Year 2

Our Power of Reading book for the second half of the Summer Term is going to be “The Man on The Moon”, a great fiction book about a day in the life of Bob, the man who looks after the moon, making sure it doesn’t get to dirty and everybody understands how things work on the Moon. Bob is certain that there are no such thing as aliens but is he right? There’s only one way to find out.

Our English focus is going to be poetry. Pupils will have a look at the different types of poems, such as acrostic, shape and rhyming couplet, but they will settle on writing a free verse poem. Pupils will also look at what poetic techniques they will need to improve their poems. They’ll use some amazing alliteration, similes as good as gold and personifications that will eat up our pencils.

Maths, this half term, will be all about directions. Pupils will be teaching left and right relative to themselves and other objects, as well as clockwise and anti-clockwise, linking back to our previous topic of time.

In our afternoon lessons, Year 2 will be finishing their topic on Christopher Columbus and moving on to another adventure: Neil Armstrong! As we know his trip to the moon is one of the most impressive achievements of the 20^th Century and our pupils will learn about how and why it happened.

Our previous topic in computing will be helping us this half term, as pupils move from making music to coding. In both topics pupils will look at how they structure and order algorithms and implement them in different programs.

The focus in art this half term will be the artwork of Peter Thorpe, an abstract artist who was heavily inspired by space in his work. Pupils will evaluate his work and then make some of their own, hoping to capture the wonder of the stars in our classroom.

In PSHE pupils will be getting in touch with their feelings through the topic of how we recognise their moods and emotions. Edward Pauling has been pushing for a closer look at wellbeing and this topic will help our pupils’ young minds learn how to process and cope with the many emotions they will face as they grow up.

When RE day comes around the focus will be how pupils are the same and different to each other and whether our differences matter. During the last RE day, Year 2 looked at and discussed how they all belong to Year 2 and Edward Pauling despite our differences and this theme will be continuing that through the Summer term. Pupils will talk about their different beliefs and explore how they talk to people who have different beliefs as them.

Year 2 will continue to have PE lessons on Mondays, therefore all pupils are expected to come dressed in the correct PE kit on the day. We would also ask parents and carers to ensure that all items of clothing are named to help if an item is lost.

Year 2 SATs Tests

Parents and carers should be aware that pupils in Year 2 will sit Key Stage 1 assessments in May 2023. The school will arrange a meeting for parents and carers to attend in the Spring Term with information about the assessments and how these are used to support teacher assessment.

For pupils in Year 2 who did not sit the Phonics Screening Test in Year 1 or who did not meet the required standard, this assessment will be carried out in the week beginning 12th June 2023.

For further information about these assessments, please visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/key-stage-1-and-2-national-curriculum-tests-information-for-parents