15th November 2024

The children have continued to enjoy learning all about the Stone Age period and this week we created some lovely representations of cave drawings in our art session.

Miss Ferguson

8th November 2024

Hope you all had a lovely half term holiday, it seemed to go very quickly.  We had a great first week back and the children were very excited to meet Ethel. 

We have begun our new text 'Stone Age Boy; and this has really captured the interest of the whole class. All our outdoor learning sessions this half term will focus on the Stone Age. This week we looked at the role of the hunter gatherers and gathered some foods that we think the Stone Age people may have eaten including apples, blackberries, raspberries and dandelion leaves. We also looked at where the Stone Age period fits on a timeline.

In English we have started to write expanded noun phrases to describe images in the story, In maths we have started calculation using the formal written method.

Miss Ferguson

25th October 2024

We have finished off our pillows and the children have been very excited to bring these home to show you.

We ended our Orion topic writing poems and acrostics based on the Sound Collector where we explored lots of examples of onomatopoeia.

In French we have learnt to say all the numbers to 10 and the 10 most common colours too. 

We finished off the week with Hot Dogs in Forest School and Halloween poetry. We also reminded ourselves of the Firework code and Bonfire night safety should we attend early Bonfire celebrations during the holidays.

Have a wonderful half term you have all thoroughly deserved your week off.

Miss Ferguson

11th October 2024

We have moved on to addition and subtraction in our Maths sessions where we have used place value charts to help us. In English we have almost finished writing diaries based on our class text Orion and the Dark. We have planned and drafted, our next steps are to edit and publish.

We have also started our DT project where we will be making a pillow. This week we designed what we wanted to make and will be spending most of Monday making this. Hopefully these will look very similar to our designs once they are finished!

We had a short outdoor learning session on Thursday but we all managed to plant daffodil bulbs and use the saws to saw some wood in the hour we had. 

We finished the week off with an unexpected PE session which was led by the Year 6 children. We thoroughly enjoyed it and thought the Year 6's will make great play leaders.

Miss Ferguson

4th October 2024

Last week saw our final recorder session for this half term. We have now learnt how to play B, A and G and were able to put these notes together to play Hot Cross Buns! Whilst we may not be ready for the philharmonic orchestra just yet, I was impressed that they could play a recognisable tune considering they hadn't used a recorder 3 weeks ago.

The weather was very kind to us on Thursday for outdoor learning and we enjoyed making clay lamps, using lard as a fuel with string as a wick. We also worked in groups to make bug hotels and found lots of bugs to put inside them.

Our tennis skills are coming on nicely and we are able to rally the ball to and from each other with great success. Keeping the ball going for a long time. It will be a shame when these sessions stop at half term.

Miss Ferguson

27th September 2024

It was lovely to have parents in school for our MacMillan coffee morning on Friday, the children really enjoyed sharing a drink and decorating a biscuit with you.

We had our first fire of the year in outdoor learning and the children loved toasting marshmallows to create their own s'mores. We built stick towers and played noughts and crosses with natural materials. We also did lots of problem solving.

Miss Ferguson

20th September 2024

Last week we had our first recorder lesson which we all enjoyed very much. The children learnt how to hold the recorder and play the B note. We are looking forward to developing this further and introducing the A note next week.

Once again outdoor learning was thoroughly enjoyed by all. We made natural paintbrushes and painted with mud, had a go at tying knots and did some leaf rubbings. 

In English we continued with our story Orion and the Dark and looked at chapter 2 of The Owl who was afraid of the dark. We also wrote some expanded noun sentences and used adverbials in our descriptive writing too.

In Maths we have been looking at the place value of numbers up to 1000 using place value charts, part whole models and Base 10 to help us. 

We have also begun our times tables race. We have 3 minutes to get 40 times table questions right starting with our 2 times tables. Once we have achieved this three times we will be moving onto our 5's and 10's.

Miss Ferguson

13th September 2024

The children in year 3 have had a very busy couple of weeks back and we have got straight into our new learning. We have had a few practical maths sessions where the children have used Base 10 to partition 2 digit and 3 digit numbers. We have also been looking at expanded noun phrases in our book Orion and the dark.

Year 3 have particularly enjoyed getting back to outdoor learning after a year away. We took the opportunity to do some science work - demonstrating how Earth rotates around the sun whilst spinning on its own axis. The children also had a go at whittling some wood and using a flint and steel to make fire.

Miss Ferguson

19th July 2024

Well... we have come to the end of Year 2. We've had a wonderful year of learning and I've loved teaching you - you are all superstars!

Have an amazing summer Year 2 and I'll see you around school!

Mrs Grannon

12th July 2024

What a great week of sport we’ve had!

Our ‘Olympic country’ of choice was China and we have loved learning about Chinese culture. We’ve experienced lots of Olympic inspired sporting activities this week and we had a wonderful Sport’s Day. Thank you for coming to support the children and thank you for joining us for the ‘Stay and Play’ session.

I can’t believe we have come to the final week of Year 2 already!

Mrs Grannon

28th June 2024

We had a great time at Inmans this week for the KS1 singing morning. The children discussed The Olympics and then shared ‘Olympic-inspired’ songs with other Year 2 classes from our local cluster schools. I was impressed with how well they walked there and back (in the heat!) and they were wonderful representatives of Preston Primary School displaying exemplary behaviour.

Back at school, we have been taking part in assessment week. I’ve never known a class like assessments so much! They cheer at the prospect of reading comprehensions and mathematics papers! They have all worked really hard and will have an ice-lolly treat on Friday to celebrate their last paper.

Mrs Grannon

21st June 2024

Well... what an amazing performance of our Year 1 and 2 play! We hope you enjoyed watching.

I'm very proud of how hard every child worked on this. For most, this was completely out of their comfort zone and a huge jump from our previous whole school projects. They took it in their stride and showed great confidence on the day - it is very intimidating looking out and seeing an audience in the normally empty hall! Plus, we definitely have some budding performers on our hands!

I can't wait to see what they all achieve in the future.

Mrs Grannon

14th June 2024

This week, final rehearsals for our end of year play have been underway and it is really starting to come together. The children are looking and sounding wonderful; I know they are very excited to show you next week.

In maths, we have started to look at telling the time. We recapped half past and o’clock and have now moved onto quarter past and quarter to. The children have already started to take an interest in what time of day it is and will shout out “It’s half past… or it’s … o’clock” at any opportunity they get! Encouraging this new learning at home will be really beneficial to their long term understanding of time as it is a really tricky concept for children to learn.

Another great week in Year 2 - sadly not many left now!

Mrs Grannon

7th June 2024

What a fun start to the final term of Year 2!

On Wednesday, we had a very exciting visit from the Fire Brigade. This tied in really well with our new topic “The Great Fire of London”. Be sure to look at the photos on Weduc - the children had a great time!

On Thursday, some of the Year 2 children joined the rest of the School Council to visit London. They went to the Houses of Parliament to learn about law making and debates and they even got to go on the London Eye!

Then Friday saw us invite our families to school for a special picnic to commemorate D-Day.

Wow! All in the first week back!

Mrs Grannon

17th May 2024

In English we have been writing poetry linked to our focus text ‘Lila and the Secret of Rain’. The children created ‘African inspired’ call and response poems to discuss a key moment of the story. I’ve been blown away by their efforts and bravery to stand up and perform their poem to the class. Fantastic work Year 2!

In art, the children were introduced to the artist ‘Clarice Cliff’ and learned about her tree plate designs. Year 2 then created their own plates, using concentric circles and silhouette trees, inspired by the artist. It was a lot of fun and the children enjoyed creating this piece of work - as did I!

In maths, we’ve continued our learning on fractions. The children can confidently recognise ½, ⅓ and ¼ now and they are becoming increasingly confident in finding fractions of amounts.

Well done Year 2!

Mrs Grannon

10th May 2024

This week, Year 2 have been working hard on fractions in maths and in English they have been writing their draft reports about Kenya. 

We've also enjoyed making and painting clay tiles in Art as well as rehearsing for the Year 1 and 2 production! What a busy week!

Mrs Grannon

3rd May 2024

Year 2 enjoyed a sporting afternoon on Monday, led by the Year 9 boys from Holderness Academy. I was really proud to watch every Year 2 child take part with enthusiasm and respect. They really did demonstrate our school expectations of being “Ready, Respectful and Safe” and were fantastic representatives of our school.

Well done Year 2!

Mrs Grannon

26th April 2024

This week, plans have been underway for the Year 1/2 production. All Year 2 children have come home with lines to learn and any support you can give them at home is greatly appreciated. More information about dates and costumes will be shared in due course.

We’ve also taken part in a golf session this week as well as working hard across all lessons.

Keep up the good work Year 2!

Mrs Grannon

19th April 2024

This week we have started looking at our new focus book - Lila and The Secret of Rain. The children have been developing their inference and retrieval skills to answer questions about the text. We have also had in-depth conversations about drought and how precious water is across the world.

In maths, we have continued our measurement topic by looking at mass this week. Thank you to parents/carers for supporting the children with their maths homework - it really helps to consolidate their learning.

Mrs Grannon

12th April 2024

What a great first week back at school - Science Week!

We have enjoyed lots of exciting science activities this week: 

• We’ve explored different materials and designed suitable outfits for the action-figure ‘Traction Man’. 
• We’ve explored what can happen when you put white flowers in water with food colouring.
• We’ve looked at how water travels through ‘capillary action’ in a ‘Walking Water’ experiment. 
• We’ve had a wonderful visit from a Biomedical Scientist (thank you again Elsie’s mum). 
• We’ve held a dunking biscuit experiment to decide once and for all which is the best biscuit to dunk in tea!



As well as this, we’ve had lots of insightful scientific discussions whilst looking at videos/pictures of different science based topics. I’ve been really impressed with their knowledge this week and their eagerness to join in with the activities. 

What a wonderful week of learning Year 2! 

Mrs Grannon

15th March 2024

This week we say goodbye to Miss Hart - our trainee teacher. We wish her all the best in her future endeavours.

Mrs Grannon

8th March 2024

We had a wonderful school trip today! We took a bus to Hull and the wonderful staff from Trans Pennine Express/Northern Railway gave us a tour of the train station. Then, we got to travel on the train to Brough and back. We learned so much and some of us got to experience train travel for the first time. We even received a book each from the lovely people at Trans Pennine Express to celebrate World Book Day! 

What an amazing day we had!

Mrs Grannon

9th February 2024

What a wonderful end to the half-term it’s been! The children have worked really hard on publishing their Queen Victoria reports - they are very excited to bring them home to share with you.

You may have also noticed we are proudly displaying our art work on the Year 2 windows at the moment. The children were working pairs to create a superhero fight scene using lots of different skills and techniques. I’m sure you’ll agree they are very eye-catching!

Have a lovely half-term break Year 2 - you deserve it!

Mrs Grannon

2nd February 2024

Well… Victorian Day was a hit in Year 2 this week! If you haven’t done so already, please check out the photos on Weduc. It was lovely to see the children enjoying the day - I think wearing the dunce's hat was a highlight for most!

As well as this, the children have continued to work hard in all lessons. In English, their non-chronological reports are coming together well and I know they will be eager to share these with you next week.

Mrs Grannon

15th December 2023

What a wonderful week we have had! Outdoor learning on Tuesday was a personal highlight for me. It was lovely to see the children engaged, relaxed and playing together in the wildlife area. We are hoping to have more sessions soon!

We have also spent time concluding many of our topics this week ready for our final week of Christmas celebrations. The children clearly have learned a lot about Rosa Parks and discrimination; I have enjoyed teaching this subject to them and listening to their views. Their final ‘big write’ has been a letter to the President explaining why Rosa should not have been arrested. They have tried really hard and I’m proud of all their efforts.

Mrs Grannon

24th November 2023

We’ve been learning about strengthening materials this week. We learned that the shape of a structure affects it strength - this concluded in us building a “super-structure” to see if paper was strong enough to sit on. We were surprised to see it was!

On Thursday, Mrs Hackett arranged for the whole school to take part in a Diwali workshop. We had a fantastic time! Check out our photos on Weduc.

Mrs Grannon

17th November 2023

This week we have continued learning about Rosa Parks - exploring why she is a famous person in history. We have also looked at hidden sugars in drinks and explored the importance of fitness for a healthy lifestyle.

In English, the children have been working towards writing a diary entry inspired by Rosa Parks. They have enjoyed acting out one of the incidents in the book and there are some budding actors in Year 2.

Fabulous work Year 2!

Mrs Grannon

20th October 2023

This week, the children have been working very hard in maths. They have been trying to master the strategy of making 10 when adding two numbers. It proved a bit tricky to start with but they are all getting the hang of it now. In English we’ve started to write our letters from the character ‘Wild’. I was blown away by their ideas during our shared writing task. My stand out sentence came from George, who said “My tears are as big as the waves in the sea.” What a super sentence George! 

Well done Year 2.

Mrs Grannon

15th September 2023

This week, the children have had their first full week on timetable. They have worked really hard in all lessons and I have been very impressed.

The children have enjoyed reading our class text (Wild) and have made insightful predictions about the story. I’ve been really pleased with their ‘book talk’ and their understanding of different habitats.

My highlight of the week was our Jigsaw lesson (PSHE). The children were very respectful of each other - they listened and helped one another with tips for overcoming worries. What a great team!

Mrs Grannon

8th September 2023

What a fantastic start to Year 2! We have spent most of the week settling into our new classroom and learning our new routines. The children have been wonderfully behaved and it has been a pleasure to spend time with them. We have shared lots of books to help with our transition into Year 2. Through the use of ‘Our Class is a Family’, we have created our class expectations together and discussed how we are able to support each other. We have also used ‘The Colour Monster’ and ‘The Colour Monster goes to School’ to gently explore and identify our emotions and those of others. As well as this, we have started our new topic - Seaside Resorts - and we have enjoyed getting to grips with TTRockstars. I think it is going to be a firm favourite this year! Finally, we would like to give a big welcome to Noah who has joined us at Preston this week and has settled into our little class family already. We are very pleased to have you with us, Noah. Well done Year 2! Miss Bramhall and I are looking forward to the year ahead.

Mrs Grannon

18th July 2022

Keeping cool in the sun. Today our Foundation children enjoyed an ice pop to help keep them cool and made their own paddling pool.  What a great idea!

17th May 2022

Foundation & Year 1 had a fantastic trip to Pink Pig Farm. They learnt lots about animals and farm machinery. They looked at wild flowers and did lots of exploring.

5th May 2022

The children are enjoying finding out about different African animals this week, especially the Big 5 (lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and buffalo). We had the story Handa’s Surprise last week and this captured the children’s interest in the different animals, as well as life in a different country. We have a big book of maps and a globe in the classroom, and this has opened up lots of discussion about places some of the children have visited on holiday. You may have seen our willow structure under the canopy - this will eventually be a hot air balloon as we are also finding out about different ways of travelling.

The children are now using our school library on a Wednesday afternoon in small groups. This session involves looking at a wide variety of books, handling books carefully, book related activities such as creating bookmarks, and learning how to use a library and select books. We are all really enjoying this quiet time to share books together.

The non-fiction books are a favourite at the moment - the children love looking at photographs of animals!

In our maths sessions this week, we have practised recalling the pairs of numbers that make 10 e.g. 6 + 4. The children have watched a Numberblocks episode with a lovely song to help them learn these - Ten Again. This can be viewed on BBCiplayer, Numberblocks Series 3, Episode Ten Again if you want to practise at home - I can’t guarantee you won’t have the song stuck in your head all week though!

18th February 2022

The children have had a very busy week and are ready for the half-term break. In our very rainy outdoor learning session the children had lots of jobs to do in the poly-tunnel. Thank you to Mrs Pearson who stood in the rain and kept our fire going so we could make soup! The children sat in the poly-tunnel to eat their soup and enjoyed listening to the rain outside.

4th February 2022

We have really enjoyed our Chinese New Year celebrations!  The highlight was our dragon dance and drums in the hall! We also enjoyed our lunch on Tuesday - it was lovely to eat with the children and chat with them. This week we have had a go at some yoga poses every morning. This has been a great way to start our day and get ready for our learning. It is also a good way of strengthening the core muscles needed for stability and balance, which helps with sitting still, gross motor skills, and fine motor skills needed for writing. As the children are enjoying this start to the day, we are going to continue with this every morning for 5-10 minutes. We will keep you updated on our progress!

Next week we are going to use the book Peepo by Janet and Allan Ahlberg to compare and contrast similarities and differences between the past and present. We will look at some artefacts and photographs from the past, as well as exploring the past and present in our ongoing areas and following the interests of the children through this theme. It would be great if the children could bring a photograph to school next week of when they were a baby or toddler for a game of Guess Who!

29th January 2022

The children are enjoying our traditional stories, in particular The Three Little Pigs. They have made houses using different materials, which we tested with an electric fan to see if the houses blew down! We have turned one of the areas into a building merchants/yard selling bricks and planks of wood etc. We have used props to recreate the story of The Three Pigs after watching a ballet performance. In our writing this week, the children have made little books to retell the story in their own words and we have created a class story adding actions and sound effects.

On Tuesday it is the Chinese New Year and this year is the year of the Tiger! We will spend this week finding out more about the celebration. On Tuesday our school lunch is Sticky Chicken and Noodles; we will also taste some prawn crackers with a dipping sauce and try vegetable spring rolls.

19th January 2022

We are having a lovely week this week. The children continue to enjoy model making - thank you for the boxes etc. you are sending in. It is great to see the children keep models as a 'work in progress', returning to them later to add more and refine their work.  The latest addition to our classroom is a dressmaking mannequin. We have provided the children with lots of fabric and pins, and they have created some very fashionable outfits today! We have shown them how to use the pins safely and they have worked really carefully - lots of teamwork is involved too, with the children working together to attach the fabric.

In Phonics we are now working on the Phase 3 sounds. This starts with j, v, w, x, y, z, zz, qu and then moves onto the consonant digraphs ch, sh, th, ng, followed by vowel digraphs which I will explain in more detail when we get to them. The children have used their whiteboards this week to practise writing 3-letter words as well as the tricky words I, to, the, into, no, go. We are beginning to learn the Phase 3 tricky words, starting with he, she, we, me, be.

The children are enjoying the traditional stories we are reading - we have used different versions of stories using books and audio clips. We have retold stories in our groups and it is lovely to see the children using story language such as 'Once upon a time...' or 'happily ever after'. This week we are reading The Three Little Pigs and next week it is The Gingerbread Man.

In outdoor learning on Monday everyone enjoyed making wands and we practised our fire safety rules. We were very impressed that the children had remembered how to move around when we have our fire. We just had hot chocolate this week but our next campfire treat, the week after next, will be a stir-fry to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

9th January 2022

It is lovely to see the children back at school - they have all remembered our daily routine and coped very well with the first few days last week. They had lots to tell us about their Christmas break and produced some lovely pictures and writing about their new toys!

13th December 2021

Christmas Sparkle Morning - A wonderful morning was had with parents joining their children to make Christmas crafts and wreathes.

17th November 2021

What a busy week the children in Foundation are having! We have made a start on our Nativity story this week and the children are beginning to practise our end-of-term performance. We are also starting to learn songs for our Nativity so you may hear them practising at home! 

As part of our work on ‘Celebrating Difference’, the children have painted some fantastic pictures of themselves and we have talked about things we are good at. It has been lovely to listen to the children talk about the things they are proud of - these have ranged from swimming and singing to drawing and gymnastics!

We had a little visitor yesterday - a hedgehog wandering across the outdoor area! The hedgehog seemed a little under-nourished and stressed, so after seeking advice we took it to a rescue centre. It will now spend a few days under a heat lamp, resting and eating. We are able to ring up and see how things are going in a couple of days and hopefully the hedgehog can be returned to us to hibernate in our wildlife garden.

The children then found another hedgehog in our garden today! With all this excitement we feel it is important we all find out about hedgehogs and hibernation. Next week we will be reading stories about hedgehogs, looking at non-fiction texts and creating our own hedgehog information book to share with the rest of the school. We will also be creating a den for the hedgehog during our outdoor learning session on Monday.

5th November 2021

The children have had a good week back at school after their half term break. They were very excited to talk about the things they had done during their week off!

This term we are finding out about celebrations and special times, starting with Bonfire Night and Diwali this week, then later Remembrance Day and Christmas. We have talked about Guy Fawkes and also how we can keep ourselves safe during the Bonfire Night celebrations. We will continue to notice seasonal changes and will find out how animals prepare for the winter months.

In our phonics sessions, our phonemes (letter sounds) this week are g, o and c. The children are learning how to match sounds to letters when writing and are beginning to label their pictures and make signs to display around the classroom. Signs created by the children this week include ‘Stay Away’ and ‘Stop!’ They have taped the signs to models they have made to stop other children touching the model and have covered our packed lunch trolley in signs to stop a lizard eating the lunches! It is lovely to see them using their imaginations and being motivated to write. In maths this week we have explored patterns and the children have created repeating patterns. The children are also practising counting objects carefully as well as writing the numbers to 5 correctly.

We ended our week making and eating chocolate sparklers dipped in sprinkles!

30th September 2021

What a busy couple of weeks we have had! We have almost completed our baseline assessments, enabling us to plan carefully the next steps for our learning. The children are enjoying our daily phonics sessions and we have looked at the letter sounds 's' and 'a' so far. It would be great if the children could find objects at home that start with either sound. They could bring a photo of their collection of objects for our phonics display. The children seem to be enjoying the picture books we are sending home and they are getting to know the characters. We are also sharing these books regularly at school, either individually or in small groups. In our daily number sessions, we have enjoyed singing counting songs and have started some number formation. The children have practised forming the numbers 1, 2 and 3 so far. We have learnt some facts about stick insects (our class pets) and we have set up a Lego area in the classroom as this seems to be a favourite when it comes to construction equipment! Last Friday we used the large apparatus in the school hall during our PE session. We were very impressed with the way the children listened carefully to the instructions and used the apparatus safely. The children are coping very well with answering our register and making their lunch choices - we no longer need to do this at the door as the children come in; instead we sit as a group to take the lunch register. Our class behaviour focus this week is 'to use our hands carefully and safely when we are playing'. This covers being kind to one another as well as looking after our equipment and carrying tools such as scissors safely.

10th September 2021

What a great first week! The children did really well at lunchtime today and should feel really proud of themselves. We will have our first outdoor learning/gardening session next week - wellies and old clothes at the ready!

7th September 2021

We have been very busy getting the classroom and outdoor area ready for the children arriving tomorrow. Mrs Hackett and Mrs Pearson are really excited to see all our new children families in the morning