King Eider overview
Our class
King Eider is our Year 2 and Year 3 class for children aged between 6 and 8, led by Miss Kirkby. This small class covers the transition from Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 2, a blended class approach which means that children are not restricted by age, and our focus is on ability within the core areas of reading, writing and maths.Your child will be carefully assessed before being assigned to a Home Table for guided reading and Creative curriculum activities, and separate work tables for English, and for Maths. This ensures that they are always working with appropriate peers for each lesson. We tailor activities, exercises and worksheets, so that they not only reinforce class teaching, but offer the right level of challenge for each child. Continuous assessment is an essential part of this process, and on a day to day basis teaching staff check understanding, and set targets for your child’s progress.
Rewards and incentives
We have 3 key incentive schemes:
- Star reward books
- Merit points
- The Happy face/Sad face behaviour chart
Every child has a Star reward book designed to motivate them to achieve their best, and they earn a star sticker each time they complete a good amount of work which is neat, well presented and high quality.
Particularly good work or good behaviour is rewarded through individual merit points, which the children collect to achieve merit certificates. Children in Harlequin and King Eider receive a certificate every 25 merits, and the certificates represent precious stones or metals: 25 merits=Topaz, 50 merits=Emerald up to a top award of Platinum.
Positive behaviour is encouraged through a Happy face/Sad face chart, and at the end of each week children on the Happy face are able to enjoy Reward time and have the opportunity to take part in a special chosen activity on Friday.
Learning schemes
We have a number of learning programmes to motivate and inspire the children as they progress through the school. Our Maths passport and My writing goals schemes encourage the children to progress through themed levels, which take them on a journey around the world, or through levels of promotion within a football team. These schemes reinforce teaching by setting regular achievable targets for maths and writing skills, which in turn give the children a real sense of achievement. Every child has a purple Independent writing book, in which they have the opportunity to produce pieces of writing free from teacher input, and this is a key component of assessment. Every substantial piece of written work will be assessed against your childs individual learning goals.
Homework
We encourage our children to become independent thinkers and learners, giving them the opportunity to explore and discover information for themselves, using self selected resources and their preferred learning style. Rather than setting a specific piece of homework each week, we provide the children with a homework file containing a wide array of interesting activities based on the Creative curriculum topic for that term. These activities are carefully designed to develop Maths, English, Science, Art and ICT skills, within the context of the topic. Each week your child can select which homework activity they would like to do, and respond appropriately, producing a written piece, artwork, model, chart, or even a Powerpoint presentation. As a guideline we would expect the children to spend a minimum of 30 minutes responding to the homework exercise they have chosen.
Reading
Your child will have a school reading book selected from our collections, and the opportunity to change their book up to twice a week. During the week children will read one to one with a teacher or adult helper, and staff will record reading progress, confidence and comprehension in their Reading record, signing off to confirm when a book has been finished and it is time for a new title to be chosen. The Reading record also enables you to record your child’s home reading, and we would encourage you to listen to your child read as often as you can, and ask questions to check their understanding and develop their vocabulary. This in turn supports the development of reading and writing skills in the classroom. The Keyrings reading assessment questions give you lots of idea about what to ask your child to check that they have understood what they have read:
