Welcome to Junior 2!

Junior 2 is a mixed year 5/6 class and their teacher is Mr Tyler.

24/4/25

Dear Parents/Carers,

I hope you have all had a good Easter.  We are all looking forward to a shirt but very busy half term.

During this half term in Junior 2, we will be finishing our ‘The Amazing Americas’ topic, including learning about the ancient and new wonders of the world, specifically those of the Americas, and the children will research a natural wonder of the Americas too.  We will then start a new topic ‘Stone Age to Iron Age’.

In English, for the first few weeks, we are going to be focussing on reading comprehension, and different areas of grammar and punctuation.  We will then move on to reports and journalistic writing using the book Tuesday by David Weisner as inspiration.  In maths, we will be learning about fractions, decimals and percentages.  We will also be learning how to calculate the mean of a set of data, how to calculate missing angles, as well as the properties of 2d and 3D shapes. 

In science, we will be finishing our work on the classification of living things, before moving on to looking at forces, which will include gravity, air resistance, water resistance, levers, pulleys and gears.  In RE, we will be trying to answer the question ‘How do people’s beliefs about God, the world and others have impact on their lives?’  In French, we will be learning vocabulary related to food and drink, as well as days of the week and time.  In art, the children will be learning about installation art.

For this half term, Junior 2 have PE on Wednesday and a Thursday, so on these days the children need to come to school in their PE kits.  On Wednesdays, we have Mr Geeves from Premier Education working with us, delivering tennis.  On Thursdays, our PE lessons will be cricket, where most weeks we will be working with coach Robin Baxter Simms from RB Sports Development.  The children also need to come to school in their PE kits on Friday 2^nd and 9^th May as we will be doing cross-country practice. 

Homework will be similar to last half term.  For maths, Y5s will continue to have Mathletics, which will be set before each weekend and is to be completed by the following Friday.  Y6 children will be continuing with their Y6 maths booklets, with pages set on either a Wednesday or a Thursday, and to be completed by the following Wednesday or Thursday (your child knows which day their book needs to be completed by).  Please support and encourage your child to complete this homework to the best of their ability and to a high standard.  There is also an expectation that children read at home each week both independently and to an adult, with the minimum requirement recorded in your child’s planner (they can always read more than this).  To show the reading has been completed, please sign your child’s reading pages for Friday each week. 

The children will continue to be given 20 spellings and will have 2 weeks to learn the spellings, before being tested every other Monday.  We will be working on the spelling rules and patterns in school, but please support and encourage your child to learn their spellings at home too.  All of this term’s spellings and the dates of the tests are on the class page of the school website. 

Please make sure your child has a water bottle in school, so that they can keep hydrated as the weather gets warmer.

Y6 SATs week

Year 6 SAT week takes place the week beginning Monday 13th May:

•         Monday 12th May: English grammar, punctuation and spelling papers 1 and 2

•         Tuesday 13th May: English reading paper

•         Wednesday 14th May: mathematics papers 1 (arithmetic) and 2 (reasoning)

•         Thursday 15th May: mathematics paper 3 (reasoning) 

All of the assessments will be taking place in the mornings.

Junior 2 Activity Week

This year's exciting activity week for Junior 2 will be the week commencing 14^th July.  Thank you for paying the deposit of £20 before the Easter holidays.  Just a reminder that we are asking for a 2nd payment of £21 to be paid by Thursday 22nd May, with the final payment of £21 to be paid by Thursday 26th June.

If you have any questions or would like to speak to me, please contact the school office if it is of an urgent nature.  If it is not urgent, please email junior2@gunthorpe.notts.sch.uk which I will be checking weekly.

Kind Regards

Mr J. Tyler

Orston v Gunthorpe Football Match - Monday 28th April

Our football team gave a super performance away at Orston Primary School, winning 8-3 in a match that was much closer than the score suggests.  The boys played some super football, scoring some great goals.  They should all be really proud of themselves.

3/6/24

Dear Parents,

I hope you have all had a great good half term holiday.  We have an extremely busy half term ahead of us with Year 5s completing their end of year assessments, Year 6s working towards their end of year writing assessments, our play “Let Loose” and we have our residential to Rock Uk’s Frontier Centre to look forward to in July as well. 

Firstly, I would like to remind all Junior 2 parents that there is a meeting in Junior 2 at 3.20pm this Thursday, 6^th June, where you will be provided with more information about our Rock UK residential

During this half term in Junior 2, will be learning about ‘The Maya Civilisation’, which will include lessons on meeting the Maya; gods and religion; the Maya number system; exploration and discovery; Maya writing; and food.  We will also be learning about Ancient Greece, which will include lessons on who the ancient Greeks were; democracy; the ancient Olympics; the Battle of Marathon; and the Trojan War.

In English, we have started by looking at persuasive writing, thinking about recycling.  We will then be using the books ‘Tin Forest’ by Helen Ward and Wayne Anderson, and ‘Dinosaurs and All That Rubbish’ by Michael Foreman as inspiration, to help us create posters and write stories.  In maths, we will be looking at properties of shapes, converting units of measurements; perimeter, area and volume; and statistics.

In science this term, we will be learning about life cycles, describing the differences in the life cycles of a mammal, an amphibian, an insect and a bird, as well as describing the life process of reproduction in some plants and animals.

For this half term, Junior 2 have PE on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  On Tuesdays, the children will be doing Outdoor, Adventurous Activity, which will involve orienteering with Mr Tyler.  On Wednesdays, we have Mr Geeves from Premier Education working with us, delivering tennis.  Year 6 also have an extra PE lesson this half term on a Thursday, when they will be working with another coach from Premier Education doing Danish Long Ball, which they have voted for.  Therefore, Year 5 children need to come to school in their PE kits on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and Year 6 pupils need to come to school in their PE kits on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.  After school, on Tuesdays this half term, there is also an after school netball club, being run by Mrs Owen (a letter about this has gone home with the children today – please encourage your child to sign up for this). 

In RE, we will be looking at answering the question ‘How do religions and beliefs respond to global issues of human rights, fairness, social justice and the importance of the environment?’.  In French, we will be finishing off our unit of work on be ‘School Life’, before moving on to shopping.  In computing, we will be looking at programming using Scratch and micro:bit.

On a Wednesday afternoon, Mrs Richardson will be teaching Design and Technology in Junior 2.  The unit of work in D & T is looking at mechanical systems to create a pop-up book.

For homework this half term, all children will have maths homework given on Mathletics, which will be set before each weekend and is to be completed by the following Friday.  Bug Club reading comprehension homework will be set on a regular basis where the children will be set a book and be given a deadline for when it needs to be completed by. Please support and encourage your child to complete this homework to the best of their ability and to a high standard.  There is also an expectation that children read at home each week both independently and to an adult, with the minimum requirement recorded in your child’s planner (they can always read more than this).  To show the reading has been completed, please sign your child’s reading pages for Friday each week. 

The children will continue to be given 20 spellings and will have 2 weeks to learn the spellings, before being tested every other Monday.  We will be working on the spelling rules and patterns in school, but please support and encourage your child to learn their spellings at home too.  All of this term’s spellings and the dates of the tests are on the class page of the school website. 

The children will be given their parts for our summer production ‘Let Loose’ this week.  Please help your child to learn their lines at home.  The children will also be given song words this week to learn as well – the songs are on the Junior 2 page of the school website.  Information on what the children need to wear for the performance will be sent out in the next couple of weeks.

Please make sure your child has a water bottle in school, so that they can keep hydrated as the weather gets warmer.

If you have any questions or would like to speak to me, please contact the school office if it is of an urgent nature.  If it is not urgent, please email junior2@gunthorpe.notts.sch.uk which I will be checking weekly.

Kind Regards

Mr J. Tyler

Monday 9th October - Flintham 6 - 3 Gunthorpe

Our school football team played their first match of the year away at Flintham Primary School on Monday.  It was an exciting game with Flintham winning 6-3.  A great effort from our team and a big thank you to all of the parents who came along to support.