Holy Trinity Church of England Primary School & Community Nursery

Welcome to Year 1

Meet the teachers

 

Year 1 (ID 1121)

Year 1 Year Leader: Miss Fordham

 Things to know about Year 1

Previously your child was working from the EYFS Curriculum in Reception. Year 1 is the first year of the National Curriculum which all children follow at HTP until Year 6. There is a Year 1 Phonics Screening test in June, which helps your child’s teacher to identify if your child is secure in sounding out and blending graphemes when reading. It also detects if they can read phonically decodable words. Don’t be worried about this test. Your child’s teacher will be assessing your child daily and will have identified any areas they need to focus on well before the test date. We will also provide a parent workshop all about details of this.

Phonics is a big part of Year 1. Your child will continue to expand on their knowledge of phonics and will probably surprise you with just how quickly they develop their reading. They will do at least 30 minutes of phonics learning each day, just like they did in Reception. These are engaging sessions which allow the children to learn the new content in Year 1. They will learn tricky words, spelling rules and how to sound out and blend to aid them with their reading and writing. They will be encouraged to 'have a go' at spelling when writing independently, by phonetically sounding out words. Their teacher may well ask them to 'write it like it sounds' and, as the weeks go by, they will learn the correct sounds to replace those phonetically plausible attempts.

Maths lessons will be enjoyable, with plenty of hands-on activities. Your Year 1 child will count with objects and work in groups to explore shapes and pattern. They will build on their knowledge of numbers to 10 and how these can be composed and will begin to calculate with numbers within 20. They will learn to use a 100 square to help with their adding and subtracting. Number bonds will also be reinforced. They will learn to count forwards, backwards, in 1s, 2s, 5s, 10s and they will double, halve and explore fractions.

We deliver a broad and balanced curriculum in Year 1 that covers many subjects. Some of the Year 1 learning includes: experiments (science) product design (DT); learning the history of things (history) and about the local area we live in (geography); dancing, developing fitness and using gym apparatus (PE); painting, drawing and more creative processes (art). We also develop the children’s social skills and empathy for each other during PSHE and their understanding of diversity and different faiths through our RE curriculum. Year 1 is an important year for your child’s increasing independence. The days are so varied and busy and the children get to use our Year 1 outdoor area too!

How can I help my child in Year 1?

Reading at home with your child is so important. It helps them to develop their learning in lots of areas. Your child’s teacher will send a reading book home each evening, and, it is important that children read at least 5 times a week at home. Make sure they are in on time every day and that their attendance is high.

You may not always have time to read the whole book (we understand home life is busy — lots of teachers are parents too) but just a few pages a day can increase their confidence and get them into the routine of practising and applying their phonic knowledge. As long as they are reading, that’s fantastic. Most children this age really love to read new and familiar stories and will learn new vocabulary by doing this.

Ensure that the children also do their homework each week. Not only will this allow your child to have additional practise at core skills but it will allow you to see how they are getting on with their learning.

Where do I drop off and pick up?

In the morning, children must come in through the main blue gates and will turn immediately right. They will walk in the entrance to the Year 1 corridor to access their classroom. Parents should drop their child at the main gate as they have done this year and there will be plenty of adults to support the children as they learn the new route to take. On transition day the children will have been shown this way to come into school.

At the end of the day, the Year 1 children come out of different doors depending on their class.

  • 1H will be released from the main door to the corridor (the same door that the children enter in the morning).
  • 1T will be released from the Year 1 outside area. This is the small blue gate before the main gates at the front of the office.

Class teachers will release to parents as they see you. Please make sure that you have given the school permission for whomever is picking up your child if it is anyone other than you, as parents. As a school, the safety of our children is of utmost importance and we will not release to anyone who is not on our permission list. If there is a ‘late change’ to school pickups then please let our office team know and they will get a message to the class teacher.

Homework

Read, read, read!

By far the most important thing that a child can do at home is read. Children are expected to read each day at home (minimum 5 times a week) and this should be recorded in their reading records. Children are never too old to be heard read or to be questioned on a book that they are reading. The discussion that can come from reading with your child and questioning them can encourage a real love for reading and develop vocabulary understanding.

Children will be given spellings to learn each week which will follow the spelling patterns taught in their spelling groups. They will be tested on these the following week.
Children will be given a maths or phonics activity to complete each week. This work will be based on the learning the children are completing in class that week.

TermTalk & Knowledge Organisers

 

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