Welcome to Year One
Our Year 1 classes are called Seahorses and Starfish.
There are 24 pupils in Seahorses class and Mrs Lisle and Mrs Hunter teach in here on a job share basis. Mrs Tinti supports in this class.
There are 24 pupils in Starfish class and Mrs Hoyle teaches in here. Mrs Jackson and Mr Jackson support in this class.
Class Newsletters
Our Curriculum
Our curriculum changes each half term. We strive to make it engaging and fun. Where possible, we will link subjects together with a theme. We provide the children with a broad and balanced curriculum incorporating lots of new vocabulary which is revisited often. We have two PE lessons each week covering dance, gymnastics, games and core skills, and often have qualified coaches teaching the children. Within our PSHE curriculum we aim to encourage children to make healthy choices, keep safe and develop respect and healthy relationships with others. In RE we follow the Durham Agreed Syllabus. In Year 1 we focus on the faiths of Christianity and Buddhism in addition to learning about other major faith celebrations throughout the year.
English
We use Little Wandle Letters and Sounds to teach phonics. We have a whole class session every day for 30 minutes which focuses on learning and applying phonic skills to read and write words and sentences. As part of the Little Wandle programme, year 1 pupils have three guided reading sessions a week. During these sessions we read the same book 3 times and focus on decoding, prosody (reading with expression) and comprehension. Children then bring the book home to read at home.
We teach writing through Talk for Writing which is an engaging teaching framework which links oral rehearsing and retelling of stories to build confident writers. Every half term we focus on a new story which we firstly learn and retell, then innovate by changing aspects before finally inventing our own story based on the text. We also focus on a non-fiction style of writing every half term.
Before lunchtime every day, we share a variety of books during our class story time which gives us the opportunity to simply enjoy listening to a story together.
Class Stories
Autumn Term Texts
Spring Term Texts
Summer Term Texts
Maths
Our Maths lessons focus the skills developed through White Rose Maths. We follow the block planning schedule to ensure that lessons meet the needs of the children. We use a variety of White Rose teaching methods throughout our lessons as well as a variety of resources and activities to support learning and provide stretch and challenge opportunities to all our learners within each topic.
Over the course of the year, we will be developing our knowledge and understanding of fluency, reasoning and problem solving. Our learning focuses on vocabulary as well as concrete, pictorial and abstract skills to develop the understanding required for each block of work.
See below for our Medium-Term Planning for Maths:
Other Curriculum Areas
Autumn 1
As scientists, we will learn about our bodies and investigate our senses. We will also be exploring our senses in Music. As geographers, we will try to answer the question ‘What is my place like?’, including learning about and visiting local churches as part of RE. As artists we will explore mark making with a variety of media. We will learn about technology in ICT.
Autumn 2
As scientists, we will learn about animals, including humans. We will sort animals into mammals, fish, reptiles, amphibians and birds and will learn about their diets. We observe and discuss how we know the seasons are changing, looking for signs in the school grounds. As historians, we will try to answer the question ‘What is in a road?’, with a focus on homes through the years. As designers, we will focus on building a structure, thinking about how to fasten parts together.
Spring 1
As scientists, we will learn about Materials and group them by their properties. In this topic we will have a visit from Captain Chemistry where we will carry out experiments and fair tests. As geographers, we will try to answer the question ‘What can I find in my corner of the World?’. As artists we will explore colour mixing through paint play, using a range of tools to paint on different surfaces and creating paintings inspired by Clarice Cliff and Jasper Johns. We will learn to programme Bee-Bots and other programmable toys in ICT. We will continue to listen to, compose and play music through a Superheroes topic.
Spring 2
As scientists, we will continue our Materials topic and try to answer questions such as ‘Is all paper the same?’ in a scientific way. We will think about the changing seasons and weather and make temperature comparisons. As historians, we will try to answer the question ‘How has my high street changed?’. We will look at photos of Bowburn and compare them with photographs we take on a walk in the area. We will also visit Preston Park Museum to see what shopping was like in Victorian times. As designers, we will learn about ways to join fabric to make a hand puppet.
Summer 1
As scientists, we will answer the question ‘What do plants need to grow?’ and we will explore the plants that grow in the community. As geographers, we will learn to name and locate the four countries of the United Kingdom. In ICT we will explore data handling. As artists, we will learning fibre art skills such as plaiting, threading, knotting and weaving to create woven artworks.
Summer 2
As scientists, we will continue to learn about plants and growing, but with a focus on trees in the local area and ways to identify them. We explore and observe to find out whether all trees are the same. As designers, we find out where fruit and vegetables grow and design a container for a fruit smoothie we make. As historians, we will try to answer the question ‘Who has helped make History?’. During this topic we research and compare Timothy Hackworth and George Stephenson, with a visit to Locomotion (Shildon Railway Museum).
Homework
Children bring their Little Wandle book home every Friday to be shared at home and needs to be returned on Monday.
Children bring tricky words home linked to Little Wandle on a Friday and they need to practise reading and writing them at home. From the Summer term, the children will have a weekly spelling test with the words.
In Year 1 we also have topic grid homework which has activities and mini projects you can do at home over the course of the half term. These are all linked to what we are learning. We enjoy seeing finished projects or photographs of what the children have been learning at home and dojo points will be given for finished homework.