Send Church of England First School
Our Classes
The Beehive (Nursery)
Learning is fun in the nursery. In our classroom we pretend to be shopkeepers, bakers or vets, we play games, make lots of creative crafts and sing our favourite songs. We love our cooking days, going to the library to choose a book and using the computers. In our outdoor area we have lots of space to run, climb and jump, we can build huge models, paint big pictures, and play in the band as loud as we can! We grow plants from seed, keeping a watch on the changing weather and looking out for mini beasts.
We can dress up and be kings and queens, safari explorers, police officers and firefighters, or even mums and dads! We play games and ride our bikes, and practice kicking, catching and throwing balls of all different sizes...We love to build a big den, and have a picnic(once we've made our own sandwiches!)....We've just got time, before we have to go home!
Rabbit Class (Reception)
We look forward to finding out about the countryside and will be visit Ladyland Farm to find out about the animals that live there.
We enjoy becoming good readers and are work hard with our letters and sounds and our writing. We enjoy using the ICT suite for finding out, using our maths programme and drawing.
Rabbits do lots of mark making and exploring with different colours and media, such as paints, pens, chalks etc.. We make a large piece together using different shades of colour and add to it with pen once it is dry.
We also explore colour and make lovely parrots, mixing the colours with our hands. We make a colour wheel using our fingers to mix the paints.
We love learning about the different seasons and go on walks at different times of the year, writing about our experiences.
We have fun in Rabbit class…
Hedgehog Class (Reception)
Welcome to Hedgehog Class! Learning is fun and exciting in our Reception Class. We have a large classroom, with space to play. We have place to paint, explore clay, and make models; dress up and role play. We discover reading, writing and investigate early mathematic skills. We can use the large interactive whiteboard to access the internet and use a range of educational learning programmes. We also visit the ICT suite through the week, and have opportunity to use video, digital cameras and programmable “bee- bots.”
We have a fabulous outside classroom which gives lots of space to work in a larger scale. We can take on role-play, hunt mini-beasts, learn about growing vegetables and flowers and develop a range of physical skills.
During the year we study our environment through the seasons, festivals and topics such as “At the Farm,” which includes a very exciting trip to a real working farm in the summer term.
Our Early Years curriculum focuses on six areas of learning;
Personal, Social and Emotional Development;
This is very important! We learn how to play and learn together with our peers. We learn to share, take turns and negotiation. We learn about our feelings and begin to learn how to express and manage our emotions, and also to be considerate of the needs of others.
We learn about our culture and beliefs as well as those of others, by celebrating festivals and events throughout the year such as Harvest, Christmas, Easter, Saints days as well as special days from other cultures and religions; such as Divali, Chinese New Year, Mardi gras…
We also learn about the stories from the bible, special people and celebrations.
Communication, Literacy and Language;
We develop our use of language to communicate our thoughts and ideas, to ask questions and reflect on our experiences.
We explore a range stories, rhymes and poems, linking to our own experiences and ideas and using our imagination to recreate story worlds and characters.
Reception class is the time where we begin to learn to read, linking letters to sounds, and then to use this knowledge to begin to write independently.
Mathematical Development;
We begin to learn about numbers; names and ordering. To count, make simple calculations of addition and subtraction.
We also use our ideas to sort and classify objects, comparing shape, colour, size… using appropriate mathematical language and apply this knowledge to everyday problems,
Knowledge and Understanding of the World;
As we investigate our world we are developing our natural curiosity. We explore our community and environment, identifying features of living and non living things. We find out about the past, about the diversity of our cultures.
We explore technology using programmable “bee-bots”, using digital cameras and computers. In addition we learn about construction, using building sets and recyclable materials.
Creative Development;
We have lots of opportunity to represent our thoughts, ideas and refer to events using a range of media and materials. There are many different ways we can explore and develop our imaginations through play and creative tasks using paint, clay, collage and much more. We learn lots of new songs and rhymes. We create our own music, make up dances to represent our ideas, dress up and perform!
Physical Development;
We are learning how to move our bodies with strength and control in large scale movements: running, pedaling, climbing, as well as small fine motor movements; cutting, threading, and other manipulative tasks.
Otter Class (Year 1)
In Otter Class we work hard and learn about all sorts of things. We enjoy learning about Florence Nightingale, old toys and the seaside in our History lessons. In Science we learn about our bodies as well as investigating light sources and things that move when we push or pull them. We enjoy taking Elmer home to visit our families and sharing our experience with our teacher. We make all sorts of things including pop-up cards, model homes, playgrounds and moving skeletons! We have two PE lessons a week where we do gymnastics and dance. In the summer term we do games outside when the weather is nice.
Our classroom is really nice and big. We have role play area which changes with our topic- we really enjoy the doctors surgery and toy shop.
Our topics are – Ourselves, Light and Dark, Toys, Houses and homes, Our environment and the Seaside.
We enjoy playtimes and like to play on the trim trail and adventure playground. We look forward to learning about our local area and homes around the world in the spring time. Everyday we have a free piece of fruit which we really enjoy.
Being in Otter Class is great…
Squirrel Class (Year 1)
In Squirrel Class we enjoy learning about lots of interesting things. In the Autumn term we learn all about ourselves and how we grow and change. We go on an Autumn walk around school and use our senses to find out about Autumn, and then we investigate Light and Dark in Science. We enjoy visiting St Mary’s Church in Send and learning all about the inside and outside features. At Christmas, we love learning songs and dressing up in costumes for the Christmas Play.
In the Spring we get out and about on a walk around Send, looking at the different types of homes. Then we even make playgrounds and houses out of cardboard boxes! We look at maps and draw our route to school and the things we see. We write our own stories and poems about lots of different things. We learn all about Easter and love singing Easter Songs.
In the Summer, we learn all about plants and we have fun seeing how tall our beans can grow! We learn about living and non-living things and all about how plants grow in Science, and experience Seaside holidays in the past in History. We enjoy listening to Seaside poems and writing our own. We love learning about Van Gogh’s Sunflower pictures and creating our own versions. We have fun with lots of different activities on Sports Day.
Badger Class (Year 2)
Autumn Term
“I liked making Santa a new sleigh”
“I used clay to make a reindeer”
“The Great Fire of London started in Pudding Lane!”
“I love year two you get to have all the main parts in the Christmas play”
“We made peppermint creams”
Spring Term
A new year brings new topics and fun. We start this term with an appropriate topic – The Cold. We learn about weather, temperature and how people in other countries survived. We focus on the Inuit in the Arctic and the scientists in the Antarctic. After half term we look at plants and animals. We get out and about exploring in our school grounds. We go bug hunting and collect data. We do lots of observational drawings of our surroundings and visit a forest environment.
Summer Term
The castles topic is great. We learn all about Motte and Bailey castles and the Battle of Hastings. It can get quite gory at times! We visit Windsor Castle and watch the changing of the guard. We finish the term with a special leavers service where all our parents join us to celebrate the year. We are sad to leave but are looking forward to the next year in our new schools.
“We saw Princess Eugenie at Windsor Castle”
“I enjoyed making my own castle with a drawer bridge”
“I really enjoyed Badger class. My teacher rocked”
“The leaver’s service made me cry!”
Foxes Class (Year 2)
Autumn Term
It is an exciting time – Moving to a new class. We take time to get to know the rules and routines of year 2. Our first topic is transport. We look at transport through history and how it has changed. We even design a new sleigh for Santa! The next topic is The Great Fire of London and we find out how and why the fire happened and make our own non-fiction books about it. We finish the term with Christmas. This is a great time when we learn lots about the traditions of Christmas in Great Britain and around the world. We enjoy lots of creative activities making cards, calendars, gift bags and festive food. The highlight of this term is the Christmas Play. We all have to learn our parts and the new songs ready to perform to our families.
Spring Term
“We write poems in Literacy”
“We learnt how to sew and we made finger puppets and sock puppets.
“Learning about Arctic animals is great!”
“We went on a minibeast hunt and found lots of bugs”
Summer Term
Our new topic is health and growth. We learn all about what we need to live healthily and happily. We think about healthy eating and monitor our heart rate whilst exercising. In Numeracy we think about multiplication and division and learn to group big numbers to make counting easier. We also work on problem solving and draw pictures to help us.
“I liked eating all the healthy food”
“I enjoyed drawing a timeline of my growth”
“I can solve problems now”
“I found out that my heart beat really fast when I ran around the field.”