Class Teachers: Cameron Taylor, Sarah Chambers, Amber Bowrey
Welcome
In Year 2 we plan a lot of creative and cross curricular activities to support the children’s learning and curiosity. The focus in our year group is very much on learning in an exciting way to promote a love of learning. Our topic approach ensures that pupils are being taught the foundation subjects through out-of-school learning opportunities and workshops. This webpage will keep you up to date with systems and school routines, outline your child’s learning and provide a platform to showcase their work.
Year 2 Teaching Team
| Leader of Learning (Years 1, 2 and 3) | Cameron Taylor |
| Class Teachers | Cameron Taylor (Otter Class ) |
| Sarah Chambers (Rabbit Class) | |
| Amber Bowrey (Fox Class) | |
| KS1 SENDCO | Emily Gazzard |
| Teaching Assistants | Tom Hoffmann-Lagro |
| Karima Al-Mosawi | |
| Sarah Donohue-Waite | |
| Christine McNeill |
Curriculum / Learning
Our Learning
We aim to offer a curriculum that is broad and balanced which promotes the spiritual, moral, social, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at Rhodes Avenue School. We aspire for children to be constantly learning, developing into strong, resilient, capable, confident and self-assured pupils. The national curriculum provides an outline of core knowledge (see below) around which we will develop exciting stimulating lessons to promote the development of pupil knowledge, understanding and skills.
Our teaching of British Values and the School’s own core values supports our pupils to develop empathy, consideration, kindness and mutual respect for different cultures, societies and religions. Our School Values for this academic year are: Helping others (Autumn 1), Friendship (Autumn 2), Patience (Spring 1), Courage (Spring 2), Ambition (Summer 1) and Sharing (Summer 2).
Home Learning
Homework at Rhodes Avenue provides children with the opportunity to consolidate their classroom learning. Every week, we will post the week’s learning in the table below.
| Mathematics | English | Spelling Rule | Grammar Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| This week we have been looking at measures including standard units for length and mass as well as assessing our progress so far. | This week we looked at planning and writing up our instructions on how to make a sandwich. | Till half term we are going through the Year Two Common Exception words. More information can be found on our newsletter. | Examining command verbs. Looking at time words to start instructions. Looking at features of instructions (bullet points/sub headings). |
Tier 1 (Weekly Home Learning Newsletter)
Home Learning (20th September) Issue: 1
Home Learning (27th September) Issue: 2
Home Learning (4th October) Issue: 3
Home Learning (11th October) Issue: 4
Home Learning (19th October) Issue: 5
Help Your Child to Read: Guidance
Reading Comprehension Questions
Tier 2 Collaborative Home Learning Projects
Science Home Learning Project Letter Autumn 2018
| Tier 2 Home Learning Projects | |
|---|---|
| Sandwich Project | Autumn 1 |
| Science Fair Project | Autumn 2 |
| To be announced | Spring 1 |
| World Book Day | Spring 2 |
| To be announced | Spring 2 |
| To be announced | Summer 2 |
Tier 3 Optional Home Learning
| Home Learning Websites | |
|---|---|
| English | |
| Phonics Play | https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/freeIndex.htm |
| BBC Bitesize | https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/subjects/zgkw2hv |
| Mathematics | |
| Crick Web | http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks1numeracy.html |
Year 2 Common Spelling Exception Words
Termly Class Letter to Parents and Carers
The National Curriculum
English
Reading, Speaking And Listening
A core message from the new curriculum is to embed ‘reading for pleasure’. Key to this is decoding (reading words) and comprehending (understanding). A form of reading takes place in every lesson throughout the school day. In addition, planned English lessons focus on comprehension skills and children continue to have a reading day on which they read with a teacher in a small group (guided reading). This group time gives the opportunity to practise reading words as well as discuss texts in line with speaking and listening objectives.
Phonics sessions will continue in order to support sound and letter recognition where needed. We are currently using the Ruth Miskin’s phonic scheme, ‘Read, Write, Inc.’, see link for more information.
Writing
In Year 2 children will have the opportunity to explore a range of writing genres (stories, instructions, newspapers, recounts, poetry). The subject matter is regularly linked to our topics. Typically writing develops at a slower rate to reading as children ‘juggle’ the demands of spelling, sentence structure and punctuation. It is extremely important that a correct pencil grip is established and correct formation of letters (upper and lowercase) and numbers are secured. Discrete handwriting sessions are timetabled and children will begin to join their letters as soon as individual letters are formed correctly.
Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPAG)
In Year 2 children will be introduced to a new spelling rule at the beginning of the week. Spellings are regularly practised throughout the week before being taken home. Spelling checks will take place on Mondays. Learning high frequency word spelling by heart will really support your child’s writing.
Mathematics
Mathematics will incorporate numbers up to 100, some times tables, division as sharing, place value, shape and space etc. As the year progresses the children will be formally recording their work. It would be fantastic if you could support your children with their number pairs to 20 and their times tables: if the children can nail these early in Year 2, this will give them an excellent base on which to build their maths this year. We try to make maths as engaging and fun as possible but also incorporate the repetition of key facts which they will need in their mathematical journey.
Year 2 Calculation Strategies for Parents and Carers
Science
The Science Programme of Study introduces the idea that all living things have certain characteristics that are essential to keep them alive and healthy. The Year 2 science curriculum will support pupils to become familiar with life processes that are common to all things. Pupils will use our local environment throughout the year to observe how different plants grow and understand the requirements of plants for germination, growth and survival as well as the processes of growth and reproduction. They will also be introduced to the basic needs of animals for growth and survival. Pupils will discuss the uses of everyday materials and discover the properties of materials that makes them suitable or unsuitable for particular purposes.
Foundation Subjects
Whenever practicable the foundation subjects – Religious Education, History, Art, Design and Technology, Geography, Computing, Music, Physical Education and SMSC (Spiritual Moral Social Cultural Education) are taught within the context of an overall theme. For example, our topic, ‘What’s your superpower?’, investigates people who help us, plus healthy eating and lifestyles, whilst our history focus on the Olympics enables us to study Usain Bolt.
Topics we are Teaching this Year
To gain an overview of what is taught in Year 2 see our Curriculum Overview
Curriculum Overview/Map 2018-2019
The Skills we will be Teaching this Year
To find out the skills that we will be teaching throughout the academic year view the Skills Matrix below.
Year 2 Skills Matrix
For a more in-depth outline of the Year 2 curriculum please refer to our Curriculum page.
The School Day
| 8:55 | Bell rings |
| 9:00 | Registration |
| 10:10 | Assembly |
| 10:30 | Break |
| 10:45 | Second session |
| 12:00 | Lunch |
| 1:15 | Afternoon session begins |
| 2:15 | Break |
| 2:30 | Last session |
| 3:30 | End of the school day |
Year 2 Media
Podcasts
Year 2 SATS Podcast 2017
Videos
Chrome Users: if videos are not playing correctly please check the Chrome browser's settings as per this guide. For LGFL videos, click the thumbnail image to watch the video in a new window (external weblink)
Next Wednesday 4th of October is our sandwich making day. Check out our ad for our big day.
Sandwich time! 2CT got a Hollywood handshake for their efforts. Check it out!
