At Primrose Hill we believe that a quality English curriculum should develop children’s love of reading, writing and oracy. A key priority is teaching children to read, enabling them to both read for pleasure but also learn, understand and unlock the world around them through comprehension. We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children are engaged and take pride in their writing, can write clearly and accurately and use vocabulary and ideas from reading to enhance their writing. We recognise the valuable contribution parents make to their child’s reading development. Children at Primrose Hill will bring home individual reading books which will be changed in a regular age appropriate way as well as a read aloud at home text. The read aloud at home texts are intended to be shared with your child (either read to your child or with them) to develop their love of reading.
Children in Year 2 read books from the Floppy's Phonics systematic, synthetic phonics programme we follow across school and other books from the Oxford Reading Tree scheme. Books within this scheme are pitched at the child's level. The vocabulary within these books support the children to explore new words and encourage them to use this new vocabulary within their writing. The scheme is systematic and children will move through the scheme. We highly encourage children to read their book more than once before changing it. This allows for new vocabulary to be absorbed and fluency of reading to improve. Teachers are continually assessing children within reading to determine when they should move on.
Children in 2K have the chance to have their book changed once a week, this will be on your childs allocated reading day. We will monitor the regularity with which children change their books so we can ensure they have every opportunity to make progress with their reading. If you have any questions or comments about your child's reading, or their reading book, you can jot these in the accompanying home-school reading diary and one of the teachers will respond as soon as possible.
We will also be sending home a 'Read Aloud at Home' book each half term. This will be a longer novel type book for you to read with your child. This will usually be pitched above their reading level but is there to expand their knowledge of stories and more advanced texts. This books is a really useful resource to get the whole family reading. Our children really love reading these books at home and then talking about the story in class. We hope you enjoy this resource
All teachers at Primrose Hill highly value the positive contribution that parents make and the support they provide for their child’s education. We are keen to ensure that weekly homework is focussed on developing key skills, knowledge and understanding in Reading, Writing and Maths. School has invested heavily in many online learning platforms which you will be familiar with and we are keen to utilise these to support children in their development of key skills. We also acknowledge the importance of children being able to complete their homework independently and recognise that time limitations are a factor for many of our families when completing homework. Children will be set age appropriate online learning tasks weekly by their teacher. If children are unable to complete these at home, provision will be made for them to be completed in school. A half termly Learning Log task will be sent home at the end of each half term which provides the opportunity for children to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of their topic in a creative way.
Have a look in the gallery sections of the 'Our Learning' page to see some examples of what children have been getting up to as part of their home learning.
In 2K we do PE on Monday mornings. The sessions take place both indoor and outside so it is essential children have the correct kit in order to participate fully. Your child will need navy blue shorts and a white tee-shirt, pumps or trainers which are substantial enough for both indoor and outdoor use. We also recommend children have tracksuit bottoms and jumper in their PE bag during the colder months so that they are prepared to go outside when required.