Welcome to Year 2!

Each week we'll be keeping you up to date with our weekly blog. In addition to this, please read our half-termly curriculum map to find out what will be happening in Year 2. 

Important information

PE - Tuesday and Thursday. Please come to school in your PE kit on these days and these days only. 

Books - Change books on Friday. Your child will come home with a new reading book linked to their phonics sessions that week and a library book every Friday. We will also set an e-book on Oxford Owl. Please read these too, but there is no expectation to complete the quizzes. Please make sure you have been reading at home at least three times a week. Please record any reading you have done in your reading diary. Your reading diary must always be in your book bag so that we can read with you in school. 

Spellings/RWI - New spellings will be sent home every Friday. Please make sure your child's reading record is in their book bag on a Friday so that the new ones can be stuck in.  Please also see our spelling page, where you can easily access this every week. We will try to put your child's score in their reading record after their test so you can see their progress.

Year Two End of Year Expectations

This table provides information for parents and carers on the end of year expectations for children in our school. All the objectives will be worked on throughout the year and will be the focus of teaching. Any extra support you can provide in helping your children to achieve this is greatly valued. If you have any queries regarding the content of this booklet, please talk to your child’s teacher.

 

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BLOG

 

Autumn 2

Week 3

What an awesome Week 3 we had! We’ve been eagerly looking forward to our first school trip, and this week, we finally went to Tropical World. In Maths, we continued our topic on 2D shapes, focusing on counting the sides and vertices of shapes like squares and triangles. Our trip to Tropical World was fantastic; we loved the coach ride, saw so many amazing animals and especially enjoyed the workshop where we learnt all about different habitats. We spotted creatures like snakes, a crocodile, beautiful butterflies, meerkats, piranhas and even bright poison dart frogs! To top off the fun, we spent time creating colourful hungry caterpillar crowns to wear for the Farsley Light Festival on Wednesday 26th.

Week 2

Year 2 have had an incredibly busy Week 2! We took part in our Remembrance Day lessons, learning about the life of Walter Tull, the importance of remembering and the meaning behind the poppy symbol. We also joined in with Anti-Bullying Week by wearing odd socks, creating our own designs and discussing what bullying and cyberbullying can look like. In science, we continued our work on habitats, while in geography we explored areas close to the equator, comparing hot and cold places and learning how their distance from the equator affects them. We looked more closely at the Galápagos Islands, linking our geography and science learning by discovering the unique habitats and animals found there and even explored the islands on Google Earth. It’s certainly been a very busy week for Year 2!

Week 1

In the first week back of Autumn 2, Year 2 have had a very exciting and busy start to the half term! We have begun our new piece of writing, which is all about a very cheeky meerkat called Sunny. Sunny has been spotted exploring our school and getting up to mischief when no one is around! He loves writing postcards to his family back home, and we will be using his adventures as inspiration to write our own postcards this term. In Science, we have started learning all about different habitats around the world, discovering where various animals live and how they are suited to their environments. In Geography, we have been exploring the continents, finding out where they are on the map and what makes each one unique. There are so many exciting new things to learn this half term, and we can’t wait to see what the next few weeks bring!

Autumn 1

Week 8

In Week 8, our final week before breaking up for the half term, Year 2 have been working hard and having lots of fun! We have been busy finishing our Science topic all about materials, exploring their different properties and thinking carefully about which materials are best for certain purposes. In DT, we put our design skills to the test by making a chair for Baby Bear using only masking tape and card — it was a real challenge, but we loved being creative and testing how strong our chairs were! One of the highlights of the week was taking part in Bikeability, where we learned to ride balance bikes and practised important skills to help us become confident and safe riders. We also spent time learning all about Nelson Mandela for our Black History Month task, creating a timeline of his life and discovering the key events that made him such an influential and inspiring leader. It’s been a wonderful end to a busy half term, and we’re definitely ready for a relaxing week off before coming back refreshed and excited for next half term!

Week 7

In Week 7, Year 2 have been very busy with lots of exciting activities and learning! We spent time completing our fact files all about how schools have changed over time, which helped us to understand what school life was like in the past compared to today. We even looked closely at our own school and then published our fantastic writing in our brand-new publishing books, making our work look really special and professional. In PSHE, we talked about the importance of using good manners, thinking about how being polite and kind helps everyone feel respected and happy. One of the highlights of the week was our Welly Walk, where we raised money for our classes to help fund future school trips. We walked around the park several times and collected donations for each lap, showing great enthusiasm and teamwork along the way. It’s been a fun and productive week full of learning and laughter, and now we’re almost ready for a well-deserved week off!

Week 6

This week in Year 2, we have worked our socks off! 🧦 We’ve been busy learning lots of new grammar skills to help us with our upcoming fact-file writing, which we’ll be planning next week. In maths, we’ve been focusing on adding across 10, and we’ll soon be moving on to subtracting across 10s—what brilliant mathematicians we are becoming! We also had a fantastic time celebrating Yellow Day, dressing up and spreading positivity throughout the school. 🌟 To top it all off, we were incredibly lucky to have a special session with the Leeds Diving Team, who helped us perfect our gymnastics skills and even tested to see if any of us could be part of the next generation of Leeds divers! What a super, action-packed week it has been in Year 2!

Week 5

This week in school, we have started our new maths block all about addition and subtraction. The children have been working hard to use different strategies to solve problems and explain their thinking. In science, we have explored the stretchiness of materials, measuring how far different materials can or cannot stretch — it was lots of fun making predictions and testing them out! In writing, we have begun a new piece linked to our history topic. We are learning how to write a fact file all about how schools have changed over time. The children loved looking at old photos of our own school and enjoyed talking about the similarities and differences between school life then and now.

Week 4 

This week in school we have been very busy and working hard to get our writing finished! We have completed our own narratives based on an alternative version of The Three Little Pigs and the children have shown great imagination in their stories. In maths, we have been comparing numbers, ordering objects, and practising counting in 2s, 5s and 10s — as well as challenging ourselves to count in 3s! We are now in the full swing of our handwriting practice, as this is a key focus in Year 2, and our book presentation is improving every day. Well done, everyone, for another fantastic week of learning!

 

Week 3

This week in Year 2 we’ve enjoyed a wide variety of lessons! In maths, we have been learning about numbers on a number line — estimating, placing and counting up in 10s and 1s all the way to 100. In English, we have been planning our own alternative version of The Three Little Pigs story, ready to write next week. In science, we investigated materials around the classroom, identifying what they were made from and using scientific vocabulary to discuss properties such as transparent, translucent and opaque. We also created more wonderful art sketches of our school building and earned lots of sheep points towards our first prize. We have also been looking at friendships in PSHE and thinking about what makes our classmates so special. Many of us have done brilliantly in our spelling tests over the last two weeks too. We also had the pleasure of being taught by Mr Popple on Wednesday — a surprise change that the children embraced fantastically.

Week 2

We’ve had another fantastic week in Year 2! In computing, we have begun learning about IT all around us, especially the technology we use in school every day. In science, we’ve started exploring materials and their properties, while in history we’ve kicked off our new topic on how schools have changed over time. We’re very excited for this unit and already have some amazing pictures of our school to compare past and present.

This week we also talked about British Values, focusing on the importance of democracy. Following this, several children in our class put themselves forward for the school council. Everyone wrote their own manifestos and presented their ideas to the class before we held a vote to decide who would represent us this year — a real-life example of democracy in action!

We ended the week with some incredible art, painting pictures of our school to display at the Heritage Walk on Saturday 20th September. Another brilliant week of learning — we can’t wait to see what Week 3 brings!

Week 1

This week we were delighted to welcome our new Year 2 children to school. Everyone has settled in brilliantly and we have already been working hard to impress and make great progress. We have had a big focus on handwriting practice and presentation in our books to ensure the best possible start to the year. Alongside this, we have been learning all about our emotions and the Zones of Regulation — recognising our feelings and understanding that it’s normal to experience different emotions at different times. We also enjoyed an exciting surprise: Leeds Rhinos will be coaching us every Thursday this half term, helping us to develop our throwing and catching skills. It’s been a fantastic first week back, and we’re all ready to dive into Week 2 with enthusiasm!