Year 2
Rights Respecting Articles in Child Friendly Language
You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.
- A. A. Milne
In Year 2, our vision is to provide a settled and supportive environment that ensures a smooth transition for all students, fostering a sense of security and belonging. Our goal is to achieve high-quality learning outcomes through engaging and enriching educational experiences.
We are committed to delivering a curriculum that inspires exploration and nurtures inquisitive minds. By creating a stimulating and inclusive classroom atmosphere, we encourage students to ask questions and develop a love for learning. Our teaching strategies will focus on fostering creativity and curiosity, helping each child to discover and cultivate their unique talents. Through collaborative and individual learning activities, we will promote problem-solving skills and a growth mindset.
Our vision is to prepare Year 2 students to be confident, resilient, and inquisitive learners, ready to take on future challenges with enthusiasm and determination.
Meet the team
Mrs Bedeau - Year Group Leader
Mrs Rowe (Mon-Thur) and Mr Bromley (Fri)- Class Teacher
Mr Harrison and Miss Williams - Class Teacher
Mr Gash, Miss Kasia and Miss McEwan - Support Staff
What we do and when
Our learning
Autumn Term
This term, we started our history topic by taking part in a Mary Seacole workshop. We got to meet a Mary Seacole actor and we asked her lots of questions about her life, work and achievements.
In DT, we are looking at puppets. We have identified the different functions of a puppet, how they are made and how they are used. We have started to practise our sewing skills before we design and make our final product.
In science, we have been exploring the different parts of plants. We looked at plants and worked scientifically using our magnifying glasses to ask questions and explore. We recapped our learning from Year 1 and drew our own plant diagram.
In science, we have also been exploring materials. We experimented and tested a range of materials to understand the different properties. We have investigated common materials around the school and discussed the suitability of different every day materials.
In art this term, we started our learning by practising and refining our sketching skills. We focused on line, shape and shading.
In geography we have been looking at our local area. We have started to identify the human and physical features within the school grounds and the area around our school. We have used fieldwork to identify these features and devise a map of our school grounds.
Previously...
In our English lessons we immersed ourselves in the first chapter of THE TEMPEST. Through drama and a soundscape, we collected many powerful words and phrases to describe the storm. We also investigated the characters of Prospero and Miranda. The writing was very descriptive and we created a display outside the Year 2 classrooms. Please come and look when you are next in school.
In science this half term we have been learning about LIVING THINGS AND THEIR HABITATS. We all enjoyed exploring and comparing the difference between things that are living, dead and never alive - both in the classroom and outside. Once we had agreed on a class definition we then re looked at how we sorted our objects and amended.
In Year 2 this term in geography we have been learning about the wonderful city of Tokyo. We started our topic by identifying the 7 continents and the oceans of the world. The children had the opportunity to use VR headsets to do this, which they really enjoyed. In a following lesson we discussed the different climate zones in the world. The child were able to discover that the United Kingdom has a temperate climate, something we share with other countries around the world. The children learned about the Equator an imaginary line that goes around the earth. They then produced great maps showing how different countries climates are affected by their proximity to the Equator.
This term we have been learning all about animals (including humans). Did you know that animals all live for different amounts of time? Did you know that some animals look different from their offspring? We learnt all about what humans need to survive, grow and be healthy. Using the ipads, we created an advice sheet to tell Henry (from our English text) what he must eat to stay healthy.
We went to Holly Lodge in Richmond Park to support our history topic, the Victorians. Using costumes and role-play, we experienced life as a Victorian school child. We had our nails inspected, had lessons on the 3R’s (reading, writing and arithmetic) using slates and had to work in silence! We even took part in a drill! We were amazed at how strict the teacher was!
This term, Year 2 have enjoyed reading some great texts. Our reciprocal reading texts ‘Where does my food come from?’ and an adaptation of ‘The Jungle Book’. The children have really enjoyed reading both texts and it has been great to see them answer questions about both with confidence and insight.
In English we read the Incredible Book Eating Boy which the children really enjoyed. This book about a young boy who eats books rather than reads them enthralled the children and from it we were able to complete some great writing tasks.
First the children wrote a retelling of the story. It was great to see how engaged the children were, and they produced some great pieces of writing.
One of our texts to inspire our writing this term was the picture book, THE MIDNIGHT FAIR. We wrote the words to the story and then made our own books for our class book shelves. We focused on ensuring all our sentences had accurate capital letters and full stops as well as including commas in a list and interesting ways to start our sentences. In DT we made hand puppets based on this story and wrote a script for the Midnight Fair so that we could perform the story.
Our year 2 topic is our local area and we spent this half term answering our BIG QUESTION - How fantastic is our local area? Year 2 children are now all experts on our local area, Furzedown. Amongst other things, we have conducted a field study to identify we live in a residential area and that it offers us lots of local services. Further fieldwork also helped us conclude that some of the roads in Furzedown are congested whilst others are very quiet. Most children agreed that the pollution from our congested roads was not good for them and were therefore pleased with the introduction of ULEZ. It was noted though, by many, that the area had lots of fantastic transport links which means they can get to see lots of other parts of London easily. We ended our unit writing an estate agents brochure to see if we had enough positive things to say about Furzedown to encourage other people to move here. Take a look.
We’ve been learning all about digital photography and can now use the ipads effectively to take a brilliant photo. We can also edit our photos to make them look different. To support our learning we ran a ‘local area’ area photography competition (linking it to our geography unit, our local area). A big thankyou to everyone who entered. We were very impressed with the level of the entries and the fact that you had used the skills we had learnt in lessons to capture the perfect photo. Take a look at the winning and highly commended entries.
How can you help at home?
- Daily 10, a quick maths game to help with the children’s number sense - https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/daily10
- Mathletics - https://login.mathletics.com/
- Practice papers and answers for Year 2 SATs - https://www.satspapers.org.uk/Page.aspx?TId=4
- Read with your child daily and record in their reading record 3 times a week.
- Spellings practice (see link to the list below)
- Number bonds tests are done in school every week. Please check your child’s answers and go over any mistakes with them each week
- Please help your children practice their spellings. For more ideas and activities, please see the Honeycomb Spelling below.
A list of the Key Stage One spelling words can be found here: KS1 Spelling
Useful Websites
- Mathletics
- TTRS
- KS1 SATS What to expect
- Daily 10, a quick maths game to help with the children’s number sense
Join our community
Do you have skills, knowledge and have lived experiences that could be beneficial to our pupils at Penwortham? For example, you may be a practising Buddhist or be of the Windrush generation. Your line of work may involve promoting sustainable living (for example) or you may have links to people who would be happy to run professional development sessions for members of Penwortham Primary School.
If so, please sign up to the Penwortham community!
Thank you