Year 2

Our Power of Reading book for the beginning of the Autumn Term is going to be “Emma Jane’s Aeroplane”. It tells the story of a girl travelling to cities all across the world meeting animals from every city. This book will support Year 2 as they learn about other people who have contributed to the history of flight.

Our English focus is going to be conjunctions. Pupils will learn about the different uses of the different conjunctions and when to use these to improve their writing. All this will build up to the first sustained write of the year, which will be an adventure story in the same style as ‘Emma Jane’s Aeroplane’.

In maths, pupils will be looking at partitioning and comparing numbers. They will start by learning about tens and ones and how to separate two digit numbers in a variety of different ways. Then they will move on to using that knowledge to order numbers and explaining which numbers are greater and less.

Year 2 will be learning about materials in science. In this topic, they will learn important vocabulary like rough, smooth, hard, soft, opaque and translucent. Pupils will spend this half term examining the properties of different materials and how this shapes their uses.

In humanities, pupils will learn about two very important moments in modern history, one very far away and one a lot closer to home. The first is the invention of the first motor powered plane which was achieved in 1903 in North Carolina by Orville and Wilbur Wright. After that we’ll be discovering the creation of Heathrow Airport, all the way back to when it was called Great West Aerodrome and was used by the military in World War Two.

In computing pupils will learn about flow charts. They will have a go at reading charts and learn how to create these. Pupils will continue to use Purple Mash this year in computing to support pupils’ learning.

For the first half of the Autumn term, Year 2’s creative topic will be Art and Design. The artist of interest will be Stephen Fowler, an artist who creates art using rubber stamps. This will link to our science topic as pupils will investigate what materials make good stamps and create a range of patterns in their artwork.

The focus in PSHE this half term will be ‘What Makes a Good Friend?’ Pupils will examine what a good friendship looks like and how we can build up friendships when we are in situations where friends are hard to come by.

In RE, pupils will learn about why rules are important. They will explore the rules of Judaism and compare them to the rules we have at school. This will also link to the British Value of the Rule of Law.

Year 2 will have PE lessons on Fridays, 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.