Welcome to Year 1

Welcome

In Year 1 the teachers are Mrs Sara Burman, Mrs Melody Walker and Miss Anna Ayrey.
They are supported by LSAs – Mrs Tracey Smith, Mrs Lori Picillo, Mrs Tamie Cumming, Mrs Lucy Nichols and Mrs Nikki Curtis.
We work very closely with the Reception class team in the Summer term prior to your child starting in Year 1 and into the Autumn term to ensure continuity and progression for your children.

Wellbeing Activities:

Bubbles-of-Gratitude Download

Children enter the classroom at 8.40a.m.
The children leave at 3. 15p.m via their classroom door at the end of the day and are handed over to a recognised adult. Please inform us of any changes.
Once school has started the children are independent in putting away their belongings (water bottle, book bag, hanging up their coat).
Children will have collective worship each day
Library once a week
ICT once a week in the computing room
PE twice a week, indoor and outdoor
Woodland
Playtimes and lunchtimes
Daily fruit / vegetable for break times.
Milk

We expect the children to become a little more independent as they enter Key Stage 1
Develop their responsibility for own belongings and equipment .
Have what they need in school each day.
We can all support them with this.

Our curriculum is planned using both the Year 1 objectives and our knowledge of where the children are now.
Children will have daily English, Maths and phonics lessons.
At the start of Year 1 we try to ease the transition by still planning for children to have time to learn through their own play.
As we progress through the year the amount of time we expect children to focus on work at tables will increase.
We keep an element of practical work across the curriculum as this helps young children learn well.

As in previous years we set our expectations high – for your child’s progress and attainment and for behaviour.
In September the children will continue to learn from their own starting points – there will not be a huge leap to a new curriculum.

In Year 1 we use a behaviour ladder to help children self regulate their behaviour.
We also use House Points as part of behaviour system to reinforce positive behaviours with an end of week raffle that the children enjoy.
We will use positive reinforcement of our expectations as the first step in maintaining good behaviour.
Any unacceptable behaviour will be communicated to you verbally at the door or phonecall.
Each week a child will be selected to be Child of the Week. They will be presented with a certificate during Monday’s collective worship.

In Year 1 children have three guided reading sessions per week. This is based on Little Wandle – Letters and Sounds. The books they are given match their phonic knowledge. The first session s about decoding, the second about prosody- reading with expression and the third is comprehension. During this session we look at the Reading Rainbow lenses.
We put in place reading interventions using the Little Wandle Keep up Scheme when this is needed.
Children will bring home an reading for pleasure book and this will be changed twice a week. We will also be sending home the guided reading book the children have been reading that week. We would ask that you continue to hear your child read daily.
They will also have a library book and change this once a week.
We still read stories daily to the children and use a range of stories in our English teaching

Your child has had a great start to phonics teaching in Foundation Stage.
In Year 1 pupils have five sessions of phonics each week.
We follow the Little Wandle Letter Sounds scheme. Year 1 revises phase 3 and continues to phase 4 and 5.

We will teach the children to write stories, instructions, poetry, information texts etc.
In Year 1 we use the Talk for Writing Strategy to teach writing as well as Sentence Stacking.
Handwriting, grammar, spelling and punctuation will also be taught and integrated in all we do.

Children are taught Maths in their mixed ability classes.
Planning and teaching will take into account your child’s confidence, level of understanding and pace of work.
We teach to the same objectives to all children. Pace and teaching and challenge is matched to individual children.
Challenge is for all children in our Maths lessons

We teach a cross curricular topic each term or half term. Our topics are Materials, Fairy Tales, Roald Dahl, Seaside, Plants and animals, the UK and the rest of the world.
We aim to make the topics as engaging and exciting for the children as we can.
We involve the children in planning for our topics by asking what they already know and what they would like to find out.
We include Wow days and practical experiences whenever we can.
Year 1 run a seaside where the children can dress up and be transported back in history to a seaside holiday from long ago.

Children will bring home a reading book every day – please support them with regular reading at home. 20 minutes reading each day will help them develop as good readers.

Your child will have a home school diary
We will write in it at least once per week.
Please record in here the daily reading that you do with your child at home.
It is a two way communication book so please write in comments about homework or other things your child has done at home.
Urgent communications should be sent separately as we do not look in every home school diary every day.
There will be parents evenings in October and February.
There will be written reports in the Spring and Summer terms.
We have an open door policy – we will meet your child at the door and see them out to you every evening and will be happy to receive quick verbal messages in the morning or to have a longer chat in the afternoons.
Please speak to us about any concerns you have – as most things can be quickly resolved if we work together.

School book wallet.
Water bottles – all year please.
Ruck sacks are not required as cloakroom space is limited and school book wallets protect books and homework more effectively.
No pencil cases please we will provide all necessary equipment.
Please send reading book and diary in each day.
PE kit to be worn on PE days with school shoes. Trainers can stay in school.

Regular reading
Maths – practical activities such as counting, telling the time, counting money, measuring when baking.
Communicate with us quickly about any issues or concerns you have – you know your child best of all….

The Year 1 team look forward to working closely with you over the next year to ensure the continued happiness and progress of your children.

Your child will spend a whole day in their new classroom with their new teachers in July.
We make regular contact with the children in the classrooms and playground over the second half of the Summer term.
There will be meetings between the Reception class and Year 1 teachers.
Detailed records of attainment and next steps will be passed on. Also valuable information about the children’s individual needs and ways of learning.