The purpose of Year Two at Black Horse Hill Infant school is to equip our children with the academic and personal skills necessary to flourish in Year Two and be prepared for the Key Stage 2. We aim to develop in our children a lifelong love of learning and to ensure all children remain are equipped with the knowledge and skills to be creative,compassionate and confident learners.
There are two classes in Year 2:
2CY – Mr Young
2TM – Miss Murphy
2CY – Mr Young
2TM – Miss Murphy
Year Two Curriculum
The children work through the Year 2 National Curriculum with learning intentions used to break down larger curriculum statements for individual lessons.
We actively seek to engage all pupils and nurture their talents through a wide variety of opportunities and activities and explore this through a variety of different curriculum subjects. We use topics to engage children in learning but ensure that children know which subject that they are learning in each lesson. As in Year 1 each of these projects introduces new knowledge and a wide range of vocabulary.
At Black Horse Hill Infant School we feel it is very important for children to learn about different cultures and languages around the world. Although learning a modern foreign language is not compulsory in Key Stage 1, Mandarin is taught each week by a specialist teacher. We feel that this is an excellent opportunity for our children. The children also focus on learning about the country of China as well as the language and culture.
Through our PSHE scheme Jigsaw we promote resilience and mindfulness. The children develop an understanding of different cultures, relationships, themselves and celebrating differences.
As part of our ‘quality teaching and learning cycle’, we use ‘assessment for learning’ strategies daily to inform the ‘next steps’ for our children. We carefully choose questions and investigative activities that will provide us with an insight into what and how children are learning in each lesson. They also ‘peer or self-assess’ against success criteria which acts as a checklist to support their understanding of a task.
At Black Horse Hill Infant School we enrich the children’s learning by ensuring that they have experiences of visiting different places and meeting people within our local community. For example when the children are learning significant people they visit Port Sunlight and find out about William Lever. In addition, in our coastlines topic the children visit Hoylake beach, the Lifeboat Station and meet the Lifeboat volunteers.
British Values is weaved throughout the curriculum and the Year 2.
At the end of Year 2 we aim that pupils will be achieving the end of year expectations that are outlined below.
Home Learning
We know that a child’s parents are their first and most important teachers, and we want to continue to work in partnership with you to ensure your child is as successful as they can be. We endeavour to provide home learning opportunities for the children that are motivating, giving parents the chance to be an integral part of their child’s education.
We know that a child’s parents are their first and most important teachers, and we want to continue to work in partnership with you to ensure your child is as successful as they can be. We endeavour to provide home learning opportunities for the children that are motivating, giving parents the chance to be an integral part of their child’s education.
Children will have homework set online each Friday to be returned to school on the following Wednesday. The homework is available online in the ‘Our Children’ section on the School Website. If you have any questions regarding this, please contact your child’s class teacher who will be more than happy to help.
The Reading Model at BHHIS
Your child will read the same book in school from our reading scheme in school at least three times per week with an adult. The children read in groups, led by a trained adult. Each day has a specific focus.
Daily Focus -
Day 1 – Decoding and Prediction
Day 2- Fluency and Prosody
Day 3 – Comprehension
Within each session there is a specific structure that all staff follow throughout the school.
Structure
Focus 1: Grapheme Phoneme Correspondence
Focus 2: Use flash cards to read tricky and fully decodable words.
Focus 3: Teach the children to read the tricky words in the text
Focus 4: The trained adult with the group models the skill that we are practising.
The phonetically decodable book will be allocated to your child on a Thursday.
Children who are not making expected progress in their reading take part in "Keep Up" sessions with adults in school.
The children also have the opportunity to choose ‘Reading for Pleasure Books’ which should be enjoyed and shared with an adult at home.
Children are encouraged to read each day alongside an adult and for a comment/signature to be recorded daily in their reading records. When a comment has been made your child will be able to add a raffle ticket into the 'Reading Raffle'. At the end of each half-term a ticket will be drawn from each class in a special assembly to win a prize.
End of Year Expectations
All of our learning builds up to the end of year assessments.
In May of each academic year, children will take Statutory Assessment Tests (SATs). Children complete two tests in Reading (mostly Comprehension) and two Mathematics tests (one Arithmetic and one Reasoning). We use a mixture of the (currently compulsory) test papers provided by the Department of Education and the ongoing teacher assessment. Staffs use the Teacher Assessment Frameworks to make their end of year judgements. We work collaboratively with other schools to ensure that our judgements are fair and accurate.
All of our learning builds up to the end of year assessments.
In May of each academic year, children will take Statutory Assessment Tests (SATs). Children complete two tests in Reading (mostly Comprehension) and two Mathematics tests (one Arithmetic and one Reasoning). We use a mixture of the (currently compulsory) test papers provided by the Department of Education and the ongoing teacher assessment. Staffs use the Teacher Assessment Frameworks to make their end of year judgements. We work collaboratively with other schools to ensure that our judgements are fair and accurate.
One of our Year Two teachers is a Local Authority Moderator and she receives specialist training each year as part of her role.
