Year 1

Class Teacher: Mrs Marshall

Teaching Partners: Mrs Chilton

Learning Support Assistants: Mrs Mulligan

Welcome to Year 1

Our class page has lots of useful information about the day to day running of Class 1 and about what we get up to in our busy, happy and exciting classroom and is your go-to place for all of the key information about our learning journey together this year. We are very excited for all the new learning adventures we have awaiting you in Year 1.

Please note our open door policy and do not hesitate to contact myself, (Mrs Marshall), with any questions or queries – however big or small. I will respond to any emails and am available at the end of each school day if you would rather come into school. The transition from Foundation to Year 1 can seem like a big change but please be reassured that the first half term is all about settling in and learning how it all works in Year 1. We love learning in a fun, interactive way and try to get outdoors as much as possible so please send your child with a waterproof coat and a change of footwear as the seasons change.

We have lots to look forward to with great topics, school trips, Harvest Festival  and before we know it there will be a Nativity Performance to get us all ready for Christmas.

Our Timetable - Autumn Term

Please note that our PE day is on a Tuesday afternoon. Please come to school dressed in PE kit on these days. Earrings and other jewellery should be removed for PE and hair tied back where possible.

PE Kit includes:

• Red or dark PE hoodies,  black or grey tracksuit trousers or shorts (unbranded)
• Black, grey or white trainers
• Zip-up sports jackets are suitable for colder weather.

Curriculum Overview

Autumn Term 1:

• English: We will be learning how to write lists and add captions, exploring  narrative writing and reading, performing and writing our own Poetry.
• Our class book will be Someone Just Like Me by Helen Docherty
• Maths: Place Value to 10 and Addition and Subtraction within 10
• Science: Identifying and recognising Seasonal Changes and how we adapt.
• Geography: What is it like here? Local study exploring maps and directions.
• Art: We will learn about primary and secondary colours and use a variety of tools and materials to create field pictures inspired by the artist Mark Rothco.
• Computing: Mouse and Keyboard Skills and E-Safety
• Music: We will be learning about Pulse through exploring sound and singing songs and learning how to follow a simple score and keep in time.
• Physical Education: Teaching key fundamental skills in coordination focussing on footwork, static balance on 1 leg and Gymnastics exploring shape through floor and apparatus.
• Religious Education: Who do Christians say made the world? Harvest Festival Celebrations.
• Relationships, Sex and Health Education (including Economic Education): Year 1 will be learning how to get Heartsmart in order to make healthy choices for our minds and bodies. We will also be learning some ways in which boys and girls are similar and ways in which they are different. Through Milo’s money lessons we will be learning where our money comes from.

Autumn Term 2:

• English: We will be reading and writing our own recipes and exploring Traditional Tales.
• Maths: Addition and Subtraction and Shape
• Science: Identifying, sorting and testing the properties of Everyday Materials
• History: Learning about the causes and events of The Great Fire of London
• DT: Exploring Stable Structures – making Pen Pots.
• Music: we will be learning about Rhythm through exploring sound and singing songs and learning how to follow a simple score and keep in time.
• Physical Education: Teaching key fundamental skills through seated balance work, exploring travel in Gymnastics and learning how to jump and land and transition from a balance to travelling.
• Religious Education: Why does Christmas matter to Christians? Re-enacting the events of the birth of Jesus through our KS1 Nativity Performance.

• Relationships, Sex and Health Education (including Economic Education): Through our Heartsmart lessons we will understand how our actions affect others and to know who we can turn to in times of need and how to be there for others. Through Milo’s money lessons we will be learning how money makes us feel and how to decide what to do with your money.

Homework

Phonics:

Each week ebooks and interactive games will be uploaded to your child’s Bug Club account. Playing these games and reading along with the read to me option will significantly improve your child’s fluency, recognition of high frequency words and will help to consolidate the sounds and spellings taught that week.

Other homework or flashcards may be sent home to practise a concept or high frequency words the children have been learning that week.

Maths:

Involving your child in helping to pair socks, cut up fruit into equal pieces or to count out objects are easy practical ways to support your child with building confidence with number and counting. Playing board games with a dice is really beneficial in recognising numbers in different formations, (which is known as subitising.) Games such as snakes and ladders where they are required to go forwards and backwards helps them to be able to count reliably. Knowing one more and one less is a key concept which can easily be built into every day routines. Talking to your child about time (e.g we need to clean our teeth for two minutes – that’s how long it takes to sing happy birthday twice through) and referring to the time on the clock or on a watch when it is time to leave for school or to go to an after school club really helps to lay those important mathematical foundations. Top Marks is an excellent website which has a great resource bank of interactive games to practise key skills. I have also included a copy of the key concepts covered in maths in each year group below for reference.

Reading

Year 1 is a pivotal year for developing reading fluency as your child makes the transition from learning letter sounds to applying their phonics knowledge which will allow them to move from de-coding to reading fluently. To do this requires a vital partnership approach between home and school. We therefore ask that you aim to read with your child, ideally daily for a few minutes or at least three times a week and to record this activity in their reading diary. We will be holding a meeting for parents and carers at the beginning of the Autumn term to explain how we teach Reading Fluency and how you can support your child with their reading journey.

Your child will be given a decodable book which contains the sounds that your child knows so that they can access this book independently and a reading for pleasure book. Books will be changed on a weekly basis by Mrs Chilton and as the year progresses pupils will be taught how to change their own colour coded books. Please note that children are encouraged to read these books at least three times before being changed. Re-reading a text will enable your child to practise reading fluently with expression and automaticity which can only be done once they are familiar with the text. We actively encourage pupils to choose library books that interest them both in school and at home and to read as widely as possible, in order to broaden their vocabulary and to build up a store of amazing ideas to use in their own writing. (Please can we ask that books are stored separately to water bottles to avoid leakage.)

Pupils can earn their Reading Fluency Passport by completing a half termly reading challenge at home designed to involve parents and carers in your child’s reading journey and promote a Love of Reading at home as well as at school. We would encourage you to make your passport into a celebration of reading with photographs, book reviews, evidence of trips to the library, and photos of all the wonderful places you have enjoyed reading a book. We would love to share videos of you completing your reading challenges.

Key Stage One:

Autumn 1: Share a favourite picture book and enjoy taking it in turns to tell the story.

Autumn 2: Reading with expression. Try changing your voice to match the characters in your book and bring your story to life by changing your volume and delivery. Traditional tales work well such as The Three Little Pigs or Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson

Spring 1: Paired Reading: Visit your local library and enjoy new books together.

Spring 2: Family Sing along -Join in with action rhymes or nursery rhymes.

Summer 1: Pick a poem and perfect your phrasing. Decide which words to emphasise, where will you change the volume of your voice and where you can add actions, costumes, puppets or props. Send in a video of your performance or take your Chance to Shine.

Summer 2: Beat the clock: Practise reading phrases to improve your sight vocabulary and fluency.

The following links offer guidance on age appropriate books to read with your child.

Top 100 lists here: https://www.thereaderteacher.com

 Top 50 lists here: https://www.booksfortopics.com/ages/)

Key Dates

Parent-Teacher Meetings:

We offer these termly, dates are included on our weekly newsletters.

Trips and Visits:

Autumn term: Forest School Fun in Stapleford Woods Dates tbc

Spring Term: Science Trip tbc

Summer Term: June 2026 Time Travelling at Southwell Minster

Throughout the academic year new information, key dates and resources to support your child's learning journey are added to our class page so please visit us regularly, and follow our Instagram feed to see what we are up to. 

Useful information:

• Our PE lessons will continue to take place on Tuesday afternoon where pupils will take place in a carousel of activities. We would ask that all pupils come to school in their P.E. kits on this day. Our PE will take place outside whenever possible so please ensure that your child has suitable clothing for the changing weather. We also want to utilise our wonderful outdoor area as much as possible so if you are able to make sure your child has a pair of wellingtons and a waterproof coat and/ trousers so that we can go outside all year round. As the weather can still be very hot in September please make sure your child is sun safe by applying sun cream and sending them to school with a refillable water bottle. Please ensure all clothing and footwear is clearly named as it is much easier to return items to their rightful owner at the end of the day. 
• Please may we remind parents to discourage children from bringing toys or personal belongings into class - they can get lost or broken and act as a distraction during valuable learning time.
• Chance to Shine: we love to celebrate your child's talents and achievements by giving them the opportunity to talk about what they have been up to in class. Please refer to the Chance to Shine Timetable to see which dates have been allocated to your child. Please feel free to upload photographs or video clips of your child's latest achievements, new skills, sporting prowess or hobbies on Class Dojo so we can showcase their achievements and adventures and celebrate with them.
• Come and join us: We love to share our learning journey with you and the children love to welcome visitors into our classroom and so if you are a parents or grandparent who can spare an hour or two to help with reading or to share memories of your school days then please contact Mrs Marshall who would love to hear from you.
• As always if you have any queries or concerns I am always available at the end of the school day or feel free to drop me an email or give me a ring.

Computing:

To consolidate and build on your computer skills please find the codes for our Ilearn 2 activities for you to use: Mouse and Keyboard Skills:

Use the code MK44

Digital Art:

Use the code YXF4

Text and Images:

Use the code J6W3

Comic Creation:

Use the code 45TT

Music Creation:

Use the code 47M5

Programming:

Use the code PRW4

Digital Design:

Use the code DTQ4

Esafety:

Use the code ET3W

Phonics terminology and definitions:

Pure Sounds – pronouncing the sounds of letters and combinations of letters correctly, for example not saying ‘muh’ but ‘mmmmm’. Avoid trying to say an ‘uh’ at the end of the sound. I uploaded a video to the Facebook page showing how to pronounce the sounds in Phase 2 and Phase 3.

Oral blending – hearing a series of sounds and merging them together to say the word, for example an adult says ‘b-u-s’ and the child says ‘bus’.

Blending – children see a word, say those individual sounds in the word and then merges those sounds together to hear the whole words like
c-a-t makes ‘cat’. This is vital for reading.

Segmenting – the opposite to blending. Children break up the word into its component sounds. This is vital for spelling and writing words.

Phoneme – The smallest unit of sound. There are approximately 44 in the English language to learn.

Grapheme – the written form of a phoneme. They can be made up of different numbers of letters for example 1 letter – s, 2 letters – ai, 3 letters – igh.

Digraph – two letters that make one phoneme, for example oo, oa, ee

Trigraph – three letters that make one phoneme, for example ear, igh, air

Split digraph – perhaps you know this as the’magic e’? It is when a digraph (ie) has been split and a consonant has been placed in the middle. The ‘ie’ is still making the sound despite a letter in the middle. There are five split digraphs to learn
i_e like in time
a_e like in cake
o_e like in joke
e_e like in theme
u_e like in tube

Decoding/decodable – being able to ‘sound out’ the word into its componant phonemes.

Polysyllabic – a word that is made up of more that one syllable.

Tricky words – there are words within each of the phonics phases that cannot be decoded and sounded out. These words just need to be learnt by sight. Sometimes a tricky word taught within a phase can become a decodable word once your child moves up the phases, for example ‘out’ and ‘like’

High Frequency words – these are words that occur most often in books and stories. They can be both decodable or tricky words.

Non-words/Alien Words – Words that can be decoded but are made up and do not make sense. These words really test phonics skills. If a child has good phonic knowledge they will be able to decode both real and alien words.

Sound buttons – a button drawn or placed under each individual grapheme. Every time the button is pressed your child makes the sound and then blends all the sounds together to read the words. The word ‘cat’ would have three dot sounds buttons and ‘moon’ would also have three but the ‘oo’ would have a longer line button underneath.

CVC – Consonant, vowel, consonant. These can be simple three letter words like ‘mat’ but also the word ‘rain’ is a CVC word as the ‘ai’ is a vowel digraph in the middle. This is the same for words like moon, chain, sheet. The ‘ch’ and ‘sh’ are a consonant digraph and one sound. The word ‘boy’, for example, even though has 3 letters is not a CVC word as it only has two phonemes b-oy. This is the same for words like cow, tie, say.

Alliteration – words that begin with the same phoneme (snake, sock, scissors, star)

Letter formation – the way each individual letter is formed. Children will need to learn where they need to start for each letter.

Recommended reading lists for Year 1

Best Books for Year 1 | Ages 5-6 Recommended Reads | BooksForTopics

https://schoolreadinglist.co.uk/reading-lists-for-ks1-school-pupils/suggested-reading-list-year-1-pupils-ks1-age-5-6/

Diary Dates 2025/26

Staff Inset days Monday 1st to Tuesday 2nd of September

First Day of the Autumn Term for all pupils Wednesday 3rd of September 2025

Harvest Festival tbc

Class Trip Forest School Day Stapleford woods. Date tbc  

Half Term - Week beginning Monday 27th October 2025

End of Autumn Term - Friday 19th December 2025

Staff Inset date Monday 5th January 2026

First Day of Spring Term  Tuesday 6th January 2026