Year 2 - Fox Class

5 June 26 - Architecture

Last half term we were learning about architecture. We designed our own building based on the buildings and architects we learned about, and then built it with recycled items that children brought from home.

22 May 2026 - Nature Area

We sheltered from the heat in the nature area, and did our art in the shade. We were designing a building using our research of architects including Hundertwasser.

15 May 2026 - Kew Gardens

We had a fabulous trip to Kew Gardens today! It supported our recent science lessons of how plants grow, and we managed to find out all about plants in deserts and rainforests.

8 May - BeeBots

In our computing lessons we have been using BeeBots. This week we designed a map and then tried to navigate the BeeBot to different places on the map.

1 May 2026 - Nature Area

We had a great afternoon in the nature area this afternoon. We made the most of the lovely weather and got outside for our science lesson on plants. We all planted a range of seeds and we will watch them grow (hopefully) over the next few weeks!

We also got the chance to explore the nature area and found some very interesting minibeasts!

24 April 2026 - OPAL

Our children are thriving during OPAL playtimes! From riding scooters to creating their own games, the playground is full of energy, teamwork, and joy.

It’s been fantastic to see children collaborating across year groups, building confidence, resilience, and a real love of outdoor play.

17 April 2026 - Nature Area

We visited our nature area today to observe some of the changes since we have last been. Some trees have been planted down the side and we have some lovely little tadpoles growing in our pond.

27 March 2026 - Easter

We've reached the end of another term! We had a great time today, showing off our Easter bonnets. Thanks for all your support this term. Have a lovely break!

20 March 2026 - D&T

This week, Fox Class enjoyed making sandwiches in D&T. The children developed their food preparation skills by practising chopping, grating and slicing ingredients safely and carefully before creating their own healthy sandwiches. They showed great enthusiasm, creativity and teamwork throughout the activity

13 March 2026 - Computing

In computing this week we have been thinking about how we can use technology to take photographs and what a good photo looks like.

6 March 2026 - World Book Day

We had a great time on World Book Day. We dressed in some wonderful clothing from the wide variety of cultures that we have in our school and read books from around the world.

27 February 2026 - Mole class

This week, Mole class chose to share their writing with us. A few weeks ago we read with Hedgehog class, and the fact that Mole have chosen us too is a sign of how wonderfully kind and welcoming the class was to Hedgehogs.

It was once again lovely to see how positive and nurturing the class could be with the younger children.

6 February 2026 - Athlete

On Tuesday we were lucky to have Commonwealth Games gold medallist Steve Frew inspiring us and putting us through our paces.

We started off with an exercise session in which we all worked our hardest and supported each other, we listened to an assembly to find out all about the challenges he faced and overcame on his way to success. It was a great day.

30 January 2026 - Reception

The reception classes have been working so hard on their writing and in Fox class we were lucky that they chose to share their work with us! We read their stories and wrote encouraging notes to let them know how impressed we were with their work. Fox class got the chance to show kindness and care to younger children, and everyone left feeling very happy!

23 January 2026 - Assembly

Thank you to everyone who came to our sharing assembly! We are proud of our hard work and we love sharing it with you.

16 January 2026 - Messages

This week we have been writing messages in all sorts of ways - including letters, postcards and texts. We also wrote an email, and thought that we should do it on the laptops so we can practice our typing at the same time, which was a great experience.

9 January 2026 - Ruby

We are so lucky to have Ruby, our school dog. We love it when she visits us in class or out on the playground!

28 November 2025 - Anti Bullying assembly

This week Fox Class took part in a powerful Anti Bullying assembly and workshop, helping them to recognise what bullying looks and feels like and understand that unkind behaviour is never acceptable. Through discussions, role play and teamwork, they explored the importance of speaking up, supporting others and choosing kindness.

7 November 2025 - Parking

This week Hertfordshire County Council came in to teach us all about where cars should and should not park and why.

17 October 2025 - Sharing Assembly

A big thank you to everyone who was able to come to our sharing assembly today!

It's so wonderful to have your support and I'm sure you'll agree the children all did brilliantly to stand up and speak in front of so many people!

10 October 2025 - Ghosts

We've been writing instructions about how to take care of a ghost - based on How to Make Friends With a Ghost by Rebecca Green.

3 October 2025 - Nature area

This week we ventured over to the nature area to explore and see what we could find. We hunted under logs and found a number of creepy crawlies making their home!

26 September 2025 - Design and Technology

In Design and Technology we have been learning about wheels and axels. This week we had explored how we could connect the wheel and the axel to a frame, ensuring that the wheels could spin.

19 September 2025 - The Frog and the Stranger

Fox Class have enjoyed planning, creating and sharing their very own stories in English inspired by The Frog and the Stranger by Max Velthuijs.

12 September 2025 - Building towers

We've been growing our team skills by building towers. We chose to challenge ourselves in different ways - from creative shapes to the tallest tower.

4 July 2025 - Architecture

This week we finished off our art topic on architecture by creating junk modelled buildings.

The children had earlier designed a building in their sketch book, and some took inspiration from buildings we had studied in London, or the work of Austrian architect Freidensreich Hundertwasser.

20 June 2025 - Class trips

We had a lovely time at two trips this week.

On Monday we learned how authors invent their characters in the Roald Dahl museum.

On Friday we visited Kew Gardens to explore how plants adapt to different climates.

13 June 2025 - Nite Owls

This week Year 2 enjoyed an informative assembly led by the 'Nite Owls'

9 May 2025 - Architecture

This week in Year 2 we have begun learning about architecture. We sketched some famous landmarks by looking closely at the shapes, lines and pattern we could see.

2 May 2025 - North Watford Jamia Mosque

Year 2 visited the North Watford Jamia Mosque where we were given a tour by the Imaam Saleem. The children really enjoyed the opportunity to have an authentic experience at the Mosque and to ask the Imaam Saleem questions.

25 April 2025 - Julian is a Mermaid

Year two have begun reading Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love. The Children have marvelled the beautiful illustrations and enjoyed the powerful, inclusive and imaginative narrative.

21 March 2025 - St Albans Abbey

We had a great trip to St Albans Abbey this week.

In Geography we have been learning that having a cathedral contributed to St Albans becoming a city, so it was great seeing it up close.

We were all amazed by how it looked, and were able to learn more about the Easter story.

14 March 2025 - Computing

In computing, Fox class have been learning about digital photography.

This week we took iPads outside to practice our skills and to think about how the subject changes whether a photo should be taken in portrait or landscape.

7 March 2025 - Book Week

We had a great time during Book Week. We spent the week telling and hearing stories, and on World Book Day we dressed in our PJs to have a 'bedtime story' in the hall, read to children from Reception classes, and retold fairy stories on our own version of 'Fox News'.

28 February 2025 - NSPCC

We had the NSPCC in this week to talk to the children about staying safe.

The children discussed who their trusted adults are, and when they might need to speak to them.

14 February 2025 - Rock Steady

We were lucky enough to have a visit from Rock Steady this week. We had a whole morning listening to fantastic music and learning to play instruments. We even created a Parkgate band.

Remember to sign up on the Rock Steady website if your child would like to take part in the Rock Steady weekly sessions!

24 January 2025 - Measurements

Today we compared measures of length and considered what objects we would measure in centimetres and what objects we would measure in metres.

We used rulers and metre sticks to judge which one would be most suitable for various classroom objects.

17 January 2025 - Royal College of Music

This week the children thoroughly enjoyed an engaging session with the Royal College of Music. The children thought carefully about the music they could hear and they even learnt how to read music!

10 January 2025 - Computing

This term in computing we are learning how to create music using technology.

We are using an online resource called Chrome Music Lab to experiment with sound.

This week we used a programme which allowed us to draw pictures, which then created sound once they were drawn. We were able to attempt to create different pictures to make different sounds before joining them together and listening to the results.

29 November 2024 - Characters

This week in English we created characters for a story. We created a character map with the character's name, and 4 important aspects of the character's personality, before drawing the character.

22 November 2024 - Great Fire of London

This week Year 2 took part in a livestream with London Museum! Led by Great Fire of London expert Meriel Jeater, a curator at London Museum, the children had the opportunity to ask Meriel Jeater questions and they enjoyed playing some true or false myth-buster games.!

8 November 2024 - Art

Today in Art we were creating art using materials from our environment.

We learned about artists who use rocks they've collected, or old bits of smooth glass that they've collected from riverbanks and beaches.

We ventured into the playground to collect materials, before using them to create pictures in the classroom.

20 September 2024 - Wheels and axels

We had a great time today learning about wheels and axels. We were given scrap paper on our tables and told that we needed to create working wheels and axels. With no other instructions, we had to be very creative, and we came up with all sorts of different designs which we then discussed as a class.

13 September 2024 - The Frog and the Stranger

We've been reading a lovely book called The Frog and the Stranger. We wrote our own version of an event in the book where one of the characters accidentally started a fire. We imagined what distracted Pig from cooking in order for the fire to start.

6 September 2024 - Year 2 expectations

What a fantastic first week back. We have quickly settled into our routine and are getting used to the high expectations in Year 2. We understand that we are role models to the rest of the school and so our behaviour needs to show everyone else what to do.

We signed our name underneath the school Golden Rules to show that we agree to follow them.

21 June 2024 - Scratch Jr.app

This week in Fox class we have been working on the Scratch Jr. app on our ipads in Computing. We learnt how to use code to make our sprite 'Cat' move, say the names of all the seasons with a speech bubble and change the background as the season names appear!

14 June 2024 - Writing Instructions

This week Fox class have been looking at writing detailed instructions. We wrote instructions about how to brush your teeth earlier in the week and then we wrote detailed instructions on how to wash our very own school's learning behaviour animal - Resilient Rabbit! We wrote about the things we would need for bath time and how to give our rabbit a relaxing gentle bath using a variety of adverbs and descriptions.

24 May 2024 - Ark Farm

The talk of this week was the visit of Ark Farm.

We braved the mud and a little rain to meet a variety of farm animals, including donkeys, goats, sheep and ducks.

This linked to our Autumn science learning on animals, and was also a thoroughly love way of rounding off the term.

10 May 2024 - Architects

We have been drawing architectural plans to create a house based on some buildings and architects that we have been learning about.

Today the children used a range of materials to put their plan into action.

15 March 2024 - Making Pizza

This week we followed up last week’s chopping session by making pizzas! More chopping was required for the peppers, as well as lots of grating cheese. They listened really well to instructions and picked up some valuable cooking skills. I’m sure you can all expect breakfast in bed very soon.

8 March 2024 - Design & Technology - Cooking

Our Design & Technology topic this term is cooking, and this week we were honing our skills in chopping and peeling. Children all had a turn at chopping cucumber with safety knives – focusing on holding the cucumber safely, with fingers out of the way. They also peeled carrots – again keeping fingers out of the way and peeling away from our bodies.

1 March 2024 - The Magic Paintbrush

This week we read a book called ‘The Magic Paintbrush’ in English. It is about a girl who has a magic paintbrush, and anything she paints becomes real.

We had a go at painting what we would create if we had a magic brush!

16 February 2024 - move like water

We've been practicing how to move like water this term, creating dances that look like different aquatic settings such as rivers, waterfalls and beaches.

This week the class tried moving in a way that resembled the open sea, with rocking boats, crashing waves and all sorts of sea creatures on display.

2 February 2024 - Number Day

We had number day on Friday, where we had a lovely day of number based activities to raise funds and awareness for NSPCC.

Here we enjoyed a board game which had addition and subtraction questions for us to work out on each square.

26 Jan 2024 - learning about music media

In computing we've been learning about music media.

This week we were using a music programme on Google to practice making different rhythms.

We really enjoyed listening to the different sounds and songs created.

If anyone would like to try it at home, the website is https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/Song-Maker

19 January 2024 - Florence Nightingale

This week in History we have been thinking about the changes Florence Nightingale made in hospitals and what conditions were like when she first arrived at the Crimean war.

We wrote a letter from Florence Nightingale to Queen Victoria to explain what happened

12 January 2024 - creating pencil sketches of animals

This week in art we were creating pencil sketches of animals.

We were focusing on what we could see instead of what we could imagine - we looked carefully at a picture, noticing details, lines and shadows and drew what we saw.

8 December 2023 - Feeling festive

We have been feeling ever so festive in the last couple of weeks.

Preparations for the play are going well and we can't wait for you to see it next week.

We have also been decorating our classroom space.

We have built a fireplace to hang our Christmas stockings over, and we have a Year 2 Christmas tree which was enthusiastically decorated by the children.

1 December 2023 - Reading Challenge Wall

Our reading challenge wall is filling up nicely and it is so wonderful to see so many proud faces holding the books they have enjoyed.

As a class we have read George's Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl, Kaspar Prince of Cats by Michael Morpurgo and we are currently reading a Planet Omar book. It is so important for the children to hear these fabulous stories to understand how authors write and to develop their own writer's voice.

Thank you so much for all the photos. Keep them coming so we can completely fill the wall!

24 November 2023 - Julian is a mermaid

Last week we started reading a beautifully illustrated book called 'Julian is a Mermaid' by Jessica Love.

In the story, Julian accidentally wrecks his Nana's living room when making himself a mermaid outfit.

We practiced our empathy by thinking about how Nana would be feeling and writing her an apology note.

We wrote a section apologising for what we had done wrong, then a section explaining why we had done it in the first place.

17 November 2023 - Interesting Sentences

This week in English we have been focussing on 'uplevelling' our sentences - adding parts to make them more interesting and descriptive. We learned about expanded noun phrases ('the dog' could become 'the tiny, timid dog') and the conjunctions 'because' and 'when'.

10 November 2023 - Playground Art

In art we have been learning about how some artists find inspiration from their environment.

This week we did the same, by exploring the playground to find materials to create our art from.

3 November 2023 - The Great Fire of London

This week we started our new history topic - the Great Fire of London.

We have been thinking about what life was like in London in 1666, and what was different about the buildings compared to London today. The children learned that in 1666 most buildings were built using lots of wood, that they were built close together and also that buildings were often wider at the top than at ground level.

20 October 2023 - Library Visit

We're at the end of our first half term and it has raced by!

We were lucky enough this week to have a trip to the local library. The library workers read us some stories, we looked around at the books and even wrote our own story in groups before walking back to school. Have a wonderful week.

13 October 2023 - Design & Technology

As many of you will have heard in sharing assembly, we have been using wheels and axels in our design & technology lessons.

Today we made a first draft of the vehicle that we will be making next week.

We made a tray from paper, and connected the wheels to a wooden stick which served as our axle. The children were then challenged to make their own axle holder which would keep the wheels in place, but allow them to spin around.

Next week they will build their final model using bottle tops for wheels, which they will be able to bring home.

6 October 2023 - Poetry

This week in English we have been reading and writing poetry. We wrote a class poem all about various colours by splitting into groups to create verses about individual colours.

We look forward to performing this poem at sharing assembly next week!

29 September 2023 - Rapunzel

This week we concluded our work on Rapunzel. We read two different versions of the story over the last couple of weeks and compared the two. We then wrote from Rapunzel’s point of view, about exploring a forest after escaping the tower.

15 September 2023 - Geography

In Fox class this week we started our Geography topic, learning about similarities and differences between London and Islamabad. We discussed human and physical features of each city and the importance of rivers.

We also looked at an ariel view of London and located some famous landmarks.

8 September 2023 - Settling into Year 2

In Fox class we have been settling into year 2 and practising the routines that will help us throughout the year. We have placed emphasis on being 'independent learners' and exploring the ways we can support ourselves before we ask for help.

In Maths we have been practising using manipulatives to support our addition to 20. In this activity we used bead strings to help us work out the calculations, before using the correct colours to decorate the picture.