Welcome to the Rosen class page. Below you will find details of what the children have been learning and doing at school. Please click on the link to the right of this page for homework.

Summer Term 2025

In English this week, the children have been busy planning and writing their own creative stories inspired by The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark. After drafting their stories, they were encouraged to take ownership of their work by independently re-reading, editing, and improving their writing. They focused on adding adverbs and adjectives to make their stories more engaging for the reader.To support their editing process, the children were also given prompts to help them identify areas to improve. These included checking for capital letters, full stops, inverted commas, and correct spelling, as well as making sure their writing made sense. It’s been fantastic to see their growing confidence as young writers!

In Maths this week, the children have been applying their understanding of addition and subtraction to tackle mixed calculations, compare different number sentences, and solve a variety of number problems. A key focus has been on developing their reasoning skills by encouraging the children to explain how they found their answers and why their methods worked. To end the week, the children began exploring counting in 2s, 5s, and 10s. They enjoyed spotting number patterns—for example, noticing that numbers in the 2s sequence often end in 2, 4, 6, 8, or 0, and that 5s end in 5 or 0. They also observed that all these counting sequences include multiples of ten. Using 100 squares, they coloured in the number patterns and practised counting aloud together, building confidence and fluency. Next week, we will be building on this learning as we begin our new unit on multiplication and division.

This week, the children completed their Learning Means The World unit all about Mary Anning, the remarkable Jurassic fossil hunter. They explored how perceptions of Mary Anning have changed over time, comparing words used to describe her in the past—such as unknown—with those used today, like influential. A highlight for many was learning the classic tongue twister “She sells sea shells,” which is said to have been inspired by Mary’s life. The children also had the opportunity to write obituaries—short notices marking her death—that celebrated her incredible contributions to palaeontology, including important achievements and key dates.To finish the unit, the children took part in an end-of-unit quiz to recall and reflect on everything they had learned. It has been an inspiring journey through history and science, and the children have thoroughly enjoyed learning about such a pioneering figure.

  

A Week of Reflection, Resilience and Reasoning

VE Day Commemoration
This week, the children commemorated the 80th anniversary of VE Day with creativity and thoughtful reflection. They created powerful artwork featuring silhouettes of soldiers, poppies, and the United Kingdom flag to honour those who served. In assembly, we explored the significance of VE Day and the children took part in an engaging quiz to deepen their understanding of this important historical event.

Learning Means The World: Mary Anning and Gender Equality
In their Learning Means The World lessons, the children continued their exploration of Mary Anning’s life. They imagined themselves in Mary’s shoes, writing persuasive application forms to join the Palaeontological Society, proudly highlighting her most significant fossil discoveries. Following this, they received a historically accurate response explaining that, at the time, Mary was not permitted to join due to being a woman in a male-only organisation. The children then wrote thoughtful replies, as Mary Anning, expressing their frustration and disappointment at being overlooked despite their contributions—powerfully linking history to themes of fairness and equality.

Maths
In Maths this week, the children have been focusing on subtracting two 2-digit numbers across a ten. We began by exploring the process using practical resources, helping the children visualise and understand what happens when regrouping is needed. The strategy involved making the first two-digit number, exchanging one ten for ten ones if the ones digit was too small, then subtracting the ones, followed by the tens. Once confident, the children applied this method to solve subtraction questions independently and with increasing accuracy.

  

During Maths this week the children have built upon their learning about adding two 2-digit numbers and recapped their prior learning that if they are adding two numbers and there are ten or more ones they need to exchange 10 ones for 1 ten. Following this, the children learnt how to subtract two 2-digit numbers, subtracting the ones first and then the tens.

In Learning Means The World the children have enjoyed finding about the difference between body and trace fossils. They have also learnt about the fossilisation process. During the week the children have made their own salt dough fossils and used art straws to make a skeleton of the Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus fossils that Mary Anning discovered.

  

  

  

In Maths this week, the children learned to add and subtract tens from two-digit numbers. They used base 10 equipment, place value counters, and 100 squares to support their understanding. These hands-on resources helped them visualise place value and develop their confidence with mental strategies. Most children can now solve problems involving tens, developing their number fluency. Following this, the children learnt how to add two 2-digit numbers. They started by adding the ones and then the tens. We will continue to build on this in Maths next week.

The children have been very engaged with our new Learning Means The World topic about Mary Anning, the Jurassic Coast fossil hunter. 

  

  

Spring Term 2025

The children have continued their writing unit about The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark. A particular highlight was reenacting a campfire experience, during which the children ate marshmallows, drank hot chocolate, listened to the next chapter of the story and sang campfire songs.The created a fantastic word bank in preparation for their writing next week.

During PE the children consolidated their learning about target games, focusing on decision making, preparing and aiming at a target. The children played a game of infinity tag to get their bodies warmed up and then they split into two activities (rolling rocks and noughts and crosses - similar to Boccia), where they worked as a team to develop their attacking and defending skills.

The children have enjoyed making Mother's Day Cards and writing their own special messages inside. 

  

  

Some of the Year Two children went to a Football Tournament at Rupert House yesterday and they were AMAZING! Not only did they play brilliantly, they followed rules respectfully and behaved really well, they showed great sportsmanship and cheered for other teams when not playing. We were thrilled to take part but imagine the excitement when both our teams went through to the quarter finals, and ended up in third and first place out of a total of 13 schools! 

  

The children's learning about the story of The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark was brought to life with a visit from the Feathers and Fur Falconry Centre. The children learnt about four types of owls including their diet, habitat and how they catch their prey. The children were treated to a Bhangra taster session as part of the Henley Youth Festival. They learnt some Bhangra dance moves and danced with ribbons. The children actively engaged with the session and it was clear to see they were enjoying it from the smiles on their faces. In Learning Means The World this week the children carried out a sound investigation to find out what happens to a sound when they are close to and move further away from a sound source. They learnt that the sound was louder and clearer when they were close to the source, because the sound waves were stronger, and the sound was quieter and fainter when they were further away from the sound, because the sound waves were weaker.

  

  

This week the children have enjoyed a performance by Music for Miniatures and a Create and Make workshop as part of the Henley Youth Festival. During the Music for Miniatures performance the children learnt about brass and woodwind instruments. The children were amazed to learn that the size of an instrument affects its pitch (the bigger the instrument the lower the sound and smaller the instrument the higher the sound). During their Create and Make workshop, the children made a flower height chart linked to the HYF theme of 'growing.'

During Learning Means The World this week the children have been exploring the question What do you know about your ears? The children have learnt about how sound travels and how they hear sounds. A particular highlight was the rice on a drum and string telephone investigations. To end their learning about sound for this week the children went on a sound hunt around the school site.

  

  

The children have been learning about the difference between rules and expectations. They worked in small groups to change the school rules into expectations.

The children in Rosen class thoroughly enjoyed World Book Day on Thursday 6th March. During the day, the children learnt how to put groups of words into alphabetical order, how to find a word in a dictionary and how to unscramble words and sentences. A particular highlight of the day was taking part in the word treasure hunt around the school site and unscrambling the words to work out the hidden phrase 'You're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.'

Below are some comments from the children about World Book Day:

• Nina - "I enjoyed putting the words together to make the sentence on the treasure hunt."
• Hugo -"I really enjoyed seeing everybody's costumes and my favourite activity was when we did the treasure hunt."
• Isabella -"I liked it when we were putting words and pictures in the order of the alphabet."
• Henry - "My favourite part about World Book Day was getting to dress up in my football kit because I chose a book that explains all about football."

   

  

The children have been learning about contractions and using inverted commas/speech marks in their writing. They enjoyed matching two short words to their contraction which used an apostrophe to replace the missing letter(s). 

It has been wonderful to see so many children completing their home learning research about barn owls during half term. We have enjoyed sharing these with the class throughout the week and the children have used the information to create a word bank about a barn owl's appearance, behaviours, habitat, diet and feeding patterns.

In Maths, the children have started their new unit of adding and subtracting within 100. We have been adding and subtracting ones, adding ones to get to the next ten (applying their knowledge of number bonds to 10) and adding to a tens number. It would be wonderful if the children could practise their fluency with recalling number bonds up to 10, e.g If I say 3, how many more do you need to make 10? A further challenge would be for an adult to say "My number is 82, how many more do I need to add to get to the next ten?"

In our Learning Means The World lessons the children have applied their learning about compass point directions when programming a code to complete a given task. The children explored the initial stages of debugging and were challenged to identify problems in a code and fix them. 

  

    

  

  

  

The children really enjoyed a visit from Steve Frew, British artistic gymnast and gold medalist at the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Children took turns in completing a fun exercise circuit and then delighted in seeing Steve back flip, balance and leap over some (not so relaxed) volunteers during an assembly.

  

  

In Learning Means The World, the children have recapped their learning about compass points. They have been learning about physical features and co-ordinates. The children particularly enjoyed playing battleships to develop their ability to read coordinates.  In PE, the children enjoyed playing the game 'Change it!' where there were cones with tennis balls scattered around the area and when the children heard the instruction "Change it!" they had to pick up a tennis ball and put it on a different cone. During the lesson the children practised their throwing and catching skills and worked cooperatively with a partner.  In RE, the children talked about the food and drink which Jewish people do and do not have. To develop their understanding the children sorted kosher and non-kosher pictures.

  

  

  

The children have enjoyed developing their painting skills by exploring what happens when you add white to a colour. In English, the children have been learning about rhyme using the book 'When I Was a Pirate'. During Maths we have been consolidating the children's understanding about 3D shape - faces/surfaces, vertices and edges. In PE, the children developed their ball skills, focusing on throwing and catching. 

  

  

The children in Rosen class have been enjoying their forest school sessions this half term and have relished the opportunity to explore the forest school site. A particular highlight has been the mud slide! In Maths this week the children have been introduced to 3D shapes and have started to explore how many faces/ curved surfaces a cone, sphere, cylinder, cube, cuboid, triangular prism and square-based pyramid have. In English the children learnt more facts about pirates and used them to create a plan for their non-chronological report. During our Learning Means The World lessons this week the children enjoyed learning about primary colours and what happened when they mixed two primary colours together.

  

  

In Rosen class this week the children have been learning about 2D and 3D shapes. We have discussed how many’s sides, faces and vertices the shapes have. Perhaps you could go on a 2D and 3D shape hunt at home to consolidate their learning. In English, the children have been continuing to learn about the features of a non-chronological report and as part of their writing they have been using verbs and adjectives. 

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The children have continued their learning about pushes and pulls. They were able to explain what happens when you push or pull something and what forces can do to an object. In Learning Means The World this week the children have been learning about how people move boats into and out of the water. As part of this, the children enjoyed making their own trailers in school. We have also been learning about the parts of the ship. In addition to drawing and labelling their own pirate ship, the children enjoyed playing pirate games where they had to follow the captain's orders and navigate to the right direction of the ship (port, starboard, bow and stern).

      

  

Rosen class started this term by writing a New Year's resolution. We have been exploring the forces, pushes and pulls and the children started their new Learning Means The World Topic - Land Ahoy! - as part of this they have started to explore the different ways things move. The children worked as a group to sort pictures into things which move using wings, wheels and legs.