Welcome to Year 1! 

Year 1 has two classes; Miss Davies' and Mrs Paxton's class. 

Both classes are supported by Mrs Griffin and Mrs Coldwell.  

We are also very lucky to have Miss Cole and Miss Lewis working in year one. 

On Monday Miss Davies' class will work with Miss Lewis and Mrs Paxton's class will work with Miss Cole.

Year 1 is so much fun!  We have the chance to explore and build on everything we did in Reception.

We love learning through our motivating cross curricular Mantle stories. We get to ask questions, take risks and above all think big!  

We apply these skills in the classroom on a daily basis, as well as in COOL Time (Continuing Our Own Learning) in the quad.  We have time to work independently and through adult directed sessions. Our learning is more formal in year 1, but we still have lots of opportunities to learn through play and to use our imagination in our Mantle stories.

COOL Time

COOL Time stands for Continuing Our Own Learning.  We love to join in at different times throughout the week. Cool time is in our outdoor quad area.  We have lots of exciting tasks and challenges to try!

COOL Time helps us to think for ourselves and try challenges in a safe environment.  It is a time to get active and we love solving problems with our friends.

Mantle

We try to weave much of our curriculum into a Mantle story. 

Summer term

The team will be working as Travel agents, promoting Lizard Point in Cornwall. They will look at the history of Lizard Point so that they can use the historical information in their advertisment and brochures. They will then plan and organising trips to Lizard Point and its surrounding area. One of the trips will be a bird watching experience, where tourists can go on an organised boat trip to explore areas where they will observe puffins, Choughs (local cultural icon) etc. 

In the Spring term we will work as a team of 'Victorian Builders'.  We will investigate the cause and effect of cholera and then become part of Joseph Bazelgette's team of builders.  We will explore materials and the choose the right material to build a sewage system in London.  

During the Autumn Term we will work as a team of Secret Safekeepers of the Forest.  The team will argue the case of the woods and all that live there.  We protect the fairies existence from humans.  

Mystical, mysterious secrets to be told.  Unseen fairies.  In a wood that I know there’s a place where bluebells grow.  Near the bluebells there’s a home, Underneath there is a home.

Writing

We follow the Year 1 National Curriculum for writing and we have just started to use "The Write Stuff" by Jane Considine to learn how to stack fantastic sentences and create stories, non-fiction texts and poetry. 

Our writing is often linked to the work we do in Mantle; we write to entertain and inform as described by Michael Tidd on his website. 

As part of our writing we look at sentence structure and make sure that we punctuate our writing.

Phonics in Year 1

In Year 1 we follow the Little Wandles Spelling programme. We have a phonics lesson every day.  This enables repeated practice of the sounds learnt, so that they can stay in the children's long term memory.

Children are assessed through regular daily observations as well as summative assessment, which is used at the end of each half term.  Children that are not secure are supported through daily keep-up sessions.  These quick five minute sessions provide additional practice and application of what has been taught in the classroom.  

Workshops with Parents

We had a great turn out last year for our phonics workshops.  Adults and children enjoyed working together; practicing phonemes, building words and reading some of our wonderful new books.

We will be running these workshops again this year and are hoping for an even bigger turnout.  In the meantime if you would like to find out more please take a look at the information below.  It explains all about our Little Wandle's phonics programme and there are also some tips for you to help your child. 

If you would like to purchase the Little Wandle flash cards for your children, please click on the link below.

How can you help with phonics?

It is really important that you support your child to pronounce the sounds correctly.  Watch the videos below so that you know the correct way to say the phonemes.

Reading

We read in a small group three times a week with an adult.  Through careful assessments, each half term, we are allocated a  decodable reading book to match our phonic knowledge.  Our guided reading sessions help us to:

• read easily and fluently with good understanding.
• make sense of what we have read.
• build on what we already know.
• want to read.
• develop the habit of reading widely and often.
• acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar.

Whole class story time

We really enjoy story time as a whole class. We get to share a range of texts including fiction, poetry and non fiction books. 

Library

We love going to choose a book from our school library. We can choose anything that interests us. We keep the book in our trays so that we can read or share it when we have a few spare moments. 

Home Reading

The books we read in guided reading are added to our Collins e-book page. We can then share these familiar books again at home. These books contain all the phonemes we know. We should be able to read them fluently.

Maths

Maths in Year 1 is very exciting!  We follow the White Rose planning for Maths. We use all sorts of concrete resources to help us represent our number work and solve calculations.

We also have daily Mastering Number sessions. These are part of the NCTEM's Mastering Number Programme. They help us to develop our number sense and to be able to recall number facts really quickly.

Science

Sometimes we learn science through our Mantle story. Sometimes we just do science!

These are the National Curriculum areas of study we focus on:

RE

We follow the Worcestershire Agreed Syllabus for RE.

Here are the questions we think about in Year 1:

RSE

We follow the PSHE Association's Thematic Builder. Here are the themes we learn about in Year 2:

Computing 

We have started to follow Teach Computing's plans.

Music

We love to join Rock Steady Music's live stream every week. We practise copying and recognising rhythms and love the performance songs.