DT's going into Year 2 - am completely clueless, what do I need to know?

[rosbif]

Hi
We are moving back from France to the UK for two years. DT's who are now 6, but will be going into Year 2 in the UK due to their birthday date, are completely bilingual but not biliterate. I think they may find it tough going at first but they are starting to read in English and it is going well. Sorry to be so clueless but could anyone please give me an indication of what level they should be at before entering year 2? I would like to help them as much as possible with English and maths though I think they should be okay with the latter. Also, trivial question but what do I need to provide in terms of pens etc in general? Many thanks

[pigsinmud]

At dd1's school they don't need any equipment at all - school goes up to end of year 3. When my boys moved to their current school (yr4) they needed pens etc..

As for level - well I wouldn't worry. There is usually a huge spectrum of abilities. In ds2's year a Polish girl arrived in yr2 - she spoke and read no english. At the end of yr 3 you would never have know she was Polish!

[FluffyHamster]

Do you mean that they will be joining Year2 in Sept09, or coming back now into Year 2?

DS2 is in Year 2 now. He is very young in year, and I wanted to be sure he knew all the stuff that he 'should' according to the curriculum for his age.

I found this school site really useful, as it has weekly downloadable homework sheets which give a good indication of what they are studying:

RippleInfants

Reading 'ages' for this year group vary widely, and as schilke says, I wouldn't worry too much. But if you wanted to have a look at the sorts of reading books then our class seems to have readers at levels between level 6-12 on the Oxford Reading Tree: ORT chart

hope this helps!

[rosbif]

Thanks for your very helpful replies. they will be going into year 2 having already done most of this is French in their class this year (the school cut of in France is Jan-Dec not Sept to Aug as in the UK). Thanks again

[lljkk]

School will provide pencils & paper.
The range of ability in Y2 will be huge. Some children struggling to read "Deb is sad", others browsing Harry Potter.
The rules and conventions, which are specific to each school, will be the biggest change.