September 2020

Dear Parents/Carers,

At the start of an important year in your child’s education, we would like to welcome you and your child to Year 2 and explain a little bit about the coming term. This year the teachers and classes will be known as follows; Mrs Asghar: Owl Class and Miss Shefras: Rabbit Class. We hope you will find the following curriculum overview of use in supporting the school in the education of your child.                       

English

In Year 1, your child was taught his/her literacy skills through the ‘Read, Write Inc’ literacy programme. Children continue on this scheme into Year 2; with the aim that they will have completed it by the end of the Autumn term. It aims to provide a variety of activities that gets children learning to read and write, quickly and easily.  The programme consists of rigorous daily phonics practise, combined with reading and writing activities to support the sounds that they are focussing on that week.  It covers a wide range of genres including fiction and non-fiction materials, such as stories, plays, poems and non-fiction texts. (This will also be linked to our topic work in the afternoons.) Children that have not made the expected progress in Year 1 will have additional 1:1 daily phonics tutoring, until they catch up. Those children that have completed the programme and achieved the required level will focus on developing and applying those skills through a variety of writing genres and reading comprehension.

This year in the 2^nd half of the Autumn term, your child will be required to complete the Phonics Screening Check (PSC) that they missed in June 2020 due to Coronavirus. You can support your child by practising previous papers which are readily available online. These can be found at:  

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/phonics-screening-check-2019-materials

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/phonics-screening-check-2018-materials

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/phonics-screening-check-2017-materials

Mathematics

Your child will have opportunities to extend his/her knowledge and use of the basic operations of addition and subtraction.  These processes will be used in problem solving as well as formal recording.  Further work will be undertaken on shape and space, money, time and the introduction of some standard units of measurement.  The children will extend their knowledge of numbers from 0 to 100 and beyond and understand the importance of ‘0’ as a place holder as well as learning to recognise the value of tens in a 2 digit number.  Strategies will be taught to aid the quick recall of facts and number bonds in solving oral problems.

Computing

In computing the children will be learning: How to control a screen robot and use external floor robots; create and debug simple programmes; recognise common uses of ICT beyond school; use technology safely and respectfully; how to keep personal information private and where to go for help and support when they have concerns about content or contact on the internet or other online technologies.  Children will be developing skills through cross curricular links to combine text, graphics and sound. They will also learn to enhance work with art/paint packages, digital imagery, animation and video. These skills will be used to create a simple Powerpoint presentation and pupils will use ‘It’s Learning’ to email and share their work internationally with other schools. We will request iPads from the e-learning centre again this year to enable children to consolidate and build upon the skills they learnt last year.  Computing will be taught across the curriculum and linked to the topics being taught. For example, electronic books and the internet will be used for research or software packages in mathematics.

PE

Children will have opportunities to play simple ball games whilst learning tactics and scoring systems. Gymnastics will focus on how children can balance on body parts and control movement. Dance is entitled ‘Colours and Moods’ and inspires children to move their bodies in a way that reflects our moods and how colour can represent these moods. The International Primary Curriculum encompasses all aspects of the curriculum over the academic year. This term, under the theme of ‘Toys and Games’, we will be researching and playing playground games from around the world. The children will be set a weekly learning task to find out about such games and we value your support in enabling them to achieve this.

Music

Children will explore the features of music; duration, pulse and rhythm, as well as listening to and composing their own simple music and learning a variety of songs. 

P.S.H.E and SEAL

Children will explore the feelings and emotions of ‘new beginnings’. We will also focus on the importance of community and belonging.

Other Foundation subjects and Science

During the Autumn term, Year 2 will be following a unit of work, based on a theme that focuses on ‘Toys and Games’ from around the world.  This unit of work is part of the International Primary Curriculum. This new curriculum sets out very clearly what children will learn in three different areas:

• The subjects of the curriculum – As a result of the updated National Curriculum the learning goals for each of these subjects have become more challenging in an effort to bring the UK in line with the rest of world.
• Personal development – the characteristics which will help children become more responsible, independent learners.
• International understanding – this helps children develop both a sense of the independence of their own country and culture and the interdependence between other countries and cultures.

During this unit we will be focusing on the following curriculum areas: History, Science, Technology, Physical Education and International Understanding.

All of the work we are going to do has been specially written to help your child reach the learning goals. Children will be reading, researching, writing, illustrating, working on their own and in groups. We will be checking to see how well your child has learned through particular activities and asking children to explain their work.

We already know the interest you take in your child’s work. If you can, please discuss with your child the work they have done as the term progresses and let them teach you.

Talk with your child about the toys and games that you used to play with when you were growing up. If you still have examples of these toys, show them to your child and talk about how you played with them. Collect and look at old photographs that feature family members playing with toys. Help your child to understand how toys have changed over time.

If your child has some work to research, please help them, but without actually doing the work. If you have the chance to further their interest in the ideas of this theme please take it, but your enthusiasm and interest is the most important thing.

By the end of the unit, we hope your child will have achieved all of the learning targets. We hope that they would have had an enjoyable time in the classroom and that you will have enjoyed seeing your child’s work with enthusiasm.

Homework

• Weekly learning tasks will be sent out each Friday, however these will not need to be returned to school due to Coronavirus.  Please help your child as much as possible at home.
• Spellings will begin to be sent home in the next few weeks.  Please note, in Year 2, your child is expected to write his/her spellings in a sentence, on the reverse of the spelling sheet.  Spellings will be given on a Thursday and tested the following Thursday.  To help with spelling, daily short bursts of learning are advised using the “look, cover, say, write, check” method.  Your child’s score will be recorded on the spelling sheet. 
• Individual home reading books will not be sent home at the moment due to coronavirus however they are being heard to read at school. You can continue to support your child’s reading at home by logging in to Bug Club online and reading at home as much as possible.
   
  P.E.  is on TUESDAYS & THURSDAYS for classes.  Please ensure your child is wearing the correct P.E kit from home on their P.E. days. They should not be wearing earrings on P.E. days, these need to be removed.  Children will have at least one P.E lesson each week outside and with the cold weather approaching; it is therefore recommended that all children have a pair of tracksuit bottoms to wear on their P.E days.
   
  Water
  Please ensure your child brings a named bottle of water from home, which can then be refilled from chilled water units during the school day.
   
  Collection of children
   
  Thank you for being so patient at home time and following the temporary procedures that are in place to keep everyone safe.  It takes time for teachers to learn which parent belongs to which child!   Normally Owl class will exit from the white doors and Rabbit class will exit from the red door, however whilst the temporary arrangements are on-going they will exit from the adjacent classroom door. If you are unable to pick your child up from school you will need to phone the school office to inform them of who will be collecting your child. This must be someone from your household/family bubble.
   
  We value your continued support in the education of your child and enjoy the partnership this brings between home and school. If you have any queries do not hesitate to contact us.
   
  Yours sincerely,
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Mrs Asghar                                                                          Miss Shefras

           Owl Class                                                                             Rabbit Class
 
 
 

Dear Children

We hope you are enjoying the time you have with your family, but we are missing you very much and feeling sad that we haven’t been able to teach you ourselves.  We hope that you have still been working hard and enjoying the activities we have put on the school website for you.  The final three weeks of work has now been uploaded for you.

During the holidays, whilst we aren’t setting any work for you, we would really like you to continue learning, but in a fun way!  Perhaps you could take your grown-ups out shopping to buy an ice-cream and a comic.  Make sure you count your money carefully and check that you get the right change.  Ask your grownups to help you make a cake, so you can practise measuring weight, and use fractions to share the finished cake equally.  Or perhaps you want to make your own playdoh! Look online for a recipe and experiment with different colours and scents.  Learn about measuring capacity by playing with containers and water in the bath or in the garden on a warm day.  If you are allowed food colouring you could colour your water interesting colours or add some glitter for some sparkle!  Practise telling the time, then you will always know how much time you have to play and when you should go to bed.  And, don’t forget to keep learning your times tables, number bonds and try to read to your grown-up every day.

Your teachers look forward to seeing you back at school and seeing how much you have grown! You will probably have shot up like a beanstalk, whilst your teachers may just be a little rounder! Have lots of fun, be kind and helpful and stay safe!  We can’t wait to see you back at school!

Love from

Mrs Asghar and Miss Shefras and all Year 2 staff

xxxxxxxxxxx

January 2020

Dear Parents/Carers,

We would like to send you all our very best wishes for a Happy New Year. We are delighted to welcome back to school all our Year 2 pupils. The children made a good start in 2020 and are settling well into the Spring term. We have an exciting term ahead and value your support with your child’s learning. We would like to share with you some of the areas, which will be covered this term. We hope that this will help you be more informed. If you have any questions about any of the areas please arrange to speak to your child’s class teacher who will be happy to discuss the curriculum with you.                                                                                                          

English

This term your child will continue to have opportunities to explore and recreate a variety of forms of writing including presentation skills, character profiles, invitations, recounts and reports. To support his/her writing your child will have lessons in spelling, grammar and handwriting. Using school reading books your child will have experiences in reading a range of materials such as fiction, non-fiction, poems and plays. Home reading books can be changed daily or if it is a book with chapters, a note to say they have read a sufficient number of pages can be recorded in their reading record books. Please note reading books MUST be changed, at least, weekly. We welcome your comments and these can be recorded in the reading record. In year 2, the focus is on reading for understanding and building on discussion about the text, as well as the ability to read the words. For information on how to support your child while he/she is reading, please see the insert in his/her reading record.

Maths  

Your child will have opportunities to extend his/her knowledge and use of the basic operations of addition and subtraction. These processes will be used in problem solving as well as formal recording. Further work will be undertaken on shape and space, money, time and the introduction of some standard units of measurement. The children will extend their knowledge of numbers from 0 to 100 and beyond and understand the importance of 0 as a place holder as well as learning to recognise the value of tens in 2 and 3 digit numbers. Strategies will be taught to aid the quick recall of facts and number bonds in solving oral problems.  Your child will also focus on learning his/her times tables beginning with 2, 5 and 10 and extending to the 3, 4 and 6 times tables.

Science

Towards the end of the Spring term we will start a new topic called ‘Super Humans’, which looks in detail at the human body. The children will pose and answer scientific questions, conduct simple investigations and gather information. More information will follow in the second-half of the Spring term regarding this topic and how you can best support your child’s learning.

Computing

In computing the children will build upon the basic skills they learnt in the Autumn term.  They will learn how to control a screen robot and use external floor robots with growing accuracy; create and debug simple programmes; recognise common uses of ICT beyond school; use technology safely and respectfully; know how to keep personal information private and where to go for help and support when they have concerns about content or contact on the internet or other online technologies.  Children will be developing skills through cross curricular links to combine text, graphics and sound. They will also learn to enhance work with art/paint packages, digital imagery, animation and video. These skills will be used to create a simple Power point presentation. Computing will be taught across the curriculum and linked to the topics being taught - for example, electronic books and the internet will be used for research or software packages in mathematics.

Foundation subjects

Religious Education

This term our lessons focus on Islam and what it means to be a Muslim.  The children will recognise the Qur’an as an example of a holy book and how special and sacred it is to Muslims; they will be able to recall some of the things that happened to Muhammad (pbuh) in the cave; they will be able to use some of the vocabulary relating to this study, such as – creation, God, Allah and creator. 

  Reminders:-

Homework

• Learning Logs are sent out each Friday and need to be returned the following Wednesday.  There are two tasks, both of which are to be completed.
• Spellings are given on a Thursday and tested the following Thursday.  To help with spelling, daily short bursts of learning are advised using the “look, cover, write, check” method. Please encourage your child to apply the spellings by writing them in a sentence on the back of the sheet.
• Individual home reading books must be in school and changed at least once a week. 
   
  P.E. kits need to be worn on TUESDAYS & THURSDAYS for both classes.  Please ensure your child has an outdoor kit consisting of trousers, jumper and trainers in addition to his/her indoor kit of shorts, t-shirt and plimsolls.  Please also ensure your child is not wearing earrings on P.E. days. 
   
  Water
  Please ensure your child brings a named bottle of water from home, which can then be refilled from chilled water units during the school day. Water during the day aids concentration in lesson time as well as being healthy.   Water bottles are available to buy from the office.
   
  Head Lice
  Please check your child’s hair regularly and treat if necessary.  This should help stop the spread and repeated cases. 
   
  SATs
  Further information, regarding this year’s SATs will follow shortly. 
   
• We value your continuing help in the education of your child and enjoy the partnership this brings with home and school. If you have any queries do not hesitate to contact us.
  Yours sincerely,
  
  Mrs Asghar                                                                                                                         Miss Shefras
  Owl Class                                                                                                                             Rabbit class
  Assistant Headteacher

September 2019

Dear Parents/Carers,

At the start of an important year in your child’s education, we would like to welcome you and your child to Year 2 and explain a little bit about the coming term. This year the teachers and classes will be known as follows; Mrs Asghar: Owl Class and Miss Shefras: Rabbit Class. We hope you will find the following curriculum overview of use in supporting the school in the education of your child.                       

English

In Year 1, your child was taught his/her literacy skills through the ‘Read, Write Inc’ literacy programme. Children continue on this scheme into Year 2; with the aim that they will have completed it by the end of the Autumn term. It aims to provide a variety of activities that gets children learning to read and write, quickly and easily.  The programme consists of rigorous daily phonics practise, combined with reading and writing activities to support the sounds that they are focussing on that week.  It covers a wide range of genres including fiction and non-fiction materials, such as stories, plays, poems and non-fiction texts. (This will also be linked to our topic work in the afternoons.) Children that have not made the expected progress in Year 1 will have additional 1:1 daily phonics tutoring, until they catch up. Those children that have completed the programme and achieved the required level will focus on developing and applying those skills through a variety of writing genres and reading comprehension. Please speak to your child’s class teacher if you wish to know which stage your child is at.                        

• Storytime: Children will have a daily story-time session; with opportunities to ask and answer questions about the text.
• Library:  Your child will have an opportunity, once a week, to select a new reading book to take home (this is an addition to his/her reading book).           

Mathematics

Your child will have opportunities to extend his/her knowledge and use of the basic operations of addition and subtraction.  These processes will be used in problem solving as well as formal recording.  Further work will be undertaken on shape and space, money, time and the introduction of some standard units of measurement.  The children will extend their knowledge of numbers from 0 to 100 and beyond and understand the importance of ‘0’ as a place holder as well as learning to recognise the value of tens in a 2 digit number.  Strategies will be taught to aid the quick recall of facts and number bonds in solving oral problems.

Computing

 In computing the children will be learning: How to control a screen robot and use external floor robots; create and debug simple programmes; recognise common uses of ICT beyond school; use technology safely and respectfully; how to keep personal information private and where to go for help and support when they have concerns about content or contact on the internet or other online technologies.  Children will be developing skills through cross curricular links to combine text, graphics and sound. They will also learn to enhance work with art/paint packages, digital imagery, animation and video. These skills will be used to create a simple Powerpoint presentation and pupils will use ‘It’s Learning’ to email and share their work internationally with other schools. We will request iPads from the e-learning centre again this year to enable children to consolidate and build upon the skills they learnt last year.  Computing will be taught across the curriculum and linked to the topics being taught. For example, electronic books and the internet will be used for research or software packages in mathematics.

PE

Children will have opportunities to play simple ball games whilst learning tactics and scoring systems. Gymnastics will focus on how children can balance on body parts and control movement. Dance is entitled ‘colours and moods’ and inspires children to move their bodies in a way that reflects our moods and how colour can represent these moods. The International Primary Curriculum encompasses all aspects of the curriculum over the academic year. This term, under the theme of ‘Toys and Games’, we will be researching and playing playground games from around the world. The children will be set a learning log task to find out about such games and we value your support in enabling them to achieve this.

Music

Children will explore the features of music; duration, pulse and rhythm, as well as listening to and composing their own simple music and learning a variety of songs. 

P.S.H.E and SEAL

Children will explore the feelings and emotions of ‘new beginnings’. We will also focus on the importance of community and belonging.

Other Foundation subjects and Science

During the Autumn term, Year 2 will be following a unit of work, based on a theme that focuses on ‘Toys and Games’ from around the world.  This unit of work is part of the International Primary Curriculum. This new curriculum sets out very clearly what children will learn in three different areas:

• The subjects of the curriculum – As a result of the updated National Curriculum the learning goals for each of these subjects have become more challenging in an effort to bring the UK in line with the rest of world.
• Personal development – the characteristics which will help children become more responsible, independent learners.
• International understanding – this helps children develop both a sense of the independence of their own country and culture and the interdependence between other countries and cultures.

During this unit we will be focusing on the following curriculum areas: History, Science, Technology, Physical Education and International Understanding.

All of the work we are going to do has been specially written to help your child reach the learning goals. Children will be reading, researching, writing, illustrating, working on their own and working in groups. We will be checking to see how well your child has learned through particular activities and asking children to explain their work.

We already know the interest you take in your child’s work. If you can, please discuss with your child the work they have done as the term progresses and let them teach you.

Talk with your child about the toys and games that you used to play with when you were growing up. If you still have examples of these toys, show them to your child and talk about how you played with them. Collect and look at old photographs that feature family members playing with toys. Help your child to understand how toys have changed over time.

If your child has some work to research, please help them, but without actually doing the work. If you have the chance to further their interest in the ideas of this theme please take it, but your enthusiasm and interest is the most important thing.

By the end of the unit, we hope your child will have achieved all of the learning targets. We hope that they would have had an enjoyable time in the classroom and that you will have enjoyed seeing your child’s work with enthusiasm. If you have any comments about the work your child has done, please get in touch.

Homework

• Learning Logs are sent out each Friday and need to be returned the following Wednesday.  
• Spellings will begin to be sent home in the next few weeks.  Please note, in Year 2, your child is expected to write his/her spellings in a sentence, on the reverse of the spelling sheet.  Spellings will be given on a Thursday and tested the following Thursday.  To help with spelling, daily short bursts of learning are advised using the “look, cover, say, write, check” method.  Your child’s score will be recorded on the spelling sheet. 
• Individual home reading books must be shared daily at home and brought into school and changed at least twice a week.
   
  P.E.  is on TUESDAYS & THURSDAYS for both classes.  Please ensure your child is wearing the correct P.E kit from home on their P.E. days. They should not be wearing earrings on P.E. days, these need to be removed.  Children will have at least one P.E lesson each week outside and with the cold weather approaching; it is therefore recommended that all children have a pair of tracksuit bottoms to wear on their P.E days.
  Water
  Please ensure your child brings a named bottle of water from home, which can then be refilled from chilled water units during the school day.
  Collection of children
  Thank you for being so patient at home time.  It takes time for teachers to learn which parent belongs to which child!   Normally Owl class will exit from the white doors and Rabbit class will exit from the red door, however whilst the building work is on-going they will exit from the adjacent classroom door.  We ask parents to queue up along the wall outside their child’s classroom so that your child can be safely dismissed. If you are unable to pick your child up from school you will need to phone the school office to inform them of who will be collecting your child.
   
  It has been wonderful getting to know you all at home time. We look forward to meeting you properly at our up and coming parents’ evening in October, where we will update you on your child’s progress and share their personal targets with you. Information regarding SATs will follow shortly. We value your continued support in the education of your child and enjoy the partnership this brings between home and school. If you have any queries do not hesitate to contact us.