Welcome to Year 1

Welcome to Year One!

Hello everyone and welcome back to another fantastic year at Bedford Drive Primary school! We are so excited to see you all again and to start a wonderful year together in Year One. We have lots of exciting learning opportunities planned for your children this half term. You can keep upto date with all of our learning by following us on Twiiter @bedfordyr_1ks1 

 Your Year One team are:

Mrs Silver (Teacher)

Mrs Cullen (Teacher)

Miss Sandman (Teacher)

Mrs O’Toole (TA)

Mrs Ebberell (TA)

Mrs Redmond (TA)

Phonics and reading

Just like in Foundation 2, every day the children take part in a phonics lesson which is planned using the Little Wandle scheme.  The children will be learning lots of new sounds and will have a go at reading these in words and spelling them too. You can find detailed information on how phonics and reading are taught in school on the phonics and reading curriculum page on the website.

We would really appreciate it if you could help you child to learn these skills at home too. Look at our Curriculum Overviews by pressing the Curriculum Overview button below, to find out more about our learning across the year.

 Just like in Foundation 2, every day the children take part in a phonics lesson which is planned using the Little Wandle scheme.  The children will be learning lots of new sounds and will have a go at reading these in words and spelling them too. You can find detailed information on how phonics and reading are taught in school on the phonics and reading curriculum page on the website.

Big Cat Collins decodable books

We are continuing to use Big Cat Collins books which are appropriate to your individual child's reading ability. Every child reads every day to an adult.  They will work on the same book for one week, which each day having a different focus.  This book is then sent home with your child for them to read to you at home.  The idea behind this is they consolidate the reading and develop their fluency at home. If you have any questions or queries regarding the book your child has been set, or how best to support your child with their reading, please don’t hesitate to ask your child’s class teacher.

 Reading for pleasure

One of our favourite parts of the day is our whole class story time.  Over this term we will be sharing lots of quality picture books such as Elmer, Owl Babies and Traction Man.  The children also love reading books from our class library.  We have chosen a number of ‘Reading for Pleasure’ books for our children to enjoy at home.  Your child is not expected to read this on their own, it is an opportunity to cuddle up and read together.

 Book Bags

Your child’s book bag will be sent home every Thursday and will contain

·         a decodable phonics book, which your child will have already read several times in school

·         a reading for pleasure book, which you can read to your child, perhaps as a bedtime story

·         a reading record which we would ask you to make a comment in each week

·         a homework book, which will have an activity in linked to something that we have been learning about in school

 Book bags are to be brought into school every Wednesday.   

Writing

In Year One, we have a daily English lesson based upon the Literacy Counts Steps to Read scheme.  Each unit starts with a ‘hook’ lesson and we then use a picture book to prompt and support our writing.  The children have the opportunity to write most days; our main focus for this half term is to encourage the children to be able to say a sentence before weiting it down, to think about the sounds they can hear in the words that they want to write, and to remember to use a capital letter at the start of each sentence and a full stop at the end.

 Handwriting

Our daily handwriting lesson is a chance for the children in Year One to learn how to form letters correctly.  We teach letter formation in ‘handwriting families’ rather than in alphabetical order.  Our first family is called ‘The Curly Caterpillar’ letters as all of these letters are based on the letter ‘c’.  This family includes ‘c,a,o,d,g,q,f,s,e’.  It is important that the children learn where each letter sits in relation to the line and that all letters are formed correctly.

 Spelling and grammar

Learning to spell accurately is a fundamental skill for developing confident and competent writers. Spelling is taught in the following ways.

·         Teaching of phonics and sounds in Year One

·         Learning common spelling patterns

·         Learning common prefixes and suffixes to words

·         Learning how to spell high frequency words

High frequency words are taught through our Little Wandle phonics scheme, along with the teaching of spelling rules and patterns.  The practising of high frequency words has the most impact when this is done regularly and for short periods of time, so we place emphasis on parents supporting their children’s learning by practising with their children. 

 Maths

In Year One we base our daily maths lessons on a scheme called ‘Maths — No Problem!’ This is a mastery scheme that utilises a series of textbooks and workbooks written to meet the requirements of the National Curriculum. Each lesson begins with a ‘real-life’ problem which we will discuss together and ‘unpick’ as a class.  We often find that there is more than one way to solve this problem and we love sharing all of our different ideas.  Following this, the children have a chance to journal their ideas for answering the question.  This gives the children an opportunity to explain their own individual thinking.  We then move on to the ‘Guided Practice’ element which gives the children an opportunity to learn how best to solve problems of this nature.  Each lesson then concludes with our ‘workbook’ session.

In addition to this, we also have a daily maths fluency session.  This short session encourages the children to learn quick recall facts through fun games and activities and is linked to the ever popular ‘Numberblocks’ characters.   

Wider curriculum

At Bedford Drive our Year One children experience a broad and balanced curriculum designed to follow the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum.  Our foundation curriculum has been written to meet the needs of our children and to ensure that all learning is relevant and progressive. 

This half term in history, our theme is ‘Communication’.  We will be learning all about different forms of communication and answering the question ‘What is communication, and how has it changed over time?’

In science, we are learning to identify different everyday materials and to think about their properties and uses.

As artists, we will be creating self-portraits using Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol as our inspiration.

In RE, we are learning about ‘The Creation Story’.

Our weekly computing lessons will have a focus on computing systems and networks and we will be thinking about the uses of technology all around us.

More information about each of these subjects and more can be found under the Curriculum tab on our website.

P.E

P.E will take place every Thursday. Children’s P.E kits will be left in school and these will be washed on the premises. Children must provide their own footwear e.g. pumps, these can be kept in a pump bag on their peg. Please remember to remove all jewellery! 

 Outdoor Learning

Forest school will take place every Thursday. This is led by our specialist P.E teacher Mr Fisher. Children will engage with nature in our outdoor classroom and will undertake fun, exciting and engaging activities in the outdoors. 

 Home Learning

The home learning packs available for use during the first lockdown in 2020 can be requested if your child has to isolate. These may provide useful activities alongside the remote learning offer currently in place.

Meet our Team