Welcome to Year 2!

Hello and welcome to Year 2! I’m Miss Dobson, the Year 2 class teacher. The children in our class are fantastic learners — full of curiosity, enthusiasm, and creativity. We’re already having lots of fun exploring new knowledge and developing important skills across a wide range of subjects.

In Year 2, every day is an opportunity to grow, discover, and celebrate learning together. Our classroom is always buzzing with activity and joy.

Please take a look below to find out more about our curriculum and what we’ll be learning this year.

Religious Education – To Know You More Clearly

At Holy Cross, our Religious Education follows the RED Religious Education Directory: To Know You More Clearly. This programme helps our children grow in their knowledge and love of God through scripture, tradition, and the experiences of lived faith.

Our curriculum is built around six branches, one for each half-term:

• Creation and Covenant

• Prophecy and Promise

• Galilee to Jerusalem

• Desert to Garden

• To the Ends of the Earth

• Dialogue and Encounter

Each branch takes pupils on a journey through the Bible, exploring the story of salvation, the life and mission of Jesus, the growth of the Church, and what it means to live out our faith today. Throughout RE, the children’s understanding deepens — they reflect, question, and grow spiritually. Our RE learning is closely linked to the liturgical year, and it inspires our prayer life, worship, and Catholic mission across the whole school community.

English

Throughout the year, the children will explore a wide range of exciting genres and texts, developing their love of reading and writing.

These genres will include:

• Retelling a story

• Author fact file

• Setting description

• Character description

• Persuasive letter

• Oral presentation

• Instructional writing

• List poems

This year, the children will also explore a number of whole-class novels which will provide opportunities to focus on the genres listed above, as well as advanced grammar, spelling, and punctuation in context.

Selected class novels include:

• Autumn 1 – Dogger

• Autumn 2 – Little Red

• Spring 1 – The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch

• Spring 2 – The Big Book of Beasts

• Summer 1 – After the Fall

• Summer 2 – George’s Marvellous Medicine
   

Through these texts, pupils will practise and apply a variety of important skills, including word reading, comprehension, grammar, spelling, drama and performance, text mapping, planning, editing, re-drafting, and character building.

Each half term, we focus on a specific genre to ensure that children experience a broad and balanced English curriculum. This allows pupils to be immersed in a wide range of text styles, purposes, and audiences, while learning to recognise key text features, grammatical structures, and genre-appropriate vocabulary. Our aim is to inspire confident, creative writers and enthusiastic readers who enjoy exploring language in all its forms.

Spelling

As part of our English curriculum, children are focusing on learning and applying the Year 2 spelling rules. They are encouraged to practise these rules regularly and in a variety of ways to develop confidence and accuracy in their writing. Alongside this, we continue to promote regular reading, as this helps children discover new and adventurous vocabulary to use in their own work.

Reading

At Holy Cross, we love reading! To nurture this love, children enjoy daily opportunities to read in school and choose a reading-for-pleasure book to take home. They are also given books matched to their RWI group and phonics knowledge to help build confidence and fluency.

Each day, pupils take part in guided reading sessions where they explore different texts and discuss key skills such as sequencing, retrieval, inference, and prediction. These sessions help children understand stories deeply and develop a lasting love of reading.

Maths

In Year 2, our Maths lessons are designed to build confidence, curiosity, and a strong understanding of number. Each lesson begins with a Flashback 4 activity to support retrieval practice, followed by counting and a focus on learning and applying new mathematical skills. Children also have regular opportunities for problem solving and reasoning, helping them to think deeply and explain their mathematical ideas.

Throughout the year, pupils will explore the following key mathematical topics:

Autumn Term

• Place Value of Two-Digit Numbers

• Addition and Subtraction

• Statistics

• Time

Spring Term

• Money

• Multiplication and Division

• Length and Height

• Measurement – Capacity and Temperature

Summer Term

• Fractions

• Time

• Statistics

• Direction and Position

• Consolidation

By revisiting and applying these skills throughout the year, children develop fluency, reasoning, and a love of mathematics that they can carry into future learning.

Science

Throughout the year, as part of the Science curriculum, children will study four key areas:

Living Things and Their Habitats

• Explore and compare differences between things that are living, dead, and things that have never been alive

• Identify how habitats provide for the needs of animals and plants, and how they depend on each other

• Identify and name a variety of plants and animals in their habitats, including micro-habitats

• Describe how animals obtain food using simple food chains

Animals Including Humans

• Notice that animals, including humans, have offspring which grow into adults

• Learn about the basic needs for survival (water, food, and air)

• Understand the importance of exercise, diet, and hygiene

Everyday Materials

• Identify and compare the suitability of a variety of materials for specific purposes

• Explore how the shape of solid objects can be changed by squashing, bending, twisting, and stretching

Plants

• Observe and describe how seeds and bulbs grow into mature plants

• Find out how plants need water, light, and a suitable temperature to stay healthy

Geography

Children will develop their geographical understanding through:

• Autumn: Physical features within their locality

• Spring: Comparing their locality with a small non-European area

• Summer: Fieldwork

History 

Children will develop their historical understanding of chronology, enquiry, and interpretation through:

• Autumn: The Great Fire of London

• Spring: Elizabeth I, Elizabeth II, and Queen Victoria

• Summer 1: The Stone Age

• Summer 2: The Neolithic Revolution

Physical Education

Children will take part in a wide range of PE lessons throughout the year and enjoy sessions led by specialist sports coaches. Sports covered will include:

• Dance

• Fundamentals

• Team Games

• Net and Wall

• Athletics

• Gymnastics

• Striking and Fielding

Art

Children will complete three art topics across the year, developing their creativity and artistic skills:

• Autumn: Drawing – Study of Beth Krommes

• Spring: Painting – Study of Kandinsky

• Summer: Printing – Study of Karen Lederer

D.T

Children will complete three D.T. projects throughout the year, linking their learning to other areas of the curriculum to give their designs real purpose:

• Textiles: Design, make, and evaluate a puppet to perform a show for younger children

• Freestanding Structures: Design, make, and evaluate a zoo enclosure for an animal

• Food and Nutrition: Explore healthy recipes and safe cooking skills

Music

Throughout the year, children will listen to and learn songs from around the world. They will accompany songs using instruments and rhythms, and in the second half of the Autumn term, prepare for the Christmas play, celebrating the Nativity and showcasing their growing musical talents.

Computing

Children will develop their digital understanding through the following units:

• Self-Image and Identity, and Online Relationships

• Computing Systems and Networks – IT Around Us

• Online Reputation and Online Bullying

• Data and Information – Pictograms

• Managing Online Information

• Creating Media – Digital Music

• Health, Well-being, and Lifestyle

• Programming A – Robot Algorithms

• Privacy and Security

• Programming B – Programming Quizzes

• Copyright and Ownership