St Nicholas’ Chantry

St Nicholas' Chantry CofE Primary School

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Year 1 - Cedar & Willow Class

Year 1

Class information

Welcome to Cedar Class.
Mrs Court is the teacher for Cedar Class and Mrs Ingle is the Teaching Assisstant.

     

Welcome to Willow Class.
Mrs Keate and Mr Strawbridge are the class teachers for Willow class and Mrs Symes is the Teaching Assistant.

Mrs Keate teaches Monday - Wednesday.

Mr Strawbridge teaches Thursday and Friday. 

          

Year 1 teachers are available to talk to about any issue or concern that you may have throughout the year. 

If you wish to contact us via email please use:

Mrs Court - cedar@stnicholaschantryschool.org.uk 

Mrs Keate and Mr Strawbridge - willow@stnicholaschantryschool.org.uk 

The School Day

The school day starts at 8.40am.  As your child arrives on the school site they will come through the gate to the top playground where they will be greeted by a member of the Year 1 team. They will then enter the school through the doors to the old hall as they would normally do. Another member of the Year 1 team will greet them as they arrive at their classrooms.

The school day finishes at 3.15pm.  Year 1 classes will be led out onto the playground by their class teacher who will then hand each child over to the adult collecting them. The children will be dismissed via the steps that lead down from the Old Hall.

Please give us 24 hours notice if your child is to be collected by someone who does not normally collect them.  This information can be e mailed to class teachers via the school office.

Learning Focus for the Term

Term 4:

English - The Night Gardener by The Fan Brothers

Geography - The UK including a study of our school and locality

Science - Exercise, food and hygiene

Art - Printing and collaging - Guiseppe Arcimboldo

PSHE - Healthy me

Computing: Online safety

RE - Who made the world? 

PE: Cricket (outside) and Applying physical skills (indoor)

 Knowledge Organisers and Helpful Websites

Geography: The UK

Websites: BBC Bitesize

Science: Plants

Websites: BBC Bitesize

DT: Food Technology

Websites: BBC Bitesize

PSHE: Relationships

Computing: Programming

 Year Group Newsletters

Each term we enjoy sending out to our parents and carers a round up of what their children have been learning that term as well as any important messages and reminders.

Year 1 information letter

 Term 4 Newletter

Book Bags

Children need to have their book bags with them every day, which includes their reading book and reading record book.

On a Tuesday children will change their reading books with the class teacher. 

Parent Helpers

We welcome the help of parents across KS1 so please let us know if you are interested in helping in KS1. Most parents come in to hear children read across KS1 and parent helpers are not attached to their child's class. You will need to go through a safeguarding process before you would be able to start with us but this is usually a fairly quick process and our office team can get this started for you.

Reading and Phonics

Reading is one of the most important things we can teach our children. We want all our children to be avid readers with a love for all different types of literature. 

As children start their school life they will very much focus on learning to read. As they move higher up the school and into secondary education and beyond they will be reading to learn. So it is vitally important that we support our youngest pupils to quickly learn to read. We want every child to love reading and to do this we must make sure that it is a pleasurable experience and that they can read with accuracy and fluency so they can access as many opportunities as possible.

We follow the Unlocking Letters and Sounds (ULS) scheme. Your child will take part in daily whole class phonics lessons.

We use ULS assessment tracker to monitor your child's progress with phonics and your child will be given reading books at the correct level for their phonic knowledge. The children should be able to read these books with at least 90% accuracy. Your child's reading books will be changed in school every Tuesday - please record their reading at home in the Reading Log.  

We can't stress enough the importance of children practicing their reading with an adult at least 4 times a week. If your child finishes a book, please encourage your child to re-read the book to help increase their fluency and comprehension. 

Phonics workshop with voice over

As well as your child reading to you, it is important you also take time to read to your child. Please see the recommended reads below as a guide to books a Y1 child will enjoy having shared with them.

Year 1 Recommended Reads

Please click on the link below to visit the Books for Topics Y1 Recommended Reads webpage:

Books For Topics Y1 Page

Termly Phonics Overviews

This overview will show you what your child will be learning in their phonics lessons each week. This overview is useful to refer to when practicing the spellings as you will be able to see which graphemes have been the new learning for your child.

Term 4

Optional Spelling Home Learning

Across the school, children will be provided with a list of spellings that link to the spelling work they are doing within their year group. We have used the first few weeks of Term 2 to focus on Phase 4 Common Exception Words. The final couple of weeks include some of the new graphemes your child will be learning in phonics this term. You can choose to practise some or all of the words with your child each week at home.

Term 4 Spellings

When supporting your child please encourage your child to use their phonic knowledge e.g. play contains the phonemes p l ay. The Common Exception Words will contain exceptions to the current phonic rules your child knows e.g. in "said" they will know the phonemes for the graphemes "s" and "d" but the exception will be the grapheme "ai" making the phoneme "e". 

Here is a "look, cover, write, check" template that you might like to use at home look say cover write check template

ULS Phonics Resources

 Phase 2 Sound Mat

Phase 3 Sound Mat

Phase 5 Sound Mat

Letters and Sounds have produced this short video to help parents and carers know how to pronounce the phonemes.
Phoneme video guide

Common Exception Words

These are the Common Exception Words (CEWs) that children are expected to be able to read and spell by the end of Year 1.  A Common Exception Word is a word which does not follow the common phonetic spelling rules of the language, or where the usual rules act in an unusual way.  

Phase 2 CEW Word Mat

Phase 3 CEW Mat

Phase 4 CEW Mat

Phase 5 CEW Mat

Handwriting

Good handwriting is critical to children’s writing progress so alongside the learning children take part in in phonics children will also practise letter formation in short handwriting sessions. ULS have produced a guide to the way in which letters should be formed and this includes a patter to help children remember how to correcttly form each letter.

ULS Handwriting Action and Formation

Alongside our regular handwriting practise we will provide activities to support children's fine motor development. These activities include: Playdough, threading beads, jigsaw puzzles Lego/ construction toys, clipping pegs on cardboard and cutting with scissors. These are activities you might like to also encourage at home.

Maths Home Learning 

Our class based maths learning follows the White Rose scheme.  White Rose have also produced home learning videos that run alongside the work we cover in class.  By using some of these videos at home with your child you can help to reinforce the learning they are experiencing in class.  

Where possible we encourage you to use practical resources with your child, e.g. buttons, leaves, conkers as counters.  

Homework in KS1 is non-statutory and so we do not need you to provide evidence of any work completed at home.  If you have any queries around the home learning though please e mail us and we will be happy to help.

Term 5 - optional Maths homework

White Rose have produced a useful app that can help to support your child at home with their key maths facts.

White Rose 1 Minute Maths

Please use the link below to access the White Rose Home Learning page and then click on the Year 1 box to access the weekly videos.

White Rose Home Learning

Many of you will already be familiar with the CBeebies show "Numberblocks" this is a high quality program that is in allingment with the way in which children learn about number in school. This link will take you directly to the Numberblocks page which includes activities that complement the TV program.

Numberblocks

 

 PE

Children have 2 PE lessons a week. These lessons give them the opportunity to develop a range of skills across the year. All lessons will in some way help children to develop their gross motor skills. The development of these skills enables children to improve their balance and coordination and use their larger muscles. These skills will help them learn to run,  jump, throw, climb, crawl, and perform many other actions and movements. Gross motor skills also play an important role in fine motor skill development.

Outdoor PE:

Cedar Class: Wednesday afternoon

Willow Class: Wednesday afternoon

Indoor PE:

Cedar Class: Tuesday afternoon

Willow Class: Tuesday afternoon

Please ensure your child has a PE kit in school each week and that they have joggers for colder weather. If your child wears tights to school please also ensure they have a pair of socks to change into. 

If you are looking for ideas to use at home you might like to use Joe Wicks' PE at home videos that were produced to help keep children active during the lockdowns.