Bumble Bees

Welcome to Bumblebees Class – our Key Stage 2 Semi-Formal class for children aged 7 to 11 years. We access learning through child and adult-led activities using a multi-sensory topic-based curriculum inside and outside the classroom.

Our Team

Class Teacher: Gemma

Support Staff: Karen, Jen, Beverley (Monday) and Kim (Tuesday – Friday)

We work together as a team to ensure every child receives the support and encouragement they need throughout the school day.

We learn as a class, but children have their own targets and work hard on achieving them. We engage in all areas of the curriculum and also work hard on skills for life and independence skills, especially accessing the community. We create activities to support personal and social development and look at all areas of a child's development and growth throughout their time in class. We alternate between adult and child-led activities to encourage pupils to be curious about new learning but also extend and consolidate knowledge independently.

In Bumblebees Class we enjoy a wide range of activities and play and social development is a very important part of our learning through a continuous provision approach. The children enjoy weekly PE and swimming and regular outdoor play throughout the day. This supports sensory needs and readiness for learning and individuals' well-being.

Every Monday we have swimming in the morning and then we go to forest school in the afternoon which always helps set us up for a good week.

We love being out in the community and using the skills we have learnt in class in real-life situations and have a focus on lifelong learning skills as children progress through education.

In Bumblebees class, we use multiple strategies to develop communication, including symbol exchange, blank level questioning and Makaton to develop total communication.

We use different approaches and programmes, including phonics, Bug Club and blank level questioning for literacy, White Rose and Numicon for numeracy, self-regulation including brain gym, yoga, dough disco and an outdoor sensory circuit – this also develops children's readiness for learning.

During the Autumn term our topic was All About Me and supported our pupils to develop a sense of self. We use lots of photographs as a focus point, which encourages meaning for learning and can motivate pupils to engage in activities and be confident sharing about their life outside of school. We often integrate with other classes, including Peacocks, Butterflies and Rabbits, to give a wider range of experiences and social opportunities.

We have an open-door policy and we communicate on Dojo every day and often share photos of activities. We also ask parents to share photos with us and have been able to make timelines of the children from when they were a baby to now thanks to parental engagement. We have information sheets we share with parents around the different strategies and activities we use in class and how these can be used at home.