Welcome to Woodpeckers Swans and Kingfishers Class .

Year 2 Staff Woodpeckers: Sarah Storey CT Maggie Paul TA Darren Fuller LSA Swans: Megan Griffiths CT Sharon Tam Elkis TA Charlotte Hepburn LSA Kingfishers: Anupa Vara CT Karen White TA Natalie Maybelis TA Holly Parsons LSA Kierna Khana LSA Shelly Young LSA

Class routines: Dropping off and collecting School starts at 8.50 for children who are being dropped off and children at Breakfast Club. Please drop your child off promptly as settling time until 9.00 will be used for mental maths and handwriting. If someone different is picking your child up from time to time, please inform the class teacher at dropping off time, or the school office. If you have any questions/queries please come and see us at the end of the day and we can arrange to see you for a short meeting after school if these need further discussion . Please make sure your child’s reading book is brought to school each day. They can change it if they have read it and we can read with them also Please ensure your child brings a water bottle daily and their uniform is all named! Please make sure shoes are sensible and they bring a proper coat if it is wet.

Parentmail & Parentpay Please sign up to Parentmail to receive the weekly newsletter @Alex You can report your child’s absence using the Parentmail APP Alexandra School uses ParentPay for all forms of payments – clubs, trips, events. Extended school care is bookable via ParentPay once registered with the office . We are a cashless school – except for charity donation events. Please visit the school website for dates, news items, events and frequently asked questions.

Behaviour We have very high expectations of behaviour across the school. We use rewards systems and positive modelling of expected behaviour. As a class we have made our own rules and have discussed the consequences if they are broken.

Topics We use at topic based approach to learning. We have exciting topics in Year 2 Dragons Fire Fire! Frozen Planet Explorers (Darwin and Galapagos) Weird Wacky and Wonderful (Inventors :Heath Robinson) We will always teach literacy, maths and phonics on a daily basis.

Handwriting We practice on a daily basis in Year 2. We follow a scheme called Letter Join which focuses on the leading in strokes required as a precursor to joining. In Year 2 we are refining our leading in strokes and starting to join where appropriate. The children's weekly spellings that are sent home should be completed using lead in strokes.

Phonics and Spelling We follow the Letters and Sounds phonics scheme. We are recapping Phase 5 sounds from Year 1 and will progress to suffixes and dictionary work Spellings: Each child is expected to learn to read and spell certain Year 2 words. A list of these is available for you to take away. Your child will be tested on these weekly and unknown words sent home

P.E We have two sessions of PE a week, indoor and outdoor. Please make sure your child wears their PE kits to school on these days with dark coloured trainers. We run our daily mile on our new track and often use the school skipping ropes to ensure activity!

National Curriculum Assessments 2017 All children from year 2 are required to sit standardised tests during the academic year. These will be in English Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling, Reading and Mathematics. Ours will be held in May. We call the tests ‘quizzes’ to minimise anxiety and we make sure each child gets plenty of practice!

Trips and visitors This year we are going to be asking for a total contribution for the half term’s trips, visitors, special days and activities. This may vary in cost from half term to half term but should be around £20 although may be more or less depending on the activities planned. A letter will be sent home soon detailing the trips and the cost involved .We always try to get the best value for money! This half term: Making dragons Visiting Richmond Park Dragon Illustrator to visit for an art session

Home Learning As we settle into Year 2 we are only sending home Spellings /handwriting which will be sent out on Wednesdays We will send maths home learning home in the form of number bonds , problem solving and times tables (when appropriate) when we begin our weekly maths challenges after half term. The topics we are covering in maths are always detailed on the weekly Parents blog

Reading Your child will bring home books they have selected from their reading level each week. They are welcome to change them more frequently as long as they have been shared with an adult and their reading record signed. Please help your child to : Sound out words Use punctuation when they read. Encourage them to read with expression (using speech marks, exclamation marks and question marks) Understand what they are reading by discussing what they have read. In school Children read in small groups with the teacher or teaching assistant once a week.

Other Housekeeping Uniform Hair and Jewellery Water Bottles Toys and games from home Nits

PHSE (Personal Health Social Education) We are teaching weekly PHSE lessons and will be teaching lessons touching on Sex and Relationships (SRE) In Year 2 it involves teaching the proper names for parts of the body and differences between the sexes. On October 10th at 3.30 there will be a talk by a representative from the PHSE scheme we follow ,to explain these lesson. This session is for women only. There is also a session that evening from 7-8.30m where everyone is welcome.

Parent helpers Assisted reading Trips Other times (e.g. D.T) Handwriting Resources from home Class reps