What to expect going into Y2?

[Jilko]

Hi all,

DD1 is currently in Y1 and doing really well. She'll be six next month and generally loves school. I'm just interested in what to expect going into Y2. She is at an infant school, so it will be her final year at that school. Is there anything I can do with her during the Summer to prepare for anything new etc...

What about the workload? Does it stay at a similar level?

She has always been a strong reader, and we'll be keeping that up during the holidays, especially reading her own books, and she'll do the library Summer Reading Challenge as usual. Her maths is coming along fine, she loves to practise although it's not up there with her reading quite yet

TIA

It's a very smooth transition, except that they have less 'carpet' time and more time is spent sitting at a desk. The teacher might also differentiate more between pupils. There is a little bit more structure and the children have to listen for longer period of times. They will start doing more 'chunky' maths, times tables, etc. so it's nice to have games such as maths bingo, and start to explain multiplication. We have a poster with times tables stuck to the fridge and it helped the kids not to be 'scared' about it when they'd see it at school. Reading lots of facts books is also useful and different from the usual fiction books at schools. The books 100 Facts About are great. It's anything about Romans, reptiles, the planets, etc.

Agree with rocketjam that there seems to be more differentiation/ setting of tables in Y2 - but this may also be because children become increasingly aware that red table/ blue table/ etc... convey meaning now.

Campaign for real education has some descriptions of what notionally, in an ideal world, should be covered in Year 2 by areas of curriculum here: www.cre.org.uk/primary_contents.html

HTH

DC's infants school also encouraged more independence e.g. children being able to sort out their own belongings, pick their own reading books, remember simple messages home.

Thanks all, that is really helpful. She loves fact books, although hardly ever gets them from school. She likes the Usborne Beginners books and has a few already, I've ordered a couple more for her birthday. The 100 Facts book sounds like something she'd enjoy too.

I was wondering when they started times tables, the poster idea is good as long as I keep it out of reach of DD2 (2)

She's always been quite independent so should be fine with that.

Thanks PastSellByDate I'll go and have a look at that website now.

We got a bit more structured homework (still once a week over the weekend) and also the holiday homework was more than just an arts project.

Lots of research for the next topic like "make a fact poster of your favourite animal".

The teacher prompt them less with regards to giving her letters or other notes from the parent. The school (Infant as well) has a system of helpers where the Y2 children do certain jobs for one half term, DD has corridor tidying at the moment. They are also asked to keep an eye on the reception children, not a full buddy system but just making sure they don't get lost, help them on the playground and so on.

During lessons they sit a lot more on the table, have dedicated writing, phonics and maths lessons in the morning.

DD thrived on the more formal schooling, I think she felt a bit lost in the playorientated Reception but I heard from other parents that the children missed the free time a lot.

But despite that the Y1 teacher already pulled a stricter Summer term DD was exhausted in September/October.

I'm surprised they aren't already doing 'times tables' in Yr1 - maybe they do it in such a subtle way she hasn't even noticed!

Data collection and producing charts, graphs etc is a useful and easy activity for home - tally and record numbers of items of own choice, including interviewing family or friends for likes/dislikes and charting results.

Re non-fiction books: schools I've worked in usually have a library book choice, in addition to any reading scheme books or other fiction the child is allocated or chooses. Schools vary greatly in how rigid/flexible they are on child-chosen or staff-alllocated books. A book from the school library can often be retained as long as the child wishes. Some flexible schools nurture a love of reading and books in pupils, while other rigid ones ("Read EVERY book in a 'level' before moving on"!) seem to do all they can to DISCOURAGE enjoyment of reading!