Welcome to Maple Class for Spring Term 2026
About our class
Welcome back to school. Hope you have all had a good break.
This term, Maple class will continue to be taught by Miss Searle, Monday to Thursday, Mr Cole (apprentice teacher), and Mr Lewis on a Friday.
Mrs Bufton works with the class every morning and some afternoons.
That is the Maple Team for the Spring Term. Please come and see us or get in touch if you have any queries at all.
We also continue to have two volunteers: Judy Balderson with Kerry (our therapy dog), come to support reading most Mondays. Nicky Thomas (who is completing a Teaching and Learning in Schools, Level 2 course) joins us most Wednesdays.
Curriculum Plans
See our Long-Term Plans, Year A (on the school’s website), to find out what we are studying across the curriculum this year. Below is an overview of this term’s curriculum.
PE is every Monday and this term it will be outside learning gymnastics and dance, (so PE will be in the hall.) Please try and leave PE kits in school as they may be needed at other times. PE will either be taught by Mr Cox or Miss Searle. We will also be swimming in Leominster Halo Leisure Centre. It will be a two-week intensive swimming course starting on 9th March 2026.
Forest school won’t begin until after January, weather permitting. I will keep you informed of dates when the weather is more stable. On Forest School days, children come to school dressed for Forest School (long-sleeved tops and long trousers with appropriate footwear and rainwear), and if they wish, they can change into other clothing upon returning to school.
Values of the month. (These values are the focus for our assemblies and are reinforced during PSHE lessons).
January – Forgiveness
February - Loyalty
March - Request
April – Generosity
PSHE lessons will focus on Digital Wellbeing. After half term our focus will change to Living in the Wider World where we will discuss Money Matters (how to save and look after money).
The science focus is weather and observing weather associated with the seasons including the length of day. After half term the focus will be Trees, plants and flowers identifying common wild and garden plants, identifying trees as well as describing the basic structure of a flowering plants.
Computing On Line Safety learning this term is:
Managing online information (to use simple keywords in search engines, to demonstrate how to navigate a simple webpage and to understand what is true and untrue).
Online reputation (to know that information put online about someone can last a long time, and that it can be seen by others).
Practically, we will look at programming and moving a robot with algorithms and data information by grouping data using pictograms.
History focus is on changes in living memory: Travel and Transport.
Geography focus is called What a wonderful World. It involves looking at continents, climates and weather around the world.
Design and Technology learning is about wheels and axles to create a moving vehicle.
Art focus is on the artist study of Van Gogh. We will look at techniques he uses and create Van Gogh inspired art pieces of our own experimenting with lines and repeated patterns.
Music focus is learning to play the keyboard by reading simple notation and playing in rhythm.
RE focus is based on Judaism and two important questions: What does it mean to be Jewish? Who is Jewish and how do they live?
English
We follow Twinkl Phonics to learn our sounds and develop a range of reading skills and writing skills. Monday morning children complete a spelling quiz which reflects the sound they have been learning during the week before and is part of their homework. Children have home school phonics books (red) in their book bag that contain the look, cover, write, check sheet to help them practice their sounds.
Children receive a Let’s Read mini book each week which helps them consolidate their sounds and tricky words that they have been learning that week. They also develop comprehension skills.
Rhino Reader books will be changed weekly on a Wednesday. These books link into the phonics sounds that the children have already been taught so that they can practice sounding and blending. They are designed to be read more than once so that the phonic sounds are consolidated.
In daily lessons we will study texts which will include,
Fiction – contemporary picture books: using vivid descriptive language and classic books by Beatrix Potter.
Non-fiction - recounts: animal diaries, our own recounts and interviews with incredible animals and writing instructions for improving the classroom and the school environment.
Poetry: poems by different authors from the Caribbean
Grammar is taught in both phonics sessions and daily class lessons. This term we will focus on capital letters and full stops in sentences, identifying nouns, noun phrases, different types of sentences and subordination and coordination conjunctions.
Handwriting focus will be the one-armed robot family (k, b, p and r) and the curly caterpillar family (c, a, d, e, and g) linking in with Twinkl phonics.
Maths
In Maths we will be building on learning from Reception and Year 1. This will include:
We will study place value including:
2-digit place value
Numbers and quantities
We will study addition and subtraction including:
Mental addition and subtraction
Adding and subtraction money
Add and subtract pairs of 2-digit numbers
Add and subtract tens and ones
We will study time including:
Telling the time using units of time
We will study measures including:
Compare and measure weight
Measure and represent capacity
We will study shape including:
2-D shapes
Symmetry
3-D shapes
We will also be developing an understanding of fractions and multiplication including:
2,5 and 10 times tables
Using related multiplication and division facts
Counting in steps of 5 and 10
Learning at home.
We encourage all children to read at home at least 3 times a week. We give stamps as a reward for reading and count up how many times they have read from the reading diaries. Please read the Rhino Readers and the Let’s Read mini books (as well as other texts).
Phonics homework for Level 5 and 6 consists of writing out their weekly spellings. For Maths, please count forward and back working towards 20, 50 then 100.
Maple Class Plans
Expectations in Mathematics for Year 1