Birstwith CE Primary School

Welcome

We are delighted to welcome you to our class page. We will be using this to update you on all the exciting things we are getting up to in Class 2 - Year 2, 3 and 4

Our teacher is Miss Watkin and our HLTA is Mrs Paxton. During PPA time, Mrs Paxton teaches us music and French.

We are doing some brilliant work and enjoying lots of exciting learning opportunities together! Please do have a look at our page to see some of the wonderful things we are getting up to this year...

Note to parents: (Updated January 2026)

PE takes place on a Monday. This half term, we will be inside, strutting our stuff in our dance topic! We are lucky to have our fantastic Sporting Influence instructor Mr Crooks to lead us through this. Please ensure children have correct PE kit for this. We will then be swimming on a Thursday - children will need full swimming kit each week for their trip to The Hydro.

Please ensure your child comes to school with a water bottle and appropriate clothing for the weather - it has been very wet at the moment, so a waterproof coat is always good to have on hand.

Homework will be sent home on a Monday to be completed and is to be returned by Monday - this includes weekly spellings and olne task for both maths and literacy on LbQ.

Please read with your child at least 3 times per week, encouraging them to read independently additionally to this. Where possible, discuss the text with them including the events, motives and actions happening to build comprehension and fluency in word reading. Please record this in their reading record (they can take increasing independence of this, writing in the session themselves) and please ensure these are both brought into school each day to allow teaching staff to read with children regularly.

If you have any questions or queries throughout the year, please do approach Miss Watkin via email - ewatkin@birstwith.n-yorks.sch.uk.

Useful Documents:

Year 3-4 Vocabulary Exploration (This document supports the acquisition, comprehension and spelling of Y3/4 statutory spellings).

Class 2 Curriculum documents

Curriculum overview Class 2 Autumn.pptx

Curriculum Overview - Autumn Term 2025.pptx

Curriculum Overview - Spring Term Class 2.pptx

Class 2 text map Sp1 2025-26.docx

Class Texts Year 1 Spring 1 2026.pdf

Spring Term 2025/6

After a fun-filled Christmas break, Class 2 are ready and raring to go with their learning! Over this half term we will be reading new texts and starting lots of exciting topics. Below, you can see some of the brilliant things we've been up to.

Lily's Ladybirds

We were very excited this week when Lily told us she had something for show and tell - a jar of real-life ladybirds! It was amazing to look at them in the little ladybird hotel she had made for them. Don't worry, all ladybirds were promptly returned to their rightful homes once we'd had a look!

Birds nest carousel

Our topics in art this half term revolves around birds and their habitats. This week, we thought about all the different ways an artist might illustrate a bird's nest. During this time, we thought about all the different ways that artwork can be challenging, and how some matierals are easier to use than others. Then, we had a go at three different activities in our books - we made 'invisible' drawings using white wax crayon, that revealed themselves when brushed with ink. We made 3D nest collages using scraps of fabric and raffia and finally we used pastels to create colourful nest drawings. Each method had its own challenges and requires us to be resilient.

Autumn Term 2025/6

Doesn't six weeks go quickly! Class 2 were really excited to be back in the classroom after the long summer break - especially since we have a whole new classroom and class structure. Class 2 now consists of Y2,3 and 4 on a morning, and Y3/4 on an afternoon. We're also very excited to be able to occupy the top classroom, high up in the roof of our Victorian building. We're looking forward to starting our new year's worth of learning, alongside trips and visits to help excite our imaginations and power our interests.

Building bodies

In science this week, we had a look at how our skeleton fits together and hoe we can move it around. We built these models to show how the bones in our arm fit together and move using a hinge joint at the elbow. They were even life-sized!

Digital art

In art this week, we went outside to look at our school area and see if we could find some artistic inspiration. First, we took some photographs using our school iPads and then used these pictures to create digital artwork using SketchPad. Take a look at some of our digital and photographic outcomes.

Ashville Football Festival

We were so excited to be invited by Sporting Influence to take part in a football festival against some other schools in our local area. We really enjoyed wearing our school kit and heading out there on our very own minibus. When we got there, we warmed up and then played lots of games against children from other schools. Because our team was bigger than the 7-a-side required, we took turns playing and cheering our friends on - there was so much good communication, sportsmanship and turn-taking! At the end of the event, Phoebe won our certificate for most determined player. Well done Phoebe!

Messing with magnets

In science this week, we investigated how magnets work. We discovered that they have North and South poles, that they attract and repel, and that magnets can be used to make our lives easier. Then, it was experiement time! We had a look around the classroom to see which materials were magnetic, and which were not.

Christingle

For Christingle this year we went to a wonderful service at Ripon Cathedral, where we had the opportunity to take part in some workshops run by their wonderful volunteers. We raced around on a journey like the wise men, looked for stories in the stained glass windows and even got to visit the crypt that Anglo-Saxons built over a thousand years ago.

Nativity

This year's Nativity production was so much fun! In 'Shine Star Shine', we played some friends of the big star who wanted to help him shine - we told jokes to help him find his inner glow, but it didn't work! we still had lots of fun doing it though! Our Y2 class members had a huge job - they narrated the whole thing. They did a brilliant job of telling the story and singing the songs too - what a lot to remember!

Painting with nature

In art this week, we went outside to see what natural pigments we could create using only plants that grow on our school site. We made all sorts of shapes and colours using leaves, flowers and grass. We even used different natural materials as stamps, like rocks and pinecones we found on the field.