Term 1-2
In Year 1 pupils will find the structure and content of their day rather different from that of the Reception class. To aid transition we will continue some child-initiated activities, known as 'Plan, Do and Review' in the afternoons and children will be encouraged to link their plans and activities to the themes we are studying in class.
All children will also be in a separate reading, writing and maths group, these groupings are flexible and may well change from term to term.
Pupils will receive daily teaching in Maths and English, with a daily phonics and handwriting session. All activities will take account of their age and expected concentration span and will involve plenty of physical activity and learning through music, drama and carefully chosen educational toys and games.
Learning in Year 1 progresses from the E.Y.F.S to the New National Curriculum for Key Stage One and, as such, children will learn about Science, Information Technology, History, Geography, Religious Education, Physical Education, Art & Design, Music, Personal, Social & Health Education and Design Technology. Children will be taught some subject specific lessons but many of these subjects will be taught as cross-curricular themes in a manner more appropriate and meaningful for younger children.
Our Learning in Year 1
A brief description of the Year 1 curriculum follows. However, please note that our assessments guide our planning and teaching for the class so some pupils may require further support with the Reception objectives before they can successfully access the Year 1 curriculum, whereas others will need extending and challenging.
Autumn Term
English - Our Literacy texts include stories with familiar settings and those with predictable and patterned language. This term in English the children will be learning to say a simple sentence to prepare for writing sentences. We will be introducing capital letters and full stops. At the end of Term 1 we will focus on a core text related to out theme ‘Knights and Castles’. The children will explore the story through drama and their writing will be supported by the ‘Talk for Writing’ approach.
Phonics - Phonics work will involve word building, hearing and building rhyming word families and alphabetical order. Pupils will be encouraged to know the sounds and the names of all the letters of the alphabet. We build on the Letters and Sounds scheme alongside the Monster Phonics. This links with our grammar work which focuses on sentence building strategies and demarcation. Pupils will have the opportunity to work in a role-play situation and take part in various drama activities.
Maths - Our daily Maths lessons will focus on numbers to twenty, adding, subtracting, finding less and more than a number, partitioning numbers, making sequences and patterns and applying this knowledge to real life situations.
Computing - Computing will be used to support all curriculum areas whenever possible and will be available for children to use in child-initiated activities.
Topic - In History we will be learning about ‘Kings, Queens, Knights & Castles’ and exploring the wonderful castles we have around us. This will normally be linked to our school trip, where the children will have the opportunity to visit one of these. However, we will inform you in due course whether the trip this year will be taking place depending on the government guidance.
We will also be learning key events such as ‘Bonfire night’ and ‘Remembrance Day’ and the key issue and events behind these.
Science - The Science module for the term is learning about ‘Animals including humans’. This will be taught with an emphasis on practical investigation and exploration. This also has cross curricular links with our history topic, learning about ‘Ourselves’ by learning about our body parts and the senses associated with these.
RE - The children will be looking at Christianity. We will also look at Autumn and Winter festivals such as Harvest Festival and Christmas.
Art/DT - Our Art work will focus on drawing, painting and collage, printmaking and 3D sculpture. We will, of course, also be making various Christmas decorations!
PSHE – we will be following the SCARF scheme and learning about rules, kindness, friendships, healthy eating etc.
Thank you very much for all your support so far.
We very much look forward to working with you and your children this year.
With thanks
Mrs Urszula Saganowska-Kearney
and Ms Alfredson