Welcome to Year 2! Your child has now entered an important stage of their primary school experience: Year 2 is for children 6 – 7 years old, and is the last year of Key Stage 1. The final year of KS1 will see your child being encouraged to work more independently. At this age, most children will have improved their ability to coordinate movement and their speech will be increasingly complex and grammatically correct, so it’s an exciting year for children, parents and teachers. This guide will help you to understand what your child will be learning.
What will my child do in Year 2?
- Developing literacy skills
In English, the children will continue to work on the phonics they started in Year 1, aiming to read words by sight without having to sound them out. They will learn further spelling patterns and rules, and begin to apply those in their writing. They will look at the, homophones and suffixes.
There will be a more detailed focus on handwriting, with children encouraged to form their letters correctly, learn which letters are to be joined and make letters a consistent size. Children will learn to write for a range of purposes.
- Grammar
Grammar is a hot topic in Year 2! Children this age are expected to understand the following terms, to be able to spot them in their reading and apply them in their writing:
Noun, adjective, adverb, suffix, past tense, present tense, command, capital letter, full stop, question mark, exclamation mark, compound sentence.
3. Reading
In Year 2, your child will be building up a range of reading skills. They should have strong phonics knowledge and growing comprehension skills, which will help them read more broadly, confidently, and fluently.
What your child will learn
- Read most words quickly and accurately
Your child will have had lots of practice with reading. This will mean that most children will not need to sound out and blend the sounds in most words. Instead, they will read the word quickly because they have come across it many times.
Of course, there will still be unfamiliar words that still need to be decoded carefully. These include less-common words, names, and words that children are reading for the first time.
2. Read some books out loud
Your child should have a good knowledge of how phonics works. Together with tricky words they can recognise on sight, this means that they will be able to read books at the right level independently, sounding out unfamiliar words with confidence.
Your child will also have the chance to listen to lots of other books that they can’t read on their own yet, building their understanding and enjoyment.
3. understand the books they read and listen to
The children will develop their comprehension by:
- drawing on what they already know or using information provided by their teacher
- checking that the text makes sense to them as they read and correcting inaccurate reading
- Talking about events in stories and why stories have the titles they do
- Making connections based on what is said and done in a story
- Predicting what might happen next in a story based on what has been read so far.
- Maths
Mathematics in Year 2 focuses on the 2, 5, and 10 times tables, and they will learn multiplication and division facts for these.
By the end of Year 2, pupils will be expected to know the number bonds to 20 and be precise in using place value.
Much of their learning will come from exploring with objects to solve problems practically.
What your child will learn
- Addition & subtraction
Children are expected to be able to solve addition and subtraction problems using numbers with one and two digits. This includes:
- knowing and using addition and subtraction facts up to 20 and working out related addition and subtraction facts to 100
- adding and subtracting numbers using objects, pictures and drawings, and also solving these problems mentally
- understanding that addition and subtraction have an inverse relationship, i.e., they undo each other, and using this to check their calculations.
2. Multiplication & division
Children are expected to use a range of methods to solve multiplication and division problems, including using practical resources and mental methods. This includes:
- Knowing and using multiplication and division facts for the 2, 5 and 10 times tables
- Recognising and identifying odd and even numbers
Using the symbols ×, ÷ and = to record multiplication and division calculations.
3. Science
Science in Year 2 is engaging and fun. Expect your child to learn about living things and their habitats, plants, animals (including humans), and uses of everyday materials. They will also learn how to work scientifically, how to observe closely, and how to record their observations.
