Starting in Year 2 is an exciting time for girls and of course for their teacher! Owning your own pencil case and taking care of the equipment inside it is an sure sign of arriving in Year 2. As I explain on introductory evenings, one important aim for the Year 2 year is to help girls build their independence, so they are ready for the challenges of the Prep years that follow. Sorting their books in the morning and working on more formal homework starts them off on the road to self-management – it’s just a case of taking things one step at a time!

Another exciting challenge for the girls is learning to join up their handwriting. In a curriculum full of creativity it amazes me how much children enjoy this formal activity of copying letters meticulously between blue and red lines. Rote learning plays a part in the Year 2 curriculum too with the girls beginning to learn their times tables. A recent homework was to memorise a poem by Christina Rossetti and recite it to the class. We all gave our positive feedback and suggestions for improvement. Such activities encourage the girls to rise to a challenge and help to build confidence. Maintaining a positive mind-set is something we often talk about across the school and in the Year 2 classroom, and one of our pupils very profoundly remarked, “We should keep the doors in our mind open”.

Keeping learning practical and interesting is key and this term our topic revolves around Roald Dahl’s book James and the Giant Peach. The characters in the story link to our STEM topic on mini beasts and it is here that ‘hands on’ learning comes into play.

The girls have enjoyed mini beast hunts and are currently constructing giant insects with carefully engineered rolls of paper. What better way to learn about the features and simple classification of these creatures? In creative writing sessions the girls wrote snail poems, inspired by our class pet Curly Whirly, the giant African land snail. In Art we modelled mini beast clay tiles after learning about Antoni Gaudi, who loved nature and reflected it in almost every aspect of his architecture. This in turn connects to our Geography lessons where we have learned about the features of Cambridge and, on an environmental walk, took photos on iPads of the things we liked and disliked in our locality.