Link to Year 1 Home Learning Page

Life in Year 1

All children are expected to arrive between 8:40-8:50am each day. We ask parents to say goodbye at the school gate and allow the children to come into school themselves now that they are more grown up and in Year 1. In Year 1 there will be formal teaching sessions every day, but there will also be some opportunities to continue to learn and develop through play. This will be the children’s discovery time and follows on from their Reception experience, ensuring they are all secure in meeting their Early Learning Goals before moving onto the Key Stage 1 curriculum.  For an overview of our Year 1 curriculum please look at the Class Topic Plans web page which has details of each termly topic we cover per year group.

We follow a creative curriculum, linking our topic work into different areas of the curriculum. Our topic this term is The Jolly Postman, which links to lots of different fairy tales, and then after half term we will be finding out all about Dinosaurs.

Playtime
There is no need to provide a snack for your child.  Healthy snacks will be provided by the school and will be given out at playtime.  Children should, however, bring in a named water bottle containing water only, so they are able to have a drink as and when they need one.  Drink bottles may be left in school but do need to go home every Friday to be cleaned.

Children will need to bring their book bags to school every day, as children may read with an adult more than once a week. The children will read weekly to the class teacher during grouped guided reading in class and individually with reading helpers. The children should also be reading their books at home every day to help build their confidence and enjoyment for reading. Please record this in their Reading Record notebook so we know if the books have been read and need to be changed.

Target Cards
Target cards for Maths, Reading, Writing and Science will be sent out in a named plastic wallet every other Wednesday and MUST be returned the following morning (Thursday). Just a gentle reminder that school policy is that if they are not returned on time, they will not be sent home again.

Phonics
There is a big emphasis on phonics teaching in Year 1; this is taught daily through lots of fun and games. You will probably hear lots of talk about Geraldine the Giraffe helping find sounds! This all helps to prepare the children for the National Phonic screening in June.  The children will be bringing home phonics booklets, which we encourage you to do with them for just five minutes every day. They can also enjoy practicing their phonics using the website www.phonicsplay.co.uk . For more information about how we teach phonics, please see the information on our school website.

PE
It is essential that the children have the correct PE kit for school. The PE kit needed for school is as follows: 1 red polo shirt, 1 navy pair of shorts, 1 pair of navy or black tracksuit bottoms (optional for winter) 1 pair of trainers for outdoor PE and for doing the daily mile each day. Please make sure all these items are clearly named. PE will be on a Friday and the children are expected to wear their PE kit to school to save the need for changing.

Name labels
With 30 children in Year 1, we are sure you will understand that it is essential that all of their belongings are clearly labelled with their names, including coats, jumpers, book bags, lunchboxes, drink bottles, PE kit and trainers.

Spare clothes
Please make sure that your child has a spare pair of pants and socks in their bags, in case of accidents. We would also be grateful if each child could bring a box of tissues in as, we are sure you appreciate, we get an awful lot of runny noses!

We hope this information is useful. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have questions at any time. We can be contacted via the School Office or the class email address: Class1@st-edmunds-rc.oxon.sch.uk

Mrs Sylvester– Year 1 teacher Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

Mrs Demain– Year 1 teacher Thursday, Friday

Teaching assistant-   Miss Selby