Teaching Team: Mr Mackinnon, Mrs Banner and Mrs Johnson 

beech@st-barnabas.kent.sch.uk

Spring Term:

Year 2 Curriculum Information

 

Working with your child this term will be Mr Mackinnon, Mrs Banner and Mrs Johnson.

A Knight’s Quest: How will our hero save the day?

This unit of study explores the facts and the fiction surrounding knights and castles. We will read a range of texts which involve castles, knights, queens, princes, princesses and monsters. We will use these stories to help create a fantasy kingdom of our own. We will create a story map and plan a quest for our knight. Pupils will use scientific enquiry to help give advice to our hero as to which potion to choose from a selection of different mystery ingredients to help them on their quest. We will write a set of instructions for our knight, a series of character descriptions as well as a number of short sections of narrative which tell our class story. We will get in to character and write letters from the perspective of characters from our kingdom. We will help to inform our fictional look at Knights and Castles by examining the facts. We will use historical enquiry skills to examine both knights and castles throughout British history. We will focus particularly on the Norman invasion and explore the role that knights and castles played in the Norman invasion and settlement of Britain. Pupils will build a model of a castle with a moving element. We will place the Norman invasion of England into chronological context and explore the concepts of invasion and settlement. We will investigate the battle for the English crown in the year 1066.

 

In addition, your child will be learning about the following:

 

Maths – Multiplication and Division, Fractions, Properties of Shapes, Money and Statistics.

Science and Computing Material Changes, Green Plants, Robot Algorithms and Data Presentation.

RE – The Gospel and Salvation

Design and the Arts – Music and musicality, Desiging a structure with a moving part.

Sport, Exercise and Health- Core skills and invasion games.

 

Please support your child’s learning with:

 

Home Learning – We aim to provide an integrated programme of home learning which utilises your child’s reading record, homework book, class blog and class email. Full details of exactly what your child’s home learning programme looks like was sent out at the start of the year. If you would like this information to be sent out again, please let us know.

 

Reading – In Beech Class, we expect pupils to read at home for at least 10 minutes, 5 times per week. We ask that parents sign the reading record each time their child reads and indicate when a new reading book is required. We will change pupils reading books twice each week- on a Tuesday and a Friday. However, we ask that book bags and books are brought to school every day. New book bags can be purchased from the school office. If there is a problem with your child’s book, reading record or reading in general, please contact us via the class email address.

Just a few reminders:

PE Kit – It is essential that your child has a house T-shirt, shorts and plimsolls or trainers in school every day so that they can participate in PE activities. In addition, long tracksuit type trousers are useful in the Winter months for outside PE. Long hair needs to be tied back for PE so please ensure your child wears a hairband to school. Also, earrings need to be removed or covered with tape during PE lessons. If your child is unable to remove their own earrings, please provide some microporous tape to cover them. This term, PE will be on a Wednesday and Thursday. Please ensure that your child’s belongings are labelled.

Water Bottles

In order to help your child stay hydrated and be ready to learn, please make sure that they bring a labelled water bottle to school with them every day. We kindly ask that bottles are filled with water only- rather than juices or squash.

Pencil Cases

There is no need for your child to bring in any additional stationary. If your child requires any additional resources for a specific learning task or activity we will let you know in advance so it can be arranged.  

Toys and Games

In order to help us avoid any unnecessary distractions from our learning and stay safe, we kindly request that toys and games from home are not brought into school.  

 

If you have any concerns or queries about information included in this letter or any other matter relating to your child’s education, please do not hesitate to contact us via the class email address: beech@st-barnabas.kent.sch.uk

 

Many thanks,

Mr Mackinnon, Mrs Banner and Mrs Johnson.