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Pupil Zone

Year 1

Welcome to our year group web page! Here you will find lots of information about Year 1. We hope you enjoy viewing our web page and discovering more about what we have been learning about in school.

Meet the team

 Years 1, 2 and 3 AHT

Year 1 Donaldson class teacher 

Miss Evans

   Year 1 Tomlinson class teacher

Mrs Lemon

Year 1 HLTA

Mrs Atherton

Year 1 LSP

Mrs Francis

Year 1 class names and author link 

Our class authors are Jill Tomlinson and Julia Donaldson. Our classes are named after these influential writers, because they have an excellent and high-quality range of Children's Literature. 

1 Donaldson 

1 Tomlinson

Year 1 start and end of day handover information 

At the start of the day, the gates are open at 8.45am. Pupils and their adults are to line up by the Year 1 paddock gate. A member of Year 1 staff will be at the gate to welcome the pupils into school. Any messages can be passed onto the member of staff who will relay this back to your child's class teacher. 

The bell at the end of the school day is 3.20pm. The school gates will be open at 3.15 for parents to begin to line up outside the Year 1 paddock gate. Pupils will be released through the gate at 3.20pm. 

Keeping Year 1 pupils safe 

During release, it is vital that safeguarding is maintained and pupils are collected promptly and safely. If for any reason, you have to send an alternative adult to collect your child, please ensure you inform the school office. They will ensure this information is passed onto the Year 1 team. 

These are extracts from our Positive Interactions Policy

Protective behaviours 

We have a Protective Behaviours culture and pupils regularly identify and update their Network Hand. This ensures that pupils know which adults they can approach if they are worried, however ‘awful or small’.

Proactive social media reminders

We send regular and proactive reminders to parents regarding social media and always request you check pupil's devices regularly and have full access to all their devices and accounts. By working together in this way, we work towards keeping pupils safe.

Learning 4 Life 

Our Learning for Life lessons allow us to be proactive with teaching children how to keep themselves safe, learn about relationships education, relationships and sex education and health education.

Year 1 curriculum overview 

Throughout Year 1, pupils are exposed to a balanced and varied curriculum which has been carefully planned to meet the needs of the pupils.

 

Key texts throughout the year

These are the texts the pupils will focus on throughout their English learning journey. Often, we make irresistible links to other topics across the year using these texts, to engage learners in a range of different ways.

                                                        Autumn 2 Term

        

                                                                    Spring Term

            

 

 

                                                                          Summer Term

                                                             

 

Mathematics Curriculum

We have made a conscious decision to use White Rose as a product; however, we have created our own curriculum overview for Maths. Teachers will use this curriculum overview to deliver the majority of the units outlined within each strand, using White Rose as a supporting resource (example of the curriculum overview is below). As teachers follow the learning journey, pupils will experience mathematics through the CPA and Singapore Maths approach. This ensures that mathematics remains pictorial and enables pupils to use a variety of strategies to solve problems – thus removing barriers and ensuring mathematics is accessible to all. The curriculum has been specifically designed to give pupils the time to master each skill. Early mastery of skills is also encouraged, as skills from the following year group have been naturally linked, which removes the ceiling on learning outcomes.

There are mathematical units that will be taught using a cross-curricular approach. Pupils should expect to be taught statistics and time through other areas of the curriculum, such as Geography and Science. This enables pupils to see that mathematics is not a stand-alone subject and has an impact within other subject areas. This also allows for more time within mathematics lessons to teach other units in greater detail and address any misconceptions or gaps in knowledge.

Curriculum subjects
 

  Autumn Term Spring Term Summer Term
Art

Sculpture

Collage

Printing 

Computing

Exploring Purple Mash and Online safety

Technoogy outside the classroom

Maze Explorers

Coding

Spreadsheets

Animated Stories

Design Technology Cooking and Nutrition Mechanics Construction using textiles
Geography History focus

Local Geography

The U.K. 

Planet Earth
History Guy Fawkes Geography focus Beaches from over 100 years ago
Learning 4 Life

Proud to be me

Protective behaviours

Be Safe, Be Kind

Aiming High

Fit 4 Life

Perfect Planet
Music Hip-hop music Reggae music Latin music 
Physical Education

Net and Wall games

Gymnastics

Dance

Invasion games

Striking and fielding games

Athletics 

Religious Education

Beginning to learn Islam: what can we learn from stories of the prophet?

Why does Christmas matter to Christians? How and why do we celebrate special times?

Beginning to learn Sikhi: Part A. Stories of the Sikh Gurus.

What do Christians believe God is like?

Questions that puzzle us.

Holy places: where and how do Christians, Sikhs and Muslims worship?

 

Science

Animals, including humans

Materials

Plants

Preparing for Phonics screening 

At the end of Year 1, normally the second week of June, pupils will sit the Phonics Screening Test. This seeks to test whether pupils have learnt to decode words using phonics to the required level. Pupils are expected to sound out and blend graphemes to read simple words. Throughout the year, we will be sitting various practice tests to help prepare the pupils and every day pupils will be taught two Phonic sessions. Below you will find some Phonic assessment materials that may support you at home to help your child.

Transition into Year 2 

Towards the end of the academic year, there are transition days allocated where the pupils will have the chance to meet their new Year 2 Teacher and get to know them. 

There will also be a "Meet the Teacher" evening where you have the chance to listen to the teacher discussing the changes/transition to the new year group and allow parents to ask questions. 

Year 1 home learning and Reading books

Reading is more than just decoding a text and ‘reading’ the words on the page. Reading is all about being immersed into another world – a world of fantasy, magic, heroes and villains; a world of exploration and discovery; a world in which to escape reality, exploring emotions and supporting well-being.  Reading is an essential life skill that we strive for all our pupils to master by the time they leave us at the end of Year 6. Therefore, we need you to work in collaboration with us.

Home learning

Pupils will receive a piece of Phonic and Maths home learning linked to what they have been doing in class. This will be sent home on a Friday and pupils will need to return it on a Wednesday for the class teacher to mark. 

Please find some links to support your child with home learning

Maths:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=Year%201

https://www.youtube.com/user/JackHartmann (Really useful songs to learn numbers/shapes ect)

https://www.hamilton-trust.org.uk/blog/learning-home-packs/

 

English:

https://www.hamilton-trust.org.uk/blog/learning-home-packs/

https://www.spellzone.com/word_lists/games-5454.htm

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/english-games/7-11-years/spelling-and-grammar

 

Phonics:

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/

https://phonicsplaycomics.co.uk/

https://www.phonicsbloom.com/

Water bottles and snacks

Pupils must bring a water bottle every day with water. As we are a healthy school, we encourage all pupils to only bring pure water and not bring in squash or flavoured water. 

Pupils are allowed to bring in a healthy snack during tuck time.  There is also free fruit available. 

PE Days and Kit 

Our Year 1 PE day is Tuesday, so please make sure your child's PE kit is brought to school on the first day back and stays in school until the end of the half-term. This is then sent home over the holidays to be washed and must be sent back in on the first day back to school. .

  • Black or navy shorts and a white t-shirt, or black or navy tracksuit bottoms and sweatshirts. Tracksuits must be plain and not have logos. 
  • Properly fitting black pumps or plimsolls. 
  • No jewellery to be worn. 
  • Everything should be labelled with your child's name. 
  • P.E. kit should be in school every day. 

Year 1 parental support and engagement 

Throughout the year we host a variety of parent Phonic parent workshops. These will take place at different points in the year and staff will make parents aware of these through a letter. 

If there is any support that parents need with anything, staff are always available for a chat at the end of the day. Any messages can be passed onto other members of staff if your child's teacher is not on the gate in the morning.

Year 1 Handwriting

As a school we follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised Scheme. For handwriting, we use the Little Wandle letter formation rhymes to help support our pupils with letter formation. 

 

Year 1 Showcase 

Year 1 have been learning about the religion Christianity and how Christians believe in God. We learnt that God can be thought about in lots of different ways. The pupils drew their own representation of what they thought God looks like.

 

Year 1 have been busy using natural materials to make land art inspired by the artist Andy Goldsworthy.

 

Contact Us

Temple Meadow Primary School
Wrights Lane
Cradley Heath
West Midlands
B64 6RH

01384 569 021