BIRCH 2025 - 2026

Hello and welcome to our class page for: 

Birch Class - Autumn Term 2025

Claire is the class teacher in Birch, supported by Rebecca, Danielle, Lucy, Magda, Adrian, Jess, Kaitlin and Farhiya, our wonderful Teaching Assistants who work across three classes.                                             

Special Breakfast happens each week on a Friday where we give our certificates to our Rights Respecting Superstars and find out which Duty bearers have earned an extra special mention too. During Special Breakfast, we all sit together and celebrate in the achievements of others whilst eating a range of foods including pancakes, waffles, toast, eggs, fruit and yogurts.

We do offer a healthy breakfast each morning when the children arrive to get them settled and ready for the day ahead. During this session the children complete Early Bird activities and undertake reading and computer based tasks.

Each morning we have a phonics session to build upon individual's knowledge of sounds in order to enable them to be fluent readers. We follow the Little Wandle phonics scheme. Children are in different phonics groups, according to the sounds that they are working on.

Please try and read with your child regularly either online using Renaissance or using a reading book if you have requested one to be sent home. If you would like your child's log in details for Renaissance then please do pop me a message and I will send this out to you. I can also share the login details for Purple Mash if your child would like to undertake activities at home.

HOME & REMOTE LEARNING:

Pupils have been given their login details to access our school learning apps at home. Please contact your class team if you need the log in details to be re-sent.

• Purple Mash – https://www.purplemash.com/sch/bridgeleapupilre 
• Renaissance - https://login.renaissance.com/12d2c6fd-4cae-4a7f-a67b-31ae958a9006?state=1380400c-381c-43d6-bbab-16bb1193d0d0 

In the first half of the Autumn term we will be focussing on:                                                                                                     

• ENGLISH: We will be focusing on the story and characters from I can Catch a Monster. We will be using the strategies from Talk for Writing to enhance writing, bring writing to life and to enable all learners to see themselves as writer. We will be focusing on characters, using a range of distinguishing features to describe and using colourful semantics to focus on 'who', 'what' and 'where'.
• We will  have daily phonics lessons and we begin our journey into reading by sharing reading books with the children, initially with pictures to develop oracy and comprehension skills.
• In all our written work, we will be trying to apply the phonics that we learn.
• MATHS: We are focussing on number, number names, knowing quantities, ordering numbers, using the vocabulary related to more/less, one to one correspondence, odd and even numbers, and sharing equally and in identify and representing numbers with Numicon and Rekonreks. We will be looking at 2D and 3D shapes, using language of sides, edges, faces, corners and vertices.  
• PSHE : We will focusing on the rights of the children, using Zones of Regulation to express feelings and emotions and developing relationships with everyone on our class. We will be using the iMatters curriculum units around Living in the Wider World this half term which will focus around rights, class rules, money and democracy. 
• Language and Communication: We will be using Talk Boost to enhance our language and communication offer.
• Skills for Life: We are working on the communication strand focusing on the steps to effective speaking and listening. In addition to communication we will be working on the skills required to build relationships, play cooperatively, share equipment and in having safe bodies. 
• Emma, our art teacher, will be with us this half term to spend time painting and in creating a school mural which involves all staff and children.
• In PE, we will be focusing on team games, taking turns and in following the rules of games.

We continually strive to promote positve behaviours and will give raffle tickets, celebratory certificates and have our weekly prize draw. If you would like any further information or would like to speak to a member of our team, please do not hesitate to give us a call.