Dosbarth Bryn Garth
Years 2 and 3 – English Stream
Croeso i’r Dosbarth Bryn Garth! Welcome to Dosbarth Bryn Garth’s class page.
This term will continue as the Autumn term did, with Mrs. Jen Davies teaching the class Mondays to Wednesdays and Mrs. Rachel Jones teaching on Thursdays and Fridays. Mrs. Cheryl Meadows will be supporting Dosbarth Bryn Garth. Mr. Thompson will teach PE to the class on Wednesday afternoons for Mrs. Davies to have PPA.
Our topic for this term is a humanities-based topic. During the term, the focus of learning will be to build a sense of identity and belonging and a sense of heritage. Through learning about their locality and the story of Wales, learners will develop an understanding of the complex, pluralistic and diverse nature of societies, past and present. Children will have the opportunity to understand the values, beliefs, and traditions of societies, including religious beliefs. They will be given the opportunity to learn how, over time, places, communities, and societies evolve and change and come to understand some of the causes and consequences. We will begin learning about our locality, what their prior knowledge of the area is before focusing on the rich history of the area, such as the history of Llywelyn the Great. We will also be learning about special buildings such as the places of worship in Builth and the castle. We hope to venture out and learn more about the history of our town. If you or a family member has any expertise in local history or places of worship in Builth Wells or can contribute to our topic, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact the school office.
In language lessons, our focus will be on developing oracy skills through topic-based work. We will concentrate on discussion activities and further enhance oracy by using a range of drama techniques.
In maths lessons, we will be learning the skills of division, direction and movement and time.
P.E.
Our PE lesson will be every Wednesday with Mr. Thompson. The children will need to dress appropriately in sports clothing. We ask that the children come to school in their kit. They will need suitable sports trousers or shorts, a T–shirt (no belly tops please), jumper and suitable footwear (please no Crocs or shoes with a heel).
Long hair should be tied back in a ponytail, so please make sure that they have a hair bobble. Stud earings are the only earings permitted in school. Occassionally, for medical reasons your child may be unable to participate in a PE lesson. If this is the case, please send an email/note to explain why.
Reading
Reading at home with your child is an excellent way to support your child’s learning. Spending 10-15 minutes reading together can have a high impact on your child’s reading fluency, confidence and understanding. Your support in helping your child with their reading is greatly appreciated, and it makes a significant difference in all areas of learning, particularly with helping your children to become an independent learner. We will continue to work on key words reading and spelling with Y2 and will be providing an additional letter detailing information about how we wish to extend key words into Year 3. We aim to read with all children as often as possible. This can be reading independently, as a group or as a whole class. It is essential that reading books and reading records/communication diaries are brought into school daily.
Please remember that as a school, we still have a subscription to Oxford Reading Buddy as an alternative source of reading material. Usernames and passwords can be found on digital passports inside the back cover of your child’s reading record/communication diary.
SUMDOG / HWB / Nessy
All children in Dosbarth Bryn Garth have access to SUMDOG. It is an online app that can be downloaded to a range of devices and can also be accessed via the SUMDOG website. It is an application that allows children to practise numeracy work.
The children’s SUMDOG logins can also be found on their digital passport. Please support your child to practise logging in with these details so that they can use their usernames and passwords independently.
An alternative for learning times tables is J2Blast that can be found in HWB. It is in the Just 2 Easy section and allows the children to practise one multiplication table at a time. In addition, there are English spelling games to practise the high frequency words.
This year, the school purchased licenses for all Year 3 children to have access to Nessy. Nessy is a reading and spelling platform that is personalized to your child’s individual level of reading and spelling. There are different activities to support your child’s learning and lots of fun games. Nessy can be accessed at home and login information can be found on the digital passport.
Independent project books (Y3)
Independent project books will continue to be used this term for Year 3. The contents of this project book should be linked to the topic for the term but allow the children the freedom to explore areas of interest. A selection of suggested tasks for the new topic will be added to the book once the children have completed their pupil voice activities. Please ensure that the project book comes to school each day as sometimes the children are given opportunities to work on these projects in class too.
Water Bottles/Fruit
Children are encouraged to bring a water bottle into school each day that will be readily available during lesson time to keep them hydrated. At breaktime, the children sit together in class and have a snack and take part in Welsh enrichment activities. We would like to encourage all children to bring a piece of fruit to eat daily during this time.
Wellies and waterproofs
To help us make the most of our outdoor environment—whether on the field or around the school grounds—please could your child bring a pair of wellies or an alternative change of footwear/dry socks to keep in school on their peg. This will ensure that all pupils can take part in outdoor activities, whatever the weather. Please note that we ask that children do not bring boots, as they are not waterproof and may not be suitable for wet conditions. The Friends of the School have kindly donated waterproofs which each class can use when undertaking outdoor learning activities.
If you have any queries or questions, please contact us using the school office email address.
Diolch