Welcome to Year 1

Year 1 Team:

Miss Southarn - Class Teacher

Mrs Illingworth - Class Teacher

Mrs Stothard- Learning Support Assistant

Summer Term 2025

As the sun comes out, we are celebrating the changes in the world around us. We are looking at plants, the seaside, castles, and finger puppets. Read on for more information...

English

In Year 1, we explore a variety of fiction texts, non-fiction texts and poetry exposing children to a wide variety of narratives and rich vocabulary texts.  This term, we will be describing the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk, re-writing the story of The Paperbag Princess (a brave heroine who decides she doesn't need to be rescued!), describing dragons, and writing an alternative ending to The Lighthouse Keepers Lunch. We will incorporate drama to immerse children in story telling and role play to enable them to become familiar with the characters and story plots.  Children will orally retell stories and share descriptions verbally to prepare them for writing. They will record their ideas in sentences using capital letters, full stops, and conjunctions. They will be writing questions and exclamations using the correct punctuation.  Below are the texts we will be exploring in the Summer Term:

Jack and the Beanstalk

The Paper Bag Princess, by Robert Munsch

The Knight and the Dragon, Tomie DePaolo

The Lighthouse Keepers Lunch, Ronda Armitage

Reading

Children read three times a week in small guided reading groups taught by an adult within school.  Children are regularly assessed and given a reading book that supports the phonics phase they are currently working at. Children must return their books on a Thursday.  Children will bring home their new phonics reading book every Friday.  We encourage children to read with a grown up at least three times a week and we ask that children's diaries are signed each time they have been heard read. The diaries will be stamped by a member of staff each time they are returned. For every twenty reads, the children receive a certificate, a gold coin, and a prize. Below are some useful references for questions to ask children as they read. 

Children will also bring home a shared reading book each week chosen from the school library.  This book  should be read with your child as it may contain some words that your child is unable to decode and read independently.   

Reminder: All books need to be back in school on a Thursday to be changed.

Phonics

We follow the Little Wandle Phonics Scheme and children have daily phonics lessons.  Phonics is extremely important part of a child's learning as it enables them to develop and become fluent, independent readers as they move up school.  In the Summer Term, Children in Year 1 will undertake the Phonics Screening Check.  This is a short statutory assessment that assesses a child's ability to decode and read real and nonsense words.  

Maths

In Maths, children will be looking at multiplication and focusing on the two, five, and ten times tables.  They will be using a variety of concrete and pictorial resources to support their understanding eventually moving on to more abstract concepts.  This is really important as it supports the development of 'number sense' and counting fluency.  A breakdown of the Maths curriculum for the Spring Term can be found below:

Multiplication                                   Fractions:

Place Value:                                                             Position and Direction:

Money:                                                                                  Time:

Science

Our Science topic this term is Plants.   Children will be working scientifically to identify and name a variety garden and wild plants, including flowering plants and trees. They will be using key scientific language to describe the parts of a plant. We will be planting our own seeds and watching them grow, thinking about how we can support our plant to stay healthy. Children will continue to look at seasonal changes and describing the changes they can see over time, including observing the changes taking place to the deciduous trees around us. 

Topic

Our topic this term is Castles.

In Geography, we will name and locate the four countries of the United Kingdom and their capitals. We will use compass points to describe features on a map, and use directional language to describe the location of features and routes on map. 

In History, we will be learning about King Charles and Queen Elizabeth 1. We will be looking at the features of a castle, focusing on Kenilworth Castle in particular.  

RE

This term, children will be focusing on Judaism- their beliefs, traditions, and place of worship. We will compare to what we have learnt about Islam, Sikhism, Humanism and Christianity. 

PSHE

This term, children will be thinking about relationships. We will look at: our families and how a family is a group of people who love us and take care of us; making friends; greetings and how our words and actions impact our relationship with others; people who help us; how to take care of ourselves. 

PE and Forest School

PE shall be taught on a Wednesday afternoon - children should  come into school in their PE Kit.  Please see the school uniform policy for acceptable PE clothes.  

Spring 1 Highlights