriculum as needed for the individual class.

Phonics information and reading

As always, we place huge emphasis on the importance of regular reading practice both in and out of school. Every child will be allocated a Reading Practice group and will read three times with their group each week. Books will be changed each Monday.

Please ensure that your child brings their reading practice book and reading record to school each day so that we can assess and record their progress appropriately. Hearing your child read at least 3x a week is very valuable in developing their reading skills and their love of reading! We cannot emphasise this enough!!

As we start the school year we will begin the next step in our phonics journey. Our daily lessons will take the same format and build on the phonics teaching from Reception. This progresses quickly and so practising new sounds and spellings is vital. More information about our expectations for reading and spelling and how you can support your child at home will be sent home in a separate letter.

Homework Challenges

These can be handed in at any point up until half term and be done in any format – photos, videos, writing, drawings, or any other type of artwork.

Please choose from the following:

• What famous landmarks do we have in Lincoln? Can you create a fact file about one of them or a drawing?  Have you ever visited our capital city, London? What did you see? There are lots of famous landmarks that you can look at on the internet with a trusted adult. Are there any similarities between the landmarks in Lincoln and London?
• Find out about deciduous trees and maybe take some photographs or do a sketch of deciduous and evergreen trees in your garden or on your journey to school.
• Create an Autumn picture/collage, perhaps using leaves…  or a could your create your own picture of a starry night?
• How do you celebrate birthdays or festivals at home? Do you have any special preparations or family traditions?