Year 2 Overview

Year 2 (Y2) is the second and final year that children spend in Key Stage 1. Children strengthen their reading and writing skills by engaging with inspiring texts and become more confident in applying their mathematical understanding to solve problems. Year 2 offers a number of opportunities for children to trial new sports through specialist teaching and these skills are put to use as they engage in sporting festivals alongside other schools. Children also become more independent in using ICT to support their learning through their discrete computing lessons and use of the chromebooks to research and present their findings.

National Statutory Assessments (SATs)

At the end of Year 2, class teachers share information about children’s progress and attainment with parents in an end of year report.  To help inform these judgments, pupils sit national curriculum assessments in English reading,  English grammar, punctuation and spelling and mathematics, commonly called SATs. The assessments are a tool for teachers to help them measure children’s performance and identify their needs as they move into key stage 2. They also allow teachers to see how children are performing against national expected standards. The class teacher uses these results, alongside their ongoing teacher assessment to make an accurate judgement of children’s progress.

The assessments are taken in the summer term and pupils may not even know they are taking them as class teachers will incorporate them into everyday classroom activities. Many children enjoy taking the opportunity to demonstrate everything that they have learned throughout their time in Key Stage 1.

Some children continue to take part in high quality phonics lessons to refine their understanding of blending and segmenting sounds to support reading and spelling. If a child takes a resit of the phonics assessment at the end of Year 2, their results will be reported to parents in the end of year report.

Curriculum and Areas of Learning

Children’s learning is rooted in the Y2 or Key Stage 1 programme of study from the Primary National Curriculum. In addition to this, children will develop their understanding of the wider world and current topical issues highlighted by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals). In Year 2, children focus upon the following Global Goals specifically:

Global Goal 6- Clean Water and Sanitation

Ensure all have access to safe water

Ensure all have access to sanitation with safe sewage disposal and understanding of good personal hygiene.

Protect water related ecosystems such as mountains, forests, rivers, lakes, wetlands etc.

Learn about water contamination - pollution and chemicals in the ocean.

Global Goal 10- Reduce Inequalities

Provide support for those living in poverty

Ensure laws (e.g. voting rights) do not discriminate against any group (gender, disability, indigenous people and race)

Support those who have to move out of their country inc. refugees and asylum seekers

Global Goal 13- Climate Action

Learn about the hazards caused by climate change

Address ways that we can help combat climate change in our own lives

Key units of learning throughout Year 2 include developing an understanding of life in the Middle Ages through a study of castles.  Children also discover the feats of famous explorers such as Christopher Columbus and Amelia Earhart and begin to understand their significant impact upon the world today.

Homework

Spelling

Children will be set weekly homework to revisit key spelling patterns.

Reading

Children should be reading for at least 10 minutes a day at home. Children in Year 2 take part in the 5 star reading challenge. For every 5 comments in their reading diary, they will receive a star. They collect stars and can achieve various awards before being crowned a reading champion when all stars have been collected. Children also have access to the Collins e-library at home where they can read through the books they have been reading in small groups in school to help with fluency, prosody and comprehension skills.

Foundation Subjects

Each half term, children are provided with a selection of activities and tasks that link to their learning and encourage creativity . Children aim to complete as many of these challenges as possible within a half term. The tasks are designed to recap and extend the learning from a range of foundation subjects.

Maths

Children receive a weekly maths homework that relates to the unit of learning that the children have been covering in class. These activities are designed to provide additional independent practice of key mathematical skills including fluency in calculation with basic operations and recall of times tables facts. As the year progresses, children’s maths homework may also include the use of interactive resources including Numbots.

Links to additional learning resources

Reading, phonics and English

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/

https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/

https://collins.co.uk/pages/support-learning-at-home

https://www.worldbookday.com/storytime-online/  

Maths

https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/ 

https://numbots.com/

Foundation Subjects

Busy Things- Log in to School 360 and access the Busy Things platform - you can practise your typing skills as well as coding avatars to perform specific tasks.

www.natgeokids.com 

www.woodlandtrust.org.uk 

General

https://www.school360.co.uk