Year 1

Welcome to the Year 1 page! 

On this page, you will be able to find out about all of the children's learning and gain an insight into what we are doing in class.

The Year 1 teachers are:

Miss Beardsley is the Phase Lead for Year 1 and 2

Mrs Ind and Mrs Taylor - Class 3 

Miss Kittle -  Class 4 

Mrs Cooper and Mrs Elliott also support the children's learning every day. 

Message from the Year 1 teachers: 

 We have been so impressed with the children's learning and we have been blown away by their writing!

Important Information: 

In Year 1, we recognise how important PE is as part of the curriculum.

Our PE lessons are as follows:

Indoor PE -  Tuesday

The children will need their PE kits in school for their PE lesson. This should consist of:

- blue, black or grey shorts/ bottoms

- a white or house coloured t shirt 

- pumps or trainers which the children can fasten themselves. 

Homework: 

We are really keen for the children to use Numbots - https://play.numbots.com/#/account/school-login/52740 

This website allows your child to practice and apply their understanding of number. It supports them with their maths learning in school. We recommend that your child uses their login at least three times a week.

Reading at home:

In Key stage 1, we value the importance of reading. We know that learning to read is a priceless, life-long skill that will unlock the whole curriculum for your child. Reading is important in all year groups but particularly in Year 1 as your children will sit their Phonics Screening Test in June. This assessment includes testing your child's phonics knowledge and how well they have progressed throughout the year.  

It is important that your child reads regularly at home to help them consolidate their sounds that they have been learning in school, develop their fluency and support their comprehension. It is really important that all children have their reading records and reading books in school each day. Within their reading record, it is really important that you record every time they read at home as this provides important communication between home and school. When your child reads at school, you will receive feedback in the reading record too. 

Continuous Provision in Year 1: 

We aim to prepare the children for their school life and beyond by making them enthusiastic readers, writers, mathematicians, scientists and so much more. While there is a change in curriculum from EYFS -> Year 1, continuous provision makes this transition less of a barrier for the children. We facilitate and build upon provision moving into Year 1 through a blend of teacher-led sessions, small group work, independent practice tasks and time for children to demonstrate and deepen their learning by accessing a range of activities in our continuous provision area. Eventually, we will move towards a more formal timetable in preparation for Year 2.

We have the following areas which are shared across the two classrooms:

• Reading Garden
• Creative Area
• Maths Area and Numbots Station
• Construction Zone
• Storytelling Station
• Phonics Area
• Writing Corner
• Fine-Motor Gym
• Topic Table – relating to our focus in history/geography

We believe that continuous provision in Year 1 enables the children to explore and apply their recent learning, communicate confidently, think critically, while crucially building on their independence.

Year 1 Curriculum  

Maths

In Maths this term we will be looking at 2D and 3D shapes.  We will be learning the names for the shapes and how to recognise them.  The rest of the term will be spent learning about the numbers 11 – 20.  We will be learning all about how these numbers are made up of tens and ones and building upon knowledge of the numbers to 10.  We will continue to use number lines and ordering and comparing the numbers.

Writing  

In writing this term we are building on our sentence skills.  Our writing will be based on picture books, starting with The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Stickman and then finishing with Dear Father Christmas.  We will be learning how to use ‘and’ to join two sentences together and how to use exclamation marks and question marks correctly.  We are also learning about nouns, adjectives and capital letters for proper nouns.

 ELS (Essential Letters and Sounds)

In Year 1, the children will continue on their ELS journey, helping all children to learn to read quickly.  During this first term, we will be reviewing the sounds that the children learnt in their Reception year and looking in particular at ay, ou, ie, ea, oy, ir, ue, aw, wh, ph, ew, oe.  We will use these sounds in real and alien words to help to develop the children’s blending skills.

We will also be encouraging the children to use their sounds that they are learning in their writing using this method:

Say it, stretch it, segment it, blend it, count the sounds, say the whole word.

In ELS, Year 1 will be introduced to the alternative sounds. Please look out for the flashcards that will be added to the children's previous sounds each Friday. The children will be reviewing phase 5 sounds in preparation for the phonics screening test that they will sit in June. 

Science 

In Science, we will be looking at animals, including humans.  We will be Scientists by asking questions and using our observing and measuring skills.  We will start the unit by labelling the parts of the human body and then moving onto exploring our 5 senses.  After this we will focus on animals, comparing them and looking specifically at birds, fish, mammals, amphibians and reptiles.  We will also learn what is meant by the terms: herbivore, carnivore and omnivore.

Throughout the year, we will also be looking at the seasons.

Geography

Our focus for Geography is mapwork.  Our enquiry question is:

What are maps and how do we use them?

We will be learning about aerial photographs and how they can help us find out about places.  Then we will be looking at the common features of maps and the basic compass points.  We will look at the importance of using a key and will finish with drawing and following our own maps.

Computing 

Our unit of work this term focuses on the technology around us.  We will learn about the different types of information technology and then how to use a computer correctly, including the use of a mouse and keyboard.

DT

Our first unit of DT this year will be a textiles unit.  We will be focusing on making puppets.  We will learn how to join two pieces of material together, design a puppet, join our puppets two faces together and then decorate our puppets.

RE

Our key question in RE this term is:

What do Christian’s believe God is like?

We will be learning about parables, how Christian’s show they love God, forgiveness, prayer, Jonah and the Whale and how Christian’s describe God.

Music

This term is all about learning the songs for our Christmas Nativity!