Welcome to Year 1
Mrs Crebbin and Miss Tye welcome you to the Year 1 page. We are also very lucky to have Mrs. Robinson supporting our whole cohort.
Here you will find useful information about how Year 1 runs, how you can further support your child at home and all about the exciting topics we will cover. In Year 1, we try to develop the children’s self-organisation skills and we encourage them to be responsible for their own belongings.
A big change for our children is that they need to bring their own snack from home for morning break. This must be in line with the school’s healthy snack policy and must not contain nuts, as we are a nut free school. Suggestions include: breadsticks, cheese, fruit, plain rice cakes and plain crackers. They will also need a water bottle, we encourage the children not to put their water bottle in their bag (to avoid spillages). The bottle must only be filled with fresh water and must be clearly named. They can refill as often as they wish throughout the day.
Your child should have attended Forest School during their time in Reception, this will continue in Year 1. A letter will be sent home with the dates at the beginning of each half term. When it is your child’s turn in the forest, they must arrive on the relevant day in full Forest School attire. We advise that they wear their school t-shirt and jumper underneath their waterproofs, so that there is less for them to change after their session. Don’t forget to send the bottom half of their uniform and school shoes in a big plastic bag so they can put all of their forest school things in there to carry home again. If your child finds dressing and undressing independently then it will benefit them significantly to work on this at home.
Outdoor learning has many holistic benefits for children’s learning and well-being. The children’s love for Forest School is evident in their enthusiasm and excitement for their turn in the forest, come rain or shine, so please ensure they are dressed appropriately e.g. hats gloves, extra socks, wellies! We work closely with the Forest School leaders to ensure our curriculum objectives thread throughout the activities the children take part in. These include; building dens, stories and toasted marshmallows around the campfire, creating an array of interesting objects out of natural materials and learning how to stay safe and respect nature.
Over the year we plan some exciting trips and these link to our cross-curricular topics. Topics that have inspired children’s learning recently have been; learning about a variety of animals, learning about school life in the past, designing and making a puppet, and exploring and experimenting with materials in science.
Reading
We follow the Little Wandle reading scheme, just as they did last year. Children will read three times weekly with an adult at school, then this book will be sent home on Fridays. The Little Wandle books are Big Cat Collins book and they MUST be returned every Thursday. As they have read this already at school, this is their opportunity to show off how amazing they are at home. You should expect and encourage them to read it fluently at home, use expression and show they understand by answering comprehension questions about what they have read. We also have some coloured book baskets containing a variety of books of different levels. These books will roughly match their progress and will foster a desire to read for pleasure, as they will have an opportunity to choose their own book. They will be encouraged to change their basket book every Monday and Friday but should then do so independently. These coloured book baskets do not match the historical coloured bookbands we have used in the past. Children should naturally move onto the next colour each half term if they remain on track. If your child is finding reading tricky please let us know, we are always here to support you both. We ask the children to read at least 4 times weekly at home, this doesn’t have to be a whole book each time, it might just be a few pages every other night. When you have listened to your child reading at home, please log this in their reading diaries so we can praise them for their home reading. Reminding them that their teacher will be checking at school may be a good incentive if they are reluctant to read at home.
Homework
Spellings are sent home every week. They will include graphemes (sounds) taught the week prior and we expect them to be practiced 3 times that week on separate occasions. Remember to always discuss the meaning of words and put each word in a verbal sentence when testing at home, this will help your child to both understand and remember the words.
Maths and English are sent home on alternate Mondays to be returned the following Monday. Maths follows a scheme involving fluency, reasoning and problem-solving. It will be based around what they have been learning at school the week prior and should be a consolidation of your child’s learning. Children often find English a daunting task, it often helps to discuss how many sentences are expected of them before starting. Between one and three sentences (depending on your child’s progress) at the beginning of the year and work towards half a page in summer term. It will help your child’s progress in English if you encourage them to “sound out” each word themselves, using the sounds they have already learned in phonics.
Useful websites
