English       

Our focus texts will be Tell me a Dragon Riding Hood, The Wolf’s Story and The Storm Whale. Through these texts we will write for different purposes, including fictional personal experiences and fictional narratives. We will continue to develop our ideas for character descriptions, settings and story retelling. We will also re-read our own writing to check it makes sense and make simple revisions.

When reading, we will continue to develop our comprehension of a range of texts.

In grammar lessons, our focus will be adjectives, verbs, adverbs and sentence structure including the use of conjunctions to join simple sentences. 

Maths          

We will be using the NCETM (National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Maths) to support our mathematical learning. We will be revisiting addition and subtraction and applying this to solving word problems. We will also be telling and writing the time to 5-minute intervals and exploring durations of time. We will be comparing volume and learning to measure in litres and millilitres. We will also be using the mathematical language associated with position and direction.

Science        

We will be studying two science topics this term. In Living things and their habitats we will explore and compare things that are living, dead and things that have never been alive. We will look closely at mini beasts and plants in their habitats. We will continue with our on-going learning about plants.

Geography

We will be learning to name and locate the seas and oceans surrounding the UK in an atlas. The children will be able to define what a coast is and name some of the human and physical features of coasts.

History       

We will be learning to use resources to research and develop an understanding of what schools were like 100 years ago. The children will investigate the similarities and differences between schools in the present and in the 1900s.

Art & Design                

We will be learning and developing: design, drawing, craft, painting and art appreciation. We will be replicating the recognisable crockery of Clarice Cliff, exploring tone through shading, developing skills in weaving and the manipulation of clay, as well as experimenting with brush strokes.M

Music              

In Music this term, Year 2 will start by looking at instruments of the orchestra and timbre through the music of ‘Peter and the Wolf’ by Sergei Prokofiev. The children will become familiar with the story and learn the character themes. They will use movement and characterisation to explore this work and the key instruments.

After half-term, music sessions are based around marches. The children will listen to military bands and become familiar with key march tunes and learn to conduct. The children will compose music to march to, using percussion. Recorder sessions will continue to run alongside these regularly so that we continue to build on our work from last term.​

Computing

Programming quizzes – The children will begin to understand that sequences of commands have an outcome, and make predictions based on their learning. They will use and modify designs to create their own quiz questions

Design Technology (DT)                  

Linking to our work on traditional tales, the children will help poor Baby Bear by making him a brand-new chair. When designing the chair, the children will consider his needs and what he likes and explore ways of building it so that it is a strong and stable structure and doesn’t break again!

hysical Education (PE)                 

Invasion – we will be learning to track the path of a ball, begin to hit and return a ball using a variety of hand, foot and racquet techniques with consistency.

Athletics – we will develop power, agility, coordination and balance over a variety of activities. The children will be able to negotiate obstacles showing increased control of their body and limbs.

Religious Education (RE)              

Through our topic, How do some People Talk to God? we will be learning what prayer means, what objects people use when they pray and where some prayers come from.  This topic compares prayer across different religions, including Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

Personal, Social & Health Education (PSHE) / Relationships & Sex Education (RSE)  

Our topics this term are:  

Physical health and Mental wellbeing which covers looking at why sleep is important; Medicines and Keeping Healthy; Keeping Teeth Healthy; Managing Feelings and Asking for Help. We will also look at the topic Growing and Changing which covers: growing older; naming body parts; moving class or year. Finally, we will look at Keeping Safe which covers safety in different environments; risk and safety at home and emergencies.

• Children need to read ​every day.  This could include an adult reading to them and also the child reading to the adult. We expect to see three comments a week in the child's reading record book. Comments can include how many pages they have read, what they are enjoying about the story, predictions etc. Parents need to check and sign the record book at least once a week. Reading records will be collected in every Thursday.
• Both classes will have PE on Thursdays. Their PE kit should stay in school in a named draw-string bag.
• Your child needs to bring in a labelled water bottle every day.
• The weather is beginning to get wet at this time of year. It is important that your child has a raincoat.
• We are a Healthy School. Please do not put sweets or chocolate bars in your child’s packed lunch. Please do not send in sweets or other treats when it is your child’s birthday. If you want to celebrate your child’s birthday with their classmates, you could buy the class a book, send in a healthy snack such as boxes of raisins or buy stationery such as a pencil, but due to the impact on the environment, we ask you not to send in plastic toys.
• If your child is absent from school, please contact the school office: 020 8850 5486 and leave a message detailing why your child is absent. If your child has had an upset stomach, they should remain at home until they have been clear of symptoms for 48 hours. Please try to book medical appointments outside of the school day and note that family holidays will not be authorised.
• If you have any questions or wish to raise a concern, please contact the class teacher in the first instance. Please use the email addresses above.
• Donations of boxes of tissues would be very welcome – thank you.
• If you have any questions or wish to raise a concern, please contact the class teacher in the first instance. Please use the email addresses above.

Please note the following events and add them to your diary:

• Friday 26th April - Cake Sale and Pre-Loved Uniform Sale
• Monday 29th April - Class photographs
• Thursday 2nd May - Local elections (Sports Hall) – school open as usual
• Monday 6th May - Bank Holiday – school closed
• 20th to 24th May - Walk to School Week
• 27th to 31st May - Half-term break
• Monday 3rd June - Inset Day – school closed
• Tuesday 4th June - Children return to school
• Thursday 13th June - Sports Day for Years 1 & 2 (morning)
• 17th to 21st June - Dance workshops for all year groups
• Wednesday 26th June - Year 2 trip to the Maritime Museum
• 9th to 11th July - Gordon Exhibition 
• Friday 19th July - 120th Anniversary Party 
• Wednesday 24th July - last day of term - school closes at 1:30pm