Year 1

Class 1W is taught by Miss Warley and 1B is taught by Lara Beckett They are supported by Cathy and Angela.

Year 1 teachers can be contacted via year1@earlsfield.wandsworth.sch.uk

Spring 2026 update

Welcome back and Happy New Year! We hope that you have had a fantastic break and that now you are feeling ready and raring to go for all of the adventures to come in the Spring Term.

We are very excited to launch our Space Topic ‘Hello, is there anybody out there?’. We will start this topic with astronaut training - ensuring that all of our little astronauts are fully prepared! We will learn about how astronauts live in space, and some significant figures such as Mae Jemison and Niel Armstrong. We will also look at the timeline of humans and space and learn about the different parts of a rocket. Our space theme will also be explored in our Art lessons, where we will make space themed sketches, statues which will then all be used to create Shadow Boxes. We will also have an exciting workshop in school where the children will learn about stars and planets in an awe inspiring Astrodome.

To link Topic and English, we will also be reading and exploring ‘Beegu’ and ‘Look Up!’. These texts will inspire lots of fun activities such as making aliens and hot seating, all of which leads up to our creative writing. We will also continue to have daily phonics sessions, both as a class and in our smaller RWInc. Groups.

In Spring 2, we will start our new topic ‘Would you like to be a real life King or Queen?’. We will learn about some significant kings and queens from around the world and in history and will focus on a comparison between Elizabeth I and modern royals. We will also have a fun workshop with Polka Theatre where the children will create their own play themed around kings and queens! This Topic will culminate with a Royal Banquet where we will prepare an afternoon tea - if we are lucky we may even be visited by the King! To go alongside this, in English we will look at alternate versions of Cinderella, and write our own modern fairy tales, adding our own twists to them.

In Science, we will start the Spring Term learning about ‘Everyday Materials’ where we will conduct investigations to learn about the properties of different materials. After half term, we will move onto ‘Plants’ where we will learn about what plants need to survive and identify some common wild and garden plants. We will also be making use of our wonderful Bio-dome so that we can get practical with growing and gardening.

In Maths, we will continue to develop our number knowledge, focusing on place value. We will be exploring numbers to 50, using practical resources like Numicon and cubes to find different combinations of number bonds for a given number, finding one more and one less using a number track and recognising the value of the tens and ones. Doodle Maths continues to be an optional resource to support home learning.

We are incredibly fortunate to have lessons taught by our specialist teachers in Music and PE. We will continue to be taught Music by Mrs Hancock in the Music Room on Monday. AM Sports will also lead our PE lesson each Friday and we will receive specialist gymnastics teaching from David on a Thursday (1B in Spring One and 1W in Spring Two).

We look forward to working with you to support the children with their reading development. We will continue to share reading books and spelling words in your child’s pupil handbook. Please encourage your child to read and practise their spellings regularly.

Thank you to all parents and carers for your ongoing support to your teachers and your children. If you have any questions or queries please do not hesitate to email our Year One address.

Key Learning

You can find out about our approach to all our subjects through subject specific pages but the headlines for the year group are below.

Reading

Children can understand what they read by:

I can apply phonic knowledge and skills to decode words
I can respond speedily with the correct sound to graphemes for all 40+ phonemes, including alternative sounds for graphemes
I can read accurately by blending sounds in unfamiliar words
I can read common exception words, noting unusual correspondences between spelling and sound and where these occur in the word
I can read words containing 's, es, ing, ed, er, est' endings
I can read other words of more than one syllable
I can read words with contractions e.g. I'm, I'll, we'll, and understand that the apostrophe represents the omitted letter(s)
I can read aloud accurately books that are consistent with their developing phonic knowledge and that do not require them to use other strategies to work out words
I can re-read books to build up my fluency and confidence in word reading

Children develop pleasure in reading, motivation to read, vocabulary and understanding by:

I can listen to and discuss a wide range of texts
I can link what I hear and read to my own experiences
I am becoming familiar with and retelling with key stories, fairy stories and traditional tales
I can recognise and joining in with predictable phrases
I can begin to appreciate and recite rhymes and poems
I can discuss word meanings, linking new meaning to those already known

Children understand both the books they read accurately and fluently and those they listen to by:

I can draw on what I already know or on background information and vocabulary provided by my teacher
I can discuss the significance of the title and events
I can make inferences on the basis of what is being said and done
I can predict what might happen on the basis of what has been read so far
I can participate in discussion about what is read to me, taking turns and listening to what others say
I can clearly explain my understanding of what is read to me
I can check that the text makes sense by correcting what I have read

Writing

Writing

I can write sentences in order to create short narratives and non-fiction texts
I can use some features of different text types (although these may not be consistent).
I can reread my writing to check that it makes sense and make suggested changes
I can use adjectives to describe.
I can use simple sentence structures.
I can use the joining word (conjunction) ‘and’ to link ideas and sentences
I have an awareness of and am beginning to use: capital letters for names, places, the days of the week and the personal pronoun ‘I’, finger spaces, full stops to end sentences, question marks, exclamation marks.

Spelling

I can spell most words containing previously taught phonemes and GPCs accurately.
I can spell most Y1 common exception words and days of the week accurately (from English Appendix 1).
I can use -s and -es to form regular plurals correctly.
I can use the prefix ‘un’.
I can add the suffixes –ing, -ed, -er and –est to root words (with no change to the root word).

Handwriting

I can write lower case and capital letters in the correct direction, starting and finishing in the right place with a good level of consistency.

Greater depth (working above the national expected standard)

I can write sentences in order to create short narratives and non-fiction texts that are consistent in their features and purpose.
I can use a number of features of different text types and make appropriate topic/ subject matter vocabulary choices
I can reread my writing to check that it makes sense and independently make changes.
I can use adjectives to describe (sometimes ambitious beyond the year group).
Can regularly make use of capital letters for names, places, the days of the week and the personal pronoun ‘I’, finger spaces, full stops to end sentences, question marks and exclamation marks.

Statutory spellings

Days to remember

Day	Activity
Monday
Tuesday	Homework handed in via Seesaw
Wednesday
Thursday	Spelling test PE with class teacher/ Gym with David ( Wear PE kit to school ) Homework sent home via Seesaw Hand in reading books and pupil handbook
Friday	PE with AM sports ( Wear PE kit to school ) New reading books and spelling words sent home with Pupil Handbook
Everyday	Home reading (banded reading or books from home) Optional Doodlemaths and English

Other things you need to know

Home Learning	Online Safety	Behaviour
School Uniform	Packed Lunches & Snacks	Contact Us