Year 1

Year One – Spring Term 2025

Dear Parents / Carers,

Welcome back, we hope you had a peaceful time over the holiday. The children have come back full of excitement and we are looking forward to the term ahead.

Reading will continue to be at the heart of all learning and, as always, we encourage you to get involved with your children’s reading by sharing and discussing their latest ebook on Oxford Owl and their book bag book. Please read a bedtime story to your child every day. Studies show the massive impact this has for your child.

Our English sessions are based on our topic for the half term. During Spring 1 we will be looking at ‘Coming to England’ and ‘Grandad’s Island’. During Spring 2 we will be looking at ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and ‘The Amazing Life Cycle of Plants.’ We are continuing to look for the children to be applying phonic knowledge and taught spelling patterns. The children will be looking to ensure sentences are correctly punctuated with a capital letters, finger spaces, full stops, question marks and exclamation marks when appropriate.

In Maths this term, our focus will be looking at numbers to 20 for the first part of the term and then moving on to numbers to 50. We will then use this knowledge with addition and subtraction. We will then move on to learning about measure through length and height and mass and capacity. We will be continuing to deliver our math’s lessons through the Power Maths scheme, which focuses on problem solving and reasoning and we will be using Fluency Bee alongside the scheme to build children’s fluency in using number. Arithmetic continues to be a focus in school this year and is taught every Friday. The math’s homework is linked to the arithmetic lesson they have been taught that week.

We have two new topics for this term. They will form the basis for our learning in History, Geography, Art and D & T (Design and Technology). We will be linking our Science with topic.

In the first half term we will be studying ‘Childhood’. We will be comparing childhood today to childhood in the Victorian Era and the 1950s. We will also be making a toy car as part of our D & T.

In Science, we will be learning about Every Day Materials. We will be identifying what materials objects are made from and investigating their properties.

In the second half term our topic is ‘Enchanted Woodland’. We will be learning about geographical features and finding out about maps.

In Science, we will be looking at Plants. We will be able to name and identify common UK plants and trees. We will explore the lifecycle of plants by growing our own seeds and will also look at the different parts of the plants.

Our PSHE topics will be ‘Dreams and Goals’ and ‘Healthy Me’. In RE, we will be looking at Islam and looking at the question ‘Who is God to Muslims?’ and Christianity, looking at the question ‘Why was Jesus welcomed like a king or celebrity by the crowds on Palm Sunday?’

For Computing we will be creating ‘Animated Stories’ and looking at ‘Following Instructions’. We will also be covering ‘Online Bullying’ and ‘Managing Online Information’ as part of our e-safety alongside celebrating our annual E-safety week in February.

This half term in Music we will be looking at the unit ‘Hey You!’ and next half term we will be exploring playing in an orchestra and rehearsing songs for a Christmas.

Our PE focus will be around ball skills. PE will be on Friday for Year 1. Children should attend school in their PE kits on this day. Can we remind parents that the PE kit should be dark tracksuit trousers, leggings or shorts, dark hoodie, white t-shirt and suitable trainers.

Home Learning will consist of reading at home at least 3 times a week, spellings and arithmetic. We will be sending home the spellings on look, cover, write, check sheets which need returning to school for a Friday. Weekly spelling tests will take place on a Friday. Arithmetic and spellings will be given out on Friday and needs to be returned by the following Friday.

Books for each class will be changed on a Friday, please make sure your child has their book and reading diary in school every day.

Spring term can see very changeable weather please ensure that your child comes to school dressed appropriately for the weather ensuring that your child has a coat for cold and rainy days and a sun hat for warmer days. Please ensure that ALL items of clothing are clearly named. Please can all children come to school with a named bottle of water. We would also like to remind you that our school has a healthy eating policy and snacks must be healthy for example fruit, vegetables etc. crisps and biscuits can be eaten at lunchtimes. We also provide children with a fruit or vegetable snack each day.

If you have any concerns or issues that you wish to discuss with us, please let us know on the door or you can email us directly on our class emails.

Class 1EW – Year1EW@welearn365.com

Class 1R – Year1R@welearn365.com

Thank you for your continued support.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Reid, Mrs Child and Mrs Sahota

What a wonderful few weeks we’ve had...

In English, the children have been enjoying The Emperor’s Egg, learning all about the incredible way Emperor penguins care for their young. This linked beautifully with our writing lessons, where the class used adjectives to describe penguins and their life in Antarctica. Their enthusiasm has been amazing!

In science, we have been classifying animals into groups such as mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. The children loved sorting pictures and discussing the features that make each animal unique.

Our Home Corner has also had a festive makeover as we get ready for Christmas. The children have been busy writing cards, wrapping pretend gifts, and decorating the space with lots of creative ideas.

Finally, a huge well done to every child for their fantastic effort in the Christmas show. We are all very proud of you—what a brilliant performance!

Enjoy the pictures below!