Grenoside Primary Community School

Welcome to Year 2!

Our teachers are Mrs Bailey, Miss Marston and Mr Greenwood and we are supported by Mr Vincent and Ms Sleney.

We are really looking forward to our time in Y2 together and we hope you are too. We have many engaging and interactive learning themes planned for this year. 

This year our themes will be:

Educational Visits 

After last year's successful visit, we will be returning to Bridlington in July 2024 for an extended school day visit. We will tour the RNLI station and meet some of the lifeboat crew as well as walk along to, and do observational drawings of, the beach huts. There will be time for other seaside activities that link to our learning theme of 'What's at the beach?'

Home Learning

Home learning is set online through your child’s Google Classroom half-termly and is linked to the focus topic for the current half term.

Please see the current topic ‘Can you…? Grid’ that has been shared and set as an assignment on your child’s Google Classroom page. You can upload any of the home learning activities completed onto the assignment and this will be shared with the class if you child wishes to.

The children learn their weekly spellings (linked to our phonics and spelling program) within class frequently however, we do set these as a weekly assignment and we ask that the children practice these regularly at home each week. 

PE Days

                   Y2DG - Monday               Y2MB - Monday

Children are expected to come to school in their P.E. kits on the day of their P.E. lessons. P.E. kits include a coloured PE T-shirt (in the colour of their House Team or a plain white T-short), navy or black shorts and trainers (children will usually have bare feet in the hall). Navy or black jogging bottoms and a school jumper will be needed for outdoor sessions in winter, as children will be taken outdoors whenever possible. We would also like children to bring a waterproof coat on these days. Please do not allow your child/ren to wear any jewellery on PE days and ensure all kit is labelled with your child’s name. You child is also expected to bring a water bottle to school everyday.

Home Reading and Phonics

It is important in Y2 that children are enjoying regular reading at home, as a child’s ability to read impacts on all areas of learning. Encourage your child to read on a daily basis for a short time. This doesn’t always have to be a book from school and we encourage children to make careful and appropriate choices of extra reading materials at home (e.g. magazines, stories and non-fiction books).

Reading for pleasure is an important aspect of creating a lifelong love of reading so we encourage you to read a non-school text with your child where possible.

Children will bring a phonetically decodable book as well as a book for pleasure reading home from school each week alongside a Reading Record which we encourage you to write comments in when reading with your child. Please encourage your child to read their book more than once to build fluency and to also provide opportunity to ask more questions about the book to improve their understanding. In class we practise reading with expression (prosody) and we encourage the children to do so when reading with you at home. 

There are also some free ebooks available online on ‘Oxford Reading Owl’ at: https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/find-a-book/library-page/#

You can choose the appropriate age range and level for your child.

Phonics is also an important aspect to reading. Y2 children, who would have normally undertaken the ‘Phonics Screening Check’ in June of Y1, will now be undertaking this during the autumn term. We practise phonics daily in school but it will also be beneficial if you encourage phonics learning at home. Here are some useful sites to visit:

https://www.phonicsbloom.com/

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/english-games/5-7-years/letters-and-sounds

https://www.education.com/games/word-patterns/

If you have anything you would like to discuss, please contact your child’s class teacher through Google Classroom (via the Messages for Mrs Bailey & Miss Marston /  Mr Greenwood assignment), via parents@grenoside.sheffield.sch.uk or by phoning the school office. Please make sure school has your current email address and up to date contact details.

Best wishes,

Y2 Team