Heyes Lane Primary School

Would you like to be an explorer? Have you ever wanted to visit exciting, faraway lands and go on epic adventures?
Well, welcome to Year 2. You will start your Year 2 journey by learning how to become a fully qualified explorer by undertaking our skills-based training programme. Collect stars as you complete the skills and gather the knowledge needed to be a fully-fledged explorer. In Geography, you will build on your Year 1 knowledge about our World, recapping the different continents and oceans you might travel across. In History, travel back in time to meet significant explorers of the past and be inspired – what can we learn from Amelia Earheart and Neil Armstrong, to name but two?
You will read wild stories, study and label maps and investigate climates and habitats across the globe. In DT you will design and build your own model sailing boat, using your Scientific knowledge of materials to help guide you. Will your boat be sea-worthy?

We finish our topic with a graduation ceremony where each Explorer receives their own certificate of achievement to celebrate their hard work and success. Congratulations!

As the nights grow darker we turn to a significant event in British History: The Great Fire of London. We begin with a lovely visit to our in-school Pudding Lane Bakery where we bake cakes and a class loaf of bread (and remember to turn the oven off!) Children will turn detective to investigate the series of events and decisions that led to the destruction of our capital city. Why did it last so long? Who was to blame? How have we learned from this and what legacy did it leave behind? As Historians, we look at a range of sources to help us answer all our burning questions.
We will learn an assortment of songs featuring a Spanish version of London’s Burning and a water xylophone. We finish our unit by making a quiz for older children to have a go at.

This brings us right up to Christmas, finishing with sparkles and glitter and a cup of good cheer.    

In the Spring Term, we embark on another journey to a different part of the globe to learn all about AFRICA. We fully immerse ourselves in this topic by experiencing as many aspects as we can of the African Culture. We try different types of food. We listen, learn and dance to traditional African songs and music. We look at and share lots of traditional African stories and fables. We look forward to sharing all this with you at our African Showcase.

Following on from this, our next topic is ‘Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds’ where we put on our ‘scientists’ hats. We believe that all children need to know and understand the importance of how to look after both their physical and mental health. We begin by identifying and talking about food groups and how to eat healthily. In Computing, we research where different foods come from and their individual benefits. Our minds need to be healthy too! So, we learn and practise mindfulness techniques and learn to share and talk about how we are feeling. One thing we will focus on, is the importance of self-esteem and how to recognise our many strengths. Once we are expert nutritionists, we will make some healthy snacks that we have prepared and practise some of our mindfulness techniques too.

With the summer sun, we want to get outside. This term, children will ‘Buzz for Bees’ and become eager botanists and celebrate Active Citizenship. We revisit year 1 learning about plants and then build on this further to plan and develop our own wild gardens at Heyes Lane. Through learning about the importance and process of bees and pollination we will campaign to make pledges with our families and communities to make a difference and protect the bee population. We make links with and learn about the symbolism of the bee and the significance of this within our wider community of Manchester.

We LOVE reading in year 2! There will be lots of opportunities to read in your time in year 2. We will have a class book that we share each day, you can visit the class reading garden which will be full of a variety of exciting texts to read, and in our English lessons we will be focussing on different books for different topics. Everyone will have a reading record and a home reading book to take home, we would love it if you could read a little bit each evening at home.

PE will be on a Thursday afternoon in the Autumn Term. Please come to school on a Monday in your appropriate NAMED PE kit, please wear black shorts/skirt and a plain white T shirt and a black jacket for colder weather. There will be 3 activities covered each afternoon, one with each Year 2 Teacher.

Our PE day may change as the year progresses; we will let you know in our weekly homework letter if it does.

We will start with our topic of ‘Explorers and Adventurers’. You will be in training to become a fully qualified explorer! We will learn about different parts of the world, forms of transport and how they have changed, how animals adapt to their habitats and how explorers plan their adventures.

During the rest of your time in year 2 you will become super historians and scientists, exploring our topics of The Great Fire of London, Amazing Africa and Buzz for Bees, all about our very own city of Manchester. Exciting learning awaits in Year 2!

This year, you will receive a weekly letter telling you all about what we have learned that week in class and what we would like you to do for homework. Letters will be sent home each Friday on our online SeeSaw platform.

Spellings will be set as weekly assignments and games for you to practise on Spelling Shed, where you will have your own safe login.