Geography – Where in the world am I?
We are geographers.
Over the coming weeks, the children will develop their knowledge of location when locating and identifying the four countries that make up the UK and their capital cities. They also learn which seas surround the UK.
The class will be exploring both human and physical features in their own locality using maps, photographs and fieldwork.
To begin with, we used Google Earth to explore our continent, country, city and town. The children were amazed as we zoomed into planet Earth gradually and finally arrived at our school gates.
Help at home by discussing these images with your child. Can they recall which country, city and town they live in?
Next, the children thought about the size of each locality.
The continent is very big! – Woody
Wetherby looks a lot smaller than Europe! – Daisy
Using concentric circles the class were able to compare the sizes of each location giving them a sense of scale.
Below is the geographical vocabulary that the children will be learning throughout this topic.
atlas: a collection of maps, usually in a book
• city: a large town
• capital city: a city where the government of a country is located
• compass: a tool for finding direction
• locality: an area or neighbourhood
• landmark: an object or feature of a locality that has importance and can be used to help you find your way
• physical geography: physical geography looks at the natural things in our environment
• human geography: human geography looks at changes in the environment by humans
• fieldwork: observing and collecting data in a locality
• map: a drawing of a place, usually from above
• map key: a little box on a map which explains what the
different lines and symbols on a map mean
Important days and dates/ Help at home
Important days and dates
PE – Tuesday and Friday
Spelling test – Friday
Library – Friday (books returned each Thursday)
Water bottles
These should be brought to school daily and they will be brought home every day for refreshing and cleaning.
Homework/Spellings
Whole school homework is set every Friday (along with new spellings). Homework and spellings can also be accessed from the website.
Reading
In Year 1, we will continue using e-books for our reading practice. Your child will bring home a log-in for the e-book website. Please log out of last year’s account and log in with the new account. This will ensure any new books are in the account.
Numbots
We will begin to use Numbots in Year 1. Your child has been sent home with all the necessary log in details.
What is Numbots? 
NumBots is all about every child achieving the “triple win” of understanding, recall and fluency in mental addition and subtraction, so that they move from counting to calculating. NumBots focuses on automatic recall of number facts as well as developing conceptual understanding.
Certificates will be awarded every Friday for children who complete the different stages.
Help at home
For spelling practice, reading and Numbots, little and often (10/15 minutes a day) is recommended.
Uniform
Please do check the uniform policy https://www.stjameswetherby.leeds.sch.uk/find-out/policies/ to ensure your child is wearing the correct items including for PE days. Earrings must be removed on PE days.
Finally, please do ask if there are any queries and keep checking back on class news to find out more about your child’s learning!
The adults in Year 1 are:
Mrs Freeman – Class Teacher (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday)
Miss Gledhill – Class Teacher (Thursday)
Mrs Cairnes – Teaching Assistant
Miss Rigley – Teaching Assistant
The Human Body
This half term, we have started our science learning. We are going to be finding out more about these parts of the human body .
For our first lesson we made sure we were certain what a human is. We know that we are animals just like our pets. Unlike our pets, we are humans!
We played Simon Says to hep us find parts of our body and then looked closely at out feet. After comparing our feet to our partners, we thought about if the oldest children have the longest feet.
To hep us think about this, we took a drawing of our foot and put them in order of our ages.
Welcome Back!
As we come to the end of our first week back at school, both Mr Nash and I (Mr Freeman) are super proud of each and every one of our pupils. Not only have the children come back to school calm and settled, their fantastic attitudes and willingness to learn has made our first week a great success.
We are both looking forward to a fantastic year in Year 5/6 and we know the children are, too.
A few notices to make you aware of…
Spelling – You’ll notice that the spelling has changed slightly on the homework sheets. There’s no longer a specific list spellings to learn. Instead, there are a list of spellings that the children need to learn within the first half-term. On a Friday each week, there will be a spelling test. We will keep track of our scores and support children with their misconceptions as soon as they may happen.
PE days – Our nominated PE days are on Mondays and Wednesdays. Please ensure your child comes to school in the correct PE kit for these days.
Homework books and reading records – Today, your child has been sent home with a purple homework book and a white reading record. There’s no pressure to bring the homework books back in every week, but we do need the reading records signed by an adult and shown to use every week. This is so that we can keep track of the amount of reading the children are doing at home and whether we can further support in any way.
Please feel free to contact myself, or Mr Nash, if you have any questions!
Living and learning: rules
At the start of the new school year, the children have been reminded about rules and the importance of rules in our daily life.
Before focussing on our school rules, we started by thinking about…
Why do we have rules?
What rules can you think of?
What places have rules?
Who makes the rules?
Rules tells us what to do.
We need rules so we don’t hurt each other.
Rules help us to know what is right and what is wrong.
Rules help us to be happy and healthy.
In our school we have three school rules. Three, two, one, stop is one of the most important instructions the children will hear at school.
We concluded that following our school rules will make our school a happy, healthy and SAFE place to achieve and believe.
We also agreed our Living and Learning ground rules.
Welcome back
The children have settled really well in their first couple of days in Year 2 with lots of new routines to learn and an earlier start time of 8:45am.
Important days and dates
PE – Tuesday and Friday (however, we’ll be doing Forest School on a Friday for Autumn 1 instead of PE)
Forest School – Friday (Autumn 1)
Spelling test – Friday
Library – Friday
Water bottles
These should be brought to school daily and they will be brought home every day for refreshing and cleaning.
Milk
Please contact the office if your child would like to have milk in Year 2.
Homework/Spellings
Whole school homework is set every Friday (along with new spellings). Homework and spellings can also be accessed from the website.
Reading
Your child’s e-book or free reader book will be updated on a Friday. Daily reading, whether this is their e-book/free reader book, a book from home or the library, is key to making progress in reading and to develop fluency.
Numbots
We continue to use Numbots in Year 2 (using the same login as Year 1).
For spelling practice, reading and Numbots, little and often (10/15 minutes a day) is recommended.
Uniform
Please do check the uniform policy to ensure your child is wearing the correct items including for PE days. Earrings must be removed on PE days.
Finally, please do ask if there are any queries and keep checking back on class news to find out more about your child’s learning!
What a great start we’ve had!
We have been really impressed with how the Year 1 children have settled into their new classroom. Changes can be tricky to manage and we are always here to help if your child struggles to cope with this. Reception Class to Year 1 is a big leap but we do find that the children adjust well to the new staff, routines and environments.
We have started to read our class novel ‘Flat Stanley‘ and this inspired us to create a flat version of ourselves. Check out some flat children below! 
Help at home
Ask your child to retell the first part of the story and discuss the main character.
PE Days
Y2 PE is on Tuesday and Friday. Please send your child to school in their PE kit on these days.
We are ready….
We hope you have all enjoyed the summer break and that the children are looking forward to returning to school. The classroom has been refreshed and is ready for the children to begin their Year One learning.
Below is the timetable for the first half term (apologies for the blurriness). It may help to look at this with your child as it may help to ease any anxieties concerning the day to day routine.
Here are a few things to note:
- Mrs Freeman – class teacher – Mon, Tues, Wed and Fri
- Miss Gledhill – class teacher – Thursday
- Miss Cairnes and Miss Rigley – Teaching assistants
- PE – Tuesday and Friday mornings
- Library – Friday
Please ensure your child brings a water bottle to school every day and healthy snacks for playtime (if required).
During PE, the children are not permitted to wear earrings. Please can you ensure these have been removed prior to attending school on PE days.
The office will issue a milk list so that we are aware who can have it and also a medication update will be given to the Year 1 staff.
Homework and spellings will go home every Friday and the children will be tested on their spellings the following Friday.
The children will read daily in school and we encourage you to read with your child daily at home.
If you have any concerns or questions please either catch us at home time or make an appointment via the school office.
We look forward to welcoming you and your child into Year 1 on Tuesday 5th September at 8.45am.
What an amazing year!
I cannot believe we are at the end of the school year. What an amazing year we have had. I am so proud of everyone for their hard work and determination. I know that everyone will be fantastic in year 1.
I would like to say a big thank you to all parents/carers. You hard work at home has meant that everyone could flourish.
I would like to share the song we sang at church on Wednesday. I am sure you will agree that the children were amazing.
I will miss you all very much. Have a great summer!
Mrs Payne