Year 1

Updated April 2023

Welcome to Year 1!

Class 1G is taught by Miss Gowers and 1K by Mr Kasmiri. They are supported by Cathy, Angela and Collet. They can be contacted via year1@earlsfield.wandsworth.sch.uk

We are so excited to welcome you to Year One! We are very pleased to meet you all and are looking forward to getting to know you all as the term progresses. We have so much to look forward to in our learning this term!

In Year One, we are passionate about hands-on learning, making our learning experiences as practical and fun as possible to deepen and secure our learning as we move to more formal methods of recording. We are thrilled to have our ‘den’ to use which will help us transition from Reception into Year One and where we will continue to learn through play and self-exploration.

In Topic this half term, we will be exploring our local area, using i-pads, maps and images to explore how Earlsfield has changed over time and why. We will also think about our favourite places in Earlsfield and will take on the role of architects as we design and then make our own models of local buildings in Design Technology! In Autumn Two, we will learn ‘Why do people travel?’, naming different types of transport and how transport allows us to connect with other countries around the world. We focus on the development of the iconic London bus and build our own buses complete with axles and wheels in Design Technology.

In Science, we will start the Autumn Term learning about seasons and weather, which starts with making a windsock! Then, after half term, we will move onto the topic of ‘The Human Body’, where we learn about the human senses, the names of our body parts and then compare how humans can be similar and different.

In English we look forward to reading the Power of Reading stories, ‘Iggy Peck Architect’ by Andrea Beaty, ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ by Michael Rosen and ‘The Naughty Bus’ by Jan Oke. These stories link to our learning in Topic and Science and will inspire our talk, drama and creative writing.

In Maths, we will start by developing our number knowledge, focusing on place value. We will be exploring numbers to 20, 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. You will be pleased to hear that we continue to use Doodle Maths in Key Stage One as part of our weekly homework and 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 Mr Glenn in the Music Studio on Friday. AM Sports will also lead our PE lesson each Friday and we will receive specialist gymnastics teaching from David on a Thursday (1K in Autumn One and 1G in Autumn Two). Art lessons will be taught by the class teacher and will continue to be taught in the Art Studio.

We look forward to working with you to support the children with their reading development. Group Phonics will start from Monday 11th September and we will share reading books and spelling words in your child’s pupil handbook the week beginning the 18th of September. 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 the curriculum page 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

Homework

Days to remember

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

Other things you need to know

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