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St John's Catholic

Primary School

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St John's Catholic

Primary School

Autumn Term Overview

Dear Parents,

Welcome to Year 2.

All the Year 2 team are looking forward to working with you and your children this year.

Year 2’s are now ‘Top Infants’ and we hope their behaviour in and around school reflects this. Pupils are expected to concentrate for longer periods and to work more independently. We will be giving children more responsibility in school and expect a greater amount of personal organisation. 

 

R.E.

In R.E. we will be following our new school scheme called ‘The Vine and The Branches.’ The themes for this term are ‘Creation and Covenant’ and ‘Prophecy and Promise'. Children will begin to prepare their own liturgies as well as saying the more formal prayers such as ‘The Sign of the Cross’, the ‘Hail Mary’ and the ‘Our Father’. We will be saying grace before and after meals. Please help your child to learn these important parts of our faith. We will be celebrating Harvest, Advent and Christmas with appropriate liturgies, hymns and drama.

LITERACY

Our Literacy work will form a very major part of the school day.

Children will be encouraged to respond to poems, stories and information texts in a group or shared reading situation. Now that their reading skills are developing well, we will be concentrating on developing their fluency, expression and understanding of what they have read. Books will still be sent home and we request that you hear your child read every day. Your child will be reading every day in school, but not always from their individual ‘Reading’ book. We will also be including comprehension exercises in our guided reading sessions. Please ask your child questions about the characters, setting and content of the story in the book they are reading and most importantly PLEASE sign your child’s reading diary to say what they have read. Your comments are greatly valued. If your child is reading a book at home that they are particularly enjoying then please write it in the reading diary too as it helps to build a picture of your child as a reader.

We will continue to have direct phonics lessons dealing with alternative sounds, more complex words and spelling patterns. We will also be sending spellings home which will be tested weekly. It is important that you help your child learn these spellings every week. We are now concentrating on developing a neat cursive handwriting style and will be working on punctuating work accurately.

We will be starting with Big Writing sessions once the children have learnt to write for longer periods of time.  It is very important that your child has used their talk for writing voice during the week to develop their ideas and vocabulary, so that they know what they are going to write about.  This initiative has been very successful in recent years. 

MATHS

Our Maths work, both mental and written, will include work on place value, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. We will work on securing number facts and how to use these facts to solve mathematical problems. Children need to be given the opportunity to manipulate numbers and it is really important that your child has the opportunity to use and apply their knowledge in real life situations.  It would be useful if you could set them challenges throughout the week as well as helping them understand the value of money and learn to tell the time as this is something that only comes with constant practice.   Children need to develop a secure understanding of number and begin to solve more complex problems. It is vital your child has instant recall of number bonds and learns any work that is sent home.  We will be testing the children on key facts on a regular basis. 

SCIENCE

Our work in Science will involve looking at the properties and use of materials. We will explore the suitability of everyday materials for particular uses. We will find out how the shapes of solid objects made from some materials can be changed. We will also recognise that some materials can be found naturally and others are man-made.

Our work in Science will also focus on animals including humans. We will be looking at how animals reproduce, how humans grow as well as what animals and humans need to survive. We will look at what we need for a healthy balanced diet and the importance of exercise.

ART

In Art we will  be developing our skills in drawing and painting. We will be investigating tone and texture and exploring different techniques.

 

DESIGN TECHNOLOGY

 

Join appropriately for different materials and situations e.g. glue, tape.

Try out different axle fixings and their strengths and weaknesses.

Make vehicles with construction kits which contain free running wheels.

Use a range of materials to create models with wheels and axles e.g. tubes, dowel, cotton reels.

Attach wheels to a chassis using an axle.

HISTORY

 

Our History work will be based on significant events, people as well as places in our own locality.  We will be looking at significant people from the past and placing events on a time line. In geography we will be looking at maps and finding out about our local area. 

P.E.

Work planned for P.E. will include Striking and Fielding Games where we will be developing throwing and catching skills as well as developing simple game tactics. In Gymnastics we will be looking at different ways of travelling, stretching and rolling as well as sequencing our movements. We will be learning to follow instructions and work together as part of a team and learn the importance of exercise as a way of keeping healthy. 

MUSIC

In Music we will be listening to and experiencing how sounds can be made in different ways. We will link this work to our computing curriculum. Our themes for this term will be Hands, Feet and Heart as well as Music from South Africa.

We will also be working on performing our Nativity songs.

Personal, Social and Health Education

The focus of our work on PSHE is that we are "Created and Loved by God."

Created and Loved by God explores the individual. Rooted in the teaching that we are created by God out of love and for love, it helps children to develop an understanding of the importance of valuing themselves as the basis for personal relationships.

This will include people in the school community and the wider world. 


COMPUTING 

Computing is an integral part of the curruculum. This term our focused lessons will be based on communicating information via email. This will be linked to our literacy work  where children will be encouraged to use the computers to write emails, stories and letters in order to communicate information. Children are also learning how to use the Internet to research topics and find relevant information. 

In addition to this programming will also be taught. The children will learn that  algorithms are a series of steps or instructions to achieve a specific goal. That devices respond to commands and  understand the meaning of the term program.

May I take this opportunity of thanking you in advance and I look forward to your support in this very busy term. If there is anything you need to talk to me about, you are welcome to make a telephone appointment and I will contact you as soon as I am able, or contact me via email.  

senco@poulton-st-johns.lancs.sch.uk

 

Many thanks

Mrs Ward

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