Welcome to Woodpeckers and Swans class .

Year 2 Staff Woodpeckers: Sarah Storey CT Gill Redfern TA Kiran Khanna TA Swans: Megan Griffiths CT Sharon Tam-Alkis TA Kate Barr LSA Miss Gillian LSA Miss Dee LSA

Class routines: Dropping off and collecting School starts at 8.50 . Please drop your child off promptly as settling time until 9.00 will be used for mental maths , changing reading books, handwriting or spellings. 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 important questions 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 and reading card is brought to school each day. They can change their book 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.

Topics Dragons and Fire Fire ! Frozen Planet We use a topic based approach to learning. We have exciting topics in Year 2 Dragons and Fire Fire ! Frozen Planet Explorers (Darwin and Galapagos) We will always teach literacy, maths and phonics on a daily basis. Science is taught weekly. PE is taught twice a week. Children have regular access to ICT opportunities Geography and History are taught as part of our topics

Handwriting We practice regularly 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 ‘leading 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 alternative spellings 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 in your information pack. Your child will be quizzed on these weekly

P.E We have two sessions of PE a week, indoor and outdoor. Swans-Wednesday and Friday Woodpeckers –Tuesday and Friday Please make sure your child wears their PE kits to school on these days with dark coloured trainers. We will be running our daily mile on our track and often use the school skipping ropes to ensure activity!

Behaviour We have very high expectations of behaviour across the school. We use rewards systems and positive modelling of expected behaviour, following the school behaviour policy. As classes we have made our own rules in our class promise.

National Curriculum Assessments 2018 All children from Year 2 are required to sit standardised tests during the academic year. These will be in 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!

Typical Year 2 day 8.50-9.00 Handwriting , maths challenge, or changing books 9.10-9.30 Whole School assembly. Reading in class 9.30-10.30 Literacy or Maths 10.45-12.00 Literacy or maths 12.00-1.00 Lunch and play 1.00-2.30 Foundation subject/Spelling/Phonics/Handwriting/PE 2.30-2.45 Playtime 2.45-3.20 Spellings/story time/everyone reading in class

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 Dragon Illustrator Mark Robertson to visit for an art session Dragon Hunt in Richmond Park

Home Learning As we settle into Year 2 we are only sending home Spellings /handwriting which will be sent out by the end of the week . Please stick the home learning in your child's home learning book and KEEP IT IN THEIR SCHOOL BAG after completion. This means it wont get lost at home and we can access it in school when necessary . Books will be looked at on Wednesday. We will send maths home in the form of number bonds , problem solving and times tables (when appropriate) The topics we are covering in maths are always detailed on the weekly Parents blog. We will be having a Maths morning soon to explain further how we teach maths in Year 2.

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 card has been signed by the adult. PLEASE KEEP YOUR CHILD’S READING BOOKS AND CARDS IN THEIR SCHOOL BAG SO THEY DON’T GET LOST AT HOME AND WE CAN ACCESS THEM Please help your child to : Sound out words Use punctuation when they read. Encourage them to read with expression (using speech marks, exclamation marks) Understand what they are reading by discussing what they have read. In school Children either read 1:1 with an adult, or in small groups with the teacher or teaching assistant at least once a week.

PHSE (Personal Health Social Education) We teach weekly PHSE lessons and will be teaching lessons covering Sex and Relationships (SRE) in the Summer term next year. In Year 2 it involves teaching the proper names for parts of the body and differences between the sexes. Other PHSE lessons include self esteem, inclusion and friends and families

Other Housekeeping Uniform and shoes(See school website) Hair and Jewellery Water Bottles Toys and games from home Nits

Parent helpers Assisted reading Trips Handwriting groups Resources from home – making dragons Class reps