Y2 Visit to the Masjid-E-Noor and St. Michael’s Church – Summer Term 2024

Year Two had a fantastic day out visiting a Mosque in Gloucester (the Masjid-E-Noor) in the morning and also walking to St. Michael’s Church in Bussage during the afternoon. This was all part of our Religious Education learning where we are currently exploring and comparing features of holy buildings and thinking about how they are used in worship.

Our visit to the Mosque was led by the Imam who fully engaged the children throughout. The visit began with the children and adults all removing their shoes on entry to the Mosque, just as all Muslims do, and placing them in the shoe racks. The Imam explained the meanings of the Five Pillars of Islam and demonstrated how and where Muslims pray when at the Mosque. A real highlight was the children being introduced to the Washroom and being able to have a go themselves at the washing ritual that Muslims do before they begin their prayers. The children were also able to try on some traditional Muslim clothing which was very exciting for all involved! 

During the afternoon, the children walked down to St Michael’s Church in Bussage to explore its features and learn more about how they are used in worship. Reverend Sue led the children around the Church, explaining and demonstrating the important aspects of how Christians pray and how items, such as the altar, chalice and pulpit are used during services. The children were able to complete an ‘I Spy’ activity, looking for key features, as well as draw some of the beautiful aspects of the Church.

We were extremely impressed with all the children throughout both visits, as they were extremely well-behaved, engaged very enthusiastically with all the talks, activities and learning, as well as asking some fantastic questions! Well done, Year Two and a huge thank you to both Imam Hassan and Reverend Sue for making our visits so memorable!

Cotswold Wildlife Park Trip 2024

As part of our Summer Term theme – What a Wonderful World – we visited Cotswold Wildlife Park to see some of the animals we have been learning about in our Science lessons and discover even more new facts!

It was a fantastic day out and all the children thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We had a talk about the life cycles of certain animals, including giant tortoises, emus, wallabies and Colobus monkeys. The children found this very interesting and asked some brilliant questions to deepen their understanding.

We spent time exploring some of the larger animals at the park, including rhinoceroses, camels, lions and giraffes. It was fascinating to watch the very long tongues of the giraffes reaching up to eat the leaves from the trees. We also explored the reptile and invertebrate house, as well as looking at the fruit bats, penguins and otters.

The children were able to use their learning in our Science lessons to identify animals from different groups, such as mammals and reptiles and were fantastic at recognising which animals were herbivores, carnivores or herbivores by reading the information on the signs.

We were very proud of all the children for representing our school so brilliantly and using their amazing scientific brains all throughout the day.

Check out some of our photos for a sneaky peek at our day!

Spring term 2024 – Fire! Fire!

This term the children will be finding out about events in the past. They will be using a range of resources to find out about ‘The Great Fire of London’ and will learn about significant people. We are all looking forward to the ‘Great Fire’ workshop when the children will be actively involved in drama and dance tasks to find out how the fire started, how it stopped and how London was rebuilt after the fire. As well as being historians, the children will also be exploring different materials in Science and will be designing, drawing and making a building in Design and Technology.  

Autumn Term 2023 – All About Me

The theme this term is ‘All About Me’ and the children have enjoyed sharing what they know as well as thinking about what they would like to find out. Class One and Class Two had great fun learning a skeleton dance and joined in well with the actions. We are busy finding out about the different parts of the body in Science as well as learning how to make different marks in Art.

Mosque and Church Visit – June 2023

We had a fabulous day visiting first the Masjid-E-Noor (Mosque) in Gloucester, then onto St Michael’s Church in the afternoon.

It was very interesting to see two contrasting places of worship from the religions of Islam and Christianity so the children could compare them both in terms of their features and how they are used in worship.

The children really enjoyed looking around the Mosque and especially liked seeing the prayer hall, getting to dress up in some traditional Muslim clothing and experiencing the washing ritual in the Mosque’s washroom!

At the church, the children were able to spot lots of features they had learnt about in school. They really enjoyed spotting particular items as well as drawing some of the features. The children were especially interested to see how the font was used and find out more about the robes that the vicar wears on different occasions.

The children were fantastic to take out of school as always and everyone came away with lots of new facts and understanding about the two religions we are studying. Check out our photos for a taste of the day.

Copsegrove Farm – Summer 2023

We have had an amazing trip to Copsegrove Farm this week! All the children were fantastic and were full of enthusiasm during the whole day. They really relished spending time outdoors in the woods. The children participated in a number of activities during the day, such as life cycles of trees, identfying parts of a plant and looking at physical and human features. They also loved making chocolate and marshmellow wraps, woodland crowns and building dens. It was a wonderful day and a fantastic way to celebrate our learning. Check out our photos for a look at our day!

The King’s Coronation May 2023

The children at Bussage Primary have been celebrating the King’s coronation today, our school organized a day full of special activities to mark the historic event. As part of the festivities, children in Year 2 were given an exciting art project to work on. Inspired by the iconic Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, the children were asked to create their own unique crowns using Kusama’s signature style of colorful dots and bold patterns. The young artists worked diligently to bring their creative vision to life, resulting in an impressive display of vibrant and eye-catching crowns. The class proudly wore their handmade headpieces home today and have said they look forward to wearing them at home during the coronation ceremony.

Summer 2023 – Island Life

Class Two have been very busy learning about the United Kingdom. They have used globes and atlases to find out about the different countries and capital cities. In Science, the children have been exploring the school grounds to identify and name common wild and garden plants. They were great detectives and found lots of different plants. We are looking forward to finding out more about what plants need to grow and will be growing our own vegetables and flowers.

Once Upon a Time – Spring Term 2023

We have had a fantastic term so far with our theme ‘Once Upon a Time’. A large part of the children’s learning has been History-based with a focus on finding out about Castles in the past.

We have learnt all about how William the Conqueror brought the first castles to England after the Battle of Hastings in 1066. We have found out that the first castles were called Motte and Bailey castles but eventually it was realised that stone castles would be stronger and more protective so that material was then used.

We have been honing our research skills to find out about this information and the children have completed some excellent work.

We have also been exploring Coats of Arms and, for our Art this term, the children have designed and then sponge printed a shield with their own coat of arms on. Check out our pictures for a few examples of these.

We are very much looking forward to our trip to Sudeley Castle where the children should be able to see lots of their learning in real life!

On The Move – Autumn 2022 – UPDATE!

We have now been in school for the first few weeks and have already taken part in some exciting activities as part of our Science learning!

The children have been investigating how things move, especially in terms of ‘pushes’ and ‘pulls’. They began by using different PE equipment to investigate what actions they needed to take to make the balls, hoops and so on move from one place to another.

The children then took part in a Wheelie afternoon, where they brought their bikes or scooters into school and were able to ride these around the playground and roundabout to discover whether they needed to push or pull different elements to make the vehicle move. It was a very exciting and fun afternoon with lots of great Science talk!

Below are some pictures of our first investigative lessons.