Year 2

Class 2G are taught by Miss Gowers and 2C by Miss Cherry. They are supported by Jackie, Jane, Collet and Amy. They can be contacted via year2@earlsfield.wandsworth.sch.uk 

Autumn 2025

We hope you have had a well-rested summer break and are now ready for an exciting year ahead. We are thrilled to be welcoming you to Year 2 and are looking forward to forming a strong partnership with you between home and school. We want to ensure the Year 2 children achieve their very best in all aspects of school life.

In Topic this half term we will be studying ‘The Great Fire of London’ and answering the question, like true historians: Could the Great Fire of London Happen Today? We are very lucky that the London Fire Brigade will be taking time out of their busy schedules to teach the Year 2 all about:
● keeping safe and what to do if there was a fire
● what made him/her decide to be a firefighter
● how fires are put out and compare this to the Great Fire in 1666
● observe a fire engine and its features

For the second half of the Autumn Term we will be learning about whether anyone can make a difference. This topic is significant, as we will learn about some of the key figures who have had a positive impact on life today, including the work of Mary Seacole and Florence Nightingale. We will also learn and discuss the actions we take can also help us to make an impact on our world and the community in which we live.

In Science, we will be exploring and investigating Everyday Materials in Autumn 1 and Animals (including humans) in Autumn 2. We are going to be working on improving and building on our prior knowledge and skills from Year 1 and working scientifically (like expert scientists). Grouping and sorting materials based on their properties, planning and carrying out fair tests and recording our observations are just some of the skills we will be continuing to develop.

In English in Autumn, we are looking forward to reading, ‘Where The Wild Things Are,’ by Maurice Sendak and ‘Lila and The Secret of Rain’ by David Conway and Jude Daly. We will be looking at developing our writing further by exploring the features of letters as well as writing them. In addition, we will be retelling stories in our own words using rich vocabulary we have learnt in class. Our texts will inspire and support the children to become great readers and writers. We will be focusing on a variety of genres.

In Maths, we will start our year focusing on developing our knowledge and understanding of number and place value. In Autumn 2, we will be moving on to learning strategies to help us solve addition and subtraction calculations.

We are incredibly fortunate to have lessons taught by our specialist teachers (AM sports) in PE and Mrs Hancock for Music in the studio. We will also receive specialist gymnastics teaching from Mr David Wood on a Thursday (2G in Autumn 1 and 2C in Autumn 2).

We look forward to working with you to support the children with their reading development. In guided reading we will share weekly home tasks in your child’s pupil handbook. Please sign at the back of the Pupil Handbook to show your children have completed their tasks. These will be checked by your child’s teacher every week. Weekly spellings will also be shared in these handbooks. Please encourage your child to read 3 times a week for at least 20 minutes and practise their spellings regularly.

Thank you to all parents and carers for your ongoing support to your teachers and your children. If you have any questions or queries please do not hesitate to email our Year 2 address. Teachers will check their emails before school starts (no later than 8:20am) and after school finishes at 3.20pm. If you have an urgent request, please telephone the school office as we cannot guarantee picking up messages throughout the school day.

The Year 2 team.
       

Key Learning

You can find out about our approach to all our subjects through the curriculum page but the headlines for the year  group are below.

Reading

Children can understand what they read by: 

•  I can apply phonic knowledge and skills to decode words
•  I can read accurately by blending the sounds in words, especially alternative sounds for graphemes
•  I can accurately read words of two or more syllables
• I  can read words containing common suffixes
• I  can read further common exception words, noting unusual correspondences between spelling and sound
• I  can read most words quickly and accurately, when they have been frequently encountered
•  I can re-read books to build up my fluency and confidence in word reading

Children develop pleasure in reading, motivation to read, vocabulary and understanding by:

•  I can listen to, discuss and express views about a wide range of texts including contemporary and classic poetry, stories and non-fiction texts
•  I can discuss the sequence of events in books and how information is linked
•  I am becoming increasingly familiar with and can retell a wider range of stories, fairy stories and traditional tales
• I can begin to talk about non-fiction books that are structured in different ways
• I can recognise simple recurring language in stories and poetry
• I can discuss my favourite words and phrases and their meanings
• I am continuing to build up a repertoire of poems learnt by heart, reciting some with appropriate intonation to make the  meaning clear

Children understand both the books they read accurately and fluently and those they listen to by:

• I can check that the text makes sense as I read and correct mistakes
• I can make inferences on the basis of what is being said and done
• I can predict what might happen on the basis of what has been read so far
• I can participate in discussion about what is read to me, taking turns and listening to what others say
• I can explain clearly my understanding of what is read to me

Writing

Writing

• I can write simple, coherent narratives about personal experiences and those of others (real or fictional)
• I can write about real events, recording these simply and clearly
• I can write most sentences using capital letters and full stops, and use question marks correctly when they are needed
• I can use present and past tense mostly correctly and consistently
• I can use co-ordination (e.g. or / and / but) and some subordination (e.g. when / if / that / because) to join clauses

Spelling

• I can segment spoken words into phonemes and represent these by graphemes, spelling many of these words correctly and making phonically-plausible attempts at others
• I can spell many common exception words

Handwriting

• I can form capital letters and digits of the correct size, orientation and relationship to one another and to lower-case letters
• I can use spacing between words that reflect the size of the letters

Greater depth (working above the expected national standard)

• I can write effectively and coherently for different purposes, drawing on my reading to inform the vocabulary and grammar of my writing
• I can make simple additions, revisions and proof-reading corrections to my own writing
• I can use the punctuation taught at key stage 1 mostly correctly
• I can spell most common exception words
• I can add suffixes to spell most words correctly in my writing (e.g. –ment, –ness, –ful, –less, –ly)
• I can use the diagonal and horizontal strokes needed to join some letters

Statutory spellings

Maths

 Year 2 Maths Objectives

Science

Materials

Animals including Humans

Plants

Keeping Healthy

Topics

 Could The Great Fire of London happen today?

Can anyone make a difference?

Whatever happened to the Dinosuars?

Is organic better?

Homework

Days to remember

Other things you need to know