Head Teacher: Miss Siobhan Leonard (BA Hons, QTS, NPQH)Address: Royds Lane, Rothwell, Leeds LS26 0BJTel: (0113) 2828182Website: www.rothwellstmarys.co.ukE-mail: head@rothwellstmarys.org.uk

Dear families,

Welcome back to school after, what we hope was, a wonderful Summer break! We hope you have all enjoyed some well-deserved family time and rested! First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. This is my first year teaching at St Mary’s. Having got to know this class through time spent with them at the end of last year for transition, I am already very excited for the year ahead! Alongside me in Year 2, there will be Mrs Thompson and Mrs Mace. Mrs Martin will also be here to support our class up until her maternity leave. As you know, Year 2 is a very important year, with many exciting things to look forward to. We will be working hard this year to make sure all children are ready for Key Stage Two. We will be working to develop more independence, from taking responsibility for their own possessions to coming into class independently. While this may seem like a big step, we want to

ensure that all children (and their families) feel confident and comfortable coming into school and the ongoing developments. Should there ever be any concerns you

wish to discuss during this year, our door is always open. With this in mind, let’s look at what we will be learning this half term.

Our first topic will be ‘Land Ahoy!’, in which we will be looking at famous pirates and how life on ships has changed over 2000 years. Within this topic, we will be practising our History and Geography skills to learn more about life as a pirate, create maps of our local area and celebrate our hard work with a Pirate themed day! As well, this will carry into our English work, where we will be writing our own sea shanties, writing letters to famous pirates to ask all of our questions and writing our own stories of life on a pirate ship. Further details and planning for this can be found on our website.

Our R.E topic for the first half term is ‘Chosen People’. In this topic, we will be looking at how God has chosen us and how we can thank God by helping others. Collective Worship will be led by the children every Thursday afternoon at 2:45pm. All families are invited to join us beginning in the next half term (Autumn Two) to allow children to build their confidence leading to other adults.

As always, reading remains an important part of your child’s education and is an essential aid for developing your child’s word building, vocabulary and understanding of structure and composition. Reading at home is a great tool in helping to support your child’s understanding and interpretation of texts. Please indicate when you have read with your child in their reading record. In Year 2, we have a system in place for reading books, with challenges being given once a child has finished their book. This is to help develop your child’s reading skill and exploration of their texts. When we have read with your child and they have completed their challenge, we will decide if they are ready for their new book.

Our SPaG work will include revision of key terms from Year One, including nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. This work will help us in our work in exploring, understanding and creating expanded noun phrases. This will be supported by our writing in English where we will be focusing

on planning, drafting, editing and publishing all our writing. To support our writing there will be a weekly spelling test on a Monday. These will follow the spelling rules needed for the Year Two common exception words. New spellings will be given out on a Monday for the test the following week and can be found in their spelling books. For the first week back, these spellings will be given out on the Tuesday.

In Maths, we are developing ‘Maths Mastery’ and mastering all mathematical concepts. In this half term, we will be focusing on place value and addition and subtraction. Our first topic will be ensuring that all children are confident in counting to 100, as well as showing this in both numeral and written form. Should you want to give further support at home, focusing on securing counting and understanding numbers to 100 would be a useful place to start. As well, we will be working with resources from White Rose Maths Hubs which are available online to support any further understanding at home or for your exploration.

Our first topic in Science is ‘Living Things and their Habitats’. In this topic, we will be exploring what it means to be living, where living things live and how their environment is suited to their needs. We will be developing our scientific understanding through carrying out scientific enquires and exploring our own habitats.

P.E will remain on a Monday and Wednesday morning and taught by Premier Sports. In a change from Year One, we will now be asking you to send your children to school in their school uniform on these days with their PE kits in a bag to change into.

Lastly, please ensure children have an identifiable water bottle with

them in school. These will be sent home on a Friday.

We are very much looking forward to the year ahead, working in partnership with you and helping our learners thrive!

Kindest thanks,Miss Nicholson, Mrs Thompson and

Mrs Mace