Year 2

Hello, I am Mrs. Burdon the Year two class teacher. I have been teaching at Dame Dorothy Primary since 1996 and have loved seeing new children arrive in nursery and then grow and mature as they leave to go to secondary school. This year Mrs Kirtley and Mrs. Booth are also working with Year two. If you have a query or concern, please contact a member of the team.

SPAG/Literacy

This term we will be focusing on our spelling, punctuation and grammar.

We will be using spelling, punctuation and grammar in our independent writing.

We will be learning about different genres of writing including retelling stories, writing recounts, diaries and instructions.

The focus this term is on writing longer sentences using conjunctions such as ‘when’, ‘that’, ‘if’ and ‘because’.

Reading

We LOVE reading in Year two. We encourage children to read anything and everything from posters on the wall to leaflets that come through the door. The emphasis is reading for enjoyment!

Please read a story to your child EVERY night it will develop their love of stories and have a huge impact on their vocabulary!

The children will get a weekly reading books linked to phonics. Please return by Wednesday each week.

Maths

Dame Dorothy Primary School has excellent mathematic skills. This term, the children will get into the swing of completing some mental maths when they arrive at school on a morning. It is important that the children get to school promptly at 8:45am so they don’t miss this. In lesson time, we will begin by looking at shape and then move onto multiplication and division and measurement.

Library

The library is open to the children and after half term the children will take home a library book of their choice to read at leisure.

They will also bring home a phonics home reading book to practise the weekly sounds.

General

Please email me at teacher@damedorothy.org.uk if you have any queries or concerns: I’m happy to help! Water bottles can be brought into school – either a school one or a different one from home. Please ensure your child can identify their own bottle. They can access water from their bottles whenever they need to. Don’t forget, we post regular updates on Facebook.

Topic

This term our topic is called ‘Street Detectives’ and is all about our local area. We are focusing on history and geography and hopefully we will be getting out and about. We will also link this with ‘materials’ in science. We will be looking at local landmarks and finding out about Roker in the past. We will be finding out about how the immediate area has changed over time. We are also looking at books by the author Shirley Hughes.

ICT

We have a range of opportunities to use a range of ICT resources such as laptops and iPads. We ensure that the children are aware of how to keep safe online when using the internet. PLEASE support your child to STAY SAFE when using the internet at home.

PE lessons are on a MONDAY.

P.E. sessions are delivered by professional coaches and this term we are focusing on tennis.

Your child is allowed to come to school for the whole day in their P.E. kit.

New kits are available from the school office.

Please ensure your child has the correct footwear for PE as there are times when we will be outside for PE.

Please ensure all jewellery is removed.

Music

Y2 have bi- weekly music lessons which are active and fun! They are introduced to some musical language, for example pulse, tempo and pitch. Listening skills are encouraged by clapping activities and the use of chime bars. They begin to read rhythmic notation are given opportunities to improvise and compose their own simple melodies on chime bars. They take part in weekly singing lessons.

Reminders

HOMEWORK at the moment is given out each Friday and we ask for it to be returned by the following Wednesday.

Open homework has been given out for this term.

Children will be given weekly spelling homework which will be tested each Friday in school.

If parents/carers have any concerns please contact the school office.