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Goodbye Year 2

If I had a pound for every wobbly tooth I’ve been shown this year, I’d be a rich woman!

This is just one of the many delights which I have discovered teaching in Year 2 brings. It has been an enjoyable year with lots of interesting stories from weekends away or days out (Sam and Brandon particularly)! I’ve learnt more facts about sharks than I ever thought possible (Oliver, Levon and Ethan)! Ravinder and Arranhave provided many thought-provoking questions with their ever-enquiring minds, whilst Alex and Katarina have wowed us with their confidence and ability to settle in to new surroundings.

As I enjoy being active, I was pleased to discover that the class love PE and that they have been enthusiastic about taking part in sporting events. Zach was even the first child from Moortown Primary to cross the finish line at the Roundhay Fun Run! Archie, Shriyaa, Bailey, Jahneil, Lanas and Molly were keen to take part in the Wake Up! Shake Up! competition which meant I got to hear lots more of my favourite band, One Direction! Pavan, Simran and Isabella have demonstrated a talent for gymnastics and Tayshaun never fails to impress us with his football skills (remember us when you’re famous Mr Lennon)!

Other successes of the year include:

• Superstar mathematician Henry who’s made great progress
• Roshan’s big improvements in reading
• Ibrahim putting 100% effort into his learning
• Ahmed’s amazingly creative homework
• Shahban’s accurate observational drawings
• Jawaad’s ability to make us jump with his animated expression when reading a story
• Jaskirat’s fantastic handwriting
• Yahya’s helpful contributions as school councillor
• Rayhaan’s ability to be ready to learn at all times

And…. not forgetting Linda’s brilliant performance in the Christmas production!

Thank you to Mrs Stewart for all of her help with class routines and the children’s learning. Finally, thank you to all of the parents this year for continued support with your child’s learning – it really does make a difference! I wish all of Year 2 an enjoyable time with Mr Wilks in Year 3.

Have a lovely summer.

Miss Hewson

Dance Showcase

Well done to the children who took part in the Dance Showcase at Allerton Grange. Thank you to Tracey for choreographing a fantastic routine which involved lifts and the children making use of the whole stage.

Wake Up! Shake Up!

Well done to our Year 1 and 2 children on reaching the final of the Key Stage 1 Wake Up! Shake Up! competition. The children put a lot of effort into practising and were an absolute delight to take to represent our school. Thank you to the parents of the children for helping with lifts and coming along to support us.

Learning about symmetry

Yoga fun

We were lucky enough to enjoy a morning of yoga last week. Here are some of the children enjoying the relaxing benefits.

Creative homework

06 July 2012

This week’s spellings end in ‘tion’. Encourage splitting the word into its syllables to help with the spelling of these words. Your child will be tested on Friday 13^th July 2012.

• action
• option
• addition
• infection
• situation
• creation
• donation
• education
• election
• emotion

Phonics tests

You’ll be aware that all children in Y1 classes in England have recently been tested on 40 words prescribed by the goverment. The screening checks are intended to test a child’s knowledge of letter sounds with a challenging combination of both real and made-up words (eg proom, groiks).

Any child who did not read at least 32 words correctly must be re-tested again next year. In the meantime, they will recieve additional phonics support in Year 2 – this will include daily phonics sessions and frequent reading (don’t forget how powerful it is to read at home, too!).

We always value your involvment and support. The test results are sent home on Monday 09 July, along with your child’s annual report. Mrs Maver or Mrs Weekes will be happy to discuss in more detail how your child did in these tests. If they’re not available, I can also help.

Most schools I’ve spoken to have similar results and conclusons:

• around 70% of children scored over 32/40
• able readers have often not done so well as they’re reading would suggest – we found this was often because they automatically corrected some of the made-up words so they could make sense (you might have done the same whilst reading this article – did you spot the five errors?)

Scratch the surface

Scratch the surface is a summer school project for Y5 and Y6 pupils. If your child is interested in computers, gaming, art and design, or animation, then this will definitely be of interest!

The club runs from Monday 13 August to Thursday 16 August from 10am to 3pm. It happens at the North Leeds City Learning Centre, which is situated close to Allerton Grange High School.

If you’d like to know more, contact Nick Field on 0113 288 3500.

06 July 2012

We’ll be writing instructions in our literacy lessons next week so the spellings are all adverbs which could be used to describe how to do something.

Top tip for writing: You can move the adverb to the start of the sentence with a comma after it to make it an adverb opener. For example:

Stir the porridge gently.

Could become…

Gently, stir the porridge.