St. Brendan's Primary School and Nursery

Dear Parent/Carer,

After a relaxing October break, the class have settled back into the school routine and are ready for the new learning and challenges that this term will bring.

This term, we will be joined by Miss Robb, a student teacher from the University of Strathclyde. Miss Robb will be working alongside Miss Burns to help us in our learning from now until mid December. Miss Cassidy will continue to work with our class on a Thursday each week.

With preparations for both our St Andrew’s Day showcase and the festive season, this term is sure to be be a busy and exciting time for the boys and girls.

Literacy

As in the previous session, the class will continue to follow the North Lanarkshire Active Literacy Programme to support their learning in spelling, phonics, reading and writing.

The class will continue to develop their use of comprehension strategies as they are split into working groups to ensure that learning is tailored to children’s next steps. The class will continue to work with a range of fiction and non-fiction texts to build their fluency and comprehension skills. Some of the texts we will be working with in class this term include ‘Kaspar, Prince of Cats’, ‘Poppet’ and ‘Through the Catflap’.

Numeracy

In numeracy, the class will continue to experience a mix of direct teaching, partner/group activities and written tasks to build and consolidate their understanding of concepts.

Over the course of the term children will explore the themes of addition and subtraction as well as symmetry and money. While homework is now assigned through Sumdog, as always this will support what the children are learning in class. If there are any issues in accessing this resource at home, please do not hesitate to contact me.

RE

In RE, our class will be learning more about Jesus’ travels during His time on Earth. We will spend some time focusing on Other World Religions and will also reflect on November, the month of the Faithful Departed. In the lead up to Christmas, the class will revisit the theme of Advent in class and will also be involved in wider school celebrations of the Holy season.

Health and Wellbeing

This term, the class will be learning more about what it takes to achieve success and will be encouraged to share some of their own successes with others. In PE, the class have been given the opportunity to work closely with coaching students from New College Lanarkshire. I am sure the children will enjoy the variety that this will bring to their PE lessons. Out with these sessions, Miss Cassidy will focus on aesthetics, helping the children to explore movement through dance. The PE days for our class will continue to be a Wednesday and a Thursday.

Cross Curricular

Throughout November, the class will spend time preparing for our St Andrew’s Day celebrations. As we draw closer to Christmas, our class will be focusing on how we can give the gift of a smile during the festive season. We will be learning about the needs of the elderly in our community, as well the importance of essential services in the lives of elderly people. I hope that the class will have some opportunities to spread some Christmas cheer with this important and special group of people over the festive season.

As always, we will work together to support your child in their learning. Please feel free to communicate any comments or concerns using the homework diary.

Many thanks

E Burns

Class Teacher

Dear parents/carers,

After a well-earned October break the Primary 2 children are working hard and looking forward to a busy and productive term ahead. Here is a brief overview of some of the learning experiences planned for this term:

Literacy

We will continue to work on North Lanarkshire’s Active Literacy programme for spelling and phonics. Children will learn new sounds and words each week and this will be consolidated through class work and homework. The new phonemes for this term include: ue, aw, oi, au, ew, ow and ou. For reading, the children will continue to read one or two books per week. I would be grateful if you would continue to support reading at home and ensure that your child brings their book into school each day. In taught writing the children will be working with Mrs. McLauchlan.

Numeracy

This term we will be focusing on the following key areas of numeracy: addition and subtraction of numbers 0 to 20, properties of 2D and 3D shapes and measure focusing on length and area. The children will experience a variety of active lessons as well as written tasks in order to develop their skills in each of these subject areas. We will also continue to work on addition and subtraction as well as mental calculation skills.

Health and Wellbeing

In P.E. the children will be taking part in striking and fielding and target games which will develop a co-operative spirit within a competitive setting. P.E. days are currently Thursday and Friday, but these may change as we draw closer to the festive season. Children should bring their P.E. kit to school on Mondays and take them home each Friday.

This term we will also be exploring the theme of ‘Nurtured’. This aims to help children become familiar with different nutritional needs that people require throughout their lives. The children will learn the importance of a healthy diet as they grow and develop which will tie in nicely with our Science topic on the ‘Human Body’.

Science

Our Science topic for this term is the Human Body through which the children will explore the human skeleton and the major organs. The children will learn what the purpose and function of these are and why they are important. Through this topic the children will also develop an understanding of our senses and their reliability and limitations through some fun practical experiments.

Religious Education

This term we will be focusing on the themes ‘Jesus’ Family and Ours’ and ‘Advent’. If you have any family pictures you would like to share with us, please send them in and they can be added to a special display (photographs will be returned).

Interdisciplinary Learning

Our topic this term is ‘When Santa Comes to Town’. For this, we will be learning about our different types of houses and who might live in them around the world through a Christmas theme about Santa visiting different houses. As part of our topic we will also look at the weather in different parts of the world during winter and compare it with the weather here in Motherwell. The children are excited about our new role play area that will shortly be set up in the classroom which will run alongside our topic.

Thank you for all your continued support and if you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards,

Miss Degnan.

P2 Class Teacher