This year is an extremely important one, as at the end of the year children complete the KS1 SATS. Children will complete tests in reading, maths (reasoning and arithmetic) and SPAG (spelling and grammar). To prepare children we ask for them to read regularly at home and ensure that they have understood what they have read. We also ask that they regularly practise spellings and key skills in maths such as times tables and number bonds to prepare them for the tests.
Our curriculum is very varied and children enjoy many new experiences in Year 2.
The teaching of synthetic phonics continues in Year 2 for some children, but it is our expectation that the vast majority of children will be fluent readers and will no longer need explicit phonics teaching for reading. In Year 2, most children start the Read, Write, Inc. Literacy and Language programme. This programme is specifically designed to build on comprehension skills and to promote a more inferential level of thinking. Children are given the outline of a text to begin with to provide them with the ‘bare bones’ of a story. They then read and study the text in depth, focusing particularly on developing a thorough understanding of the text, characters, setting and events. Once they have studied the text they then develop their writing through completing a linked writing task. Teachers model what is expected of the children in terms of their writing, and then children produce their own high quality writing.
Alongside this, children also follow a rigorous spelling programme (RWI) from Year 2 onwards which covers all aspects of the spelling curriculum set out in 2014. Grammar is also a continued focus, with children taught to use and understand a variety of word and sentence types as well as a greater array of punctuation.
All children are also given opportunities to read more challenging and longer novels as a class and on an individual basis.
Maths lessons in Year 2 are taught using a maths mastery approach which builds upon and continues the learning from previous years. We support our teaching and learning of maths through the use of Effective Maths (see link below), which is a comprehensive framework for teaching high quality maths.
We ensure that our school curriculum is in line with the National Curriculum, which you can see here: National Curriculum