Year 2 Curriculum Letter - Autumn 2025

Dear Year 2 families, 

Welcome to Year 2! We hope that your children are feeling excited about the year ahead... We all are! 

This is what a typical school day will look like for your child this year:

Phonics / Guided Reading

Maths / Writing

Break

Writing / Maths

Lunch and Play

Reading / Mastering Number/ Handwriting

Foundation subjects / PE

Picture News / Storytime

Home Time

PE sessions for this term (subject to change) are:

2SF - Tuesday & Friday

2W - Monday & Wednesday

Please ensure your child comes to school wearing appropriate PE kit on these days, especially appropriate footwear. 

Maths
Throughout the Autumn term we will be covering units on Number and Place Value, Properties of shape, Addition and Subtraction, Multiplication and Division as well as Position and Direction. 

Remember that your child has access to Numbots which will support your child’s maths. We will put your child’s log-in in their Reading Records. If you lose it, don’t worry! Please let us know as soon as you can and we will give you a replacement.

When we start a new unit of work in maths, we will send home a ‘knowledge organiser’ which will show you visuals about what your child is learning. 

(We will properly introduce Times Tables Rock Stars when we start learning about multiplication in Spring Term, but you are welcome to let your child go on it if you’d like them to get going with the 2, 5 and 10 times tables as these are the tables that the children must know by the end of Year 2.) 

Home learning
We will inform you each Friday of any home learning activities. The work will always include:

  • Reading every day (please see the information below) 

And will often include:

  • A maths activity to support what they are doing in class
  • An writing-based activity to support their learning – including spelling 

*Please make sure that reading happens daily.

We are more relaxed about the rest of the homework, it would be really helpful if your child can do it with you, but it is not compulsory. We do not want it to become a negative thing at home, please let us know that you are struggling and we will endeavour to support you / them in the best way possible. Please do take a look at the home learning, it will be helpful for you to know what we have been doing during the week and we might pop a note on the letter that would be worth reading! Support from home is really helpful, so thank you for anything you do in advance.

 Reading

  • Please read daily with your child and record what they have read to you in their yellow reading records. It could just be a tick/ your initials; it will help us to be able to more closely and effectively monitor which books have been read if you do this.
  • In the RWI home reader groups, there is a guide on how to use the reading book effectively
  • Please return all books on Fridays so we can check reading records and change the children’s books.
  • Your child can take a book from the class bookcase, but it must come back, please!

 3 things to remember

  • Reading should be enjoyable (not too tricky!)
  • If English isn’t your first language, do read books in your first language as well.
  • Reading should include a wide range of fiction and non-fiction.

Writing
As well as working towards the Year 2 skills for writing, we continue to focus on handwriting and spelling this year. We will give you information that will be useful during the year. Each unit in writing starts with a ‘hook’ to engage the children with the new text, then we gather vocabulary and explore writing poems, after that we write a narrative and then a non-fiction based piece of writing. We are excited about this and the wide variety of writing opportunities it gives the children. 

Spellings
It is invaluable to continue to practice the Year 1 and now the Year 2 high frequency (common exception/red) words. These are the words that the children should be able to read and spell by the end of Year 2. We will inform you each week of any focus spellings that we would like you to support your child with. 

These can also be found online at www.woodlands.kent.sch.uk/attachments/download.asp?file=161&type=pdf

Other curriculum subjects

We will be covering the following subjects this term – 

Autumn 1

History – The Great Fire of London

PSHE – Relationships – ‘Being Me in My World’

Science – Materials and their Properties

Art – Printing – William Morris / David Hearld 

PE – Ball Skills and Commando Joe

RE – What is it like to be part of the Muslim community in the UK and beyond?

Computing – Online Safety and Digital Photography 

Autumn 2

Science – Materials and their Properties

History – Remembrance Day and Walter Tull

DT – Textiles. Make a hanging poppy for Remembrance Day

PE – Invasion & Gymnastics

Computing – E Safety

PSHE – Celebrating Differences

Music 

Key dates for your diary:

Tuesday 23rd September – parents are invited to join us making Tudor Houses at 1:30pm.

Tuesday 7th October – Great Fire of London Theme day (see details below)

Monday 13th October – Cheltenham Literature Festival at 11:45am to see Kristyna Litten.

Thursday 27th November – parents are invited to join us making poppies at 1:30pm. 

Great Fire of London theme day:

Tuesday 7th October – all day. We will put a message out requesting volunteers for that day – keep an eye out for that if you are interested. It’s a terrific day. The children will also have the opportunity, if they would like it, to dress up. The letter attached contains the information that you need about this. Some children chose not to dress up, that is fine, but the more that can, the merrier! Please speak to your child’s class teacher if you would like clarification or to discuss this in more detail. 

Thank you for all the support that you give your children at home; it is really appreciated. If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to speak to your child’s class teacher. We are here to support you and your child in every way we can. We look forward to working together with you all so that we have another exciting and productive year. 

From The Year 2 Team 

Mrs Toni Sarna (2SF Class Teacher - Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday)

Mrs Vanessa Flood (2SF Class Teacher – Wednesday, Thursday and Friday)

Mr Tom Bonehill (2SF 1:1)

Mrs Becky Perrett (2SF 1:1 Mornings)

Miss Nicky Woollatt (2W Class Teacher) 

Mrs Flood will teach 2W on Wednesday morning when Miss Woollatt has her Planning, Preparation and Assessment (PPA) time and she will teach 2SF from Wednesday afternoon, taking over from Mrs Sarna when she has her PPA time.

Lions at Large

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Our final design has been created by school Mum, Noush Duroe-Richards, Thank you Noush!

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Dunalley Pantry

02 Apr 2025

We would like to remind our families about Dunalley Pantry.
Set up to help families who are struggling with the cost of living crisis.

Lions at Large - Cub Lion Design

31 Mar 2025

Our final design has been created by school Mum, Noush Duroe-Richards by  amalgamating our favourite entries and the themes that arose throughout...

Winter Coats - Does your child need one?

03 Jan 2025

We have warm, winter coats for children of families struggling with the cost of living.
Please contact us for more details.

Celebrating Exceptional Learners

20 Dec 2024

We have enjoyed celebrating children from across the school who have consistently demonstrated outstanding behaviour and attitudes to learning. 

Positive Play Partners

06 Dec 2024

Our PPP children are relishing supporting our OPAL play initiative, ensuring children have role models to help resolve issues and have happy...

Coffee, Cake, Cheese & Wine - Thank you

18 Nov 2024

Thank you for joining us to discuss the work of Jonathan Haidt and his book The Anxious Generation, more information can be found HERE.

Donations for OPAL

25 Oct 2024

If you are thinking of having a pre-Christmas sort out please keep OPAL in mind for the usual donations.

OPAL Stay & Play

27 Sep 2024

We would like to invite all of our families to join us for an OPAL Stay & Play on Saturday 5th October from 10am - 12pm.