Latchmere School

Year 2

SUMMER TERM

We hope that you had a lovely Easter break. Welcome to the summer term where we look forward to the continuing partnerships between home and 
school. As you may be aware, we closely monitor the attendance of pupils at our school as there is clear evidence which shows the correlation between attainment and attendance and pupil well-being. 
Please do let us know if your child is going to be absent from school. If you are experiencing difficulties with attendance for any reason, please do get in touch with the office or your child’s teacher so that we can support you. 

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 The Secret of Black Rock, James and the Giant Peach and Millie’s Marvellous Hat. 

We will be continuing to embed the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds phonics and spelling programme. This involves daily teaching of phonics and up to three reading sessions per week for every child focussing on decoding, prosody and comprehension. 
Please see the phonics page for 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 fractions, time, statistics and position and direction. 

Children in Year 2 also benefit from using the Numbots program to help embed the core maths skills of subitising, number bonds, addition and subtraction. White Rose have released an app called ‘1-minute maths’ which is very useful. We will also begin to use Times Table Rockstars. Your child’s log in for Numbots is the same for Times Table Rockstars.

Curriculum Highlights

This term, we will be learning…

Science – Our topic this term will be all about plants

Geography - We will be learning all about Jamaica and will compare Kingston, England with Kingston, Jamaica. This will culminate with a festival to celebrate the end of Year 2 and the end of our topic.

History – We will be learning about some trailblazers in history, people who changed the world. We are also planning a trip into Kingston town centre to explore our local landmarks and learn more about the history of our local area. 
More information to follow at a later date. 

PE – We will be looking at sending and receiving, gymnastics, striking and fielding and athletics. 

RE – We will be looking at different faith communities this term. We will be learning about Muslim and Jewish communities and how they live their lives.

RSE - In the second half of the summer term the children will have three RSE lessons learning about differences. They will be learning about the concept of gender stereotypes, the differences between male and female babies (linking this to their knowledge of male and female animals), and naming body parts. 


For more information about our RSE curriculum please read our RSE Policy which can be found on the trust website. The resources used in our lessons can also be viewed at the school office. You can find out more information about the summer term learning by looking at the overviews and programmes of study.

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

Kind regards,

The Year 2 Team

Mr Morris (Gold Class) and Mrs Conroy (Silver Class)

   

Key dates

Thursday 14th May

Wetlands Centre Trip

Summer 2 (TBC) 

Kingston Town Centre Trip


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.

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 – If you have any messages or anything you need clarifying please contact Class reps or email the office.

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.