Welcome to Willow

Teacher - Willow Jacob Millin
Photo of Jacob Millin

In Willow Class we support all of our children and young people to achieve the best that they can through an exciting and challenging approach to learning, both in the classroom and within the local community.

We make learning fun and rewarding through a series of projects based around a different theme each half term. Though this, our learners can experience and practice skills that demonstrate how each curriculum area can be applied in the real world.

We have the highest expectations and aspirations for all of our learners and continually adapt our approach in response to their changing needs and interests.

Willow Timetable Autumn Term 2

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Curriculum Information for Parents. Autumn Term 2Topic: Amazing Animals
SubjectIdeas for home
English: This half term we will be exploring the lives of animals and their habitats. Through a range of speaking, reading, writing and listening activities we will learn how a wide range of animals survive in the wild and use this information to create poetry, informative reports and imaginative stories. Read as many different sources of writing as possible -books, magazines, labels, advertisements, leaflets, cereal boxes! Encourage your child to try sounding out any tricky new words. What are your favourite animals? What words would you use to describe their size, colour, personality? We would love to share them in class!
Maths: We will be using tally charts, pictograms and bar charts to collect information and answer questions about a wide range of animals. Collecting this data will allow us to understand more about the similarities and differences between animals, which can be used in our work in English lessons. Play a game when out and about together. Use the tally charts to collect information about anything you like! (Colour of jackets people wear, colour of cars you see, type of vehicles you see, people wearing/not wearing hats). Make a prediction which category will have the most before you start. Were you right?
PSHE: The school community will be our focus this half term. We will discuss how we make a positive contribution to life in school as well as share our thoughts and ideas on how we can make the lives of all members of the school even better. Discuss rules and routines that you may have at home. How do they make home a good place to be? What could happen if these rules were not in place?
Science: To support our English and Maths work on animals, we will focus on classifying animals in our Science lessons. We will discover how to group animals together and the importance that this method held for Scientists such as Charles Darwin. Can you name 5 animals that all fit this criteria? • Has 4 legs. • Does not live in England. • Has a tail. • Has fur. e.g: A dog has 4 legs, a tail, fur, but it does live in England, so does not fit the criteria.
Design Technology: DT will be taught by Becky Cameron this year. The Autumn term will continue to focus on cookery skills in preparation for creating recipes in time for Christmas. What recipes are your favourite? Please feel free to bring in any recipe cards or ideas that you have found.
Computing: This half term we will be looking at how technology can be used to create databases. Pupils will learn how to collect, store and present data on their own chosen subject using Microsoft Excel. Ask your child to sort items such as their favourite objects, food, magazines or clothes into different orders. This could be size order, favourite to least favourite, newest to oldest or any other order that you think of together.
Art: We will be using the ‘grid method’ to draw a range of animals. This will allow pupils to capture all of the detail and scale of the animals that we explore, important aspects that early nature artists needed to think about before the age of cameras. Make use of the grid method template that has been sent home with your child so that they can practice using the technique on A4 sized pictures of their choice from books, magazines and posters.
History: Scott of the Antarctic will be our History topic this half term. Pupils will develop a good historical understanding of narrative of Scott’s expedition to the Antarctic, with all its highs and lows, and also asks questions about the sources that could have been used to document his remarkable journey to the South Pole. Talk to your child about what they already know about the Antarctic. What is the weather like there? What animals live there? What clothes would you take to survive there? How do explorers travel there?
Music: Pupils will explore the sounds of the rainforest this half term, using their voices to imitate the sounds the nature within them. We will also match instruments to the sounds of animals to create our own rainforest soundscape. Listen to music together and see how many different instruments you can hear? What does the music make you think of? How does it make you feel?
RE: In conjunction with our work in PSHE we will look at how different religions come together to celebrate festivals at this time of year. How do you celebrate with your family? What do you all celebrate together? (birthdays, Christmas, anniversaries of special events?)
PE: We will be playing a series of team based games this half term, such as bench ball, indoor cricket and athletics.Encourage your child to be active and aim for one physical activity each day. What exercises can we do when we are sat down?