Friday, 13th May

This week we have been exploring measurement in class, using rulers, weights, measuring jugs and scales. We have written some wonderful stories narrating the animation ‘Something Fishy’, where a girl enters an underwater world through the portal of a washing machine! Our beans and sunflowers are coming along well and we are learning how to make careful observations as they grow. 

Next week the class will be sitting their SATs. The children have been working through assessment papers over the last few months, so for them it will feel like a fairly usual week. We have explained that it is the final week of assessments next week and as their levels are teacher assessed, based on a range of tasks, it is in reality simply another piece of the assessment 'jigsaw'. However, they will sit more tests than usual, so we anticipate them feeling tired and more hungry. Please can you ensure the children have breakfast and bring a healthy snack to school if they don’t like the fruit and vegetables on offer. The afternoons lessons will be filled with the usual range of topics. 

As we reflect on this year so far, we would like to reiterate how wonderful your children are. We are incredibly proud of the young people they are becoming. We watch the care with which they encourage and look after each other, the games they make up and the funny ways they have of making us all laugh. They constantly surprise us with thoughtful remarks, clever explanations and small kindnesses.  

Looking ahead to the last week of this half-term, we have some dates for your diary: 

Tuesday 24^th May – day trip to St Albans Cathedral 

Wednesday 25^th May – litter picking at the Aquadrome and a picnic lunch. Learning Showcase towards the end of the school day

Thursday 26^th May – Pirate Day! Come to school dressed as a pirate and expect some hearty adventures. 

Home Learning:

Maths – measurement activity sheet 

English – Sentence types and punctuation activity sheet 

Spelling – prefix -un 

Please continue to read regularly and comment in the Reading Record Book. 

Have a lovely weekend, 

Mrs Lee and Mrs Bartram

Friday 6th May

Our week has been productive if short! We have mostly focused on Maths, Science and writing our pirate adventure stories, the class are certainly getting the hang of 'pirate talk!' We will continue with more pirate narratives next week. In Maths we are going to have a practical week of measuring length, height, mass, temperature and time. Please help the children to notice these measurements at home by looking at bottles, jars and containers to see how much they hold as well weighing objects including themselves if possible. We will also revisit basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division concepts. In Science, we have seen our beans begin to sprout and look forward to comparing them next week.

On Monday next week Year 2 have their half-term afternoon of Forest School and an extra PE activity so please can the children come into school on Monday wearing their PE kit (They will have PE lessons on Wednesday and Friday as usual). Also, for next week only, Mrs Bartram will be teaching on Tuesday and Mrs Lee will be teaching on Friday.

Some children are running low on pencil case items; they need new glue sticks, whiteboard pens and pencils. Please ask your child and supply accordingly - thank you.

Home Learning:

Maths - data handling activity sheet

English - Grammar book, pages 11 and 16 conjunctions and contractions

Spelling - Contractions. Please discuss these so that the children can recognise which two words have been

                combined and notice the letters that are missing so that the apostrophe is placed accurately.

Please keep up the regular reading and recording in the Reading Record book.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Bartram and Mrs Lee

Friday 29th April 2022

The classroom is full of wonderful plants -  sunflowers, daffodils, cress and beans that we are investigating, observing and measuring in order to discover what a plant needs to grow well.  For our pirate topic this week we have enjoyed writing our diary entries as the fiddler from 'The Pirate Cruncher', and have planned our own stories to write next week.

We have continued our focus on reading, writing and maths in preparation for our SATs assessments in 2 weeks. The class know that they are practising so that they are fully ready to show their best. The assessments should not be a source of stress for them but simply a time to 'show off' how much they have learnt and their progress in Year 2, which is phenomenal! SATs are simply one aspect of our assessment for each child that help us to build a picture of their progress. You will receive a letter with additional information about SATs, but please come and chat with us if you have any questions.

Next week is a short week but the class will still have PE on Wednesday and Friday.

Home Learning

Maths - time activity sheet and money activity sheet.

Please go over the concepts with the children and give them further practical practice if needed.

English - SPaG - p28-29 silent letters, in preparation for next week's spelling

Spelling - suffix -ness

Please continue to read daily, as this helps develop stamina for the SATs reading paper, thank you.

We hope you all enjoy a wonderful long weekend.

Mrs Bartram and Mrs Lee

Friday 22nd April 2022

Welcome to the Summer term!

It has been lovely hearing about all the wonderful holiday activities from the class. Everyone came back ready to learn and we have had great fun this week introducing one of our new topics: 'Pirates'. Lots of 'Argh me hearties' and 'Walk the Plank' have been heard around the classroom! We have also  begun our new Science topic 'plants' and are observing cress seeds grow in different locations. Next week we will be planting bean and lettuce seeds. If the children would like to return their sunflower seedling to school, that would be great, as we are competing with Year 1 in our sunflower growing competition.

As SATs assessments are approaching fast (the week beginning 16^th May), we are revisiting many of our Year 2 Maths objectives, as well as familiarising ourselves with SATs papers. We will send out a letter with more detail next week. 

In addition to the homework below, can we please ask that you revise basic terms of measurement: centimetres, metres, litres, kilograms, grams. We will be going over this with the class in the next 2 weeks but a head start would be welcomed!

Home Learning

Maths - 3D shape worksheet

English - Comprehension p22-3 Habitats

Spelling - topic words and ongoing revision of Y2 Common Exception words

Please continue to read regularly and comment in the Reading Record Book

Have a wonderful weekend.

Mrs Bartram and Mrs Lee

Friday 1st April

Well done to our amazing pupils in Year 2! They have worked incredibly hard this term and we continue to be very proud of them all. This week we completed many subject units and thoroughly enjoyed the Easter Celebration Day on Wednesday (see below for photos).

We have sent home reading books which we hope will be completed ready to change in the first week back when we will also carry out our usual half-termly assessment. We have also sent home Easter cards and seeds to plant. Please can the sunflower seeds be planted ready to be returned in the first week back to fit with our Science topic - plants. We are going to have a competition with Year 1 to see who can grow the tallest sunflower!

Today we discussed Earth Day which will take place later this month and we have asked the class to come up with some ideas for activities we might complete at school. Please could you discuss this with them so they may have ideas to share on our return to school.

After Easter we will send out more information about the Year 2 SATs tests. Please keep reading and revisiting the CEW (we have attached the list above for your reference) as well as practising the Next Steps we talked to you about in the Parents Evenings in February.

We wish you all a restful and wonderful Easter holiday. Let's hope we have more sunshine and less snow!

Mrs Lee and Mrs Bartram

Friday 25th March

We can't quite believe that we are rapidly approaching the end of term! This week, we have worked hard in Maths to learn how to find fractions of shapes and quantities with great success. We had fun writing our Traction Man adventures, enjoying the unique language and style of Mini Grey's book. We also learnt where to find some of our internal organs and what they do, in PSHCE.

Next week promises to be a brilliant final week with activities including: learning names and properties of 2D shape in Maths, reading, performing and writing our own Spring poetry and learning how (and why!) we keep our teeth clean. 

We will be completing the RE topic on Easter by thinking about what forgiveness means and how Christians believe Jesus showed this on the cross, designing a front cover for our Traction Man story and investigating the lives of explorers Ernest Shackleton and Felicity Aston.

We have our school Easter Celebration Day on Wednesday. Children have been invited to make and wear an Easter hat of some description for the procession on the KS1 playground at 9am. You are very welcome to come and join us (with or without an Easter hat!) for the parade and whole school song. The school Governors will then choose the best hat from each class. We have also invited the children to bring in a pre-decorated egg to be judged as well. We will have PE on Wednesday afternoon (as well as taking part in the Easter egg hunt organised by FoSMs) so please send children in PE kits on Wednesday next week, but not on Friday as school is finishing early at 1:15pm.

Our usual half-term reading assessments will begin next week but the majority will be carried out in the first week back after the Easter holidays, as the class have completed a number of reading assessments in preparation for SAT's in May. 

Finally, we are going to send home some sunflower seeds and would like you plant these with your child over the Easter holidays. As both Years 1 and 2 learn about plants in Science in the Summer term, we thought it would be fun to have a sunflower competition. We will therefore be asking your child to return the seedling in the first couple of weeks after the Easter holidays so that we can compete to find the tallest flower from Years 1 and 2. If you don't have a plastic plant pot and/or compost at home, please let us know and we can provide your child with this.

Home Learning

Maths - Green maths book, dividing p34-5 and fractions of amounts p40 - 41

English - Comprehension, The Tear Thief p14

Spelling - 'ph' words

Please continue to read regularly and sign the reading record book.

Have a lovely weekend in the sunshine.

Mrs Lee and Mrs Bartram

Friday 18th March 2022

The sun has been shining and we have started to enjoy Spring in Year 2! This week, having created a new classroom display on Spring and Easter, we have been reading and learning about the Easter story and what it means to Christians. As always, thoughtful comments and perceptive questions were asked. We also thoroughly enjoyed having a visit from Mr Nolepa as part of Science week, who had the class designing backpacks for explorers searching for their favourite animals. What fantastic designs the class produced!

Next week, we will be continuing with our Traction Man adventures and on Thursday afternoon will be designing book covers for our new Traction Man mission. In Maths we shall be moving on to fractions: finding half, third, quarter of shapes and quantities, which we started today. On Monday afternoon, the class will have their half-termly session of Forest School as well as an extra PE lesson, so for next week only, please can they come to school in PE kits on Monday as well as the usual days of Wednesday and Friday.

We apologise for not visiting the Library on Wednesday! We will visit instead on Tuesday next week.

Looking ahead to the final week, on Wednesday 30th, it is our school Easter Celebration Day and pupils are invited to wear an Easter hat and take part in the Easter parade. We will talk to them about possible designs next week but thought you may want to get a head start!

Home Learning:

Maths - finding fractions of shapes activity sheet. We have looked at 1/2, 1/4 and 1/3 today but have included a challenge section on finding 3/4 of a shape. We will learn more about 3/4 next week.

English - Grammar book, spelling activities - suffixes p40 and  compound words p41

Spellings - suffix -ly

Please continue to read regularly.

Have a wonderful weekend in the sunshine.

Mrs Bartram and Mrs Lee

Friday 11th March

We have continued to work very hard this week and have had assessments in Maths, SPAG, comprehension, spelling and Science as part of Assessment Week. 

In Science, on Monday, we had a great time exploring how easily germs can be spread using glitter and oil, and then on Tuesday investigated whether the oldest in the class were the tallest, thinking about how we could see patterns in the results. We also started 'Traction Man' by Mini Grey which we LOVED! The class are looking forward to creating their own adventure for him next week. Our focus will continue to be on consistent and competent punctuation as well as using sentences with different forms, using the present tense correctly (and the present progressive form, eg, Traction Man is running to save the spoons) and including expanded noun phrases.

We found 2 brilliant activities on Mini Grey's website - to dress up Traction Man as well as design your own Traction Man. Your child might like to do this at home over the weekend or in the holidays - the link is below.

Next week, we will be learning about division in Maths, revisiting the idea that exercise, having a good diet and sleep are important to our health in PSHCE, and starting our Easter RE unit. We will be investigating what explorers take with them on an expedition and looking at music programs in computing.

We will be visiting the Library on Wednesday next week, not Friday, so please can the class bring in their Library books then.

Please can you check that your child still has a working whiteboard pen and a glue. We don't have a school supply so we are buying them for the children ourselves. We use these items of equipment on a daily basis, so please keep them stocked up. Thank you.

Home Learning

Maths  - multiplication word problem sheet

English - identifying nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs activity sheet

Spelling - CEW and -ed prefix

Please continue to read regularly and sign the Reading Record book.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend,

Mrs Bartram and Mrs Lee

Friday 4th March 

We all thoroughly enjoyed World Book Day yesterday. We read The Magic Paintbrush and produced some lovely Ming Vases depicting parts of the story. We enjoyed a workshop from illustrator Kay Wilson who talked about her inspiration when designing book covers and the children had a go creating their own. This year's Masked Reader was particularly tricky but we certainly laughed a lot! We were able to swap books for new reads and share some of our favourite stories. The day was topped off with an assembly where all the children got to share their costumes.

This week has also included: writing our own folk tale about 'How the elephant got is trunk', understanding the importance of a healthy diet as well as daily exercise, and furthering our understanding of multiplication through arrays.

Next week we are beginning a new text in English called 'Traction Man' about a super hero. We will be looking at verbs and tenses and writing a diary entry. In Maths we will complete our topic of multiplication. On Monday, as we continue with our Science topic (exploring what we need to survive), we will be investigating the importance of hygiene. As part of this the class will be asked to rub Johnson's Baby Oil over their hands and then sprinkle glitter onto their palms. If there are any allergies to Baby oil (or glitter!), please can you let Mrs Lee know on Monday morning? 

Home Learning

Maths - this week we'd like you to practise using and counting money. Please can the children gather a selection of coins and then try the activities below:

• sort them into groups of each coin and count them.
• sort them into 2 groups - e,g, coins less than 20p and coins more than 20p or odd coins and even coins.
• practise making amounts of money in different ways - e.g. how many ways can you make 20p or 50p or £1.
• go shopping and work out the coins needed to buy an item.

Please feel free to adapt or add to the list in any way.

English - research the author and illustrator Mini Grey. Find out about some of the books she has written. Do you have any at home? Perhaps watch some of her stories read aloud on YouTube. Write down at least 3 facts about her and make a list of the books she has written. You can share this information in class next week when we start our new book - Traction Man.

Spelling - prefix -ful and CEW

Please continue to read regularly and sign the Reading Record Book.

Have a wonderful relaxing weekend,

Mrs Bartram and Mrs Lee

Friday 25th February

It was lovely to talk to so many of you on Wednesday and Thursday evenings this week. Thank you for joining us, we value the partnership we share. If you have any further follow-up questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

We have had a good start to the new half-term and have completed units of work (PSHCE and Geography) as well as begun our next Science topic - Humans and Animals, survival! As part of this we are looking at the importance of exercise and will be carrying out a very active investigation on Monday which will require PE kits to be worn please! So, just for next week, please can the children wear PE kit on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thank you.

On Thursday we will begin our new topic 'Survival' and would like the children to bring in a teddy or similar toy that they can take on an expedition around school, in order to discover what an explorer is.

In English this week we planned our own version of 'How the elephant got his trunk'. We shall be writing up this story, stage by stage, next week, looking especially at story language, vocabulary and variation of sentence openings. In Maths, we learnt about times table patterns and strategies to use to remember them. Next week we will be continuing with multiplication and will include focusing on arrays, word problems, and the language of multiplication.

Thursday is World Book Day and we have some wonderful ideas planned. Please send in any books you have finished reading (and are happy to exchange) so that children can swap these for another book. The children can come to school dressed as a book character, an item or prop from a story or in pyjamas if they would like to be a bedtime story - anything at all to do with books would be wonderful!

Home Learning

Maths - repeated addition and multiplication on a sheet.

English - Grammar book - p17 apostrophes for possession and p36 Adding the suffix y

Spelling - 4 CEW and words ending with the suffix 'y'

Please continue to read 5 times each week and sign the Reading Record book.

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Bartram and Mrs Lee

Friday 11th February

It has been a fantastic end to a busy and productive half-term. The children have worked incredibly hard, showing focus, resilience and determination. We continue to be incredibly proud of them and hope you all have a chance to rest and relax over the half-term holiday.

We thoroughly enjoyed all the activities on our Vision and Values Day, the highlights of which include: a hilarious assembly with Karl thinking about Daniel and the lion's den, decorating lion biscuits, creating ink drawings showing 'forgiveness' using the book: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse', and scooting and cycling around a special course on the playground. Thank you for ensuring that all the resources needed were brought to school.

We have completed many of our foundation subject Learning Journeys this week and look forward to starting our new topic of 'Survival' after half-term. 

Children were tested on the Year 2 common exception words we have learnt this half term. They  will bring home the test which highlights the words they still need to learn. Please can you practise these over half term and we will test them again on their return to school.

An optional homework this half-term is to make a diorama to show a habitat (eg rainforest, polar, desert) which follows our learning this week of different world habitats. Pinterest has lots of great examples if you'd like some inspiration!

Please keep up the reading, the children are doing so well. This week we have focused on suffixes in guided reading. If children spot any whilst reading they can record them in their Reading Record book to share with us.

Wishing you all a wonderful half term.

Mrs Lee and Mrs Bartram 

Friday 4th February

On Tuesday we upskilled our computing ability and enjoyed learning how to create and read pictograms on the Chrome books (using Just 2 Easy software) as well as becoming more confident in navigating our way around the Chrome books and Google Classroom. Today we have participated in a range of maths activities including a team scavenger hunt and matchbox challenge. We ended the day with a visit to Reception class to read our Big Cat Reports which we finished this week - the children read beautifully and Reception were thrilled to see everyone - especially their siblings!

We have become more confident this week in understanding the language of word problems and drawn part/part/whole and bar models to help. Next week we are starting a new unit on traditional tales (creation myths) with stories like 'How the Camel got his hump' and 'How the cheetah got his spots' by Rudyard Kipling. In PSHCE we will be looking at the important topic of 'safe secrets' and unsafe secrets' and what to do/who you can tell when you feel uncomfortable. Our final RE lesson in our unit on Islam will be a time to reflect on what we have learnt. We will put the finishing touches to this half term's artwork and display it in the hall for you to see at the end of the week. In Science we will be continuing to learn about habitats.

We are all really looking forward to the varied activities on Wednesday's Vision Day. We would love to encourage bikes and scooters to be brought in so that everyone can enjoy some cycling/scooting but please remember helmets are a must! Wellies would be really appreciated for the scavenger hunt too.

As it is the last week of half term we will be assessing reading. Please can all children have their books in school on Thursday, thank you.

Home Learning

Maths - Green book pages 74-77 block graphs and pictograms

English - SPaG pages 32 and 33 adding suffixes

Spelling - CEW and suffix -est

Reading - please continue to read regularly (at least 5 times each week) and sign the Reading Record Book.

Our focus questions in guided reading this week were:

What happened before... What happened after...

Can you explain why...

Enjoy your weekend.

Mrs Bartram and Mrs Lee

Friday 28^th January 2022

We’ve had great fun this week writing our ‘Big Cats’ report and have included lots of interesting facts gathered last week. We are becoming  more confident with our use of conjunctions and technical vocabulary. Next week we will be designing and producing our finished booklets ready to read to Year one and then focusing on learning how to use possessive apostrophes to show singular use. In Maths we have been working hard to secure our understanding of more formal subtraction methods and are progressing well. Word problems using addition and subtraction will be the focus next week.

We had a fantastic African Art Day on Thursday and the children had a wonderful time creating cardboard animal faces in relief. The quality of work was superb and we all had great fun with paint, chalk markers and pens. We can’t wait to share our finished artwork with you, once we’ve completed the final pattern work.

On Monday we will be thinking about what we might learn from a second Islamic story whilst on Tuesday we will be spending the day with the Chrome books as we create our own pictograms using j2e.

Home Learning

Maths – Mental maths workout - exercise 7

English – Comprehension - pages 10 & 11 Amy Johnson and Tim's Diary. Please complete Tim's diary if you feel one comprehension is enough.

Spelling – plurals of words ending in ‘y’, please complete and return the spelling sheet with sentences on the back.

Reading – please continue to read regularly and sign the reading record book.

This week during Guided Reading we have discussed the following questions:

Find a word that means the same as...

The writer uses the words ________ to describe _______. What does this tell you about them?

Please use these as part of your book discussion (if appropriate) when listening to your child/ren read. Thank you.  

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Bartram and Mrs Lee

Friday 21st January 

It's been another great week in year 2 and we have all enjoyed finding out about big cats through our class book and will be turning our notes into sentences next week as we begin to compose our report ready to read to Reception and Year 1. In Maths, everyone worked very hard to learn how to calculate addition questions through a more formal method. We will be embedding our understanding in the next few weeks through daily fluency sessions and early morning work but are moving onto subtraction on Monday.

We began our Tingatinga painting project on Thursday and next week we will be having an Art theme day to complete our project. Please can you send cardboard into school before Thursday -large boxes would be great - the bigger the better.

In RE we will be reading the first of 2 stories of Muhammad and reflecting on what these stories mean to Muslims and what they might teach us. For our PSHCE lesson the class will be learning about touch and identifying the types of touch they like/don't like, as well as thinking about who we can talk to if someone makes them feel uncomfortable.

We will be revisiting the PANTS song and mnemonic from the NSPCC and have included the link below for your reference.

Home Learning

English - SPaG - p7 Adverbs and p30, le, el, al and il word endings.

Maths - Green book - p20 - 23 Addition

Spelling - CEW and 'il' word endings. Please return the completed sheet with sentences on the back.

Reading  - please continue to read at least 5 times each week and record this in the reading record books. 

In guided reading this week we have been focusing on retrieving information, with questions such as: How did ___ feel? Why? and where in the book would you find___? 

We will try to include a couple of questions on the blog each week, that we have practised in class reading sessions, in case you would like to try them out at home.

Have a great weekend.

Mrs  Bartram and Mrs Lee

Friday 14th January 2022

We have had a fantastic week launching our new topic: Animals and Africa. We have located Nigeria (our focal country) on a variety of maps and enjoyed beginning to learn how to use an atlas. In Science, we learnt about the 7 signs of life, in RE how and why Muslims pray. We had a very important discussion in PSHCE, emphasising that medicines can be very helpful but are not to be touched without adult supervision. We also talked about how we might feel better without taking medicine including rest, going to bed early and making sure we are hydrated. 

In English the children have been learning all about the layout and structure of non-fiction books and how to gather facts and in Maths have made an excellent start to formal addition.  Next week we will continue with our 'Find Out about Big Cats' text, reading and adding notes, ready to write a report on them in 2 weeks' time. In Maths we will continue to build our confidence with written addition and embed understanding that addition is commutative. For our next Science lesson we would be grateful if the children could bring in any plastic or soft toys of bugs/insects as we are learning how to compare things that are alive, dead or have never been alive. 

Home Learning

Maths - Mental workout 6

English - Comprehension Pages 8 and 9' No Teacher' and 'The Enchanted Wood'. If you feel one comprehension is enough to complete this week, please choose just one of the titles.

Spelling - CEW and 'el' words.

Only half the class returned their completed spelling sheets this week. Please can children complete the 'Look, cover, write, check sheet' and then put each word into a sentence on the back of the sheet. Thank you to those children that handed their work in - spelling is a difficult but essential skill to develop and we really appreciate your support with this.

Please read at least 5 times and sign the Reading Record book. 

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs Bartram and Mrs Lee

Friday 7th January 2022

Happy New Year! The children have made a fantastic start to the new term and the new year and have returned well rested and full of enthusiasm.

Our Spring term foundation subjects will begin next week and our new topic is Africa.  We will compare Rickmansworth to a town in Nigeria studying geographical features, nature and culture. Islam is the main religion in Nigeria to tie in our RE learning and in Art will will be looking at the work of Edward Tingatinga and producing animal paintings in his style. Our Science topic is Animals including humans and in Computing we will learn how to research topics on the internet.

In English we are going to spend the first of 3 weeks looking at non-fiction texts all about the 'Big Five' African animals. In Maths, we will complete our unit on statistics and begin to learn how to set out and use formal written addition.

On Monday afternoon, the class are going to have a session of Forest School as well as a special fitness PE lesson with Jack and Daryl, so they need to come wearing PE kits on Monday. Please send in any additional clothing they might need for  Forest School, such as a waterproof/warm coat, wellies, gloves and a hat! This is an additional one-off PE lesson to our usual Wednesday and Friday sessions which they will also enjoy next week.

We have been very pleased with their progress in reading. Our thanks for your continued support. Daily parental support and input makes such a difference. 

Home Learning

Maths - Green Maths book p70-73 tables and tallying

English - SPaG - p8 The 4 sentence types and p13 Question marks and Exclamation marks

Spelling - 'll' or 'le' sounds and Y2 CEW

From this term onwards, we would like children complete and return the spelling sheets to school. On the back of the sheet we would like each spelling word written into a sentence. Please can you check the spelling, letter formation and punctuation of the sentences and help your child to make any necessary corrections. Thank you for your support with this.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Mrs Bartram and Mrs Lee

Friday, 17th December 2021

An enormous well done to Year 2 for their hard work and effort this term. We are extremely proud of you all.

We have enjoyed all sorts of activities this week from a Zoom lesson with Mrs Bartram (who loved seeing the class even from a distance!) and the Santa Dash of today to videoing our Nativity on Monday (photos below). We hope you will enjoy watching it. This can be viewed via Google Classroom. We have completed topics and reviewed our learning, and we are looking forward to starting new and interesting topics after Christmas, including comparing Rickmansworth and an African village, learning more about the Islamic faith and how to stay healthy in Science.

There is no set home learning but please continue to encourage your child to read over Christmas. We would hope that every book sent home will be well read by Wednesday 5th!

Finally, a huge thank you from Mrs Lee, Mrs Bartram, Mrs Wilson and Mrs Allen, to every parent, for our gifts and cards. We are very grateful and shall enjoy using them all. Thank you too for all your support as we partner together in their education.

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas holidays and we look forward to seeing you all on Wednesday 5th January 2022.

Take care, 

Mrs Lee and Mrs Bartram 

Friday 10th December 2021

This morning we had the dress rehearsal of our Nativity which we performed to Reception. The class were fantastic and performed and sang beautifully. We are looking forward to filming this on Monday so that you can watch the wonderful performance.

We can't quite believe that we are nearly at the end of the Autumn term! We are immensely proud of our class. They continue to work hard and we have really enjoyed teaching them and watching them grow this term.

This week has been busy and productive. We have spent the week learning about 'parts' and 'whole' in Maths, inverse and opposite, as well as how to work out missing numbers. We also worked very hard to finish our hand puppets and have them ready for our puppet shows next week. They will be coming home for the holidays!

We had our Phonics screening check this week and last, and have now completed all assessments. Again, we are really pleased with their learning and determination.

Nativity

We are all disappointed that parents are not allowed into school to see our amazing Nativity show. The class have worked so hard to remember lines, songs and actions. We would encourage you however to watch the video which is being filmed on Monday and will be sent out to parents shortly after that. We would also like to invite you to come to see some songs being performed 'live', along with Year 1, on the playground on Wednesday at 3.10pm. We know this is not quite the same but it will provide some opportunity for us to display our talents and for you to see the class in their costumes.

Next week, we will be assessing the children in Maths, reading, spelling and SPAG, provided we are not too tired! To this end, as the children bring in their books to change on Monday - Wednesday we will then keep these at school, ready for reading assessments on Thursday. If your child normally brings in their books on a Friday, please can they return them to school on Thursday 16th December.

Home Learning

Maths - Mental Workout, Exercise 5

English - Comprehension 'Get well soon' and 'A trip to the shop' pages 6 & 7 ( If you feel one comprehension is enough to complete, please just do 'Get well soon')

Spelling - We will be assessing the Year 1 Common Exception Words that were sent home at half term, next week. In addition, we will also assess spellings learnt this half term. Please can you work on these over the weekend. If your child is secure and confident with this list and this half term's spellings, please can you begin the Year 2 list which is saved below.

Next week will be our final full week of the year and we have some lovely Christmas activities planned, along with finishing our Learning Journeys in all our subjects - so a busy last week!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.

Mrs Bartram and Mrs Lee

Costumes for the Nativity play:

We have all of the main parts of the costumes we need for our Nativity, in school. However, each child will need to bring in a long sleeved, plain top in a dark colour (grey, black, brown) and a pair of leggings or trousers (dark colour, plain).

(Angel Gabriel ONLY will need a white pair of leggings/tights and a white top)

Please could these be brought into school in a NAMED bag by Wednesday 8th December. If your child has an accessory from home that they would like to use (eg crown, sheep or headdress - character dependent!) then that can be brought in as well at the same time.

Many thanks!

Friday, 3rd December 2021

We had a wonderful time at the disco this afternoon with lots of sparkling dresses, twirling and bopping! Our thanks to Jack and Daryl for hosting the event, and to FOSMS for the chocolate:) It was the end to a very busy week of learning and also rehearsing ready for our Nativity (performances on Monday 13th December, 6pm and Tuesday 14th December at 2pm. More details to follow.) We are working hard to learn songs and lines, and are looking forward to sharing the performances with you!

Maths: A very positive start was made in telling the time this week. Many of the children can read and make o'clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to, which is brilliant. We will be revising and building on these skills over the next few months. We would appreciate it if you helped your child(ren) to talk to you about their timetable, looked at clocks together and supported them in securing their understanding so far.

Next week, in Maths we will be learning about the 'inverse' and how to find missing numbers. Our RE lesson will focus on the importance of crib scenes to many Christians. PSHCE will look at what to do if you are being left out and how to support others who are being left out of a game/activity. We also hope to complete our fantastic glove puppets ready to show you at our Learning Showcase on Wednesday, 15th December.

Home learning:

English - This week children will be writing a List poem. They can choose any subject they like - Star Wars, Winter, chocolate etc. This can be hand written or word processed. Their challenge is to include a couple of lines that use alliteration.

Maths - To continue our class learning, we would like the children to make the clock that has been sent home and then use it to practise making times: o'clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to. Please keep the clock and continue to use it help children to make and read times, as it is a key skill that needs ongoing practise. 

Spelling - Common exception words from Year 1 & 2 lists which we have identified in children's writing.

Please do support the FOSMS Christmas Market, 12pm - 3pm on Saturday (tomorrow).

Have a wonderful weekend.

Mrs Lee and Mrs Bartram

Friday 26th November

Another week has flown by with lots of wonderful activities and increased talk around Advent, Christmas and the Nativity! We have been practising our songs in class every day. Please encourage your child to practise these at home as well as their speaking line(s). We will begin the run through of the whole play as of Monday next week, so if children can learn their lines beforehand, that would be really appreciated. 

A huge thank you to the parents who joined us on Thursday to help make the puppets - the children were very excited and have been finishing off sticking the embellishments ready for sewing next week. If you are available next Thursday and would like to help with sewing the puppets, that would be greatly appreciated.

In English we worked very hard to plan and then write a recount of our Windsor Castle trip - including lots of interesting facts that we learnt on our visit. Next week we will be learning about list poetry. In Maths we have been practising adding 1 and 2 digit numbers together using certain strategies; this week's homework will give the children an opportunity to practise these with you. Next week we will move onto reading and writing time: o'clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to, as well as becoming more familiar with units of time. If you could start talking about time and looking at clocks in preparation for this, that would be wonderful. 

Just for next week, Mrs Bartram will be in school teaching on Tuesday and Mrs Lee on Friday.

Home Learning

Maths  - 2 digit addition sheet

English - Finding the capitals - book activity

Spelling - ee, ea, e-e

Please keep learning and reviewing the Year 1 CEW list as given before half-term. We will be reviewing these just before Christmas.

We still have a number of children with missing equipment - particularly pencils, whiteboard pens and glue. Please can you check and replenish used up items. Thank you in advance.

Enjoy the weekend, regardless of the weather!

Mrs Bartram and Mrs Lee

Friday 19th November 

What a wonderful week we have had in Year 2! We thoroughly enjoyed celebrating and learning through 'Friendship week' with 2 special lessons and assemblies on Monday and Tuesday. We learnt more about how to develop kindness as we danced along to 'One Kind Word' with Andy from CBeebies and had a great time playing parachute games in the Hall. Yesterday we watched a fantastic production of Cinderella and the children were buzzing with excitement as they returned to class - a huge thank you to FOSMS for paying for this special event. Today we are off to our eagerly awaited trip to Windsor Castle, where we will discover more about the life of the Queen to enrich our topic for this half term.

Next week, we are spending time in English writing a recount of our trip to Windsor Castle. Our Guided Reading texts and activities will focus on non-fiction retrieval as well as locating features. In Maths we will be continuing to expand our ability to add and subtract mentally. In RE we will be exploring the idea of baby Jesus as King, and it will be our final Science investigation before we concentrate on practising hard for our Nativity on Monday 14th and Tuesday 15th December (please save the dates!)

Pencil cases

Please can you ensure your child has a pencil(s) and pencil case ready for Monday morning as we had 5 children without a pencil/pencil case on Monday morning! Some also need a new glue stick and whiteboard pen. We really appreciate your help with this as it reduces stress for the children and the amount of time we spend supplying the class with what they need.

Home Learning

English - Grammar and Punctuation p9 Staying in the same tense and p15 Commas in lists

Maths - Mental maths workout - Exercise 4

Spelling - ow, oa and o-e

Please continue to read five times each week.

Have a wonderful weekend

Mrs Lee and Mrs Bartram

Friday 12th November 2021

We hope you have had a good week, we have certainly worked very hard in Year 2. In maths we have been using our number bonds to ten to secure our understanding of bonds to one hundred. We have written a setting description for Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters and on Tuesday we welcomed Mrs Ravji to talk to the class about her Muslim beliefs. The class were incredibly interested and listened well. They asked thoughtful questions and we were very proud of them. We will continue to learn more about certain aspects of Islam in the Spring but next week will be launching our unit on' Incarnation' (Christmas here we come!) On Thursday, we marked our 2 minutes silence for Remembrance Day in our new prayer garden and placed painted poppies and a wreath made by Year 1.

Next week, we will be developing understanding about mentally adding and subtracting in Maths, writing a retelling of a section of 'Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters' in English (focusing particularly on punctuation and varying sentence openings) as well as setting off on our eagerly anticipated trip to Windsor Castle.

As a class, because of our trip to Windsor Castle on Friday, we will be celebrating Children in Need on Thursday 18th November. Please can children wear odd socks and non-uniform for a donation to the 'Children in Need' charity. In addition, we will bake sock and bear biscuits for the children to decorate. If they would like to do this, please can they bring an additional donation of 50p for Children in Need.

Reading Records: Whilst we aim to change pupils reading books every week on their allocated day, we don't always hear them read these specific books. Rather each week every pupil is heard in a Guided Reading session. These are daily sessions and within that a specific group of children read and discuss texts with the teacher and TA.

Pencil case supplies: Many children are now running low on pencils, erasers, white board pens and glue sticks. We will send home pencil cases this weekend please could you check them and replenish missing items. Thank you in advance.

Home Learning

English - Comprehension no 4: Seasons

Maths - Activity sheet on number bonds to 100 or Multiples of 10

Spelling - er, ur, ir 

Reading - please read and sign Reading Record books 

Have a wonderful weekend,

Mrs Bartram and Mrs Lee

Friday 5th November 2021 

It was really good to talk to so many of you this week at our parents' meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday. We hope you found them informative and useful. If you have any further questions, please do ask before or after school.

This week we have launched ((with gusto) many of our new topics for the half-term. In PSHCE we had an invaluable session reflecting on how similar and yet different we each are; unique and special. In our Circle Time we practised using language that encouraged and showed respect for each other. We have begun a new text in English - Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters -  and have spent time today exploring Zimbabwe, which is the setting of the story. 

We have also started designing our hand puppets in DT and after cutting out templates next week, will begin our sewing. We'd like to ask for some volunteers to come and help with sewing the puppets on Thursday 18th or 25th November - either or both days would be fantastic. No sewing skills are required, we mainly need help threading needles and tying knots! It would be the last lesson of the day from 2-3pm. If you feel you could help us, please let one of us know at pick up or drop off or contact the office. Thank you very much in advance.

Next week in Maths we are learning about complements to 10/100. In English, we will continue to explore 'Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters' having thoroughly enjoyed reading 'The Queen's Knickers' by Nicholas Allan at the start of this week (which instigated our History topics on Queens!) In RE, we will be welcoming a visitor to talk about their Muslim faith.  Remembrance Day on Thursday will be marked with 1 minute's silence and a special assembly.

Home Learning

Maths - Mental Workout Exercise 3

English - Handwriting pages 14-15 and 16 - 17

Spelling  - ure 

Please continue practising the Year 1 CEW as we will assess these again towards the end of term before focussing on the Year 2 word list.

Please continue to read and sign Reading Record books.

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Lee and Mrs Bartram

Friday 22nd October 2021

It was wonderful to see so many of you yesterday at our Learning Showcase. The children were thrilled to be able to show you their work and classroom. Thank you for making the time to attend.

A huge well done to all of Year 2 for making it to the end of such a busy and full half-term. We are really proud of them; they have adapted to new routines well and we are looking forward to starting new topics and areas of learning after half-term. 

Home Learning:

Today, we have sent home an individual sheet of Year 1 Common Exception Words and would like to ask that you spend time helping your child to learn these over the next few weeks. We will re-test before Christmas. Some children have quite a few to learn so parental help would be really appreciated. We recommend learning 2-3 words a week, writing them out and putting them up on display, talking about how to remember them and frequent revisiting as they are tricky spellings to remember. We will be supporting this work at school.

We have also sent home 3 books per child for the half-term holiday. Please keep up reading.

We wish you a wonderful half term holiday and we look forward to seeing you back on Monday 1st November.

Mrs Lee and Mrs Bartram

Friday 15th October 2021

We have enjoyed another super week with Year 2. On Monday afternoon we all had the opportunity to plant in our Prayer Garden with the help of Mrs Norwood and are now eagerly counting the days until we are allowed to use it. We worked incredibly hard to write our own historical story based on the Great Fire of London and will be copying it onto aged paper and stamping it with a wax seal like Samuel Pepys would have done.

We have also completed construction of our Tudor houses and are very much looking forward to showing them at our showcase next week.  The time of the Learning Showcase next Thursday has changed from 3pm to 2.30pm and we hope that many of you are able to come to look at books, hear about our learning and see inside the classroom.

Next week, we are going to spend time reading poetry and writing our own class poem and continuing work on ordering numbers in Maths. We will be finishing our Topic work on the Great Fire of London, our PSHCE unit on bullying and our RE topic about Jonah and the whale.

Home Learning

Maths: adding and subtracting 10 activity sheet- a hundred square has also been sent home so that the children can use the method we practised in class.

English: Comprehension p.4 The Owl and the Pussy-cat. Please discuss the difference between poetry and prose (stories) with your child(ren) - how it is presented, the use of rhyme etc in preparation for next week's learning on poetry.

Spellings: 'u' spelt ew, ue and u-e

Have a wonderful weekend.

Mrs Bartram and Mrs Lee

Friday 8th October

We've just arrived back from our trip to London and what a fantastic day it has been. It was an absolute pleasure to take the children to explore the area where the fire began and took hold and to walk in the footsteps of Samuel Pepys. We have discovered lots of new information about life in London in 1666 and Samuel Pepys's diary. The children's stamina for walking, inquisitive questioning and fabulous manners made a real impact on our guide Margaret - I was extremely proud of them all today. 

The trip has completed a great week of learning: securing place value in maths and developing sentence construction in English to include noun phrases and conjunctions. We have begun work constructing our Tudor houses and will continue next week with paper mache and painting. Next week in English, we will plan and write stories based on Toby and the Great Fire of London and complete some follow up activities from our trip today.

Home Learning

English - Grammar, punctuation and spelling p.6 Adjectives and p.10 Using and, but and or (conjunctions)

Maths - Mental Workout - Exercise 2

Spelling - the 'j' phoneme, spelt -dge

Please continue to read regularly and comment in Reading Record books. We will begin assessing children's reading over the next two weeks. Apologises to those children who didn't take books home today, we will send them out on Monday. Friday readers can change books on Monday instead. Thank you.

I'd like to say a huge thank you to the parents who supported today's trip, it is greatly appreciated. If you were available and didn't join us today then we will ensure you have priority on our next trip (Windsor Castle) towards the end of November, if you would like to join us then.  

Wishing you a wonderful weekend.

Mrs Bartram and Mrs Lee

Friday 1st October 2021

We have had a great week in Year 2 and enjoyed a range of activities from sequencing events in our new text 'Toby and the Great fire of London' to testing the stretchiness of Mrs Lee's tights in the name of Science! Thank you to everyone who brought in food to donate for our Harvest service yesterday. 

Next week, we will be exploring counting on and back in tens in our Maths lessons, building on our knowledge of place value in 2 digit numbers. In English we will be developing our understanding of expanded noun phrases and conjunctions, continuing with the same text. We will be welcoming a visitor for our RE lesson, who is coming to talk about why Christians sing in worship. On Thursday we will begin making our Tudor houses so please can children bring in a named box(es) by Thursday. The week will be completed with our class trip to London to explore the areas where the fire took hold, to dress in clothing from that time and to climb the monument - we're all very excited! 

Please could we ask you to check that the children have all the supplies they need in their pencil case. Some children are needing whiteboard pens and glue sticks replenishing, while others need erasers. We have plenty of scissors in class for them to use. Thank you for your support with this.

We have our next science experiment on Monday and are in need of metal and/or wooden rulers. If you have any we could borrow, we would be very grateful.

Home Learning

English - CPG Handwriting p6 and 7. Please could you support your children to form the letters correctly and join them carefully. We are working hard with this in class but the children would really benefit from some one to one support to practise this.

Maths - home learning is on a sheet this week. We have sent out a range of activities to practise or extend class learning, so the children will not all be completing the same activity this week. 

Spelling - adding the suffixes -ing and -ed

Reading - please continue to read five times per week.

Have a great weekend.

Mrs Bartram and Mrs Lee

Friday 24th September 2021

We have thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine this week; we hope you have too. We have been talking to the children about our outdoor environment and how fantastic it is to have so much space and greenery! This weekend, work is due to start on the KS1 prayer garden which will be situated on the grass next to the current position of the scooter stands. These will be moving next to the bicycle sheds and the area will be 'fenced off' for a few weeks whilst work is taking place. Year 2 will be able to see their ideas taking shape and our Ethos councillors will be helping with the digging and planting and are very excited!

The class have worked extremely hard this week. In English, we completed our unit on Rapunzel and have explored noun phrases and conjunctions as well as writing a diary extract as Rapunzel. The class certainly impressed us with some wonderful descriptive writing. Next week, we are commencing 3 weeks of historical fiction based around 'Toby and the Great Fire of London'. The emphasis is on reading skills next week. In Maths we will be exploring the place value of 2 digit numbers, using a variety of methods. In RE, we are looking at how Christians use worship songs, ready for a visitor the week after. We designed some fantastic Tudor houses on Thursday and will spend next week practising our cutting and joining skills ready for the big build! Please could you help the children to find suitable boxes to build with. Some will require one, whilst others would like 2 or 3 for their designs. If you have an extra boxes we would be very grateful for them. Please do not send them in until the week beginning 4th October as we don't have enough storage space at the moment.

Next Thursday is our Harvest Festival service at 9am in St Mary's Church and we would be very grateful for any donations of tinned or dried food that will be donated to local community charities. 

Home Learning

English - comprehension: p3 Making Lemonade.

Maths - targeted question book: p.7 Counting in 2,3,5,10 and p.11 Place value.

Spelling: 'Long a' sound on Look, say, cover, write check sheet.

Reading five times over the week.

Have a wonderful weekend

Mrs Lee and Mrs Bartram

Friday 17th September 2021

It has been another busy week in Year 2 and  we have continued to build on our Y2 expectations and structure.

In English we have been enjoying 2 very different versions of the traditional tale of Rapunzel. In Maths we have concentrated on inequality, counting on and back, using our strategy of 'Think 10' /number bonds. Next week we are looking at place value and regrouping ones to tens, tens to ones. Our Science lesson on Monday, will involve testing the strength of paper using penny coins, ready to give advice to the Billy Goats Gruff! In RE next week we will carry on exploring the story of Jonah.

It  was lovely to see so many of you at our 'Meet the Teachers' event on Wednesday afternoon. If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to ask one of us after school or arrange a meeting via the Office.

Home Learning

English - Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar book. Page 4 - Verbs and page 12 - Capital letters and full stops.

Maths - Mental Workout Exercise 1

Spelling - Common Exception Words (CEW) on Look, say, cover, write, check sheet

Please continue to read and sign the Reading Record five times each week.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Bartram and Mrs Lee  

Friday 10th September 2021

It has been a busy week learning new routines and a new timetable. The class has continued to settle down and into life in Year 2, and we are very proud of them.

This week in English our text has been: Frog and the Stranger by Max Velthuijs. We have revised simple sentences, explored interesting vocabulary and sequenced events. Next week, we will be reading 2 different texts on 'Rapunzel', comparing and contrasting fairy tales and characterisation. 

In Maths, we will be continuing our first unit, revising number concepts, including partitioning, number positions and equality/inequality. Our Science topic on Materials will begin next week as will our PSHCE unit on 'Me and My Relationships'. We have had a very enthusiastic start to our Great Fire of London topic and have been busy discussing the difference between London in 1666 and 2021. Next week we will begin designing our Tudor houses with a view to beginning construction in 2 or 3 weeks. 

Next Wednesday we look forward to meeting you on our Zoom 'Meet the Teachers' at 1:30pm and after school in the hall face to face, for any questions or further discussion.  Please do take time to read through the PowerPoint and look at the creative curriculum map which will be available on this page on Monday. We will be ready for any questions you may have - large or small!

Home Reading

Your child should have brought home 2 reading books as well as their new Reading Record on Thursday. Please read the books with your child(ren) 2 or 3 times so that they have opportunity to build up their fluency of vocabulary and understanding of the text. Please sign their Reading Record each time you hear them read (5 times a week). The books (including the signed Reading Record) then need to come back to school on the allocated day (written at the top of their Reading Record) for us to see how they are getting on, and to exchange for new reading books. In addition, children will visit the library on a Friday where they can borrow a book to take home, this can be exchanged for a new book each week.

Spelling

The children will bring a spelling sheet home each week with ten words to learn. These will be a mixture of phonics based word lists, spelling rules and Year 2 Common Exception Words (CEW). The look, say, cover, write, check sheets are for the children to practise their spellings and should not be returned to school. Spelling tests will take place on a Friday. 

Home Learning

Each week the children will have an English and Maths activity to complete. These should be returned to school by the following Wednesday when they will be marked. This week's home learning:

Maths: Targeted Study and Question book - Year One Objectives Test, pages 2-5.

English: Comprehension - How to Grow a Seed, page 2.

Spelling: 10 CEW

Have a wonderful weekend,

Mrs Bartram and Mrs Lee

Friday 3rd September 2021

It has been wonderful to welcome your children into Year 2 and we are looking forward to teaching them and partnering with you in their education and care.

Our class page will be used to keep you updated on learning, events and key information and will be updated weekly.

The children have had a fantastic two days settling into Year 2 and have shown excitement and enthusiasm for all the back to school activities. This afternoon we have been busy creating a tree for our reading corner and they demonstrated great team work and artistic skills - photos to follow when it has been installed!

We have begun to hear and assess reading levels and will be sending books home from next week. Homework will also start next Friday. Further details of this, class routines, expectations and curriculum will be shared at our Meet the Teacher Meeting on Wednesday 15th September. 

Mrs Lee will teach on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and Mrs Bartram on Thursday and Friday.

PE days are Wednesday and Friday - please can children come to school dressed in PE kit.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend,

Mrs Bartram and Mrs Lee