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.
We believe working with families is very important, therefore when a child’s attendance falls below 94% we intervene quickly to work with parents to identify any barriers to regular school attendance and identify how we can support further.
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 The secret of Black Rock, James and the Giant Peach, Explorers, Millie’s Marvellous Hat and I Want my Hat Back.
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 focusing on decoding, prosody and comprehension.
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 all the way 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 also released an app called ‘1-minute maths’ which is very useful. We will also use Times Table Rockstars.
Curriculum Highlights
This term, we will be learning about . . .
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 intrepid explorers such as Amelia Earhart, Matthew Henson, Sacagawea and many more. 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 year ahead.
Kind regards,
The Year 2 Team
Ms Paish Mr Cooper Ms Luck Ms Hammond Ms Allmand
(Silver Class) (Ruby Class) (Sapphire Class) (Gold Class) (Gold Class)
Year Group Lead
Updates and reminders
Morning and afternoon routine – In the morning, the children should enter school via the KS1 gate (which will open at 8:40am and close at 8:50am) and line up in the KS1 playground. 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 Latchmere P.E kit on P.E days. We ask that children are dressed appropriately for the weather.
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.
Wetlands Centre trip – Tuesday 23rd April (Silver/Gold), Thursday 25th April (Sapphire/Ruby).
KS1 SATs – completed during the month of May.
Kingston Town Centre trip – Summer 2 – date tbc.