Year 2

Class 2C is taught by Lisa Cherry and 2V are taught by Rachel Veale. They are supported by Jackie and Jane.

Year 2 teachers can be contacted via year2@earlsfield.wandsworth.sch.uk

Autumn 2025

Everyone here at Earlsfield Primary hopes 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 Year 2 all about:

keeping safe and what to do if there was a fire

what made him/her decide to become 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 how the actions we take can help us make a positive impact on our world and the community we live in.

In Science, we will be exploring and investigating 'Everyday Materials' in Autumn 1 and 'Animals' (including humans) in Autumn 2. We will be building on our prior knowledge and skills from Year 1, while developing our ability to work scientifically—just 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 continue to develop.

In English, we are looking forward to reading a new book, ‘A Mouse called Julian’ by Joe Todd Staunton 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 poetry, as well as writing some call and response poems. 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. We use a variety of manipulatives to explore numbers up to 100. In Autumn 2, we will be moving on to learning strategies to help us solve addition and subtraction calculations. We will continue to use Doodle Maths in Key Stage One to support home learning.

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 (2V in Autumn 1 and 2C in Autumn 2).

We look forward to working with you to support the children with their reading development. In Phonics/Guided Reading, which happens 4 times a week, we will be looking at decoding and reading with fluency before teaching the reading skills known as VIPERS (Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation, Retrieval and Summarising). We will be reading a range of texts throughout the Autumn term.

Weekly spellings will be shared in the children’s Pupil Handbooks on a Friday with the spelling test being administered on a Thursday morning. Please encourage your child to read 3 times a week for at least 20 minutes and sign at the back of the Pupil Handbook to show your children have completed this reading alongside their spelling practice. These will be checked by your child’s teacher every week.

We would like to thank you in advance for your ongoing support towards the teachers, support staff and children. If you have any questions or queries please do not hesitate to email our Year 2 email 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

Homework

Days to remember

Day	Activity
Monday	PE with AM Sports (Come to school in PE kit)
Tuesday	Music with Mrs Hancock Homework handed in via Seesaw
Wednesday
Thursday	Weekly Spelling test Teacher led PE/ Gym with Mr David Wood (Wear PE kit to school ) Weekly Talking Homework set via Seesaw Hand in reading books and pupil handbook
Friday	New reading books and spelling words sent home with Pupil Handbook
As frequently as possible	Home reading (banded books or books from home) Optional Doodle Maths and Doodle English Optional Times Table Rockstars (after Christmas)

Other things you need to know

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