Welcome to

Class Two

Autumn Term 2024

Hello Class 2! I hope you have had a lovely holiday and enjoyed yourselves! We are looking forward to an exciting new academic year, looking at rocks and how they are formed and their pre-history use in the Stone Age. We will also be looking at story-telling through drawing in Art.

As throughout the year, we continue with our usual pick up and drop off times, and school will begin at 8:45 am and finish at 3:15 pm. Please can children enter independently from the main school entrance, hanging their coats and bags in either the boys or girls' cloakrooms. Please let the office know if someone else will be collecting in the afternoon. Children in Year 2 continue to benefit from receiving a free piece of fruit/veg for a breaktime snack, but Year 3 you will be required to bring your own from home: Please make sure that this continues to be in line with our healthy food policy:

School Meals | Appleby Primary School

This term, as before, the Year 2 children will no longer be having afternoon breaktimes.

Reading: Children in Year 2 continue to benefit from Little Wandle group reading, accessing carefully levelled texts in line with their progression. Selected children in Year 3 will also benefit from keep-up sessions to help them secure steady progress. 

All children will have an individual reading book which they can take home and will be developing their understanding of reading for pleasure. Progress will be shared through their reading journals from school, and I encourage you to build this into your daily routine at home. Please take time to make a note to let us know how your child did.

We are also reading through a shared class book, improving daily on our comprehension, grammar and spelling skills, although this will not be recorded via the reading journal. This term we are beginning with 'An Alien in the Jam Factory' by Chrissie Sains. 

Don't forget that you can also access a huge range of e-books as well through the school's online library: Appleby Primary School - Appleby Primary School (eplatform.co)

Volunteering: If you would like to volunteer to read with the class, this would be very welcome, and please contact the office to find out more.

English: Our books this term are 'Stone Age Boy' by Satoshi Kitamura and 'The Street Beneath Our Feet' by Charlotte Guillain. We will be using organisational devices such as headings and sub-headings and developing writing with more complex sentences using conjunctions and more than one clause. 

Maths: In Maths we will be using the White Rose scheme to develop your child's confidence in place value, addition and subtraction and later in the term we will be developing your child's confidence in multiplication and division. Children will be challenged in these areas to build mathematical fluency, and also to develop their problem-solving and reasoning skills. Children are encouraged to practice maths fluency at home using the White Rose Maths 1-Minute App. Multiplication and Division fluency will be sent home as part of children's homework. 

History: This term we will be developing knowledge and understanding of the Pre-History era of Britain including the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age periods. We will be looking at the development of using tools from metal and its impact on becoming a civilised people. 

Science: In Science we are exploring rock, fossils and soils. We will be thinking about the processes involved in rock formation and investigating the suitability of rocks for use in everyday life. 

Art and Design: Our Art this term will be looking at Story-telling through Drawing, we will be exploring different drawing mediums such as pencil and charcoal and how they can be used to create expressive pieces of work to tell a story. We will be looking at artists work such as Quentin Blake.

Computing: In computing, we will looking at how digital devices work and how they can be used to assist us in our day-to-day lives.

PE: In class 2, children will have PE sessions twice a week, on Tuesdays (am) and Wednesday (pm). On Tuesday children will be playing hockey, having coached lessons with Lucy. On Wednesday we will be having gymnastics. PE kits can be brought in at the start of the week (Monday) and left on pegs until Friday to keep things simple during the week. The kit should include both indoor and outdoor clothing as we will be going outdoors as much as the weather permits. Please make sure all kit and uniform has your child's name in it - so we can successfully reunite lost items to the correct child. Earrings must be removed for PE and your child must be able to do this for themselves.

PE kit consists of a white t-shirt and black shorts/leggings with suitable trainers. If your child does not bring the correct kit they will not be able to participate in the activities. 

French/RE: Through lessons with Miss Ridley, children will be investigating different RE through our scheme Jigsaw, and will be learning some basic French focusing on simple conversation and classroom commands. 

Communication: We are moving away from using Seesaw this year, and will be using our class pages on our website to update changes and share needed information. You can also communicate directly with the teachers during working hours using the contact form on our website.