Welcome to Beech Class 2025-26

The class teacher in Beech Class is Miss Marshall.

The children are supported in Beech Class by Mrs Cox.

Key Information

• Learning practice is set on a Monday and is due on the following Monday. Please see below for further details.
• PE is on Mondays, therefore children are expected to come to school wearing their PE kit. PE will take place either outside or in the school hall.
• Forest School is on a Tuesday, running weekly from 9th September to 7th October.

Learning Practice

• Children are provided with a learning practice folder. The learning practice sheet will be added to this each Monday and will need to be completed and returned to school by the following Monday.
• The answers are provided for children to mark their learning practice at home.
• Below are the expectations for Year 1:

Daily: Five minutes of reading a school reading book every night, to be recorded in their reading record.

Daily: Five minutes on Numbots - a game-based website supporting learning of number bonds.

Weekly: 10 spellings for all children.

Weekly: Maths, English grammar or English comprehension practice (answers given).

Half Termly: Topic menu (6 tasks and complete a minimum of 2).

Our Class News

Friday 14th November 2025:

We’ve had a wonderful and lively start to Autumn 2, with the children bringing lots of enthusiasm to their learning. It has been lovely to see them so eager to share their thoughts and ideas.

In RE, we have been learning about Remembrance Day and reflecting on the big question: 'What does courage mean to you?' We explored what courage looks like in our own lives and considered how soldiers may have shown courage during times of war. We also discussed why we wear poppies and created our own beautiful suncatcher poppies. The children enjoyed sharing their learning in worship and proudly showing their poppies before we took them to the church to be displayed!

This week was also Anti-Bullying Week, which began with everyone wearing odd socks on Monday to celebrate individuality and promote kindness. In PSHE, we have been learning about what bullying means, the different types of bullying, the roles people may take in a bullying situation, and what we should do if we find ourselves in any of those roles.

It has been a meaningful and engaging start to the term, and the children should be very proud of their efforts.

Friday 24th October 2025:

Well done Beech Class! We are so proud of how enthusiastic, curious, and engaged everyone has been in their learning this first half-term.

In English, we have finished reading our class book 'Where the Wild Things Are'. The children have absolutely loved exploring this story, which has sparked some fantastic discussions and helped us to develop our comprehension skills.

In Maths, we have been working on place value to 20, learning to identify one more and one less, and using the greater than (>), less than (<) and equal to (=) symbols with increasing confidence.

In Art, we have been inspired by the artist Anthony Gormley, creating our very own clay sculptures in his style. The results are absolutely incredible, and every child should feel so proud of their beautiful artwork!

We have also completed our History topic on childhood, where we explored the different stages of growing up and compared toys and experiences from today with those from Victorian times. The children were fascinated to see how much had changed!

It has been a wonderful end to our first half-term in Year 1. The children have worked so hard, and we can’t wait to see all the fantastic learning that next term will bring!

Friday 10th October 2025:

The children in Beech Class have had a busy but exciting couple of weeks!

On Tuesday we had our final Forest School session, and what a wonderful experience it has been! The children have really enjoyed their time exploring nature and learning new skills.

In Maths, we have begun our new topic looking at finding one more than numbers from 0 to 20. Whilst in Writing, we have been practising the fundamentals of good sentence structure and punctuation.

We have been learning all about seasons in our Science lessons and have started an experiment to measure rainfall. As a class, we made a rain gauge from a plastic bottle and have been collecting and recording the data, ready for us to analyse next week.

Well done to everyone for their fantastic effort!

Friday 26th September 2025:

What an amazing couple of weeks we've had in Year 1! The children have continued to grow in confidence, embracing new challenges and showing such a positive attitude to their learning.

One of the highlights has been the exciting start to our Forest School sessions. The children have loved getting outdoors and developing important life skills. We began by exploring potential risks in the environment and learning how to keep ourselves safe. We also took part in some basic first aid training and worked together to build some fantastic dens, which we tested with water to see just how waterproof they really were!

In Maths, we have moved onto exploring place value up to 20. We have been working hard on recognising both numerals and written words for numbers, and it’s been great to see everyone rising to the challenge. 

In English, we have started reading our second class book ‘Where the Wild Things Are’. The children have really enjoyed exploring the first few pages and noticing how much of the story can be told through the pictures alone. We can’t wait to read on and dive deeper into the story together.

Our new RE topic has also sparked some deep thinking. We began the topic with our big question: What do Christians believe God is like? The children have shown great curiosity as we've explored Christian symbols and artifacts, including our very own stained-glass window in school, which captured everyone's interest. We also read the Christian creation story which sparked our imagination and created a brilliant discussion about what we would include if we were to create our own world.

It has been a joyful fortnight of curiosity, creativity, and collaboration, and we are so proud of the way Beech Class are embracing their learning journey together.

Friday 12th September 2025:

In Beech Class we had a fantastic start to the academic year, and all the children settled in really well! It has been lovely to see everyone returning to school and showing great enthusiasm for learning.

We have started our new topic on Childhood and had a very exciting visit from the Southwest Heritage Trust for a workshop all about Victorian toys and games, linking to our topic. The children enjoyed getting to dress up and hearing all about the old toys, in particular the thaumatrope.

In Maths, we have been exploring place value to ten, while in English we enjoyed learning and performing the poem ‘Bubbles’ in our whole school poetry slam. We have also started our first class book of the year ‘Beegu’ which has sparked lots of great discussion.

It has been a busy and brilliant start to Year 1!