Year 2

Hello from the year 2 team. Year 2 is such an exciting time for the children of Riddlesden St Mary’s.  

They are encouraged to explore more independent learning, and to reflect upon their own work.

They will begin apply their blossoming skills through lots of interesting, cross-curricular topics.  We regularly take the children's learning out into our amazing school grounds making use of our onsite woods, ponds and gardens. We also link their learning to real-life experiences, such as a trip to The Sea Life Centre and the IMAX.

Each day our Year Two children have at least an hour of mathematics.  This is taught using a structured approach which allows the children to take responsibility for their own learning. This method moves from real life resources (the 'concrete') to drawings and diagrams (the 'pictorial') and finally to written methods (the 'abstract'). We allow the children to map their own learning by allowing them the opportunity to choose for themselves the level of challenge they wish to attempt. This makes sure that children develop a deeper understanding of the number system and the calculation strategies they are learning. We love getting hands on with our maths and try to apply it to real life with activities such as going on array hunts and creating our own maths games.

Literacy is also taught for at least one hour a day as well. When it comes to Literacy we use a structure called talk for writing. Each half term we focus on one particular story. For example this year we have looked at The Secret of Black Rock, At the Beach and Florence Nightingale.

Reading is something that is embedded within our school and we make use of as many reading opportunities as we can. We have a whole class reading lesson every Friday where the children will read a completely new text, which can be anything from a newspaper article to an invitation to a party, and they then get the opportunity to answer questions on it. This is a fun and enjoyable way for the children to start to

prepare for SATs. Reading for pleasure is something we encourage through our daily story times, inviting book corners and visits to the library. We often have special guests coming in and reading with us during assemblies such as Reverend Tony and local authors. We always say reading with your children at home is the most important thing you can do to support your child's learning at school.

Over the year we cover a wide range of fun and exciting topics. We have looked at the seaside, Florence Nightingale so far. The children have loved our topics this year as it has allowed them to apply the skills they have learnt in a fun and different way.