Nightingale - Year 2

Hi, my name is Miss Coyne, and I am the Year 2 Nightingale Class Teacher.
I have spent over 14 years teaching in Key Stage 1 and have fallen in love with the creativity and breadth of the curriculum.
At St John's, I lead Phonics, Early Reading and Music, and I am the Team Leader for KS1.
I have a passion for listening to and playing music as well as competing in sports events. I have represented Ireland twice for different sports; the 100m freestyle event in swimming and Team Twirling at the Baton World Championships!
Other staff working in our class are:
Miss. White – Teaching Assistant
Our weekly timetable:

Important dates for the diary this term for Nightingale Class:
PE - Every Thursday– Please come to school dressed in the correct PE uniform
Flu immunisations - Wednesday 14th October
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Our learning in Term 1:
Our topic this term is 'Lost and Found'. Year 2 will be exploring the school site, reading and drawing maps, looking at human and physical features, learning about compass directions and identifying where the UK is, its four countries, their capital cities and surrounding seas.

In English, we will be focusing on sentence structure and building a strong foundation of writing skills. We will remember to think and say the sentence before we start to write and use a capital letter and full stop. We will be building on the children’s independence to write sentences and using their phonics to spell new words. Using these skills, we will write narratives, descriptive texts and non-fiction texts. During Shared Reading and English, we will be looking at: Stuck by Oliver Jeffers, Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers and a range of Non-Fiction texts about Antarctica and Penguins!

In Maths, we will be looking at place value (tens and ones). The children will be using mathematical resources to make and recognise numbers to 100. We will develop our numbers bonds and counting in 2’s 10’s and 5’s. We will also be developing our addition and subtraction knowledge and learning how to cross over the tens.

In Science, our topic is Living things and their Habitats. We will be learning about the different animals, plants and habitats and how the animals/plants are adapted to be suited to their environment. We will also look at what plants and animals need to survive and demonstrate this in food chains.

In RE, the children will be learning about Christianity. They will be finding out about the Creation Story from the Bible and answering the big question ‘Who made the world?’

Learning at home for Nightingale Class:
Children are expected to read every night for at least 10 minutes. Reading records should be signed by an adult and brought back into school each day to be checked by a member of staff. Your child will take home 2 phonics books each day which will be chnaged every Friday.
Spelling Shed and Numbots can be accessed from home using the logins provided on the inside of your child's reading record. Spelling assignments will be given out each week, which support the Year 2 spelling curriculum.
Be ready for learning! In Nightingale Class, your child will need to have these items in school:
Key Stage One (Years 1 and 2)
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Book bag (no rucksacks please)
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PE kit (to be worn on PE day - Friday)
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Water bottle (no squash or juice)
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Lunchbox (if not having school meal)
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Wellington boots (to leave in school)
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Coat (weather appropriate)
Please don’t bring other items into school, as we do not have space to store them, and it can cause upset if things are lost or damaged.
School Uniform Checklist:
Please label ALL items of clothing and shoes clearly with your child’s name. This helps even our younger children to take responsibility for and look after their uniform.

