Welcome to Cherry Tree Class!

Welcome to all of our Year 2 children. We're really looking forward to the upcoming year. We have lots of fun activities and interesting learning to do! 

Our Class teacher is Miss Buxton

                              Our TA is:  Ms. Rowe

                              PPA cover: Mrs Gilbert (Thursday)

Life in Cherry Class

Cherry Class are friendly, respectful and curious. We are all eager to learn new things. We are working well in our table groups and are developing excellent listening skills. We love reading, show and tell, and fact-sharing opportunities. 

Sometimes we do yoga or mindfulness sessions after lunch to calm us down and help us notice and regulate our emotions. We also use the zones of regulation to better communicate how we are feeling. 

The children in Cherry love to share their knowledge about animals and other topics. 

Curriculum

We learn about all the core and foundation subjects of the National Curriculum: English, Maths, Science, PE, History, Geography, Art, Computing, DT, RE, PSHE and Music. More information about each subject is also available under the 'Curriculum' area of the website.

Each week during the day we embed our learning through short activities such as creative free writing, maths games and times table practice. 

In curiosity corner, we have our fact box, estimation station and creative writing prompts for the children to access.

Homework

Each Thursday, your child will bring home a maths homework. These are to be returned the following Monday.

Additionally, each half term there will be a topic homework sent home. There will be some options to choose from however you could think up your own activities relevant to the topic instead. This piece of homework will be returned by the end of the half term and they will all be celebrated in class.

Please let us know if your child struggles or you feel that they need more practice with something. 

Spellings 

At the beginning of each half term, we will send home a list (via Class Dojo) showing the spelling patterns that we will teach each week. Alongside each pattern, you will find examples of words that fit that rule. These words are not a list to learn for a test, but examples that we will use in class to teach, practise and apply the spelling pattern in different contexts.

PE

PE days are Monday and Wednesday. Please ensure your child has suitable clothing on PE days and come into school in their PE kit. PE kits should include a T-Shirt of the house colour, black or blue shorts/jogging bottoms, trainers, and a black or blue warm top for outdoor PE.  Children need to remove earrings and long hair needs to be tied back.

Supporting your child

There are so many ways to support your child's success.

Reading with your child is great for their writing development, social development, and much more. Ask them questions about what they are reading and what the story means - inference questions are especially good (e.g., "What do you think the character is feeling?" "Why do you think he did that?"). When you read with their child, recording their book and reading strengths and weaknesses in their Reading Records would be useful for us to monitor progress. We will do the same when we read with your child in school.

Finding opportunities for writing will support your child too. Writing postcards, stories, signs, newspapers, comics etc. all allow children to experience the creativity and freedom that can come through creative writing. 

In maths, practicing fluency in a number of areas could do wonders. We suggest: 

- Counting forwards and backwards from 0-20 

- Practicing the 2, 5, and 10x tables

- Involving your child when using maths in the real world is great for stimulating their curiosity and re-enforcing their learning i.e., weighing ingredients, spending money, setting the table (e.g. "If each person has 2 pieces of cutlery and there are 4 people at the table, how many pieces of cutlery do we need in total?"), telling the time, measuring length and distance, counting objects around the house etc., simple subtraction and addition ("I bought 6 apples but your brother ate 2... how many will be left?" or "I have 2 eggs but need 4 for my cake recipe, how many more do I need?")

Any and all practice will be a huge boost to your child's learning. 

Wellbeing

If your child would like support with wellbeing outside of school, you can try these resources. If you would like specific recommendations, please let me know. 

Smiling Mind - this is the mindfulness programme we are trying this year in Cherry. It is free to access and has a lot of great calming sessions. If you would like to learn more about it or access it for your child, see this website: https://www.smilingmind.com.au/

Books are a hugely beneficial tool for supporting social skills, emotional development, and conflict resolution skills. This list is a good place to start! 

https://cdn.literacytrust.org.uk/media/documents/Wellbeing_booklist_-_Manchester.pdf

The BBC has KS1 wellbeing support on a range of topics

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ks1-pshe/zfyskmn

Regulating emotions can be difficult for anyone. These resources might help. 

https://camhs.rdash.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/NL-Emotion-regulation-e-leaflet-02.21.pdf

https://readykids.com.au/7-fun-games-to-improve-emotional-regulation/

https://www.theottoolbox.com/childrens-books-for-zones-of-regulation/

https://www.readbrightly.com/7-books-to-help-kids-with-their-emotions/

Meet the teacher 2026