Year 2

Welcome to Year 2

Autumn 1 2024

Year 2 Autumn 1 2024

Dear parents and carers,

Welcome back after the summer break.  We hope you are all well and have had a restful break with your children and they are ready for an exciting year in Year 2. 

We will continue to remind children about our school values of Respect, Good Manners, Patience, Perseverance and Honesty.  We will use our reward system 'Brookhouse Monster's University' to recognise good behaviour and attitudes.  If your child is in the winning University team, they will be given a reward at the end of the term. To reward individual achievement if your child achieves enough Dojo points they will receive either a silver, gold or even platinum certficate at the end of term. Your child will earn dojo points for demonstrating our school values or working hard. If your child produces an outstanding piece of work or demonstrates one of our school values to a high standard, they will be placed on the golden crown.  If they stay on it for the rest of the week, they earn an extra 10 dojos. 

PSHE will also play a key role, this will take place through class and assembly sessions.  The topic for autumn 1 is called 'Mental Health & Wellbeing with learning about 'Being Kind'.  Each week they will continue to focus on an attribute which might be linked to our school values, British Values or their PSHE topic.  The Autumn 1 term topic is called 'The place where I live'.

Attendance

Regular attendance helps your child build good habits, getting them used to the idea of getting up and ready for learning each day.  It helps your child build and sustain relationships with staff and make lasting friendships.  It can also help to ensure continuity of learning, with staff being more easily able to assess your child’s progress and identify next steps for them in accessing the curriculum.

Every moment in school counts, and missed school days add up quickly. The higher a pupil’s attendance, the more they are likely to learn, and the better they are likely to perform as they progress through school. 

Homework

Please encourage your child to complete their homework each week. Homework is given out on a Friday and is expected to be completed and returned no later than the following Wednesday. 

Your child's weekly homework tasks can be found in the autumn 1 homework grid, which is glued into your child's homework book - a copy of which can also be found above in the important document section. 

An optional termly project is also sent home, a copy of which can be found in the important document section above, along with online optional homework available through Purple Mash, Reading Plus and TT Rockstars.

Daily reading is crucial, so please can you listen to your child read as much as possible at home to support their learning and also their understanding of different texts.

English

To begin with we will studying a fiction unit focusing on stories with familiar settings, we will be concentrating on the book 'The Jolly Postman' by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. We will do this through the use of the ‘Talk for Writing’ strategy of imitate, innovate and invent.  As well as this, we will be focusing on the skills needed to invent their own piece of writing and look at writing through other subject areas.  

Whole class reading will continue to take place every day, through which we encourage children to focus on new vocabulary in the text and the comprehension of the text.

To further support your child's skills in reading comprehension, please support your children in their reading of school books, at home for ten minutes every day.  We will also continue to encourage children to improve their oracy skills through continued application of Voice 21 strategies.

Mathematics 

Maths lessons will provide pupils with the opportunity to learn using concrete, pictorial and abstract models. They will then learn to apply this knowledge to reasoning and problem solving (QUACK - Please ask your children what this means).  We will start the new term with a focus on place value. 

Please encourage your child to practise their timetables at home, completing to achieve Bronze, Silver or Gold in counting in 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 8s and 10s. Please begin with the 2 times table, before leading to hopefully securing the 2,3,4,5,8 and 10 times tables.  In order to aid them with this, your child can use the online program 'Times Table Rockstars' or complete set activities on Purple Mash. 

Science

We will explore Animals, including Humans (Biology). We will notice that animals, including humans, have offspring which grow into adults. We will find out about and describe the basic needs of animals, including humans, for survival (water, food and air). We will describe the importance for humans of exercise, eating the right amounts of different types of food and hygiene.  

In order to help your child remember the key knowledge, please encourage your child to learn their Knowledge Organisers.

Physical Education

In Year 2, P.E will take place every Monday so please make sure your children come to school in their full P.E kit - yellow P.E shirt with the school's logo, black joggers, shorts or leggings and their school green sweatshirt. In their P.E lessons (athletics) they will focus on learning how to catch a ball, to hold a bat and strike a ball accurately, leading up to using tactics in a game to outwit an opponent. 

Computing

In our computing this half term pupils will focus on the importance of Online Safety.  They will learn how to search safely and use 2Respond to communicate safely within Purple Mash. 

History

In our history topic the children will learn all about toys from the 20th and 21st century. They will explore how toys have changed over the last century, reflecting the changing times. 

Art

In our art project the children will explore the work of LS Lowry. To begin with we will explore the exploring different drawing techniques. Before the children design and then create their own creative piece of work using the learnt techniques, celebrating local Blackburn landmarks.  

Oracy - Voice 21

As a school we are developing our Oracy, learning through talk and learning to talk.  In class, we will create discussion guidelines in order to aid meaningful discussions.  We encourage children to fully participate by taking on a range of roles and utilising sentence stems to articulate their ideas.  We will provide opportunities for discussion in all areas of the curriculum.

Important dates

Any queries feel free to talk to us in the morning or at the end of the day or arrange an appointment through the school office.

There will be a Parents Evening on the 16th October, starting at 3:05 pm, you will be notified nearer the time about booking an appointment.

Thank you in advance for your continued support, it is much appreciated.

We hope your child has an amazing first half term being the best that they can be. 

Stay healthy, safe and happy! 

From all the Year 2 team: Mr Owen, Mrs Ali and Mrs Maqsood.