At St Michael’s our aim is to provide a rich curriculum and a wide range of opportunities that will build the habits of ambitious, capable learners.
Due to safety measures and restrictions that are currently in place, we are starting our year a bit differently than how we usually do things. However, we will do our very best to give the children the best experiences and to ensure they continue to flourish in their potential at our school.
Here is an outline of what the Year 2s will be learning during the Autumn Term.
Literacy
We will be reading and writing poetry and developing our story writing through drama and role play. Children will practise re-telling stories using appropriate story language and regular phonics and grammar will also be part of our learning. Our writing will include fiction (‘The papaya that spoke’), non-fiction (a Christopher Columbus report) and poetry (linked to the Rainforest topic).
Numeracy
In addition to embedding the children’s mental maths skills, through our daily CLIC programme and BMBT (Big Maths Beat That), we are following the White Rose Maths curriculum, which covers the whole content of the National Curriculum.
This term the focus will be:
- Place Value
- The four operations; addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
- Money
The children must learn the x10 times table off by heart.
For your reference, the ‘learn its’, which we want the children to learn and know off by heart, are as follows:
3 + 8 = 11
3 + 9 = 12
4 + 7 = 11
4 + 8 = 12
4 + 9 = 13
TOPIC (History/Geography)
Our focus this term is Geography and our topic is ‘Rainforests’. This aim of this unit is to develop global awareness by looking in detail at the position of the seven continents and five oceans of the world. We want the children to learn about the location of hot and cold areas of the world in relation to the equator and the North and South Poles therefore, will also look at maps and identify their key features. The children will study the Amazon rainforest, located in South America, in more depth and why we experience different weather and climate to the weather in the rainforests. They will also learn about and compare the Amazon with a forest in the UK. The children will be encouraged to explore some of the conservation issues surrounding the destruction of rainforest habitats.
Science: ‘lIVING THINGS AND THEIR HABITATS’
By teaching this unit, we want the children to learn about a variety of habitats and the plants and animals that live there. We want them to be able to tell the difference between things that are living, things that are dead and things that have never been alive and apply this in a range of contexts. The children will also develop their scientific skills by making observations of a local habitat and the creatures that live there, investigating conditions in local micro-habitats and how they affect the mini-beasts found within them.
Religious Education
Our first topic is learning about the Christian religion. Our theme for this term is Parables in the New Testament with the key question: Why is the Bible important to Christians?
We will also be dedicate some time to deepen our understanding of our school values of ‘Respect’, ‘Love’ and in the second half term ‘Peace‘.
PE
PE will be on Wednesday mornings. This term the children will be focusing on multi-skills, which involves the fundamental movement skills of agility, balance and co-ordination that are the key building blocks in a child’s physical development. Please ensure your child comes to school in their PE kit, tracksuit and trainers on a Wednesday.
CREATIVE CURRICULUM
In addition to all the learning already outlined, the children will also be given ample opportunity to do Art and DT (linked to their topic, but also a whole school art project), to participate in music lessons, to take part in drama & dance activities, to develop their personal, social, citizenship and health education (PSCHE), to learn computing skills, including online safety and to learn a language another language. In Key Stage 1, we are fortunate to have a teacher from the Italian embassy, who exposes the children to a language other than English.
HOMe learning
Following the positive feedback from using CLASSDOJO during lockdown, we will continue to set homework via our dojo platform.
Your child will be sent home with their log in details for classdojo; the log in is in the form of a QR code. Past experience has taught us that it is easier to scan the QR code for tablets and smartphones, but if using a laptop, typing the log in details are a better option. If you would prefer this option, please contact us via our school email, schoolmail@stmichaels.lewisham.sch.uk so we can send this to you. Please note that their existing log in details, given during our period of lockdown provide access to your child’s former year group class dojos. Therefore if you already have this set up on a device, you will need to repeat the process for your child’s current class .
Can we also remind you that in order to refresh the screen and see additions to the page, your child must log out at the end of each session and then log in again when required.
Home learning will include:
- Mathletics (login and password card will be given to them
- Weekly spelling words to learn (children will be tested on a Friday)
- Weekly learn-its will be handed out on Mondays and tested on Fridays
Daily reading is encouraged as it will greatly help your child’s learning in other curriculum areas. Reading books to be given in on Tuesdays and Fridays. Please try to sign your child’s reading log at least twice a week. We will test children’s spelling via tests and dictations on Fridays.
Children will be awarded DOJOs points for completing their homework.
stay in touch
Despite the current restrictions about entering our school premises, please do not let that stop you from staying in contact with us. If you wish to speak to us, please contact the school office via schoolmail@stmichaels.lewisham.sch.uk and we will be happy to address any concerns you may have.
