A very warm welcome back to all Year 2 pupils and families! We hope you had an enjoyable and restful summer. We are looking forward to getting to know your children and helping them to learn and grow. As your children are now the oldest in KS1, we are sure they are eager to take on the new responsibilities and challenges that come with it. Our theme for this year is “Stewards of the Earth; Guardians of God’s Gifts”. As keen Eco-Warriors, this theme will inspire our pupils to go out in the world and treasure our planet and the people around us. Throughout this year, we hope to work with you to stimulate your children’s imagination and ambitions whilst helping them to rise to even greater heights.
Year 2
Welcome To Year Two!
As always, our RE topics will form a central part of our journey together. Our topics are:
- Beginnings: we will explore the children’s experiences of beginnings and the creation of the world.
- Signs & Symbols: The children will learn about the signs and symbols we see in daily life and then will discover how to make links to signs and symbols of Baptism.
- Preparations: the children will learn that Advent is a time for preparing for Jesus. We will think about how we prepare for celebrations in our daily lives.
- Our other faith for this term is Judaism. We will learn about key celebrations that Jewish families share.
Stewards of the Earth
Our topic this term will be based around the Gunpowder Plot. In History, we will be exploring the events that led to the Gunpowder Plot and why we celebrate Bonfire Night.
Through our Geography lessons, we will explore the countries within the UK and various landmarks we can find around Britain.
The artist Joan Miro will inspire us in our Art lessons, where we will create our own colourful paintings.
In PE, we will develop our dance with Mrs Bathgate and our ball skills with Mrs Hudson.
Our creative abilities will be encouraged in DT when we will make our moving cards using levers.
We will learn about materials in our Science lessons and we will investigate which materials are suitable for different jobs.
Year 2 will also enjoy Music lessons taught by the OLOL Music Team.
In English, we will be exploring exciting stories and films to inspire the children to write with enjoyment and flare. We will have regular handwriting sessions to improve and perfect the children’s letter style. There will also be a consistent focus on spelling, punctuation and grammar so the children write confidently and accurately.
Our Maths lessons will focus on deepening the children’s understanding of Number, the four operations and Money. Throughout our lessons, we will explore real-life problem-solving strategies to ensure the children can apply their Mathematical knowledge to everyday life.
Ways To Help At Home!
Homework:
Year 2 will be given homework on a Thursday and it will be due in the following Thursday. This will include two spelling lists. The children will be assigned a spelling list based on their Phonics level. The Diamond list is more challenging as the words are new Year 2 words whereas the Ruby group of words are ones that the children will have experienced in Year 1 (but they may need refreshing). The children will have their spelling test on a Thursday morning, then they will have a Spelling lesson linked to their next set of spellings to help them to prepare for the following week.
Handwriting: All Year 2 children will be given a handwriting book to take home. Please encourage your child to bring their book in with completed letters so they build up their handwriting stamina and have a clear, legible style.
Reading:
There is no such thing as a child who dislikes reading; there are only children who haven’t found the right book.” – Frank Serefini.
At this age, decoding words and reading fluently can still be challenging for many children. Year 2 Children need to push past this initial challenge and read as much as possible to become fluent in reading and thereafter they will be able to enjoy the abundance of stories and magical worlds in books.
All children will continue to use a reading record, phonetically decodable book and library book. Please listen to your child read their decodable book for at least 10 minutes everyday and write a comment in the reading record.
Children should bring in their reading books every day. We have weekly whole-class guided reading sessions and volunteers who listen to the children read.
PE: Earrings: due to health and safety reasons, earrings must be removed before all PE sessions. Please remove them before school if your child is not able to do this independently. Indoor PE will take place on Wednesdays and outdoor PE sessions will take place on Fridays, however, we ask for PE kits to be in school all week in case the timetable needs to be adapted. Please help your child to make sure their indoor and outdoor PE kit (white t-shirt/ black shorts/ socks/ trainers) is with them in school at all times.
Science: Please bring in a ‘Science lab coat’ (this could be an old white shirt) for your child to wear over their uniform during Science investigations.
Uniform: Please ensure all your children’s clothes are labelled with their name. This helps us to reunite clothes with the correct child!
Key Dates TBC
We are so looking forward to getting to know all the children in Year 2 and helping them to investigate, discover and learn through making ‘marvellous mistakes’. Strong home-school links are key to ensuring that your children gain the best support from both school and home so, if you do have any questions or concerns, please feel free to get in touch so we can discuss them further. Thank you in advance for your support over the coming term, it is very much appreciated.
Best wishes,
Mrs Cross and Mrs Hudson
