Year 1 Overview

Year 1 (Y1) marks an exciting period of transition for our children as they move from Early Years into Key Stage 1 (KS1). We are committed to supporting all children to become confident and fluent readers at the earliest possible stage and our teaching approach reflects this. In Year 1, children take part in high quality, daily phonics sessions which are underpinned by the Little Wandle programme. They explore the conventions of narrative in engaging storytelling sessions and bring their learning to life with exploratory opportunities both inside and outside of the classroom. 

Children are encouraged to become active learners who interact creatively with the resources in the environment through continuous and enhanced provision. They develop the skills to work both collaboratively and independently as they explore more about their fascinating units of learning. The Year 1 curriculum is enhanced through first-hand learning experiences, including local visits, specialist visitors in school and parent workshop days where family members are invited to join us in school and collaborate on projects with their child.

In June, children in Year 1 take the national phonics assessment. The phonics check is a short assessment which is administered internally by the child’s teacher to confirm whether individual children are able to apply their phonics learning to decode to the expected standard. Children who do not achieve the standard score receive further support and retake the check in Year 2. 

Curriculum and Areas of Learning

Children’s learning is rooted in the Y1 or Key Stage 1 programme of study from the Primary National Curriculum. In addition to this, children will develop their understanding of the wider world and current topical issues highlighted by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals).

In Year 1 children focus upon the following Global Goals specifically:

Global Goal 5- Gender Equality

End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere

Ensure that women and girls have equal opportunities in society, politics and the workplace

Global Goal 14- Life Below Water

Reduce marine pollution

Learn about the impact of overfishing and protect marine reserves

Support local fishing in sustainable ways in contrast to large corporation trawlers

Global Goal 15- Life On Land

Protect natural ecosystems such as deserts and rainforests

Reduce deforestation

Protect endangered species

Protect indigenous communities around the world                                                            

Homework

Spelling

Children will be set weekly phonics homework, which cements the learning taking place in class throughout the week and includes opportunities to practice key spelling patterns.

Reading

Children should be reading for at least 10 minutes a day at home. Children in Year 1 take part in the 5 star reading challenge. For every 5 comments in their reading diary, they will receive a star. They collect stars and can achieve various awards before being crowned a reading champion when all stars have been collected.

Children also have access to the Collins e-library at home where they can read through the books they have been reading in small groups in school to help with fluency, prosody and comprehension skills.

Foundation Subjects

Each half term, children are provided with a selection of activities and tasks that link to their learning and encourage creativity . Children aim to complete as many of these challenges as possible within a half term. The tasks are designed to recap and extend the learning from a range of foundation subjects.

Maths

As the year progresses, children begin to receive a weekly maths homework that relates to the unit of learning that the children have been covering in class. These activities are designed to provide additional independent practice of key mathematical skills including fluency in calculation with basic operations and recall of times tables facts. Children also have access to Numbots which is an online game. Playing numbots little and often will significantly improve your child’s recall and understanding of number bonds and addition and subtraction facts. 

Links to additional learning resources

Reading, phonics and English

https://www.littlewandlelettersandsounds.org.uk/resources/for-parents/

https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/

https://collins.co.uk/pages/support-learning-at-home

https://www.worldbookday.com/storytime-online/

Maths

https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/ 

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/

Foundation Subjects

Busy Things- Log in to School 360 and access the Busy Things platform - you can practise your typing skills as well as coding avatars to perform specific tasks.

www.natgeokids.com 

www.woodlandtrust.org.uk 

General

https://www.school360.co.uk