Year 2

Welcome to Year 2

Year 2 Chad: Naidha Ahmed, Deborah Schofield and Lorraine Imbimbo.

Year 2 Vale: Pritesh Patel, Deborah Schofield and Gurvinder Mohr.

Naidha Ahmed - n.ahmed@chadvale.bham.sch.uk
Pritesh Patel - p.patel@chadvale.bham.sch.uk
Deborah Schofield - d.schofield@chadvale.bham.sch.uk
Gurvinder Mohr - g.mohr@chadvale.bham.sch.uk
Lorraine Imbimbo - l.imbimbo@chadvale.bham.sch.uk

We would like to take this opportunity to welcome you and your child to Year 2!

This year children will be encouraged to develop their independence and love of learning. Children will make their own way into school where they will sort their belongings and begin a pre-learning activity such as handwriting, spelling, or maths questions when they arrive in the classroom.

Things to Bring

PE kits — On PE days, children should wear their PE kit to school. Please ensure that your child has suitable clothing for the UK weather! Layers are ideal. They can wear leggings or jogging bottoms and a T-shirt with a school jumper as well as trainers. Please, no branded items with logos unless it’s the Chad Vale logo!

PE Days are Tuesdays and Thursdays Year 2 Chad

PE Days are Tuesdays and Thursdays Year 2 Vale

Art Shirts — Please provide your child with a named, large T-shirt, apron, or overall to be used for messy activities such as painting, cookery, etc. A large adult-sized t-shirt is perfect to cover and protect their clothes. These can then be kept in school in their trays.

Reading bags — Please ensure your child has a small bag for transporting books and letters. Children can choose their own reading books from the class selection based on their reading level. Please encourage your child to read every day no matter how short. It does make a difference to their learning across all subjects!

Snacks – A healthy fruit snack is provided in Year 2 which we give to the children at no cost. Children are also welcome to bring in their snacks, but please ensure this is a healthy option. No chocolate, crisps, or sweets, please. Most importantly, due to allergies, please remember that we are a nut-free school!

Drinks — Children always have access to drinking water. They may bring in their own, named reusable bottles which can be kept in the class.

Lunches — All children in Year 2 are eligible for a free hot meal every day!

English

In English, we will continue to build on the learning from Y1 with a focus on developing fluency and spelling, punctuation and grammar. We teach the children using The Write Stuff approach. We will be looking at a wide variety of texts including narratives, non-fiction texts such as fact files, diary recounts, postcards etc. and poetry. The children will continue to improve their reading skills using daily reading enrichment activities. Daily cursive handwriting and spelling, will also be taught, practised and consolidated. The children will enjoy a class reader each day read to them by the teacher.

Maths

At Chad Vale we have started to implement the Maths No Problem programme as our approach to teaching Maths (from September 2024). The reason we chose MNP is because problem solving is at the heart of mathematics, shifting the focus from rote learning to relational understanding.

What is Maths No Problem and Mastery?

Maths-No Problem! is a series written based on Singapore methods of teaching and the Mastery approach. Maths mastery is an approach to teaching that gives pupils a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of mathematics. Teaching for mastery differs in many key respects from more traditional methods, perhaps most fundamentally in the idea that 'Everyone a learner'. This inclusive approach and its emphasis on promoting multiple methods of solving a single problem builds self-confidence and resilience in pupils.

All Maths-No Problem! lessons have elements of the following:

Inclusivity: Tasks and activities are designed to be inclusive for all pupils whilst providing components of challenge for more advanced learners.
CPA approach: Where appropriate, pupils will be introduced to a concept using concrete resources (such as counters) and then move on to a pictorial representation followed by the abstract symbols and methods.
Problem-solving: Tasks and activities encourage problem-solving skills where pupils are often asked to work together to come up with solutions.
Variation- Questions and examples are varied to encourage pupils to recognise that there may be more than one method for solving a problem.

Lesson Structure

Exploration - instead of ‘Let me teach you…’ as a starting point, children are encouraged to explore a problem themselves to see what they already know. At the beginning of each lesson in our school this exploration is referred to as the ‘anchor task’.
Structured discussion - the teacher will lead a discussion with the children to organise the findings of the exploration, compare/contrast strategies and guide toward the most efficient strategy (or the one being learnt that day).
Questions to challenge thinking – teachers use questioning throughout every lesson to check understanding. Children are also encouraged to question each other frequently throughout the lesson; this aids the development of independent learners and deepens their understanding. A variety of questions are used, such as: How do you know? Can you prove it? Are you sure? Is that right? What’s the same/different about? Can you explain that? What does your partner think? Can you imagine? Questions are also used to challenge children who have grasped the concept. Children are expected to listen to each other’s responses and may be asked to explain someone else’s ideas in their own words, or if they agree/disagree etc.
Discussion and feedback – pupils have opportunities to talk to their partners and explain/clarify their thinking throughout the lesson but are expected to complete written work independently (unless working in a guided group with the teacher).
Maths — No Problem! Parent Videos (mathsnoproblem.com)

Topics

All Around the World

For the first half of the term, the children will be finding out about the rainforest. This will include a trip to The Botanical Gardens. They will look at the animals and plants that live in different habitats, creating Art and projects based on what they have discovered.

After half term, we will be looking at some of the festivals and traditions celebrated by the children such as Diwali, Halloween, Hannukah and Christmas. We will also link this to work about significant individuals who inspire us such as John Cadbury and Christopher Columbus. We will be linking this with our Art, DT, Geography, History and written work in English