Year 2
Welcome to Year Two!
In Year 2 we endeavour to build upon the fabulous learning experiences your child has had in both Foundation and Year 1. We are passionate about your child being the best they can be and plan for learning opportunities to maximise their growth in every area of their development.
Our learning is thematic and we have fun! We believe happy children learn well. We have a main theme for each half-term that incorporates as many subjects as possible. This enables the children to link areas of the curriculum and make learning meaningful.
To see what your child will be learning each term, click on the links below.
Our Year 2 children experience the best in quality first teaching from a dedicated team of teachers and teaching support staff on a daily basis.
In addition, they have a specialised music teacher once a week where they focus on pitch, pulse and playing percussion. They also have specialist PE coaches that help to develop their gross motor skills and team work.
English is taught daily with specific emphasis on reading and writing a wide range of genres across the course of the year. We have grammar lessons each week, ensuring all of the expectations for Year 2 are taught, as well as phonics/spelling sessions every day.
We love books in Year 2 and promote quality texts and high quality vocabulary in everything we do! We use a wide of text and read with our children in small groups in each week. We use our reading VIPERS to help the children develop in a range of reading skills and assess as an ongoing part of their reading sessions.
In the teaching of writing, we gradually move from the class-based oral rehearsal of texts in Year 1 to more independent writing. Writing is taught by sharing quality texts as a model, shared and guided writing to model the thought processes of a writer, how to use the grammar and punctuation expectations in Year 2 and then time to put these skills into practice. We use role play and drama to help us empathise with characters and to sequence events.
Handwriting is taught regularly in Year 2 and by the end of the year, all children are expected to have an evenly sized and spaced writing style with correct letter formation. Those more able writers are expected to be showing evidence of joining with some confidence.
In Year 2, we teach Mathematics every day. Mathematics themes in Year 2 include: place value, four operations, measures, shape, money, coordinates and position, fractions and statistics. Each day, additional time is spent in Year 2 ensuring children have fluency of mathematics and building strong foundations in understanding how number works. Below we have included the current written methods and how we approach the four operations.
Wherever possible, visitors are invited to talk to the children about their life experiences. This may be to share cultural or religious beliefs or special interests and jobs. We love it when our Year 2 parents offer to be involved in this and have been very grateful to have had so many willing volunteers.
We visit Sulgrave Manor as our trip away from school. Here the children learn about life long ago and experience childhood activities and games played. They then compare these to their own modern-day lives.
In Year 2 we do set homework. We ask that parents read with their children at least four times a week. We also ask that the children learn all of their Year 1 and Year 2 common exception words. From January onwards, we begin to learn spelling rules and will send home a list of rules taught so that the children can continue this learning at home. In addition, we set weekly maths homework, this is an online homework called My Maths.
Other useful information...
PE
Donaldson - Tuesday and Wednesday
Bright - Tuesday and Wednesday
Rosen - Monday and Tuesday
Newsletters