Year 2 Term 1 Newsletter

Meet the teaching team

2A - Amanda Price 

2B - Penelope Silva 

Welcome to Term 1

The Year 2 students have made a great start to the year at Cheltenham East Primary School (CEPS)! We are enjoying hearing about their wonderful holidays and connecting with each student. 

 Specialist Timetable

Important Dates

17/02: Whole School Photo Day

23/02: Curriculum Day

27/02: Community Picnic

09/03: Labour Day—Public Holiday

02/04: Last Day of Term- 2:30 dismissal

Parent Helpers

At CEPS we highly value working as a whole community and encourage the participation and involvement of our families. Our Year 2 Team will be looking for helpers on excursions and incursions. Please look out on Dojo for opportunities to help.

When helping with the children at CEPS, it is required that you wear a Working With Children’s Check (WWCC) displayed on a lanyard at all times. 

If you have not got a WWCC and wish to volunteer, 

application forms can be found online at:

www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au

Remember to sign in each day you volunteer at CEPS via the computer at the office. This is a mandatory requirement. You will also be required to sign out. 

Teaching and Learning

English

Speaking & Listening 

Students will be given opportunities in both informal and formal situations to develop their speaking skills. They will develop their listening skills through presentations by other students and be able to recall the main ideas of the information presented. 

Writing

This term, we are focusing on writing personal recounts and information reports. Students will explore the structure and language features of these text types. They will develop skills to structure both simple and compound sentences correctly and add details and description to engage the reader. In addition, students will focus on using basic punctuation correctly and employ strategies to spell unfamiliar words.

Reading

Students reading skills will be developed through our daily phonics activities, comprehension sessions and reading activities. Students will practice strategies to improve their reading accuracy and develop fluency and expression when reading aloud. This term, students will revise and build on the phonemes (sounds) taught in year 1 to ensure automatic recognition and recall. Our comprehension lessons will focus on retelling stories, sequencing events, visualising and making predictions.

Mathematics

Our Maths sessions in Year 2 will focus on developing strong number fluency through explicit teaching and structured practice. Students will build their understanding through guided instruction, independent work and small‑group activities that reinforce key skills.

This term, our Number and Algebra focus will begin with counting and patterns, supporting students to confidently sequence numbers and skip count. We will then move into Place Value to help students recognise, model, read and order numbers. Students will also develop their addition and subtraction strategies, building accuracy and confidence when working with numbers. In Measurement, students will learn to read, interpret and use calendars, as well as tell time using both analogue and digital clocks. 

Humanities

This term, the students will develop an understanding of Australia as the country we live in. They will locate states and territories, oceans and seas and famous landmarks. We will explore Indigenous Australia and the importance of country and place to them.

Wellbeing

CEPS VALUES

COURTESY    RESPECT    CO-OPERATION    RESPONSIBILITY 

Each week all classes will engage in 'The Respectful Relationships Sessions' as well as discuss our CEPS Skill of the Week. These lessons will encourage the development of skills that promote our school values and the positive and personal growth of all students. GROWTH MINDSET: This Term the students will explore ways that they can change their thinking from ‘I can’t do it yet but I can get there’. We will be looking closely at the power of ‘Yet’ and we will develop strategies to overcome difficulties in their learning and build on their resilience and positive outlook.

In Year 2 we continue to give out weekly awards on a Friday afternoon assembly for students who have displayed the CEPS values.

Supporting learning from home

Please ensure that you are reading with your child every night. Students can read books of their own choice or an unlevelled reader from school. Take time to ask your child questions about the text to ensure that they are reading for meaning. Students will practise their weekly poem each night and complete any mathletics tasks set for them by their teacher. 

Communication

You are welcome to contact your classroom teacher via email through Compass. Whilst families are navigating the transition to Compass, we are also still using Dojo for messages between parents and teachers at this stage. This is likely to be phased out at some stage this year. We are also still currently using Dojo to share learning updates from our classrooms.

With that said, you are always more than welcome to pop into the classroom before or after school if you have any queries or concerns. 

Whilst we endeavour to get back to you promptly, please understand that we are often unable to check these messages until after 3:30pm. If you need an important message to be passed on to your child, we ask that you communicate this via the office (e.g. to advise that your child will be collected early or by another family member). The office will then pass the message on to your child's classroom teacher.

Compass: Compass is the formal tool for communication regarding attendance, payments, excursions, camps, permission forms, school reports, etc.

Please use Compass to advise the school in a timely manner of all student absences.

Early Pick Up: If you need to pick up your child early, please collect them from the office area and be sure to sign them out. You will require an Early Leaver's Pass, provided by the office staff, before we are able to dismiss students. 

You can also keep up-to-date by using the school website and weekly newsletters:  http://www.cheltenhameast.vic.edu.au