Mrs Bougen

Teaching Assistant

Miss Elson

Class Teacher

Miss McGuinness

Teaching Assistant

 

~ Autumn 1 ~

Welcome to Year 1!

Miss Elson, Mrs Bougen and Miss McGuinness are very excited to welcome our Year 1 children to Elm Class in the Autumn Term. We have lots of great plans for this term and so much fun learning to do together! Please follow us on Twitter @TheOaksCPElm to get frequent updates about our learning journey.

As a team, the class will continue building on the important learning skills of

  • finding out and exploring,
  • building relationships,
  • concentrating and problem solving,
  • having an enthusiasm for learning

To begin the school year, Year 1 children will have daily opportunities to use continuous provision to enhance their learning and to develop their own ideas and interests. Continuing to learn through this play-based, hands on, child-centered style of learning, will enable the children to return to their explorations and consolidate their learning over the course of a day or a more extended period. This supports them in becoming independent and resilient learners. Throughout the environment, both inside and outside, you will see children actively engaged in a wide range of activities that they themselves have chosen. Continuous provision supports and encourages our children and staff to have a lifelong love of learning.

As the term progresses, children will be introduced to weekly challenges, where they can independently apply skills which have previously been taught. This allows children to demonstrate their understanding, which in turn allows staff to plan the next steps in the children’s learning journey. 

Throughout the year, the amount of adult directed learning activities and whole class instruction will gradually be increased. Opportunities will be provided for group work, individual learning and whole-class teaching, whilst whole-class teaching sessions remain short and active. Wherever possible, children will be given the opportunity to experience real life events that are linked to their learning.

The Elm Class Team are looking forward to working with parents and carers as a partnership, to strive for the best outcomes for our students and to make this year thoroughly enjoyable.

Curriculum

Please see the link below to investigate what we will be learning across the curriculum this year. 

Y1 Curriculum Overview 2023-2024.docx

 

Phonics and Reading:

Children will continue to access daily phonics sessions using Read Write Inc (RWI).

Read Write Inc – Parent guide

Read Write Inc – How to say the sounds.

Children will continue to access daily reading lessons through Steps to Read. In these lessons, all aspects of word reading and comprehension are modelled, practiced and used through accessing high-quality fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts.

 

Writing

Writing lessons will be structured around a vehicle text, which changes each half term. The vehicle texts comprehensively link with the National Curriculum objectives taught in Year 1. The children will be exposed to a wide range of planning, composition and writing activities. Throughout continuous provision, children will be provided with opportunities to write in all areas of the curriculum, encouraging them to express themselves through a variety of media, at any time of day. 

 

Maths

Maths continues to be taught daily. Each maths lesson begins with Rapid Recall – in which children answer 5 questions, based on previous learning. Recapping prior learning in this way helps children to understand maths concepts better and get to the answer faster. During maths lessons, new concepts will be introduced and scaffolded using concrete, pictorial and abstract approaches. As a class, we will continue to use a mastery approach, embedding maths concepts, in order to ensure that every child develops a deep understanding of maths. 

For math guidance for parents, please click here to be redirected to a page on the school website.

 

Science

Weekly science lessons will provide the foundations for understanding the world. Science lessons will enable pupils to experience and observe more closely, the natural and humanly-constructed world around them. Children will be encouraged to be curious and ask questions about what they notice. They will be supported in developing their understanding of scientific ideas by using different types of scientific enquiry to answer their own questions. During lessons, children will learn through first-hand, practical experiences, observing changes over a period of time, noticing patterns, grouping and classifying things, as well as carrying out simple comparative tests, and finding things out using secondary sources of information. Children will learn to use simple scientific language to talk about what they have found out.

Home Learning

5 weekly reads: Please support your child to ‘Strive for 5’ by listening and encouraging your child to read five times a week. This can be achieved through reading their school book or phonics book, or reading another book or reading material that they have access to at home. Please ensure that you write all reads into the yellow Reading Record and send these to school daily so that we can see how many times children are reading and count them towards their 50 reads.  For each 50 reads your child has recorded in their Reading Record, their name will be entered into the Headteacher’s Golden Book and they will choose a new book to bring home and keep forever (the first 50 reads is achievable by Christmas!).

Miss Elson will set homework on a Friday through Class Dojo. These activities should be completed by the following Wednesday. Homework will regularly include:

  • DoodleLearning: Please support your child to complete both DoodleMaths and DoodleEnglish assignments every week. Login details for these can be found in your child’s yellow Reading Record.
  • Phonics videos and flash cards: Please encourage your child to sit quietly, watch and interact with the phonics video as they would in their lesson at school. The videos will be shared through Class Dojo messages, and are specifically tailored to your child’s phonics level. 

Reminders

  • PE is on a ____ this term. On this day, your child is able to come into school wearing their red PE shorts or black jogging pants/leggings and trainers with their white school PE shirt and school jumper/cardigan.
  • Reading Records: These should be filled in as you complete a read at home. Children should remember to bring their reading book and Yellow Reading Record to school daily.
  • Water bottles: All children should bring a water bottle to school daily. Children are responsible for bringing their water bottle home at the end of the day to be washed and refilled.
  • The majority of communications between school and parents will be sent by Class Dojo or by email. Please ensure that you check these regularly.

 

Have any questions?

Miss Elson and the Elm Class Team are available on the door in the mornings and afternoons, or alternatively, you can contact us on Class Dojo or by email at hannah.elson@theoaks.cheshire.sch.uk

 

Class Information Updates

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @TheOaksCPElm to get frequent updates about what we have been up to in class.