All the Year Two staff would like to welcome back all the parents and children. We are looking forward to an exciting year ahead. 

We have the following members of staff working in Year Two this year:

We are looking forward to sharing all the fun things we do throughout the year with you.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to speak to any of the teachers. 

Our Visit to the Lickey Hills

Last Monday Year 2 visited the Lickey Hills. We were lucky to have some good dry weather and you can see some photos on here in the Gallery which show some of the activities the children enjoyed.

As we are learning about Living Things and their Habitats in Science we made sure to look closely at the Woodland Habitat we were in, even designing homes for woodland creatures. We were also able to look at some preserved animals in the Centre at Lickey Hills, this linked in well to their learning on things that are ALIVE, NEVER ALIVE  and ONCE ALIVE. 

We also used our Senses while in the Woods, recording what we could SEE, HEAR, SMELL and FEEL. We will be using the descriptive words we collected in this activity in a piece of Descriptive writing we are beginning this week. 

As we are reading The Gruffalo, we also followed a trail in the Woods of the characters that appear in the story which was lots of fun!

We managed to fit in a lot of learning during our visit- and a short visit to the park on site too!

Reading with your child

It can not be over-stated how important reading is for your child's development.  Better readers are naturally better writers, and are able to learn more easily, so we would encourage you to read with your child as much as possible. 

If you can encourage your child to spend some time every day reading this will make a big difference to how well they do at school, far more than computer games!!

It is also important to not only listen to your child read, but also ask them questions about the book they are reading to check they have understood what they have read.

Some good questions for a fiction text (story) you might ask are:

Who are the characters in the story?

Where is the story set?

How do you think the character feels?

What do you think will happen next in the story? Why?

Who is your favourite character? Why do you like them?

Which new words have you found in the book? What do they mean?

Can you tell me what happened in the book?

If you could change the ending, what would you like to have happened?

What made the characters do what they did?

Who do you think might like this book?

For a non-fiction book (Information book):

Can you tell me an interesting fact you found out in the book?

How is the book organised?

How do the contents page and index work?

Why did you choose this book?

What is this page about?

What new words have you found? How can we find out what they mean?

Talking about the book with your child is as important as listening to them read. Thank you for any time you can give to reading with your child. 

PE

It has been lovely to see that most of the new Year 2 children have arrived in the Year group with a smart PE uniform and PE bag.

Could I remind parents who might not know the uniform that children should wear:

* White polo shirt/t-shirt

*Black shorts or leggings

*Trainers (pumps are only allowed indoors- trainers can be worn inside and out)

PE bags need to be kept in school throughout the term and will be sent home for washing at the end of the term.

Jewellery of any kind SHOULD NOT BE WORN for PE. Your child will be asked to remove all jewellery. Earrings can be particularly dangerous if worn in PE, as stated in the school policy:

Parents should be aware that the backs of earrings can cause injury to children when they are participating in active games.

Please remove Jewellery before your child's PE lesson. 

Swimming

All children in Year 2 will go swimming this year as part of the National Curriculum. The children always enjoy their trips to the swimming pool and it is both a fun and important experience for them as they learn to swim. 

We would encourage you to help support your child learning to swim by taking them swimming outside of school as this will accelerate their learning and build their water confidence. It's also great fun too!

For swimming your child will need:

*For girls a costume

*For boys swimming trunks (NOT SPORTS SHORTS)- they must be designed for swimming

Children should wear a swimming cap ideally so their hair does not get in their eyes as they swim, particularly those with long hair.

Once again, ALL JEWELLERY MUST BE REMOVED FOR SWIMMING.

Homework

In Year 2 children will be asked to complete homework activities as set by their class teacher. This homework will support their work in class and is designed to give the children the opportunity to practise what they are learning as well as involve parents in this learning. 

We actively encourage the children to involve parents with this homework, guiding them when they find things challenging, so thank you in advance for your help with this.

Children are likely to bring home activities such as:

Maths challenges

Times-tables practise

Book Reviews

Spelling Lists

Thank you for your support with homework- it does make a big difference.