Latchmere School

Year 2

Autumn Term

We hope that you had a wonderful summer. We are really looking forward to working with you and your child this year and hope that you are looking forward to the exciting new school year ahead.

As we begin the new academic year, we would like to remind everyone about the importance of attendance. Many of the subjects we teach rely on carefully sequenced and linked lessons and a missed lesson can have a detrimental impact on children’s understanding and ability to ‘keep up’ over the year. If your child will be absent for any reason, please let us know and do speak with your teacher if you have attendance difficulties that you need support with. 

Reading

Our goal is to create confident, fluent, independent readers. We prioritise reading at Latchmere School and have very carefully chosen the texts your child will study this term. We focus on word reading to develop fluency and encourage the whole class to join in through strategies such as choral reading (the whole class read together) and echo reading (the teacher models the reading and the class echo back). We also have the Latchmere reading skills. These are based on comprehension skills such as retrieval, inference, summarising, making links, prediction and vocabulary.

In Year 2, we will be studying books including non-fiction books on polar lands and polar animals, Leaf, The Princess and The White Bear King, and non-fiction books about the Great Fire of London.

In Year 2, we will be studying books including Oliver’s Vegetables, Katie in 
London and The Fox and the Star. We will be continuing to embed the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds phonics programme. This involves daily teaching of phonics and up to three reading sessions per week for every child focussing on decoding, prosody and comprehension. There is lots of information on the phonics page on the website if you would like any further information. 

Maths

Our curriculum is based on the White Rose Maths programme. This research-based initiative ensures that the skills and concepts children taught, are fully embedded before moving on. The children are taught strategies such as bar modelling and have plenty of opportunities to use ‘manipulatives’ such as counters and dienes as they progress through the school.

This term we will be focusing on place value, addition and subtraction and shape. Children in Year 2 also use the Numbots program to help embed the core maths skills of subitising, number bonds, addition and subtraction. White Rose have also released an app called ‘1-minute maths’ which is very useful. 

Curriculum Highlights

This term in geography, we will learn about the British Isles and the children will use maps to explore parts of the UK. We will then look at polar landscapes. In science, we will learn about animals including humans. The children will have the opportunity to learn about animals and their young as well as consider how humans grow and stay healthy. We will also learn about living things and their habitats. During PE lessons we will be developing fundamental skills such as skipping, jumping and balancing whilst also improving our teamwork skills. RE sees the year group enhance their understanding of Judaism.

Home learning expectations 
Reading – daily – please initial the reading record. 
This is optional but the children enjoy having the chance to complete one or more of the tasks. We will celebrate any home learning which is brought into school. 


Thank you in advance for all of your support in the term ahead.

Kind regards,

The Year 2 Team

Mrs Hogston (Deputy Head), Mrs Leung/Mrs Pinkney (Gold Class) and Mrs Conroy (Silver Class)

   

Key dates

Get to Know You Meeting

Thursday 17th September at 9:30am

Parent Consultation

Week beginning 16th November 2026


Updates and reminders

Morning and afternoon routine – In the morning, the children should enter school via the Year 2 gate (which will open at 8:40am and close at 8:50am) and walk to their classroom. If you arrive after this time please enter via the school office. At the end of the day, the school gates will be opened shortly before 3:20pm and you will be able to collect your child from the KS1 playground.

Snacks – Children are able to bring in a healthy (nut-free) snack for them to have during morning play. Each class will also offer a daily selection of fruit and vegetables.

Water bottles – Children may bring a water bottle to school each day. Please remember to put your child’s name on the bottle.

PE Kit – We are asking for children to come to school in their P.E kit on P.E days. We ask that children are dressed appropriately for the weather. Please see the P.E day timetable on the Year 2 notice board (by the Year 2 gate) for P.E days. Swimming will take place in the summer term.

Medication - Please ensure that any medication your child needs is in school and up to date. Please speak directly to the main office regarding medication that is kept in school.  

Class Reps – Parents who volunteer to be class reps form an important link between the teachers and parents of each class. If you are a class 
rep please make yourself known to the class teacher. Class Reps will take the lead in communication and organising events. Class teachers will liaise with their Class Rep on a regular basis, so please keep an eye out for emails or messages they may send regarding dates, PE kit etc. 

Contact Address and Telephone Numbers – If you have moved recently or changed home or mobile telephone number, please let the office staff know. It is important that we can contact you quickly if your child is unwell.

Parent helpers and DBS Clearance – We really appreciate the support that parent helpers can offer in school. As you can appreciate, we are only able to ask parents who have an up-to-date DBS form. Please speak to the office if you need to apply for clearance of if you are unsure whether your DBS form is up to date. Thank you.