Year 1

Welcome to Year 1

Year 1 is such a fun year to be in! We learn about a variety of interesting and exciting topics; 

Autumn 1 - What makes me, me?

Autumn 2 - Can you build with bread?

Spring 1 - Can a Penguin live near the equator?

Spring 2 - How tall am I?

Summer 1 - How has transport changed Stourport? 

Summer 2 - How have I changed?

The most exciting thing about Year 1 is how much every child is valued along with the progress we make in three very important life skill areas;

• being independent,
• reading and writing! 
• mastery in maths!

Prepared to be wowed!

Much of Year 1's learning is extended through play and being creative, allowing our imagination to develop and excitement lead our learning.

We develop our topics to engage children in a  variety of activities that meet the curriculum objectives for Year 1 such as knowing the names of the continents and oceans, special people from the past who have an impact on our lives. We develop art and design skills as we discover about different styles and techniques and we enhance our learning by organising trips to broaden and deepen our experiences.

Weekly Timetable

What can Parents do?

Reading

In Year 1 we expect the children to read at least five times a week recorded with an adult's signature in their reading diaries. Every child in Year 1 is given a book mark with ideas and suggestions for parents to help their child understand and comprehend what they have read. The effect daily reading has on ALL areas of their learning is phenomenal.

Reading is rewarded with rainbow stickers and 'Reader of the Week' certificates.

Uniform

Please ensure that your child wears the correct school uniform. Children need to wear their uniform to school everyday except for Wednesdays when they need to come in their Forest School kit. All uniform and PE/Forest school clothes should be clearly marked with their name. PE kit, wellies and waterproofs can be kept in school.

Homework

In Year 1 we believe that learning is at its deepest when the children are enjoying themselves and are excited to learn. All the homework set will be based around our current topic and will often be creative or research based and mirror a similar approach to Reception home learning. We find this style of homework allows the children to work closely with adults and siblings at home, which leads to deeper and more enjoyable learning for both child and adult!

Spellings

The children will learn spellings in their Phonics(RWI) groups on a daily basis.

We encourage parents to help their child read and  write the Common Exception Words for their Year group. These can be found in the front of the Reading Diary. 

Life experiences

To prepare children well for life and learning it is important that your child has a healthy balanced diet, plenty of exercise and activities both indoors and outside. In Year 1 we encourage the children to have a healthy snack at break times, healthy, balanced lunches and drink plenty of water at regular intervals. 

We encourage children to get out and about to discover the world around them. We organise trips to enhance the learning of our topics and to explore their environments through investigation, awe and wonder at the everyday things around them. A visit to the local park with family and friends, playing board games (and ensuring at times they lose!), going to after school clubs and socialising will help set up good patterns of behaviour for the future. Remember that children need to have rest and enough sleep to ensure they are fit, healthy and ready to learn. It is important to turn off screens at least one hour before bedtime.

Phonics screening check

At the end of Year 1 children will take part in the phonics screening check which is a government led assessment to ensure children are making adequate progress with their phonics and reading. This test involves your child sitting down 1:1 with their class teacher and reading 40 words. 20 of these words are real and 20 are made up alien words. The alien words are to check children are using their phonics to decode words rather than sight reading. We teach phonics through the Read,Write,Inc. phonics program five mornings a week with our groups based on half termly assessments. Words that children can sound out and blend to read are called green words such as ‘jump’. Other words such as ‘the’, ‘friend’, ‘she’ and ‘one’ children are not able to sound out and blend to read, these are called red words or common exception words. When reading with your child they will notice 'green' words that they can sound out to read, like we do in phonics, and 'red' words which they just have to learn. 

PE

We love PE in Year 1 which focuses on throwing and catching in games, balancing, jumps and rolls in gymnastics and creating movements related to topics in dance. Working in a team, group, with a partner and independently is developed in all areas of PE. In Year 1 we love to move around the classroom to activate our brains. So when counting in maths we march, clap and jump. The purpose is to improve our strength and stamina that helps us to keep healthy, fit and active.