Hedgehogs - Year 2

Welcome to Hedgehog class! On Monday and Tuesday, we are taught by Mr Lester, who has been teaching at Bedwell for 8 years and is brilliant at drama and computing. On Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays our teacher is Mrs Rose, who has been teaching at Bedwell for 11 years. She really likes science and storytelling, and is determined to make our lessons as much fun as possible!

Home learning ideas:

  • Constant practice of reading and phonics is just about the most valuable thing you can do at home. Try to read with your child as often as possible and talk to them about what they’ve read. We've put together some advice and guidance on using the books your child will bring home, here.
  • BBC Bitesize has some great learning resources at www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zv2mn39/ where you can learn more about making charts and pictograms. 
  • Share stories, pictures, postcards and mementos from seaside trips in the past. What things did you do at the seaside? Why did you go to that particular place? If you’ve been to the seaside in different countries, think about what is similar and different about all these places.
  • We will be learning about the properties of materials and the reasons why different things are made from different materials, so try going on a materials hunt when you’re out and about - how many things can we spot that are made from plastic? Why do you think they chose to use that material? What other material could be used instead?

Our latest news:

  • Hedgehog class enjoyed every minute of our Science Week. We had the opportunity to get ‘hands-on’ with a friendly group of animals - we all managed to stroke a bearded dragon, hold a guinea pig and even watch an African toad eating his lunch. Later in the week we completed a senses trail, trying to work out what the sounds, smells, close-up pictures and hidden materials all belonged to. We also tackled the Knex challenge, working in teams to build a helicopter. Our class winners were Arabella and Cassie, and Aina and Grace. 
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  • We had a lovely Stay and Count session where our parents joined us to play maths games in class. We were delighted that so many of you were able to join us! 
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  • Our history topic has seen us learning about the Great Fire of London. As part of this unit, we compared firefighting in the past with firefighting in the present day, and were invited to Stevenage Firestation to meet a team of firefighters. The best part of the day was when we climbed up into the fire engine and got to use the hose!
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  • We have enjoyed practising and getting ready for our performance of Knock Knock. We loved learning the songs, actions and words, and loved performing the finished show. Thank you to everyone who came to watch us. 
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  • We had a fantastic visit to see Goldilocks in Milton Keynes on the 10th December. It was a great day out and we all loved getting to join in with the show by laughing, singing and booing. We were especially excited when two children from our school were invited on stage to sing the final song with the star, Brian Conley! 
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"Pupils are confident and have well-developed social skills… The school is a calm and orderly place in which to learn."

Ofsted report, 2022
We have been learning about... 

Maths - We started the term learning about graphs and money. We used scales to weigh small objects in grams. Then we learned to tell the time using our special TOothPASTe method! This helped us to realise whether the time was quarter-to or quarter-past the hour. At the end of the term we have been learning how to double and halve two-digit numbers, developing useful strategies to help us to do this accurately.

 

English - As part of our learning in English, we studied the text Milo Imagines with World, which is all about a little boy with a big imagination. We used the story as a starting point for our own creative writing ideas and produced some wonderful setting descriptions, diary entries and short stories, all told from the viewpoint of Milo. We were encouraged to add interest to our work by using well-chosen verbs and adjectives to describe the setting. You can see some great examples of our work below: 

Milo sat on the train. Milo saw a lady with black hair. Milo imagined that the lady was a ballerina with yellow hair and a bright pink skirt and shirt. Milo saw a cool lady. Milo imagined that the lady was a skater with long brown hair and cool pink skates. Milo saw a smart baby with black hair. Milo imagined that smart baby was teaching letters to the naughty children in school. 

By Ella Nour 

Dear Diary, Today I went with my sister to the park. I saw the birds sitting in the tall tree. I heard the people coming in to the train. I saw my mum and she had made a new friend. I showed my mum my pictures it was so lovely. I felt happy because I saw my mum so I ran to her and hugged her. I went home on the train and I saw a smart boy. 

By Stefan 

The train clattered in the track. The car horn beeped loudly. The sun shined on the river. The dog slept in the warm dog bed. The birds slept in the tall, brown tree. 

By Ryan

This term's topics

English - We will start the term by focussing on recounts, using the picture book Here I Am, by Patti Kim, as our core text. We will explore the way that authors use recounts to retell events that have happened in the past, using simple past tense. We will also be developing our use of conjunctions (like but, if and because) to link ideas together and apostrophes to show that something belongs to someone. We will then draw all of these skills together in order to write our own recounts. Later in the term we will switch our focus to instructions. We will investigate the way that these texts are organised and explore the meaning of lots of new words, before writing instructions of our own.

Maths - We will be focussing on division and multiplication over the next few weeks. For multiplication, we will progress from using objects and drawings to thinking about the link between multiplication, repeated addition and arrays. We will also learn how to solve two-step problems using jottings to explain our thinking. In division, we will be developing our understanding of sharing and grouping, again beginning with objects and drawings, and working towards being able to solve problems with pencil and paper methods. Finally, we will be exploring the idea of fractions, learning to find fractions of lengths, shapes, sets of objects and quantities, including finding 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 2/4 and 3/4.

Science - This term we will be investigating the properties of different materials, sorting them in a variety of ways and designing our own tests to find out how suitable they are for different jobs. We will think about the reasons why certain materials are used for specific purposes and suggest suitable alternatives that could be used for everyday tasks.

Humanities - In our geography lessons, we will be learning about seaside environments. We will discuss what people do when they go on seaside holidays and learn about natural and man-made features that we find in these places. We will then choose a specific seaside resort to investigate further (selected based on our own experiences) and compare this town with life in Stevenage. In history, meanwhile, we will explore seaside holidays from the past and discover how they have changed over the years. We will use photos, video clips and first-hand accounts to support our learning, and will use all of this to discuss how seaside environments have changed.

Take a look at our curriculum map for more information on our topics.

Early Years Admissions  

If you're looking for a place in Nursery or Reception, you can find out lots more about our school in our Early Years Prospectus.

We're always keen to show potential new applicants around - just get in touch with the school office to arrange a tour. 

Once you're ready to apply, head to the admissions page to find out more about the process - we run Nursery admissions ourselves, but from Reception upwards, these need to be made via Herts County Council.