Hi, my name is Miss Coyne, and I am the Year 2 Nightingale Class Teacher.

I have spent over 11 years teaching in Early Years and Year 1 and have fallen in love with the creativity and breadth of the curriculum. 

At St John's, I lead Phonics and Early Reading, and Music, and I am the Team Leader for KS1. 

I have a passion for listening to and playing music as well as competing in sports events. I have represented Ireland twice for different sports; the 100m freestyle event in swimming and Team Twirling at the Baton World Championships!

 

Other staff working in our class are:

Mrs. Bradshaw - 3rd Teacher and Nightingale Teacher on Fridays

Mrs. Wells - Teaching Assistant

Mrs. Hmar - Teaching Assistant (Monday–Thursday)

 

Our weekly timetable: 

Important dates for the diary this term for Nightingale Class:

PE - Every Wednesday - Please come to school dressed in the correct PE uniform

Monday 21st April - Easter Monday (Bank Holiday)

Monday 5th April - Bank Holiday

Trip around Canterbury - Thursday 24th April - This will take place during school hours, so this will not impact dropping off or picking up the children.

 

Our learning this term:

Our topic this term is ‘Canterbury and Beyond’. We are going to be exploring the local area, finding out what makes a place a village, town or city and recognising human and physical geographical features. We will be taking a trip around Canterbury, seeing the sights and stopping at landmarks and even visiting the library to get our own library cards!

​This term in English, the children will start by looking at an adventure book called Journey that does not have any words, and then plan and write their own story to describe what is going on. Then they will be able to write their own adventure story based on this. We will also be writing and recording our own ‘vlog’ about Canterbury. Our focus in English this term is to let our creativity shine through our work, including interesting vocabulary and making sure we are writing coherently.

In Maths, the children will begin to learn about fractions. They will be recognising halves, thirds and quarters. They will be using these skills to find a fraction of a set of amounts. We will also spend some time recapping their learning of Year 2 so far, to make sure they are ready to progress with their learning.

 In Science, Year 2 will be learning about ‘Materials’. We will see what materials we have around our school and explore what properties these materials have. We will set up different experiments to see the suitability of materials and what we can use them for.

In RE this term, we will be learning about Humanism. We will be exploring what Humanism is and how Humanists live their lives.

 

Learning at home for Nightingale Class: 

Children are expected to read every night for at least 10 minutes.  Reading records should be signed by an adult and brought back into school each day to be checked by a member of staff. Your child will take home 2 books each day – a banded book, and a phonics book.  These will be changed on Mondays and Thursdays.

Spelling Shed and Numbots can be accessed from home using the logins provided on the inside of your child's reading record.  Spelling assignments will be given out each week, which support the Year 2 spelling curriculum.

Spellings will be given out each week and tested on a Monday.  

 

Be ready for learning! In Nightingale Class, your child will need to have these items in school: 

Key Stage One (Years 1 and 2) 

• Book bag (no rucksacks please) 

• PE kit (to be worn on PE day - Wednesday) 

• Water bottle (no squash or juice) 

• Lunchbox (if not having school meal) 

• Wellington boots (to leave in school) 

• Coat (weather appropriate) 

Please don’t bring other items into school, as we do not have space to store them, and it can cause upset if things are lost or damaged. 

School Uniform Checklist:

Please label ALL items of clothing and shoes clearly with your child’s name. This helps even our younger children to take responsibility for and look after their uniform. 

Highlights of our learning so far this year:

Term 1: Lost and Found.  To launch this term, we went on a treasure hunt.  We had to read clues in search of Miss. Coyne's water bottle!  It was stuck up a tree! 

Term 2: Explorers.  This term we went on many adventures outdoors, building and using nature to be creative.  This history topic let us explore Robert Falcon Scott and his amazing exploration!

  

In Term 2, we also lead and performed our Christmas Nativity 'The Honky Tonky Donkey' for the school and parents.

      

We also designed, made and evaluated our own Christmas decorations!  Look at our amazing running stitch!

Term 3: Africa.  We thoroughly enjoyed exploring African Kent cloths!  We practised many different printing techniques using a range of resources before making our own Kent cloth repeating pattern.

    

Term 4:  The Great Fire of London: We learnt all about the events of 1666 and even had a visit from the fire station!   

  Our classroom was a staged crime scene and we had to find the clues and track the suspect down!  Who stole our pens?

Mini Sports Day: 

We made Easter cards with a sliding mechanism: