Second Class Archives - Ennis National School

Second Class

Second Classes are located in the Red corridor upstairs, Rooms 29, 30 and 31. Class teachers for the current year are: Mr Seán Flanagan, Mr Ken Hickey and Ms Laura Hehir.

General Information & Communication

Parents can contact teachers for any class queries by sending a message through Aladdin Connect or emailing the school at info@ennisns.ie.
For administration queries, please send them to info@ennisns.ie
Parents can contact class teachers through the Seesaw App.
School starts at 8:50am
School finishes for Second class at 2:45pm.
Small break: 10.45am – 11.00am
Big breaks: 12.30pm – 1.10pm

Behaviour

All positive behaviour and effort is acknowledged and praised.
Group reward system will be in place where groups will earn points throughout the week. The group with the most points will get a reward on Friday.
Inappropriate behaviour is dealt with through non-verbal cues, proximity praise, verbal warning.

Homework

Homework should take no longer than 20- 30 minutes.

It must be checked and signed each night by a parent.
Please ensure homework headings are written up in advance, the children will be able to do this.
Oral work should be checked nightly – reading/spellings/tables
The child should be asked to spell each spelling word aloud. The child should read the library book aloud to an adult and discuss content. The child should be asked tables each night.

English

Guided Reading is a reading initiative that takes place throughout the year. The class will be spilt into different groups, and the class teacher alongside the SET teacher, will read with two groups whilst the other two groups work independently, thus allowing for differentiation.
All reading material sent home with your child should be read by the child themselves as it is graded and is repeated reading i.e They have already read it repeatedly in school.
In terms of grammar, the focus is on using capital letters, punctuation and re-reading their work to make sure it makes sense.
In Second Class, we introduce the children to joined handwriting.
Children will engage in transcription, dictation, formation and free writing throughout the year.

Maths

We encourage you to engage with your child in Maths concepts at home and out and about e.g time – o’ clock, half and quarter past, quarter to. Money – coins up to 2euro, recognising units of measure around us Example – metres, kilometres, grams, kilograms, millilitres and litres
Children must practise their tables each night for homework.
Your child will engage in hands on maths activities.
Children will also access the Mathletics program.

Gaeilge

The Gaeilge Curriculum is carried out fully in class through the Bua na Cáinte programme. It is combination of oral work, reading and writing. We will use the seesaw app to help with Irish reading Homework.

History, Geography & Science

Children will engage with SESE through a wide range of topics (Example – The Titanic, Anne Frank, European Countries, Counties of Ireland, materials, living and non-living things, seasons)

Visual Arts, Music & Drama

A variety of artists and their techniques are explored for art
The music programme will consist of range of songs, artists and music compositions.
Drama will be integrated through other subject areas: Gaeilge, SESE, English.
Christmas concert – Once a date for the Christmas Concert has been chosen, parents will be informed via a text from the class teacher.

Physical Education

Your child will partake in an hour of Physical Education each week.
We will cover a different strand of the curriculum each month.
Throughout the year hurling and football coaches will come to teach the children skills.

Social and Personal Health Education

The Stay Safe programme is taught every second year. It is a personal safety skills programme.
The RSE programme is taught every second year.

Religion

We use the Grow in Love programme in the teaching of Religion.
Children will be complete the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Sacrament of Holly Communion

Assessment

In class assessment: teacher designed tests and tasks
Friday spellings and tables test- these tests must be signed weekly.
Busy at Maths termly maths assessments
Standardised tests: children will do the SIGMA-T (Maths) and Drumcondra (English)
tests at the end of the year.

Any Other Information

We hold a parent-teacher meeting in November. Should any issues arise or you need to contact the teacher in the interim or afterwards please write a note in your child’s diary or contact the class teachers on Seesaw.
When your child is absent due to illness etc. please fill out an absence note in the back of your child’s diary to explain absence or online using Aladdin.