2022 Summer Term (Year 2) - Lower School - St Thomas of Canterbury Junior School

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2022 Summer Term (Year 2) - Lower School

Curriculum
Curriculum Advice for Parents

Welcome back to the Summer Term! We hope that the information below will give you helpful details of planned work for this term. Please assist your son/daughter in exploring and discussing these areas. All year groups will be having English and Mathematics lessons every day. The most important way to help your children is to read with them on a daily basis. The more you read together the better they will do in school and in life! Hopefully they are already engaged with the St Thomas’ Reading Tree Challenge...have they achieved their Bronze Award yet?
We will also continue to suggest spellings and times tables to learn in the homework diary too as this type of work is also considered beneficial. Please continue to refer to the homework diary for general reminders about expectations, such as those relating to uniform. Please speak to your child’s teacher(s) if these updates are not in the homework diary. Thank you for your continued support.
Examples of areas we plan to cover

Art & Design
In Art, we will be inspired by the artist Georgia O’Keefe.  We will use our sketching skills and colour knowledge to produce pieces of plant art.  

Computing
In Computing, we will starting off the term by learning about hardware and software. The children will be learning about the different parts of a desktop computer. We will then move onto coding using Microbits. Finally, we will finish the term by exploring Animation on Purple Mash; the children will be producing a ‘stop motion’ animation.   

Design & Technology
In D&T, we are designing and making our own packaging ready to contain our home-cooked healthy flapjacks.  Whilst in the kitchen, we will be learning about basic food safety.  

Geography
We will continue our topic on India. After locating the country on a world map and finding out about the diverse physical and human geography of this fascinating country, we will focus on life in the village of Chembakolli. In the second half of the term, we are planning to take the children on a field trip to explore the local area in Brentwood.  

History
This term, the children will examine the Roman invasions of Britain and Boudicca's revolt. They will examine the impact the Romans made on the people of Britain and the legacy they left, which continues to have an influence on our lives today.  We will also be visiting Colchester Castle, which links all the topics covered in History this year.

Music
In music this term, we will start by exploring Gamelan music, which is the traditional music of Java and Bali in Indonesia. The children will learn and perform a piece of music using glockenspiels and compose their own melodies in groups. After half term, we will explore music from India to link with our Geography topic. This will include listening to extracts of music and recognising instruments as well as more opportunities to perform.

P.E.
In Outdoor Games, the children will be developing striking and fielding skills through lessons in Rounders and Cricket. For their Dance topic, they will be learning and performing a Roman dance.  

P.S.H.E.
For our first unit this term, we will be discussing different relationships. We will look at the roles and responsibilities of family members, identify and put into practice some of the skills of friendship and look at the actions and work of people around the world that influence our lives. After half term, we will begin to look at changes in animals and humans and identify why these changes are necessary. We will also identify what we are looking forward to when we move into a new class.   

R.E.
This term, we will be looking at The Kingdom of God and trying to answer the big question "When Jesus left, what was the impact of Pentecost?" and then studying The Gospel to examine "What kind of world did Jesus want?"

Science
In Science this term, we are studying plants. We will be exploring how plants grow in our school grounds, using and creating keys to identify flowers and trees. We will grow our own beans and cress.

Spanish
We will be looking at Spanish words for fruits as well as learning the vocabulary for expressing likes and dislikes to enable conversation.  We will then read the story ‘Handa’s Surprise’ in Spanish and write and perform our own version of the story.



You may like to talk to your child about these topics. The prospectus (which details how the different subjects are taught) is available for download by clicking here.


In addition, you may also wish to:


: research ideas at the local library and help your child to develop his/her library skills;

: search the internet for relevant websites and activities;

: watch relevant television programmes that may support their work, or visit a museum or place of interest;

: simply talk to your child about what they are learning!


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