The children in Year 2 had yet another busy week despite the bank holiday.

In English, the class looked at exclamations, questions and statements and focused on punctuation and word order to differentiate between these before writing their own exclamations using speech marks. Later on, they wrote character descriptions applying their understanding of expanded noun phrases.

In Maths, the class started their next unit of fractions, looking at the relationship between parts and whole and equal/unequal parts. They practised using a range of representations such as cherry models, bar models and mathematical pictures.

On Wednesday, the class went down to the Furzefield Centre to participate in their first swimming lesson where they completed some assessments before working on various swimming techniques.

On Thursday, the class celebrated VE day along with the rest of the school. After discussing the main events leading up to this historical day, the children made replica planes out of paper before creating their own VE medal designs.

On Friday, the class participated in our annual May Procession celebrating Mary and crowning her with flowers. Well done for their beautiful singing that elevated the atmosphere of the event.

I am delighted to confirm our final class trip that will take place on Monday, 14th July 2025 to Knebworth House where we will participate in a Plants workshop linked to our Science topic in the morning and a ‘Story in the Garden’ Literacy workshop in the afternoon. The letter detailing this trip and School Comms tab for payments will go out next week.

I hope you have a lovely weekend,

Ms Varga

Home Learning:

Spelling-    Words where ‘-ed’ is added to single syllable words ( consolidation) Words where ‘a’ makes an /or/ sound before ‘l’ and ‘ll’   (next week)

https://www.edshed.com/en-gb

Reading- Please continue to read at home and sign reading record

Mathletics- https://www.mathletics.com/uk/ Please complete the assigned activities based on fractions.

Welcome back!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and a good rest over the holiday. It has been lovely to hear the many amazing things the children did in the past 2 weeks.

Following Pope Francis’ death on Monday, the children reflected on his life and legacy upon their return to school on Tuesday. They watched news reports about his work with refugees and made links between his work and our fifth Catholic Social Teaching principle, Dignity. The children also looked at ways the Pope showed welcome to people from around the world including prisoners and wrote about other important issues they could support when they are older.

With the beginning of a new term, we started new units in English and Maths. We watched our new class story Zahra and identified setting, characters and plot before retelling the story using visual aids, whilst in Maths, we used analogue and digital scales to measure in grams.

In Science, we also started a new unit by looking at Living things and their habitat. We had opportunities to practice our oracy skills when reasoning about ‘things’ being alive or not. Later, the children also discussed what it means for ‘things’ to be once alive.

In PE, the class carried on their work with Mr Moretti, this time learning new play ground games.

Thanks to Amelia and her family’s wonderful care, we could release the beautiful butterflies we grew in class. The children reflected on the various stages of the metamorphosis before releasing the insects in the Peace Garden.

Few important notes for the coming weeks:

PE days will continue to be Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Swimming shall start on Wednesday, 7th May 2025

School will be closed next Thursday, 1st May 2025 for INSET day.

School will be closed on Monday, 5th May 2025 (Bank Holiday)

Next week seems to be a hot one according to weather reports. Please make sure the children have sunhats and water bottles and apply sunscreen before school!

Home Learning:

Spelling– Words where ‘-er’, ‘-est’, and ‘-ed’ are added to words ending in ‘e’ (consolidation) Words where ‘-ing’ is added to single syllable words (next week)

https://www.edshed.com/en-gb

Reading– Please read at home and sign reading record.

Mathletics– https://login.mathletics.com/

Complete assigned tasks all related to measurements (mass, length and money) covered in class.

The children in Year 2 had a lovely week in class engaging in various practical Maths activities.

On Monday and Tuesday, the class moved on to measurements and spent time outdoors to experience measuring using a meter stick. Inside the classroom, the children used normal rulers to measure smaller objects. They revised units of measurements such as mm, cm and m whilst also making sure that they notice how starting points differ from equipment to equipment.

On Wednesday, we launched World Maths Day with an assembly following practical activities outside. First the children drew animal pictures with chalks using only 2D shapes. Then, they participated in the 1 minute challenge, where in house teams they raced against each other, depositing bean bags in hoops; all under one minute! Later in the afternoon, we joined forces with year 1 and completed the Matchbox challenge where teams had to fill their boxes with as many things as they could. The team with the largest number of objects won.

At lunch time, some of the children participated in competitive dice games in the hall led by Year 6 helpers.

On Thursday, the class carried on the theme and created Tangram pictures, before participating in the £1 challenge, where the winning team had to find the most number of different ways to make £1 using coins.

Please note, there are a few things happening next week:

Tuesday and Wednesday– the children can bring in clean soft teddies that they do not need any more and later on Wednesday, swap it for a new one. All part of a Whole School Lenten charity event organised by members of the School Parliament.

Thursday- Class photos – full winter uniform please.

Friday- Easter Egg hunt (in school time); early pickup: school finishes @1pm!

Have a lovely weekend and Happy Mother’s Day!

Ms Varga

Home Learning:

Spelling- Words where ‘-ing’ is added to words ending in ‘e’ (consolidation),  Challenge words (next week)

https://www.edshed.com/en-gb

Mathletics- Please complete the assigned activities, all centred around measuring length.

https://login.mathletics.com/

https://ttrockstars.com/

This week, we celebrated British Science Week, exploring the theme ‘Change and Adapt’ through exciting investigations and practical experiments.

Throughout the week, we looked at various ‘Zoom in, zoom out’ images from Explorify and used oracy skills to discuss our ideas about the objects under a microscope. We applied specific vocabulary that we have been using this term such as: transparent, translucent, opaque,flexible and waterproof.

We also welcomed Mr Friedlander from Dame Alice Owen School, who led us in a wonderful investigation about Indicators. The children used cabbage leaves and hot water to create an indicator and tested various substances used at home to determine if they are acidic or alkaline. They investigated toothpaste, salt, sugar, hand soap, washing powder, lemon juice, etc using pippets, beakers, funnels and filter paper.

We later carried out our own class investigation to answer the question: Which biscuit is the best dunker?

We tested: Ginger nut, Digestives, Rich tea, Nice and Shortbread biscuits and dunked them into cups of tea to then observe and probe. Our winner was the Shortbread that although soaked up some of the liquid, stayed nice and crunchy. We used tables to record our observations and drew conclusions afterwards.

We are going to carry on our Science week activities next week and welcome another Scientist, Mrs Holly, in our classroom who will lead us in some practical enquiries and help us understand how Science is used in other areas of life.

If you would like to continue your learning inspired by the British Science Week, please try one of these fun science investigations at home. Observe what happens, record your findings- this can be a photo or a drawing with labels, and be ready to share them with the class!

British Science Week 2025 Home Learning Challenge

Have a lovely weekend,

Ms Varga

Home Learning

Spelling-  Words where ‘-ed’ is added to words ending in ‘y’ (consolidation) Words where ‘-er’ and ’-est’ are added to words ending in ‘y’ (next week’s )

https://www.edshed.com/en-gb

Mathletics- https://login.mathletics.com/

TTRockstars

https://ttrockstars.com/ Please also access TTRockstars. I have enabled all tables for all children to extend their knowledge of multiplication facts. In class we learnt 2s, 5s and 10s and will have regular timed tests on these from now.

Happy last day of February!

The children in Year 2 had a busy start to their new term.

On Monday, the class participated in a whole school Collective Worship to introduce our 4th Catholic Social Teaching principle, Community and Participation.

The children first reflected on the Scripture reading, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ and created Community nets, whilst later they  designed a formal invitation for a Community Picnic.

In English, the class completed their learning based on our book, ‘The Dark’ and planned their own 3 part narrative based on Lydia Monks’ entertaining book, ‘AAAArrrggghh Spider!’ The children will write their own ‘fear’ stories next week, introducing the characters and their fear of spiders before detailing a resolution to this problem.

In Maths, the class completed their learning of multiplication and moved on to division, using manipulatives to consolidate their understanding between grouping (when the group size is known but not the number of groups) and sharing (when the number of groups is known but not the size).

In Science, the children looked at changing materials and carried our practical investigations, using a large variety of materials, to stretch them, squash them,etc.

In Geography, we used secondary sources to compare housing in the UK and Kampong Ayre reflecting on the significant differences we noticed.

In PE, the class enjoyed their first 2 sessions of specialty basketball training provided by PSD (Primary Sporting Development). Coach Moretti was very impressed with the children’s discipline and hard work!

A few key dates:

Tuesday, 4th March 2025- Mardi Gras Day. Children can come to school in ‘festival’ colours of green, purple and gold.

Wednesday, 5th March 2025- Ash Wednesday Service for KS1 in school.

Thursday, 6th March 2025- World Book Day. Children can come dressed as a book character or wearing their pyjamas.

Friday, 7th March 2025- Year 2 Class Collective Worship @ 9.15. Parents are invited!

PE DAYS WILL MOVE TO TUESDAYS AND WEDNESDAYS STARTING FROM NEXT WEEK!

Have a lovely weekend,

Ms Varga

Home Learning:

Please use the link below to practice our class song: Amazing Grace. The children need to learn the first 3 verses by heart. We have practiced the song in class and in the hall accompanied by piano.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjcfQZtgwAI