Year 2

Hello and a very warm welcome to Year 2!

Year 2 is filled with lots of exciting learning from dragons and castles, to animals and explorers. Rich opportunities are provided for the children so that their learning is memorable and lots of fun too!

Who's in the team?

Our teaching team this year consists of Miss Smith who teaches Badgers Class, Mr Tagg who teaches Foxes Class, and Miss Acierno and Miss Tucker who teach Otters Class. Mrs Joyce also teaches two mornings a week whilst the teachers have their planning time. We are very lucky to have fantastic TAs working in the team too.

This is Miss Smith’s second year teaching at Grand Avenue Primary and Nursery School, and before this, she taught in schools in the UK and Dubai. Year 2 is Miss Smith’s favourite year group to teach! She loves teaching maths and also enjoys teaching dance as part of PE. Dance breaks regularly happen in Badgers Class!

Mr Tagg has worked at the school for twelve years! He is new to the Year 2 Team this year and is ready to see just how great teaching Year 2 can be. A keen sports person, Mr Tagg loves teaching PE and he loves to attend sporting events with the children.

Miss Acierno and Miss Tucker share the teaching of Otter's class where Miss Acierno teaches at the beginning of the week and Miss Tucker teaches at the end of the week. Miss Acierno has worked at the school for nine years and loves teaching English. Miss Tucker has joined the school this term and is enjoying getting to know the Otters children.

Trips and Visitors

In Year 2, we are fortunate to go on many school trips! We plan trips that will support the children's learning in class and link with our topics of learning. These include:

Autumn

- The Tower Of London visit supports our learning within the topic 'Towers, Tunnels and Turrets'. The cost of this is approximately £25.

- Emmanuel Church visit - as part of the religious education curriculum, pupils visit the local church and watch live actors recreate the Christmas story about the birth of Jesus. No cost

Spring

- Zoo Lab Workshop - children look at how animals have adapted to their habitats to link in with our science topic of living things and their habitats. The cost of this is approximately £8.

- African Drumming Workshop - to compliment the music curriculum and our African topic, the children have a drumming workshop where they learn to play traditional African drums and music. £4

- Tolworth Library visit - to promote the love of reading, our children visit Tolworth Library and talk to the librarian about all the fantastic books on offer for them to borrow if they become a member. No cost

Summer
- Every year group gets the opportunity to visit one of the parks that has inspired our school house teams. Year Two visit Claremont Gardens, where the children will have fun exploring woodland areas and identifying minibeasts.

- The children will take part in our Sports Day at Kingsmeadow Stadium this term. The children will be training to take part in different races to earn points for their house team. This event is free, but children will need to be dropped at Kingsmeadow Stadium.

There may be additional workshops over the year which link to themed events or occasions the school is celebrating.

PE and swimming

Throughout the year, PE lessons happen twice a week for the children.

Badgers Class: PE days are Mondays and Wednesdays

Foxes Class: PE days are Thursdays and Fridays

Otters Class: PE days are Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Swimming lessons take place for Year 2 in the second part of the Autumn Term and for the whole of the Spring Term. The children love swimming lessons and we’re very lucky to have a swimming pool on site!

Badgers and Otters have their swimming lessons on Wednesdays and Foxes have their swimming lessons on Fridays.

Sharing our learning

In every term, there is an opportunity to come and see your Year 2 child perform! In the Autumn Term, we have the Christmas Show, and in the Spring and Summer Terms, we have class assemblies where you can see for yourselves the great learning that has been taking place in school. We also invite parents/carers in for our parent showcases, each term, throughout the year so that you can see some of the children’s work in the classrooms.

Our popular Reading Cafe runs on a Friday morning at select times in the year. This is an opportunity to come in and visit the school library with your child.

How parents can support

Home Learning

In Year 2, the children are set weekly spellings to practise at home. Children are encouraged to learn the spelling of common exception words. These are words that are spelt without using the normal spelling rules. Click here to see the list for Year 2. They are encouraged to practise these spellings in a variety of creative ways! The children are also set an English or a maths task.

We also encourage daily reading and the children receive a sticker if they have been reading regularly at home. If a child completes all of their homework within a half term, they receive a certificate to commend their efforts.

Useful websites:

https://www.j2e.com/j2blast

https://www.ictgames.com/resources.html

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/english-games/5-7-years/letters-and-sounds

http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/literacy/

www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/reading-owl/reading

www.topmarks.co.uk/parents/ten-tips-on-hearing-your-child-read

http://grammar.lgfl.org.uk/year2.html

Parent volunteers

We are grateful for any support that parent helpers can offer us throughout the year. In Year 2, we love having parent helpers in school who can read with the children. There are also projects that happen during the year such as sewing cushions in the Spring Term and painting portraits in the Summer Term where any help from parents is gratefully received. Having the support of parent helpers during swimming lessons in the Autumn and Spring Terms is also warmly welcomed. Thank you in advance for any time that you can give us!