Welcome to Year 2
Class Teacher: Miss Robinson
Teaching Assistants: Miss Tait
We have a Big Question in each class. Our Big Question is;
How do we change the world around us? Why should we care for our world?
Children will have an understanding of geographical processes and the lives of historical figures locally. Find out more below…
Homework
Reading:
Reading books will be changed on Tuesdays and/or Fridays, depending on whether your child follows a 3 or a 5-day timetable on Read, Write Inc. Please read a few pages with your child at home 3-4 times a week and record it on their bookmark. Remember to bring reading books and bookmarks to school every single day. Your child will bring home three books. The first book will be a paper copy of the storybook they have been reading in school that week. They will also receive a second story book that they have not seen before. Alongside these books, children will choose another book to bring home as a ‘choosing book’. This book won’t necessarily match their phonics level; therefore, it is meant as a text you should enjoy together. Children who read 3-4 times a week, will receive a treat during Friday’s Storytime e.g., a hot chocolate or a biscuit. There will be a short meeting after school for all parents of KS1 children about reading at home on Tuesday 15th November where we aim to answer any questions that you may have. We hope to see as many of you there as possible.
Oxford Owl for Home
Soon children will receive their log ins for Oxford Owl at home. On here, teachers will be able to allocate books to children and they will be able to access them online and even answer quiz questions on them!
1 Minute Maths
This is a free app from White Rose Maths that you can download. It will help your pupils to build greater number confidence and fluency. It’s all about targeted practice in engaging, one-minute chunks!
Knowledge Organisers: These will be sent home for you to keep and look at as the topic/knowledge is being taught. This helps you gain information, understanding and knowledge around the subject to enable to you apply what you know in class and embed the knowledge you have learnt.
Timetable Section
Reading Books: In school every day but will be changed on Tuesdays and/or Fridays.
PE: Wednesdays and Fridays
English
At Christ Church, we believe that phonics are the foundations of learning that will help support our children in developing their reading and writing skills. Through daily, systematic, and consistent high quality phonics teaching, our children will develop a strong phonological awareness and effective blending and decoding skills. We have chosen a synthetic phonics programme called Read Write Inc. that is centered around letter sounds and phonics, blending and segmenting sounds to read and spell words and applying these skills across the curriculum.
By the end of KS1, we want all children to learn to read fluently so that they can put all their energy into comprehending what they read. We believe that teaching children to read and write independently is one of our core purposes, enabling them to access a broad and exciting curriculum and ensuring they flourish as learners throughout their time at our school. These fundamental skills not only hold the keys to the rest of the curriculum but also have a huge impact on children’s self-esteem and future life chances. Our Read, Write Inc. lessons happen every day from 9.30-10.30. In addition, children join in a daily quiet reading session every day after lunch and participate in a whole-class story time at the end of the day. There are also lots of children who will get the opportunity to read 1:1 with an adult during the school day. This might be with be a teacher, a teaching assistant, or a volunteer.
We focus on core books and base our planning and learning around these with different genres of writing as the outcome e.g. story writing, letter writing, non-chronological reports and instructions. The books are as seen below and also highlighted in the LTP attached above.
Year 2 Key texts this year:
How do we change the world around us? Why should we care for our world?
Maths
The children in Year 2 have a 7-part daily Maths lesson from 10.45 – 11.45 which consists of:
- 5 minutes warm up (number of the day)
- Counting – Whole class counting and down in a variety of ways
- Activate prior knowledge (What have we been working on – examples)
- New learning (Done with the children, not to them – Me / We / You etc.)
- Skill (Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract for their new skill)
- Fluency (Using their new skill in a variety of contexts)
- Reasoning (Explaining concepts and understanding involving their new skill)
All children will have access to the same questions, the same resources, and the same support. Different children will require different levels of scaffolds and be able to achieve more or less than other children in each lesson. They decide for themselves (with occasional direction from the teacher) what they need to help them with that lesson and have free access to this.
Religious Education
Our Christian ethos is developed through our class prayer space, our class prayers and the Christian values we teach throughout school alongside our positive learning behaviours.
Our Year 2 class prayer is …
Thank you for the beautiful world we live in. Help us to take care of it and look after it for the people who will live in it after us.
As a Christian school our syllabus follows the ‘Understanding Christianity Approach’ from the Church of England.
R.E Knowledge Organisers can be found below, click on the link to have a look what we cover each half term.
Curriculum
The Big Question for Year 2: How do we change the world around us? Why should we care for our world?
Children will have an understanding of geographical processes and the lives of historical figures locally. They will know how people have influence on the world and how we should appreciate what we have. They will understand how it is important to be thankful for the natural world, understanding that what we do matters and we can change things for the better. Below are the three questions we cover each term in which our curriculum is planned to enable students to gain understanding around the subjects each year.
- Autumn Term – Our World – How can I understand the world and my place in it?
- Spring Term – The Elements – How have people harnessed the power of the elements?
- Summer Term – Oh what a wonderful world – How do I understand my locality and the changes I see?
Art & Design and Design Technology
Art and DT are taught throughout the year every Friday. The first terms of Autumn, Spring and Summer is ART and the second terms of Autumn, Spring and Summer is DT.
ART: We cover two Artists each year, researching them and creating art in their style, using their technique. This year we are focussing on David Hockney and Wasilly Kandinsky. We also have opportunities to cover areas of interest, develop and build upon existing skills and enter Art challenges and competitions in Summer 1. Click below on the link for the Knowledge Organisers for Art.
DT: DT focusses on learning three units over the year. This year we are developing our skills in food technology, model making and using clay to make a product. Click below on the link for the Knowledge Organisers for DT.
Reward System
We use Class Dojo in year 2. Class Dojo is used as a reward system, recognising all the wonderful behaviour and hard work the children do on a daily basis. Dojo points are given to the children throughout the day and these points build up to bigger rewards!
All parents are connected via the app and this allows us to communicate regularly with you and allows you to be fully involved in everything that we do in year 2! The children are proud of their achievements and it’s a great way to involve everyone in the children’s learning journey. Here is the link if you want to find out more! https://www.classdojo.com/#LearnMore
Learning Gallery
We love to learn!
