African Elephant Class is made up of 30 fabulous Year 2 children. Our class teacher is Miss Bestwick and our teaching assistants are Mrs Salt, Mrs Dowthwaite and Mrs Leese. Every other Friday, we are lucky enough to be taught by Mrs Robinson whilst Miss Bestwick has her planning, preperation and assessment (PPA) time.
On our webpage you will find regular updates on our learning as well as useful information and important dates. Alongside this webpage, you will also have access to our class dojo where we will share regular updates with you so that you know exactly what we have been up to. Please feel free to send me a message on Class Dojo or via my school email (abestwick@dovedale.derbyshire.sch.uk) if you ever need to contact me.
In Year 2, we view your child's journey with us as an adventure as we are confident that all children have lots to see and lots to learn. Just like any adventure, our classroom and curriculum will be crammed full of fun and include lots of laughter along the way!
Please click on the icons below to find lots of useful information about your child's Year 2 adventure. In this section you will find our medium term plans, knowledge organisers, spellings and even a weekly class blog for each of the school terms so you will always know what we've been up to!
Each half term I will update this section of the webpage to ensure you are aware of any important upcoming dates which may affect our class or whole-school. These dates will also be communicated via Class Dojo as well to ensure you do not miss any useful information.
Summer 1:
- Wednesday 17th April - Parents' Evening
- Monday 6th May - Off school for May Day Bank Holiday
- Thursday 9th May - Class Assembly. Arrive at school office after drop off. 9.05am start.
- Thursday 23rd May - Last Day of Summer 1
- Friday 24th May - Inset Day
Spring 2:
- Thursday 7th March - World Book Day (letter on school website about this)
- w/c 11th March - Celebration Week and Science Week
- Friday 15th March - Red Nose Day
- Wednesday 20th March - Expert Group Afternoon
- Thursday 28th March - Last Day of Term, break up for Easter
- Friday 29th March - Good Friday
Spring Term 1:
- Monday 8th January - First day of Spring 1
- Friday 26th January - Interim Reports out
- Friday 2nd February - NSPCC Number Day
- Wednesday 7th February - Expert Group Afternoon
- Thursday 15th February - Last day of Spring 1
- Friday 16th February - Inset Day
- Monday 26th February - Start of Spring 2
Autumn Term 2:
- Monday 6th November - Inset Day
- Tuesday 7th November - Back to school, start of Autumn 2
- Friday 10th November - School remembrance service/assembly
- Friday 17th November - Children in Need
- Tuesday 28th November - Flu Vaccinations
- Wednesday 29th November - Individual School Photos
- Thursday 30th November and Friday 1st December - Santa's Grotto
- Friday 1st December - Christmas Fair
- w/c 4th December - Celebration Week
- Friday 22nd December - Last Day of Autumn 2, break up for Christmas
Autumn Term 1:
- Monday 4th September - Inset Day
- Tuesday 5th September - First day in Year 2
- Thursday 26th October - PTA Spooky Disco
- Friday 27th October - Break up for half term
Reading:
Your child will receive a reading diary and a wallet containing 2 books. The first book is a black and white ‘storybook’ – this will be a copy of the book your child has learned to read in their Read, Write Inc phonics group. They will know this book and should be able to read it fluently – this is their book where they can show off their great reading skills to you! The second book is a ‘Book Bag Book’ – this book will be matched to your child’s phonics knowledge. Although they will not have read this book in school, they should be able to read it quite easily. This book enables your child to apply their phonic skills independently and for this reason, this is the book we encourage you to focus on at home.
Soon the children will be receiving a third book. This will be a book to share together at home. We promote a love of books and reading at school and would like to encourage this at home. We do not expect children to be able to read the sharing book themselves, but we do expect them to enjoy listening to it, learning from it and talking to you about it!
In order for our phonics teaching to work effectively, it is essential that all books are returned to school. After hearing your child read at home, or sharing a book together, please make sure all books go straight back into their reading wallet / bag so they are always readily available at school. Depending on their phonics group, children will be given new reading books every 3 to 5 days.
Please note:
- Some black and white storybooks have a space for the child's name. Please leave this blank as these are not personal copies, and will be re-used.
Finally, a reminder that we ask for you to hear your child read at least 3 times each week. Please sign your child’s reading diary after each read and include any comments you would like to make. If your child has read at least 3 times each week their name will get entered into our Reading Raffle!
Spelling & Homework:
Each week our set homework will include your child's reading as well as spelling practice for 10 weekly words. These words will follow a particular spelling rule and occasionally will be challenge words taken from the Year 2 statutory spellings lists. Please do not be alarmed if your child has different spellings. We will always send your child home with the spellings list associated with the Year 2 curriculum to ensure your child is accessing and familiar with these words however we have tweaked spellings to ensure progress at each individual child's level. Spelling tests are on Friday's and a weekly overview can be found on each half terms tab.
Alongside weekly reading and spelling practice, your child will also be set some online activities linked to grammar and Maths. These activities may be set on Spag.com or MyMaths. Weekly updates will be provided via class dojo to make you aware of the homework each week.
PE:
This half term, our PE days are a Tuesday afternoon and a Friday afternoon. Indoor PE will be on Tuesdays and Outdoor PE's will be on Fridays. Please can your child to come dressed in their appropriate PE kits (plain, with no logos). Your child will stay in their PE kit for the entire day.