Welcome to Year 1

Teachers: Miss Hope and Miss Higgs

Teaching Assistants: 

Dear Parents and Carers

 

We have all had a great start to the term. Everyone has settled in so well and we are all very proud of the children! It has been really lovely to see everyone playing and working together during our first few days, enjoying lots of new activities and exploring our new classrooms. Thank you for your patience as we get to know the children and yourselves, whilst we settle into our new routines.

 

Autumn Learning: We have lots of exciting and engaging activities planned for this half term! The children are already excited by our pirate topic, finding clues left around our school grounds! We will use our describing skills to explore new vocabulary and word classes, learning about nouns, verbs and adjectives this term.

 

Curriculum:

Here is a brief overview of our subject based curriculum for this term.

WRITING	Character description – Using adjectives to describe, identifying nouns Instructions – imperative verbs, question marks Letter – present tense verbs, conjunction because
MATHS	Number and place value - Numbers within 10 Addition and subtraction – Numbers within 10 Geometry – 2D and 3D shapes, repeating patterns
SCIENCE	Naming and describing materials Human body and senses
HISTORY (Aut 1)	How am I making history?
GEOGRAPHY (Aut 2)	What is it like here?
ART (Aut 1)	Drawing: Exploring line and shape
DT (Aut 2)	Cooking and nutrition: Smoothies
MUSIC	Keeping the pulse
RE	What does it mean to belong to a faith community? What do Christians believe God is like?
PSHE	Being me in my world Celebrating difference
PE	Outdoor – Fundamental skills Indoor – Gymnastics
COMPUTING	Computing systems and networks – Technology around us Creating media – Digital painting

 

Start and finish times: It is lovely to see all the children so eager to start school in the morning. The school bell will ring at 8.35am and the classroom door will then be opened to welcome the children in. It would be really nice to see the children walking down the ramp to the classroom by themselves, to encourage independence (and to help reduce traffic going back the other way!). At the end of the day, another bell will ring at 3.15pm, we will open the doors again and let the children finish for the day. If you do have any quick messages to share, please do not hesitate to catch us at the door. For longer messages feel free to ask for us to give you a call later on in the day. We really appreciate your patience at home time whilst the adults in the class familiarise themselves with your faces!

 

P.E: Both classes will have indoor PE on a Monday and outdoor PE on a Friday. Children need their indoor and outdoor kit in school at all times. Everything must be clearly named. Please ensure your child has the appropriate PE kit which includes a plain white t-shirt and black shorts as well as a black tracksuit for outdoor PE and suitable trainers. Children should only wear studded earrings which ideally should be removed on PE days.

 

Forest School:

Year 1 will be participating in Forest school in Autumn 2 (Week commencing 2.11.26) on a Thursday afternoon. Children will need to bring their forest school clothes named in a bag (long sleeve top, long trousers, jumper, waterproofs, boots, spare socks).

 

Our forest school sessions for Autumn 2 will be on:

5.11.26	12.11.26	19.11.26
26.11.26	3.12.26	10.12.26

 

Reading: We are looking forward to helping you support your child with their reading.  In Year 1, the focus is on developing a love of reading therefore all children are expected to read at least five times a week and their reads recorded in their reading diary. Please refer to the information page found at the front of your child’s reading record. These will be checked daily in school so please ensure children bring them each day. As you know, avid readers make brilliant writers and reading is crucial for children’s learning. Books will be changed weekly initially, as we encourage reading a book more than once – this builds fluency, encourages discussion, and most importantly builds confidence. Inside your child’s reading record a log of their phonics knowledge will be kept. Please do use this to support your child’s phonics journey. There is also a copy of the Year 1 Tricky Words – these are words the children will be learning to read by sight and spell.

 

Snack: A fruit or vegetable snack is provided by school – however, if you would like to send a fruit or vegetable in with your child, they are more than welcome to have this during snack time.

 

Maths: This half term for our maths fluency, we would like the children to practise their number bond knowledge to 5, as well as subitise numbers within 5. Subitising is being able to identify a number/quantity without the need to count. Your child will have had lots of practise of this in school, but this added support from home will consolidate their knowledge as well as build their confidence with recalling simple maths facts.

 

Important dates:

Tuesday 20^th October – Harvest Festival

Friday 6^th November – Open Morning

Tuesday 10^th and Wednesday 11^th November – Parents evening

Wednesday 2^nd November – School Disco/Film night

Wednesday 9^th December –Nativity

Wednesday 16^th December – Pantomime visit

Thursday 17^th December – KS1 Christmas Party Day

Friday 18^th December – Christmas Jumper Day

 

Finally, we want to welcome you to KS1 and look forward to working with you and your children. Please feel free to speak to us at the door should you have any questions.