What a fantastic month we have had in Year 2!

In History, we continued learning about Sir Francis Drake. We ordered the main events of his life onto a timeline and developed our understanding of his achievements and adventures. We also enjoyed a brilliant trip to Drake's home, Buckland Abbey, where we explored what life was like during Tudor times. We learned about the similarities and differences between life then and now and enjoyed discovering more about Sir Francis Drake's home.

In Art, we worked carefully through several stages to create our beautiful Van Gogh-inspired sunflower paintings. We practised different techniques and paid close attention to colour and detail. We were incredibly proud to display our finished artwork in our art exhibition, and the results were stunning!

In RE, we have been thinking about what makes some places special to believers. We began by discussing places that are special to us and why they are important. We then explored churches and mosques, learning about their features and considering the similarities and differences between them.

In Science, we continued our learning about plants. We set up an investigation using cress seeds to find out what plants need to grow successfully. We also planted broad bean seeds and have loved watching them grow. There has been lots of excitement as we compare our plants and see whose is growing the tallest!
On 8th May, we celebrated Sir David Attenborough's birthday by exploring all things animal! We particularly enjoyed using microscopes to observe bugs preserved in resin and learning more about the fascinating world of insects. We also made Sir David a birthday card and had the exciting opportunity to meet Luna the tortoise. We discovered what she needs to survive and learned more about how to care for animals.

It has been a busy and enjoyable month full of exciting learning experiences. We are looking forward to seeing what June brings!

We have had a very arty month this month!
We completed our learning about the designer Orla Kiely by creating our own Orla Kiely inspired prints. We also learned how we can bend, spiral and cut paper to create 3D art. We displayed our 3D tree sculptures in the school art exhibition. The art exhibition was a great success and we enjoyed looking at the work displayed by the other classes.
We've made the most of the beautiful sunny weather that we have been having and have been out in the woods pond dipping and also hunting for minibeasts. We were lucky enough to have fine weather for our class trip to Burrator Reservoir too. We learnt lots about the history, geography and flora and fauna of the area. 
We celebrated David Attenborough's 100th birthday with a special guest appearance from a tortoise. It was so lovely to see such an interesting animal up close. We also created birthday cards for David and thought carefully about the messages we wrote within them.
In maths we have been learning about volume and capacity and have been practising counting in steps of 2, 5 and 10.

With Spring beginning, a lot of our learning this month has been centered around plants. We have searched for wild flowers in our school environment and we have learnt about how plants grow. We have planted and cared for seeds.
In Geography we have been thinking about the difference between human and physical features. We have spotted both in our local area.
For PE we have been enjoying athletics out on the school field.
We have had lots of lovely practical maths sessions recently as we have been learning to measure length and weight.
In RE we have been learning about a sense of belonging. We brought uniforms and other items in to show the teams and clubs we belong to outside of school.

What an exciting month March has been!
Right at the start of the month we marked World Book Day. It was great fun to dress up as characters from our favourite books and our costumes sparked lots of conversations about what we like to read. 
Over the month we have observed and looked after some tadpole, finally releasing them into the school pond where they can thrive in a lovely environment.
In science we have been exploring our senses. We have used out sense of smell to guess the contents of some mystery pots. We have used out sense of taste to describe the flavours of foods. We have used our sense of touch to create textured Easter egg 'feely' pictures.
This month we concluded out learning about what the weather is like in the UK by observing and recording the weather for five days. We used a thermometer, rain gauge and weather vane to give us data.
We have been learning to weave. We used our weaving skills to make woven Easter baskets. This required lots of focus and the results are just lovely. Now we are waiting for the Easter bunny to come and fill them!

April/May

We hope you had a lovely Easster and enjoyed the half term with the sunny weather. 

In the ARC we use a 'Totally Communication System'. This involves using visuals, symbols, Makaton, AAC devices, sound buttons, photographs and objects of reference. This enables the childreun to have the use and means of communtication in many different ways. 

During activities we play games where the child needs to choose between a few items pointing to the correct visual/symbol of their choice. Once this is established, the child and adult plays with the choosen item (making a choice). When the game is coming to a natural end there are symbols for 'more or finished'. We use these and makaton to investigate whether the child is ready to finish or do more.

When we engage the children in group activities such as 'Fun with Food', the children have visuals to help explore their senses. This encourages the children to look, touch and if they want to taste the item of food. At the end of the session the children can both sign and point to the correct symbol to indicate whether the 'liked or didn't like' the food.

Our morning routine starts with a song to encourage and invite the children to come and sit down. At this point we using symbols and the AAC device to find out the day, weather and the season we are in. We also look at who is packed lunch/school dinners and how the children are feeling. Here the children can put their picture up onto a appropiate visual. 

The children enjoy using different means of communication and this enables them and the adults that work with them to have a better understanding of their wants and needs. 

We've been learning about honey bees and why they're important. We've also found out how and why they make honey. As we found out that they need flowers we decided to plant some sunflowers. We also did lots of bee activities including making bee models, bee puppets and painting pictures of bees and flowers. We then used our phonic skills to write sentences about bees.

A few months ago we had a visit from some residents who live in a local care home and they kindly invited us to their home. We went and sang them some songs and nursery rhymes. They children and residents really enjoyed the visit. It was lovely to see some of the residents joining in with the singing. 

April has been a shorter month in school because of the Easter holidays, but we have still made a fantastic start to our new learning!

In our topic work, we began exploring the life of Sir Francis Drake. We thought carefully about what we would like to learn and created our own questions. We then watched videos and discovered lots of interesting facts about his life. Using this information, we wrote our own fact files and created timelines to show the key events in his life.

In art, we have started learning about the artist Vincent van Gogh. We looked closely at a range of his paintings and shared our ideas about them. Everyone chose their favourite piece to sketch, and we are now beginning to create our own versions of his famous sunflower painting, ready for our upcoming art exhibition.

In science, we are learning about plants. We started by exploring the difference between seeds and bulbs. We carefully chopped up a bulb and dissected a seed, then used microscopes to observe them closely. We learned new vocabulary to describe what we saw and created detailed labelled drawings.

In literacy, we have been enjoying the poem The Magic Box by Kit Wright. We used it as inspiration to write our own imaginative poems filled with creative ideas.

In maths, we have been learning about fractions. We can now recognise halves and quarters of shapes and are beginning to find halves and quarters of different quantities.

It has been a busy and exciting start to the term, and we are looking forward to continuing our learning next month!

This month in Year 2, we have been very busy with lots of exciting learning across our subjects!

In RE, we explored the question: Why does Easter matter to Christians?
We learnt the Easter story and spent time thinking about the different emotions people might have felt at each part.
We also discussed what the word saviour means and why it is important to Christians. To finish our topic, we looked at different ways Christians celebrate Easter around the world.

In Geography, we investigated - Why is our world wonderful?
We examined maps and aerial photographs of our local area and compared what we could see.
We learnt the countries and capitals of the United Kingdom and identified key landmarks. We also sorted physical and human features.
As part of our learning, we went on a local walk where we carried out traffic surveys and enjoyed some time at the park.

In Art, we focused on developing our sketching skills. We practised drawing different types of lines and patterns, and explored techniques such as hatching, cross-hatching and stippling. We added detail to our line drawings and learnt how to shade effectively.
At the end of the unit, we created a final piece showing the view from our school using all the skills we had learnt.

In PSHE, our topic was Healthy Me.
We learnt about healthy and unhealthy foods, how medicines can help us, and what makes us feel stressed or relaxed.
We especially enjoyed making our own fruit kebabs!

In Music, we have been learning to play the glockenspiel. We practised playing the tune Hot Cross Buns and worked hard to keep in time with the music.

Well done Year 2 for your fantastic effort this month!

Here's a round- up of everything that's been happening at both schools in recent weeks:

Eco- Council
The Eco-council have been successful in lowering energy use in the schools. Electricity usage has reduced since their campaign to switch off more lights in rooms which are not being used has made an impact (even at this early stage.) We are using less energy this year compared to last. (January 2026b compared to January 2025.) Look out for news on battery and electronic re-cycling soon.

Mr Arnold
I will be delighted to welcome Mr Arnold into the school during the second half of the summer term for some days. This will be a great opportunity for him to get to know that staff and children better so that he can really 'hit the ground running' in September. I know that you will enjoy having him as the new Headteacher.

Valentine's Disco
Just before half term the children enjoyed a lively, fun Valentine's disco. Thank you to Mrs Wright for organising this and to staff member who helped during the afternoon/evening. £250 was raised for our school funds.

World Book Day
On 5th March we celebrated World Book Day by dressing as our favourite book characters. It was fantastic to see all of the amazing outfits- especially at the end of the day during our 'catwalk'. It was great to see so many parents supporting this event. I would like to say a special thank you to Miss Owen for organising a day full of book-related activities. Also, it was amazing that the staff all dressed as 'Golden Tickets' to match my fancy dress costume theme- what a team!

Y5/Y6 Girl's Football
On 11th March a team of our amazing girl footballers took part in a tournament in Callington, arranged by Arena. They represented the schools brilliantly, coming 5th overall. Well done girls and special thanks to Miss Jenkins for accompanying them.

Trust Music Day
On 16th March our Year 5 pupils attended a Trust music event in Liskeard. They performed the 'Copper Valley' song in St. Martin's Church for an audience of other Bridge schools. They also met Canadian singer and songwriter Luke Wallace and sang one of his compositions. Thank you to Mrs Pearce for driving the group and to Miss Gamble and Miss Jenkins for rehearsing the class.

Bag2School
Our recent Bag2School collection raised £35. Thank you to all who donated items of unwanted clothing.

Tag Rugby Festival

On 17th March a group of pupils from Y4 and Y6 represented the school in a Tag Rugby Festival, held in Tavistock.They played really well, winning two of their matches and drawing one. They represented the school very well and Mrs Hannaford, who accompanied them, was very proud of them.

Red Nose Day
On Friday 20th March the children dressed in their pyjamas and red noses and brought in a donation for Comic Relief.  Thank you, we raised £82.

My Clothing
The company which supply our school uniforms (www.myclothing.com) are having a flash spring sale. If you enter SPRING15 between 23/3/ and 29/3 you will receive 15% off your order.

In PSHE as part of our 'Dreams & Goals' topic we have been learning about how to work well with a partner and we had to work in pairs to design a welly boot. We have also been setting ourselves goals and thinking about how we can achieve them. 

On Internet Safety day we read a story called 'Digiduck's Big Decision' all about being kind and making good choices on the internet. 

We joined an online assembly that talked about places where we feel safe for Children's Mental Health week. 

In PE we have been practising throwing and catching and learning how to find a space and communicate with our team in a game. 

We made lovely Valentine's Day cards and some sweet cake treats on our last day before the half term holiday. We also had a lot of fun at the school disco!

Group Work in the Arc

This term we have had a real focus on working together. In the ARC we try to make our group activities so appealing that they capture our children's attention and they choose to join the group.

We have a number of group activities where out focus is shared attention. We run 2 Attention Autism Sessions which is a Gina Davies Intervention that follows 4 stages. All of our ARC children now choose to join this group and in fact they all look forward to checking out stage 1 where they get to see what is in out bucket!

We run Fun with Food everyday. We look at a different food each day, describing the food through all of our senses. We use communication boards to encourage the children to describe the food. 

We all like using the playground equipment on sunny days, especially the parachute! In the photo we are working together to try and keep the ball on the parachute. 

Sometimes our ARC children are able to join their mainstream peers. Eddie had a great day with the Roman Soldier who came to visit the class. He worked as a team with the other children to form a barrier with his shield in a mock battle. 

Sometimes group work just involves taking turns. The musical instruments are a really popular way of taking turns. Both Leo and Freddie love to ply the xylophone and it is an excellent opportunity to take model turn taking. 

Happy New Year!

What a brilliant start to 2026!
In PSHE we have been thinking about our goals and dreams and steps towards success. 
Our new 'Big Question' is 'What is the weather like in the UK?'. We have been re-capping our knowledge of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom and have been using an atlas to help us to label maps.
In art we have been looking at the painting of Alma Thomas. Alma is an abstract artist. She used lots of bright colours in her paintings. After practising the necessary techniques and skills, we created  paintings in her style.
In science we have been learning about animals. This half term we have focussed on the five groups of vertebrates. We have learnt about their characteristics and diets. 
We went on a fabulous trip to The National Marine Aquarium where the children had a taste of being Marine Biologists as well and learning lots of sea creatures from our very informative guide. 

December has been a magical month in Year One!
There have been many highlights including our Christmas Production. The children rehearsed and practised so well to put on a wonderful performance for families. We also had a magical time rounding off the term with a Christingle gathering.

The children were contacted by Santa's chief elf and tasked with making some robots as the elves were worried they hadn't made enough. The children designed and made some wonderful robot toys with moving limbs.

In computing, the children used Doodledraw on the ipads to design Christmas cards that they then printed and sent to loved ones. 

Year One had a fantastic time in the woods making clay reindeers.

This month we have learnt about Guy Fawkes and The Gunpowder Plot. We found out about what happened and we used our printing skills to create colourful and sparkly fireworks art.

We have been thinking about how to be a good friend. We have thought about which qualities and behaviours we like to see in our friends.

This month we marked the beginning of anti-bullying week with 'Odd Socks Day'. We all wore odd socks to help us to think about how we are all special and unique. We also marked Children In Need day this month. We dressed up and even dressed up our giant class bear.

We went on a walk around the school grounds to hunt for signs that it is autumn. it was great fun playing in the leaves.

We have had a fantastic February full of exciting learning across all our subjects!

In Maths, we have been learning about multiplication and division.
We explored equal and non-equal groups and practised recognising the difference between them. We made equal groups by sharing objects and adding them together to find totals. We also learned how to write multiplication sentences and created arrays to help us see the groups clearly. Arrays really helped us understand how multiplication works and we enjoyed matching them to number sentences!

In Literacy, we focused on descriptive writing inspired by the beautiful 2015 John Lewis advert Man on the Moon. We wrote thoughtful descriptions about the lonely man and imagined how he might have been feeling. We worked hard to use expanded noun phrases and exciting adjectives in our writing.
We also watched the short film Baboon on the Moon and created more descriptive pieces. We described the setting on the moon and the emotions of the character. Our writing showed wonderful imagination and empathy.

In Science, we continued our learning about life cycles. This month, we explored the life cycle of a chicken and learned about how a chick grows inside an egg. We had lots of fun investigating boiled and raw eggs. We carefully observed them and even used microscopes to look closely and spot differences. It was very exciting working like real scientists!

We also took part in the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Big Bird Watch. We spent time observing and counting the birds we saw, helping scientists learn more about wildlife in the UK.

For Safer Internet Day, we learned about the acronym SMART to help us stay safe online. We talked about how to keep our personal information private and what to do if something online makes us feel worried or uncomfortable.

In RE, we explored the question: What is the good news Christians believe Jesus brings? We listened to the story of the tax collector and discussed themes of saying sorry and forgiveness. We thought carefully about how forgiveness can help mend friendships and why it is important to show kindness and understanding.

We are so proud of all the hard work Year 2 has shown this month. We have demonstrated fantastic teamwork, creativity and curiosity in our learning. We can't wait to see what March brings!

This January, our big question was "How did we learn to fly?" 

We travelled back in time to learn about the amazing inventors, the Wright brothers, who designed and flew the first successful aeroplane.
We discovered how hard they worked and how they never gave up on their dream of flying!
We also learned about Bessie Coleman, the first African American woman to earn a pilot's license. We were inspired by her bravery and determination. Then we explored the adventures of Amelia Earhart, who became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

In Literacy, we wrote fantastic biographies about Amelia Earhart and the Wright brothers. We worked hard to include interesting information about their lives. Our learning even took us beyond the skies and into space as we found out about the Apollo 11 moon landing!
We loved discovering how astronauts travelled all the way to the Moon.

In DT, we became engineers! We designed and made our own aeroplanes with moving parts. We carefully thought about our designs and worked hard to make sure the moving mechanisms worked properly.

In Science, we learned about life cycles. We explored the life cycle of a human, a butterfly and a frog. We learned to match young animals to their adults, such as caterpillar to butterfly and tadpole to frog. We talked about how animals grow and change as they get older.

In Maths, we have been learning all about money. We practised counting in pence and pounds, making the same amount in different ways and calculating totals. Some of us even worked on finding change - just like in a real shop!

In PSHE, we talked about our dreams and goals for the future. We set New Year's resolutions and thought about what we would like to achieve this year. We also learned about good and bad teamwork and took part in group challenges to practise working together respectfully and kindly.

We have had a fantastic start to the year in Year 2 and are so proud of all our hard work. We can't wait to see what we will learn next!