Welcome to Year 2

Year 2 is an exciting year as we complete our Key Stage 1 journey. Our Year 2 children are based on the Bourges Boulevard site. During the year, children have the opportunity to learn some new and exciting things, whilst embedding the skills they have learnt previously. This is an important year as the children finalise their learning from the key stage through non-statutory tests and teacher assessments.

Children in Year 2 are aged 6 and 7 years old. We have 2 classes in our year group:

2N - Miss Nargis

2G - Mrs Nash

Children are taught in groups for Power Maths and Power English; these groups may change depending on your child's achievements and next step in learning. Children stay with their class teacher for other curriculum subjects.

Typical Day's Timetable

8.50	School gates open and children come into their classroom. In class, children will select their lunch and be involved in early morning activities like reading and handwriting practise.
8.55	Register.
9.00	Power English and Power Phonics Groups
10.00	Breaktime
10.15	Power Maths Groups
11.15	Specialist Teacher Curriculum; PE, Music or Spanish
12.00	Lunchtime
12.45	Other curriculum subjects will be taught across the week. These subjects will include; Personal Social and Health Education, Geography, History, Art, Computing, Science and Religious Education. Design and Technology is taught during an enrichment week, alongside many other exciting opportunities for children. We have three assemblies a week. On a Monday and a Friday, we meet as the whole academy at 1.45am. On a Wednesday, we meet as a phase with our friends in Years 3 and 4.
3.15	End of school day for Year 2

Physical Education

Children have two P.E. lessons per week and need to have a change of clothing to put on during these lessons. In a named bag they should have:

A T- shirt (and a sweatshirt in the winter)
Shorts or jogging bottoms
Trainers

We advise that children keep their P.E. clothes in school all week as sometimes we have to change the day of the lesson. Our PE days are Monday and Wednesday.

Home Learning

As part of our Reading Agreement with families, children in Year 2 will have a reading book that they bring home every day. They are expected to spend 10 to 15 minutes every day reading and sharing the book with someone. Families - please make sure you sign your child's reading record and return it to school everyday. Once they have read the book they should talk about what they have read. This could include - identifying the main events in the story and making links to their own experiences. Children need to re-read the same book over a few days to help build up their fluency and understanding of the text.

Curriculum

Year 2 follow the 2014 National Curriculum. English and Mathematics is focused on building on the learning they undertook in Year 1. The following are the key objectives that we cover during the year.

Reading

Focus on establishing pupils’ accurate and speedy word reading skills.
Apply their phonic knowledge and skills as a route to decode words, building up to it becoming embedded and reading is fluent.
Recognise alternative sounds for graphemes and use to read accurately.
Re-read books to build up fluency and confidence in word reading.
Develop pleasure in reading.
Listen to and discuss a wide range of stories, poems, plays and information books beyond which they can read.
Understand and talk about both the books they can already read accurately and fluently themselves, and those read to them by another person.

Writing

Break words into phonemes for spelling.
Know some spellings which use variations of standard phonemes.
Use the possessive apostrophe.
Spell some words with contracted forms.
Use suffixes to spell longer words, including -ment, -ness, -less, -ful, -ly.
Form lower-case letters of the correct size relative to one another.
Write capital letters and numerals of appropriate size.
Write for different purposes.
Read aloud their own writing using appropriate intonation.
Use noun phrases.
Use four main types of sentence appropriately - statement, question, exclamation, command.
Use present and past tense correctly.
Use some coordinating and subordinating conjunctions.
Use appropriate demarcation punctuation - . ! ?
Use commas for lists.

Mathematics

Count in steps of 2s, 3s and 5s, and steps of 10.
Recognise place value in two-digit numbers.
Compare and order numbers up to 100 using <, > and =.
Recall and use number addition/subtraction facts to 20, and derive related facts.
Add and subtract mentally and with objects one- and two-digit numbers.
Understand and use the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction.
Know 2×, 5× and 10× tables, including recognising odd & even numbers.
Calculate mathematical statements using x and ÷ symbols.
Recognise, find, name and write 1/3, 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 of size, shape or quantity.
Write simple fraction facts, e.g. 1/2 of 6 = 3.
Combine amounts of money to make a value, including using £ and p symbols.
Tell the time to the nearest 5 minutes, including drawing clocks.
Describe properties of 2-D shapes, including the number of sides and symmetry.
Describe properties of 3-D shapes, including the number of edges, vertices and faces.
Interpret and construct simple tables, tally charts and pictograms.

All of our curriculum subjects are taught discreetly and follow their own topics. You can talk to our teachers to find out what our topics are for each subject.

For Religious Education (RE) we follow the Peterborough Agreed Syllabus; and Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) we follow the Cambridgeshire Syllabus

Tests and Examinations

Year 2 children are no longer required to take the End of Key Stage One SATs during May. Previously, the children were tested in Reading and Mathematics, and their Writing and Science was assessed by the teacher. As a school, we choose to administer the SATs and complete teacher assessments to ensure our children are reaching the expected standard and are fully prepared for the next stage in their learning.

Children who did not pass or did not take the Phonics Screening Check in Year 1 will take the screening check in June during Year 2.

Parents and Carers will receive details of the outcomes of all these assessments as part of their child’s end of year report in July.

On-going assessment of the children’s learning forms a daily routine and is part of the teacher’s role. This is to assist the teacher in deciding the next steps they need to plan in the children’s learning, in order for them to make further progress in their learning.

Learning in Year 2 happens in school and out on educational visits. We like to provide the children with experiences that will stimulate their interests and develop them into active learners.