Monday 20th April: Back to school
 

This term, we are hoping that we will be able to do PE outside. Please make sure your child has appropriate footwear in their PE bag at the beginning of Term 5. We will be sending PE kits home during the Easter holiday to be washed. 

English

Spelling
Spelling is a real focus at this point in the year in Year 2. Please support your child at home by helping them to practise the spelling rules listed below.
Lesson 1: When to use ay and ai.
ay usually comes at the end of words like in:
play
stay
array
display
tray
ai usually comes in the middle of words, particularly before l or n like in:
rain
train
wail
trail
snail
Lesson 2: When to use a-e
a-e is the most common long /a/ sound. It is found in the middle of words like in:
make
snake
cake
made
mate
flake
It tends to come before c, k, m, t and v
Lesson 3: When to use a on its own to make the long a vowel sound.
baby
crazy
lady
lazy
able

Writing

We will be using our assessment of the children’s writing in Term 4 to fill any identified gaps. We will form simple sentences, focusing on spelling common exception words correctly. We will try and spot errors in simple sentences and edit them to be correct. 

Reading
We will begin a new class text - David Attenborough Little People Big Dreams

Maths

In maths, we are learning about fractions over the next few weeks. This week we are focusing on:
-Identifying the whole, and parts of the whole, of everyday objects and pictures.
-Identifying equal and unequal parts of shapes or amounts.
-Recognising what is, and what is not, half of a shape or number.
-Recognising what is, and what is not, quarter of a shape or number.
-Finding half of objects and numbers by using counters and writing the equation in my book.

We will explain our reasoning by remembering that to be a half or quarter the parts have to be equal and only 1 part should be shaded to be ½ or ¼. 

Wider Curriculum

PSHE: Safety and the Changing Body - Staying Safe with Medicine
Music: Developing pulse and moving in time to the music
PE: Shine PE and class PE Athletics
Art: First lesson exploring ‘Textiles and Collage’
Science: Revisiting using MRS GREN to identify if something is alive.

Computing: Typing skills - learning how to use the keys caps lock, delete, back space, space bar, full stop on a keyboard.

Wednesday 1st April: Year 2 trip to Bristol Zoo Project.
Thursday 2nd April: Last day of school. Non-uniform
Monday 20th April: Back to school

In Term 5, we are hoping that we will be able to do PE outside. Please make sure your child has appropriate footwear in their PE bag at the beginning of Term 5. We will be sending PE kits home during the Easter holiday to be washed. 

Trip Details

With our trip to Bristol Zoo Project coming up next week we are just emailing with details of things your child will need to bring.

Please be aware that children will be carrying their own things during the day so pack light and please ensure they have helped to pack their bag so that they know where everything is.

They will need:

1. A rucksack with straps (that everything fits inside - please ensure space for if they remove layers of clothing or their coat)

2. A waterproof coat - preferably lightweight 

3. A packed lunch (no nut products, including no hummus and checking seeded bread to ensure no sesame seeds)

4. A water bottle

5. Applying sun cream before school and sending a sun hat dependent on weather that day.

6. School uniform is to be worn on the top half, but children can wear comfortable joggers (or similar) on the bottom half.

7. Comfortable shoes (no open toed shoes)

8. No toys and no money to be brought please.

Please ensure everything is named as we will endeavour to keep an eye out for things that might have been put down as we are moving around.

Any parent helpers should have been informed - please make sure you have the items above for yourself too!

English

Phonics: Revisiting as needed in each class
Spelling
Spelling is a real focus at this point in the year in Year 2. Please support your child at home by helping them to practise the spelling rules listed below.
Lesson 1: Teach -el and -le at the end of words
-le is more common but -el does come at the end of some multisyllabic words

Lesson 2: Teach -al at the end of words
natural
comical
magical
metal

Lesson 3: Teach -il at the end of words. This ending is less common.
pupil
pencil 
council
gerbil
nostril

Writing
We will write up our non-chronological report about Mae Jemison using everything we have learnt over the last few weeks. 

Reading
We will continue our reading of the Sun & the Wind from Aesop’s fables. 

Maths

In maths, we are finishing off our learning about capacity and volume.
We will also look at how to read temperature in degrees celsius and using vocabulary hot, warm, cold, hottest, coldest.
We will also be carrying out assessment of our maths in this unit.

Supporting at home - please look at weather forecasts and notice the temperatures. Discuss how each temperature feels each day.

Wider Curriculum

R+WV: What can prayer mean?
PE: Shine PE and class PE gymnastics
DT: Making our chairs for baby bear and evaluating them.
Science: Our school trip to reinforce our learning about animals and their habitats.
Computing: Photo editing - we will be taking a photo and editing it using the illustrations of Anthony Browne (one of his illustrations below) as inspiration. We will change the photo to black and white and use pens to add a ‘pop’ of colour.

What do you need to do?
Encourage your child(ren) to walk, scoot or cycle to school on as many days as possible during the event.

• Week commencing 23rd February - To encourage sustainability we will be facilitating a costume swap ahead of World Book Day on 5th March. This will involve families donating pre-loved costumes. The first week back after the half term holiday a box will be located in the entrance hall for your donations. These costumes will then be available to take on both Parents Evenings from the entrance hall.

• Tuesday 24th and Thursday 26th February - Parents evenings

• Thursday 5th March - World Book Day - advance warning of dressing up. Year 2 have been invited to Henleaze Library for an author event so please ensure costumes are suitable for walking to the library! We will need helpers for this walk so please let us know if you are free to help between 12:45 and approximately 2:30.

• Tuesday 24th February 2026 - 100 day. We are taking part in a themed Maths day. We have chosen this day as it will mark reaching 100 on our daily counts.We are asking for your support in enabling your child to come to school with one thing you can find at home that represents 100. More details and ideas will be sent out directly.

English

Phonics: Revisiting as needed in each class

Spelling

Lesson 1: To add the suffix -ed to words ending in e
Bake → baked
Move → moved
Live → lived
Name → named

Lesson 2: To add the suffix -ed to words ending in y. Rule - remove the y, add an i, then -ed.
Carry → carried
Reply → replied
Tidy → tidied
Spy → spied

Lesson 3: To add the suffix -ed to words, doubling the final consonant. Rule - if there is a short vowel sound, double the next consonant before adding -ed.
Slam → slammed
Shred → shredded 
Skip → skipped

Writing

We are going to be building up to writing a recount from our personal experience of World Book Day. To do this well, we are going to practise the skills we will need. 
We will write sentences using adjectives and expanded noun phrases. 
We will practise using the first person - eg.  I, me, my.
We will revisit how to write sentences in the past tense. 
We will then bring all of these skills together and write sentences using adjectives, expanded noun phrases, first person and past tense. 

In handwriting we will practise these letters:

Reading
We will begin our new class text ‘The Rhythm of the Rain’.

Maths

In maths, we will be revisiting addition and subtraction this week.
We will look at how to solve addition and subtraction questions using the line and dot method to represent the tens and ones.
We will start with questions not bridging 10 and move onto bridging 10 which will involve exchanging a ten for ten ones.
We will apply this to word problems and missing number problems.

Wider Curriculum

PSHE: Safety and the changing body -Secrets and surprises - knowing the difference between unhealthy or unkind secrets, and fun, exciting surprises.
Music: Combining rhythm and timbre
Geography: We will begin a new unit of fieldwork and mapskills and consider how we describe places.
Science: What’s the most absorbent material?
PE: Shine PE, Class PE: Gymnastics
Art: We will create a printing block out of styrofoam using negative space. 

• Friday 13th February 2026 - Open morning 8:50-9:20. You are invited into your child's classroom to look at their writing book ahead of parents evening.

• Tuesday 24th and Thursday 26th February - Parents evenings

English

Phonics
Revisiting as needed in each class
Spelling
We will focus on 2 spelling rules this week - Adding the suffixes -er and -le. 
Lesson 1: To add the suffix -er to root words 
Eg.
Greater
Player
Speaker
Reader
Lessons 2 & 3 To add the suffix -le to a range of words including words with adjacent consonants and words with double letters. 
Eg.
Bangle
Twinkle
Sparkle
Battle
Rattle
Cuddle​

Writing
We will write up and publish our non-chronological reports in our best handwriting. We will include a colourful, creative heading, subheadings and 2 pictures with captions. 

Reading
We will continue with our new class book - ‘The Street Beneath my Feet’. 

Maths

In maths, we will be finishing off our learning about multiplication and division.
We will revisit our 10 times tables and focus on how this links with dividing by 10.
We will starting to learn our 5 times tables and dividing by 5.
We will be exploring the links between the 5 and 10 times tables and using this to solve problems.

We will be learning that multiplication and division are inverse operations.
We will also be carrying out assessment of this unit

Wider Curriculum

R+WV: Who are God’s messengers? Focus on Abraham and Moses.
Music: Reading graphic scores.
Geography: Comparing the UK to Kenya and carrying out assessment of this learning
Computing: We will be using the skills we have learnt in coding to write our own code, including a timer function and collision detection command.
Safer Internet Day 2026: We will be marking this with an assembly on Tuesday on good uses of AI (focusing primarily on smart speakers as a type of AI) and what might be the problems of using AI.
Science: What’s the right material for the job?
PE: Shine PE and Class PE is Gymnastics

• Friday 13th February 2026 - Open morning 8:50-9:20. You are invited into your child's classroom to look at their writing book ahead of parents evening.

• Tuesday 24th and Thursday 26th February - Parents evenings

English

Phonics: Revisiting as needed in each class
Spelling: 
You can help your child with spelling at home by practising the word lists below each lesson objective. 
Lesson 1: To use the long ‘o’ sound to spell words like in:
no
no
so
most
only
piano
solo
Lesson 2: To read and spell common homophones. Homo - same, phone - sound. Words that sound the same but have different meanings. 

Lesson 3 Spell words using /ir/, /ur/ and /er/. 
Rule - /er/ usually comes at the end of words but can sometimes come in the middle if followed by b, m or ve. 
Eg. swerve, verb, germ.

Writing
We will be using the skills we have learnt in the last week to begin to write our non-chronological reports about materials. We will practise using the present tense correctly in simple sentences because non-chronological reports use the present tense. We will then move onto understanding the difference between statement sentences and question sentences. We will then move onto planning and writing the beginning of our non-chronological reports.

In handwriting we will be practising these letters:

Reading
We will start a new class book - ‘The Street Beneath my Feet’. 

We will read the text as a class and then try and summarise key parts of the text. We will use retrieval skills to ‘go and get’ information from the text. This book is really special, it is a double-sided fold out book. One side of the foldout shows the ground beneath the city, whilst the reverse side shows the ground beneath the countryside. The underground scenes include tunnels and pipes, creatures' burrows, layers of rock and the planet’s molten core, and run seamlessly into the next.

Maths

In maths, we will be learning about multiplication and division.
We will starting to learn our 2 times tables and dividing by 2. 
We will be identifying that dividing by 2 is also halving.
We will be revisiting odd and even numbers and recognising that even numbers are divisible by 2.
We will be learning that multiplication and division are inverse operations.

Wider Curriculum

PSHE: Safety and the changing body - Communicating online
DT: This week we will be making our moving monsters
History: We will be learning about Neil Armstrong.
Science: What happens when we squash, bend, twist or stretch a material? We will be carrying out a science experiment to investigate which material is the stretchiest.