Year 2

Welcome to Year 2!

Welcome to Year 2, where your child will work hard, develop as an individual, achieve their goals and have fun. It is going to be a busy year, full of new opportunities and areas of learning. Miss Williams, Mrs Hold and all the staff at Daresbury are here to support you and your child. Within the classroom, all children are valued and cared for so please let us know if you have any concerns via our communication platform, Seesaw. As children move into Year 2, we encourage them to share things they are proud of or news from home via Seesaw, rather than bringing things into school as we will be stopping ‘Show and Tell;’.

Each day your child is required to bring to school a coat, their book bag, reading diary, a water bottle (re-usable if possible), lunch and a snack (unless they order a hot dinner or toast).

As a school, we could not achieve all that we do without the continued support and dedication of our parents and families. If you have any concerns, please do not hesitate to contact Miss Williams. We look forward to working with you this academic year to support your child on their learning journey and achieving their full potential!

Communication

Seesaw will continue to be our main method of communication within this academic year, so please continue to check it regularly. Where possible, please get in touch via the inbox tool on Seesaw to ask any questions or share any concerns (no matter how small) and we will always aim to answer as quickly as possible. Miss Williams appreciates that messages may pop up at any time but please be mindful that if a message is sent in the evening or over the weekend, it may not be responded to until the next school day. Likewise, Miss Williams will also give advanced notice of any messages or announcements so that they don’t arrive late in the evening.

Behaviour

Our school follows three clear rules: kind, safe and ready. These are displayed within the classroom and throughout the school, so children are aware of the clear expectations of their behaviour.

Learning Behaviours

We are developing children's ability to discuss their learning and helping them develop a language to talk about their own learning. The children in school today are going to be facing huge challenges in the wider world and we are working with them to develop the skills and attitudes that will help them be successful in the wider world.

Daresbury’s Learning Behaviours are: Collaborating, Active Listening, Showing Curiosity, Being Independent and Reflecting. In the coming weeks more will be shared with you and your child about our learning behaviours and how they will be used around the school and in each class.

Sticker Charts

In Key Stage One, we have sticker charts for each child which will be displayed in the classroom. Children will earn stickers through good behaviour by reflecting the school rules, hard work and resilience, and stand out moments. When a sticker chart is filled it is celebrated in the class and the chart will be sent home.

Homework

The expectation for children in Year 2 is that they are completing their Spellings weekly and reading at least three times a week. Throughout the year, children may be given additional projects or tasks to complete to enrich their learning experience in class. If Miss Williams feels like your child may need more support on a particular area of the curriculum, short tasks may be assigned.

Reading

Reading is really important as it provides children with pleasure and enjoyment, the ability to expand their vocabulary and open them up to a world of imagination and adventure. It is also highly beneficial for other areas of their learning, including their wider knowledge of the world and other subjects they learn in school.

You are expected to comment in their Reading Diary at least three times a week, although it doesn’t just have to be about their school book. A little comment about how they found the book, how their reading was, or some reference to the VIPERS skills would be fantastic! Reading three times or more helps the child discuss the book, author, illustrator, themes, features, and language, which all contribute to their comprehension and literacy skills. Your child will receive a raffle ticket weekly if they have read three times a week, which is put into a draw and pulled out termly to win a book token.

Miss Williams will have a tracker in class to monitor how often children are reading throughout the week and therefore throughout the year. Please note that if a Reading Diary is lost, there will be a small charge to replace it. These details, if needed, can be found with Mrs Staveley.

Bug Club

Bug Club is a Literacy programme designed to support effective and engaging reading. The books are set to reflect the child’s book band. The children all have their own individual logins and we will be monitoring the use of Bug Club every Friday. It is a great website that children can enjoy reading books onscreen and completing fun quiz questions found in the eBooks. The quiz questions will help the children practise their reading skills. Many of the Key Stage One books are also audiobooks, so children can enjoy hearing an expressive reading of a story.

Reading an eBook

To read an eBook on Bug Club, click on the book cover and see how many quiz questions there are. Read the book and click on the bug icons to open the quiz questions. Your child does not need to finish all quiz questions in one sitting. The book is not marked as read until all questions are answered. Just a gentle reminder that teachers can see children’s answers to quiz questions, so please ensure they are appropriate. Bug Club books are an additional reading resource for your child and there is no expectation as to the amount of books children read.

Reading VIPERS

We use VIPERS to help children develop their comprehension (understanding) skills in relation to texts. They stand for Vocabulary, Infer, Predict, Explain, Retrieve, and Summarise. Attached to this page are key questions linking to the VIPERS skills that can be asked when your child reads at home. This will give you a chance to see the type of questions they are asked during lessons and assessment periods. On here you will also find a link to the Reading VIPERS strands with example questions that we encourage you to ask your child at home during reading sessions.

PE

We will have two PE sessions a week- one led by Coach Craig and the other by Miss Williams. This term, PE will take place on a Wednesday with Coach Craig and a Friday with Miss Williams. We will be continuing to ask that your child comes ready into school on PE days already in their PE kit. We request that children wear a school PE kit with a logo or a plain white t-shirt, with plain black shorts or bottoms. Please can children wear no jewellery on PE days.

Seesaw

Seesaw is an interactive learning journal where your child will be able to share their work. It will be used in all subjects from problem solving in Maths to Dance in PE. Homework and Spelling lists will be added onto Seesaw every Monday/Tuesday. As parents, you will be able to like and comment on your child’s work, which will add to the great sense of achievement that the children will feel when they personally use the app in School. If you have any questions about Seesaw and how it works, please ask Miss Williams as she will be more than happy to help! You can send private messages to teachers via the inbox element of the app, although these may not be seen during the school day whilst staff are teaching. If you have an urgent message, please ring Mrs Staveley on the school number.

Spelling

Your child will learn the week’s new spelling rule on a Tuesday and will be expected to use the rule to assist them in spelling unfamiliar words in their written work. Your child will be tested on the rule the following week; please be aware that we will be testing your child’s knowledge of the rule, not their ability to retain a list of words. Additional words may be added by the teacher to assess your child’s understanding.

Birthdays and Treats

Birthdays are a big part of our Year 2 classroom, and each child will be celebrated and recognised on their birthday. It is an important day for them, and this will be reflected in school. Miss Williams already has a big birthday display up, with all the children’s birthdays noted down and a special bag full of birthday cards for each child from everyone in Year 2!

However, Daresbury is a ‘Healthy School’ and so we are not actively promoting sugary treats on a regular basis. We don’t want to put anybody under pressure when it comes to children’s birthdays and providing this treat for everyone. As a consequence, we would prefer not to distribute cakes and sweets in class, and this can also take up quite a bit of time at the end of the day. Thank you for your continued support with this.