Year 2
Year 2 Black History Poetry Performance at St. Helen’s
This week, Year 2 took a special trip to St. Helen’s where they performed a poem celebrating the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela as part of Black History Month. The children delivered their performance with confidence, enthusiasm, and expression, making us all incredibly proud. Their hard work and brilliant presentation were met with warm applause and admiration from the audience. Well done, Year 2!
Year 2 lead their own 'Noah Day' in R.E
This half term, Year 2 have been deepening their knowledge and understanding of the Gospel of Luke and the Noah story, by exploring the effects of ‘sin’ on our relationship with God and how Noah was a beacon of hope to the world. In this lesson, the children led their own ‘Noah Day’ prayer and liturgy session and were later tasked with considering how they could show care for God’s world in their own lives, on this occasion, by litter-picking!
Year 2 Explore Place Value with Hands-On Learning in Maths
This half term, our Year 2 children have been deepening their understanding of Place Value through practical, hands-on activities using a range of concrete resources, including base ten blocks, place value charts, number lines, and counters. These tools help bring numbers to life and support children in visualising how digits represent tens and ones.
Children have been working on:
Recognising the value of each digit in a two-digit number.
Partitioning numbers into tens and ones.
Comparing and ordering numbers up to 100.
Using mathematical language such as "greater than", "less than", and "equal to".
Year 2 learn about the Sacrament of Baptism in R.E.
As part of our topic, 'Covenant and Creation' in RE, the children learned about the Sacrament of Baptism. They explored what Baptism means and why it is important for Christians as a way of welcoming someone into the Church. The children were introduced to the symbols of Baptism and their meanings, and also learned about the different roles people play during a Baptism, including the parents, Godparents, priest or minister, and the church community. Through roleplay and the use of a child-friendly Rite of Baptism script, they were then encouraged to use the correct words and phrases used in a real Baptism.
Year 2 investigate whether a material can be changed in Science
As part of our Science topic 'Materials: What's it made of?', Year 2 have been busy investigating how materials can be changed by squashing, bending, twisting, and stretching. Using objects like Blu Tack, rubber bands, and foil, they tested which materials could change shape and which stayed the same.
Trip to Custom House Library
On Thursday 3rd July, our Year 2 children had an exciting trip to Custom House Library to kick off this year’s Summer Reading Challenge.
The theme for 2025 is “Story Garden”, which celebrates the magic of stories inspired by nature, gardens, and the great outdoors. Children were introduced to the challenge by the friendly library staff, who explained how to take part: simply read six books over the summer, collect fun stickers, and earn a special certificate and medal!
During the visit, the children:
Explored the library and learned how to borrow books
Signed up for the reading challenge and received their collector folders
Took part in a fun, hands-on coding activity inspired by storytelling
Enjoyed browsing books linked to this year’s nature-themed adventure
Listened to a story and shared their favourite book finds with friends
The children were full of enthusiasm and left inspired to keep reading throughout the summer holidays!
Maths Day in Year 2- 2.7.2025
Today, the whole school celebrated the importance of Maths with a special day dedicated to the subject. The classroom looked very colourful with our house team t-shirts as we came into school ready for a whole day of fun maths activities. The children in year 2 took part in a fun shape hunt, going around the classroom and playground to identify squares, rectangles, triangles and circles and also wrote some songs about Maths. In the afternoon, we had a house team maths challenge and even made towers out of sticks and blu-tac. The day helped us to appreciate Maths and enjoy the subject even more!
Caring for the World: Year 2 Reflects on 'Who is My Neighbour?'
On Wednesday 2nd July, CAFOD (Catholic Agency for Overseas Development) visited Year 2 to explore the theme "Who is my neighbour?" and help the children understand the global Christian community.
Through stories, videos, and activities, the students learned about CAFOD’s work in places affected by poverty, conflict, and disasters. The session emphasized that "neighbours" are not just those nearby but all people in need, no matter where they live.
The children reflected on Jesus' teaching to love and care for everyone, discussing how they can support their global neighbours through actions like prayer, fundraising, and kindness.
The visit was a meaningful opportunity for the students to connect their faith with real-world actions and understand the importance of helping others around the world.
Year 2 Sports Day
On Friday 27th June, the children at St Joachim’s took part in our annual sports day at Cundy Park. We demonstrated our wonderful team spirit by wearing the colours of our house teams and cheering on our friends. We took part in many sports games such as speed bounce, long distance run and the javelin throw. We all tried our very best and are very proud of ourselves. Although the St Theresa house won the cup for Key Stage 1, we are all truly winners!
Year Two at the Zoo!
To finalise our science learning on the topic ‘Animals and their Habitats’, the children in Year 2 went on an amazing trip to London Zoo. The weather was fabulous with the sun shining all day and the children saw many different animals from small frogs to sleeping lions and tall giraffes. We discussed the habitats that they live in and what it would be like in the wild. The children went to see the penguins at Penguin Beach and listened to a talk from the zoologist about their habitat. It was such a fun day full of great learning.
Year 2 Lourdes at Young V&A- 10.6.2025
For Arts Week, Year 2 Lourdes went on an exciting trip to the Young V&A Museum in Bethnal Green. We saw lots of different toys, sculptures and artwork including a village made from lots of doll’s houses. The trip was very interactive with opportunities to build with blocks, draw pictures and make shapes in sand. We all had a very fun time and learnt more about the different forms of creativity.
Year 2 - History of Flights
As part of our history topic 'How did we learn to fly?' Year 2 went on a trip to the RAF museum to see different planes throughout history. We had a workshop around the history of flight over the last 100 years and saw many different planes used within the Royal Air Force such as the Spitfire, the Lightning and the Red Arrow. It was amazing to see the size of some of the aircrafts and how they have changed over the years.
Year 2 make pizzas!- 2.4.2025
In our DT lessons this half term, we have been learning about food and nutrition. We have tasted different pizza toppings and designed our own pizza based on a brief. This week, we made our own pizzas by adding tomato sauce, sprinkling cheese and carefully cutting our toppings. Afterwards, we tasted them and evaluated them. We agreed that they were very tasty!
World Book Day (6.3.2025)
On Thursday, the whole school celebrated World Book Day. We dressed up as our favourite book characters including Harry Potter, the Gingerbread Man and Matilda. We discussed how importance reading is for the development of our imagination, visited the school library and watched the teachers perform a dramatic storytelling of the book ‘Monkey Puzzle’ by Julia Donaldson. In the afternoon, we listened to teachers reading their favourite stories, took part in lots of fun book themed activities and read with the children in Year 6. It was a very fun day!
Year 2 Lourdes History Day
On Thursday (30.1.2025), the whole school took part in a fun historical themed day based on their learning. In Year 2, we dressed up as Kings and Queens and took part in different activities based on our topic ‘Monarchs’. We placed kings and queens on a timeline in chronological order, wrote a diary entry as William the Conqueror and even designed our own castles, ensuring that we used all of the features to make it strong and easy to defend. In the afternoon, we were royal portrait artists and used watercolour to create portraits of different kings and queens in British history.
Year 2 Lourdes Fairy Tale Trip!
On Tuesday (4.2.2025), Year 2 went on an exciting trip to Shrek’s Adventures as part of their English learning about fairy tales. The children met different fairy tales characters such as Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and the evil Rumpelstiltskin. The children had to escape him and his mean witches by taking part in different challenges, taking items to the Muffin Man for a potion and asking Shrek for help. After all of this excitement, the children took part in a workshop where they learnt even more about the features of a fairy tale such as the structure of a story and the characters within them. It was a Shrek-cellent day!
Year 2 Lourdes at Westminster Abbey
To conclude our History learning on monarchs, we visited Westminster Abbey. This is the church where all of the coronations took place including William the Conqueror on Christmas Day in 1066. We saw the coronation chair, lots of portraits of monarchs through history and even the tombs of Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Mary I. It was a great way to finalise our learning.
Maths
Year 2 have been learning about Money. In this lesson, they were making the same amount in different ways. They used concrete resources to support their learning before moving on to pictorial and then abstract questions.
RE
As part of our learning for this term’s RE topic, ‘Galilee to Jerusalem,’ we had the opportunity to deepen our knowledge of John the Baptist. After reading Luke 3:2-6 and 10-17, we watched a short animation of John the Baptist’s life from Jesus the Storybook Bible. After discussing some tricky words that we encountered and a quiet reflection, we split up into groups to retell the story of John the Baptist’s life and the baptism of Jesus, in a variety of ways.
Science
As part of our learning for Science 'Animals Including Humans: Growing Up and Staying Healthy', we learned about how animals, including humans, have offspring that grow into adults, identifying and classifying them. We then worked in small groups to match, sort and group young animals and their adults.
Year 2 Lourdes investigate local habitats- 10.12.2024
This week as part of our Geography learning, Year 2 have been answering the following question: 'Why are natural habitats so special?'. To answer this question, the children went to King George V Park to identify different plants and animals within their habitats. Despite many animals and insects hibernating in the winter, the children found lots of snails, worms and parakeets in the trees. The children completed a tally chart to count the total of animals and plants that they had seen. We came to the conclusion that natural habitats are important homes to many species and that we should do our very best to look after them.
Year 2 investigate materials- 25.11.2024
This week in science, we have been learning about materials and whether they are transparent, translucent or opaque. We learnt that with transparent materials, we can see through it but with opaque materials, nothing can be seen through. In groups, we tested lots of different materials such as paper, clingfilm, wood and felt using a torch to test whether they were transparent, translucent or opaque. Once we had tested each material, we had to decide which would be suitable for curtains. We decided that the opaque material would be the most suitable as it would block the sunlight from coming through the window, but would also stop people from being able to see inside.
Year 2 Maths – 18.9.2024
In Maths, we have been learning about place value and part-whole models. We discussed how part-whole models can be used to partition numbers into a variety of different ways. We investigated flexibly partitioning numbers by using part-whole models and base 10’s.
Year 2 learn to sew in D&T
This week, Year 2 learnt how to sew a running stitch, in preparation for an upcoming lesson where they will be making a finger puppet. We now have some very keen sewists!
Year 2 - Can I retell the Annunciation of Jesus? - 6/11/24
Today, we learnt about the Annunciation of Jesus. After watching a short video, we discussed all the things we wondered about the Holy Spirit and how Mary might have felt. We then listened to a version of the story from the Gospel of Luke and clarified words we didn’t understand. Then we got into a circle on the carpet and performed a Godly play of the Annunciation. To end the lesson, reflected quietly on some ‘I wonder’ questions.
Year 2 Trip to Gunnersbury- 23.4.2024
To commence Science Week, the children in Year 2 went on an exciting trip to Gunnersbury Park and Museum. The children took part in a Science and Storytelling workshop where they heard an entertaining story about a young girl who lived in the house with her cousins and wanted to become a mini-beast. Once she landed on a lily pad, her wish came true! After the story, the children went on a nature walk around the park. They found different mini-beasts and observed them in their habitats. The children saw frogs, spiders, caterpillars, beetles and tadpoles.
Year 2 Lourdes make pizzas! - 20.4.2024
This half term, our DT topic has been Perfect Pizzas. We have researched the ingredients for a pizza, tasted different toppings and discussed our favourite pizzas. We then designed a pizza and made it in class. The children had to roll the dough and add the tomato sauce, cheese and different toppings. Afterwards, the children enjoyed tasting and evaluating their food.
Maths in Action- 15.3.2024
For our Maths lesson, Year 2 Lourdes went on a trip to the Olympic Park in Stratford. The children took part in many outdoor Maths activities. They walked around the park and had to count the amount of bicycles, benches and dogs that they could find and create a tally chart. Afterwards, the children looked at the London Stadium and identified the different shapes and finally, the children went on a walk along the River Lea, creating a bar chart of the different birds.
This half term, Y2W had the opportunity to go the Olympic Park as part ‘Maths in Action’. They were challenged to take a tally of objects around the South of the Park, identify lines of symmetry and shapes on the stadium and estimate the size of Here East.
They thoroughly enjoyed the outdoor activities!
Year 2 Lourdes Spring Term Reflection
As we prepare for our Easter holidays, the children in Year 2 Lourdes have been reflecting our favourite moments. From the Citizenship project in January where we learnt all about Stevie Wonder and had a swap day with Helens to our swimming lessons at Newham Leisure centre. We have enjoyed some fun trips including the Science Museum and the Olympic Park. We have also enjoyed our two English projects, the classic poetry project and the classic mysteries project and participated in lots of assemblies. We are very much looking forward to what the summer term has to offer.
Year 2 Lourdes- World Book Day! 7.3.2024
Year 2 thoroughly enjoyed World Book Day on Thursday. Children were dressed up as their favourite book characters as they had the opportunity to visit the school library, read with Nursery children and watch all of the EYFS and Key Stage 1 teachers perform The Gruffalo. They engaged in many fun book based activities.
Year 2 Trip to the Science Museum- 5.3.2024
For our Humanities topic ‘Communication: Then and Now’, the children in Year 2 were very lucky to go to the Science Museum and look around the ‘Information Age’ section. In this part of the museum, they got to see many different forms of communication such a telephones, computers, radio and satellites. They looked at many artefacts including a model of a switchboard and a radio transmitter, and discussed how communication has changed over time.
Year 2 visit to St Helen’s 10.01.24
This week, as part of our Citizenship Project on Equal Opportunities, Year 2 went on a KS1 swap day to St Helen’s. The children split into different groups and took part in lots of fun activities. Each activity was based on different disabilities such as a sensory circuit, blindfolded taste test and blindfolded obstacle course. The children also had a special assembly with a visual impairment teacher who spoke to the children about Braille and the resources that visually impaired children need in school to help them to learn. The children made lots of new friends and learnt about different disabilities.
