WELCOME TO YEAR 2

2025/2026

Hello and Welcome to Year 2!

Mrs Asif and Mr Byles are so excited to have you back!

We hope your summer was packed with sunshine, giggles and plenty of ice cream. Now it’s time to dust off those school shoes and get ready for an amazing adventure in Year 2! We’ve got a year full of fun, learning, and new discoveries ahead and we can’t wait to share it all with you. Let’s make this year our best one yet!

Contact details: admin@stmaryslevenshulme.org.uk with attention to Mrs Asif or Mr Byles.

Key dates:

Whole School Mass led by Year 6: 16^th September 2025

Celebration of learning: 26^th September 2025

Parents evening: 8^th/9^th October

Parent workshop: 17^th October

Lantern Parade: 4^th December

Celebration of learning: 27^th February

Year 2 Assembly: 4^th March

Parents evening: 11^th/12^th March

Year 2 Mass: 28^th March

Sports day: 19^th May

Year 2 Timetable:

Here is a normal daily timetable for Year 2 students:

8:30: School opens

8.30-8:45: Play Factory/Handwriting

8:45am – 9.15: Guided Reading                         

9.15am – 10.00: Maths                  

10.00am – 10:15am: Morning break           

10.15am – 10:45: Spellings

10:45am – 11:45 Lunch

12.45pm - 3.05pm:  Science/RE/Topic/PE/PSHE/Collective Worship/

3.10pm: Prayer and home time 

This will be subject change on a daily basis to accommodate all of our enhanced learning opportunities during this term.

What is our curriculum offer?

Healthy eating:

Most children require a snack at morning break to keep them going through the day.

We encourage children to bring in healthy snacks full of vitamins and minerals containing no added salt, fat or sugar. Many of these will help contribute to their 5 daily portions of fruit and vegetables, keep them alert and help them concentrate. It can be hard during the week to think of suitable items for them to bring in to school, but we are aiming, with the help of the children, to not only support them in making healthy choices regarding snacks, but to also reduce food packaging and waste. Providing snacks in a small, named, recyclable container is ideal.

If you are intending to send in healthy snacks with your child please limit them to the list below. 

• Vegetable sticks – such as celery, cucumber, peppers or carrot, a range of colour ensures different vitamins and minerals. 
• A piece of cheddar cheese or babybel 
• A piece of fresh or dried fruit, high in soluble fibre and vitamins would also be a great snack– pineapple, mango, kiwi, plain raisins, apricots, blueberries, banana slices. 
• Bread sticks, plain pretzels, banana bread, malt loaf, oat/rice cakes and small pitta breads are also good snacks, providing children with carbohydrate to sustain them in-between meals. 
• Homemade snack - flapjacks or other oat/whole grain-based snack. These must be nut free. Items brought into school should be carefully checked by you, to ensure this. St. Mary’s RC Primary School has pupils who are severely allergic to a range of nuts. 

We are aiming for a common-sense approach, with the key being to keep it healthy and no chocolate, sweets or crisps.

We need the children to stay hydrated and so please ensure they bring a named water bottle into school daily. Squash and fruit juice are not permitted. We hope that with your help, we can encourage the children to develop healthy eating habits that become a normal part of everyday life. By keeping high calorie snacks to a minimum and establishing healthy eating habits early on, improvements can be made for a child’s quality of life both in the short and long term. 

Frequently asked questions:

When is our P.E. slot?

Our  P.E. slot is on a Monday morning and on a Friday afternoon.  Please refer to the link on this website for P.E. uniform information: https://www.stmaryslevenshulme.org.uk/school-uniform/

When do we bring our reading books and reading records in?

Book bags will be sent home with a new reading book and reading for pleasure book every Friday. This is a book to share with the family and discuss together. It is a great opportunity to build a love of reading together. Please ensure book bags are brought in each Thursday.

The children should keep their reading records up to date and will be expected to bring them, and their reading book, in every day even if they have not finished their book. This will allow us to monitor how much your child is reading at home. We would like parents listen to their child read, initial their reading record and to discuss their book with them at least once a week. We expect your child to read for a minimum of 20 minutes each evening. This will really help them to make good progress in all aspects of the curriculum.

What is our home learning offer and when is our home learning due in?

Every week:

Spelling - 10 minutes practice every night – pupils learning of their spellings will be done daily during phonics. 

Reading - 20 minutes every night – reading record check will be on a Friday

Sticky Questions – sent home for discussion on Monday, discussion in class every Friday

Additional home learning may be set to support learning - particularly in preparation for SATs.

Useful information:

TENTEN PARENT PORTAL DETAILS

• Parent portal leaflet.pdf

• https://www.topmarks.co.uk/
• https://www.thenational.academy/teachers/programmes/english-primary-ks1/units?category=grammar&year=year-2
• https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/
• Dance Mat Typing Learn to type the fun way!