Welcome to Year OneStaff:1T – Natalie Thorn (year group leader) and Louise Green1S – Rebecca Small, Caron Yeo and Clare Slater1H – Martin Heidensohn and Adriana Idrobo1L – Jenny Leung, Judith Adams and Ceyda Walton

Also working with Year 1 this year will be Isabel Richert (Art), Tom Hodges (Music), Sonia Damian (Spanish).

Structure of the day • Doors open – 8.45. Please come in and share a book with

your child until they are called to the carpet at 8.55 Resources are set up for the morning activities so please leave this as they are.

• Register 9.00• Mornings are usually Maths or English focused. • Break time, assembly and playtime. • Lunch time• Afternoons: Topic/PE/Spanish/Music/Reading and

Choosing. • End of the day – 3.10pm. Please collect your child from the

classroom. • We have a 2 week timetable – PE is on different days in 3 of

the year one classes. Please leave their PE kits in school.

Curriculum coverageSubject Autumn 1 Autumn2 Spring 1 Spring 2 Summer 1 Summer 2Topic Ourselves

(history and geography)

Celebrations(geography and history)

The magic toy makers (history focus)

Time travellers (history)

Jobs(geography and history)

Flowers and insects

Science Animals including humans

Animals including humans

Seasonal change

Every day materials

Plants Plants

Please see the weekly overviews, displayed in the classrooms and on the website to show specific objectives that we are covering each week in Maths and English.

Where possibly we link our Maths and English learning to our topics to make it relevant and engaging.

Maths and English• Objectives-These are taken from the national curriculum. We usually have one or two

objectives that we cover through a range of activities in both Maths and English each week. See the weekly overview for these.

• Style of teaching/types of activities/expectations – Each week the teacher and TA will have a learning activity for Maths and English that they will do with each group. These are usually on the same objectives but are differentiated according to the children’s understanding and needs. The other activities will all be linked to focus, ie Maths or English and will reinforce and consolidate concepts and help to develop understanding. Children are expected to work at activities independently. At the moment these activities are more free –they can choose which they want to do. But in a few weeks time they will be more directed to specific activities. Activities may not produce an end product – they may be talk focused for example or a game.

• Groupings of children – The children are grouped in different ways according to the activities and learning. For Maths and English activities they are often grouped by ability to ensure the learning is differentiated according to their needs. These groups are fluid, not set and the children are not aware of them. At times they will also work in partners of their choosing, talk partners, mixed ability group work and one to one with an adult.

• Assessment/feedback – Feedback is given verbally to the children at the time if possible. We also use a colour system where we highlight something in blue that matched the objective and something in green to think about, ie a spelling, or a number to practise writing.

How we teach different subjects:Reading/Phonics

•Children will be heard to read once a week. Their reading day is displayed in the classroom.•Children should bring their book bag/school reading book into school when it is their reading day. •Any children who require additional support with reading may read on additional days and may also take part in reading interventions with other members of staff. We will let you know if your child is going to do some additional reading work. •We also read to the children as often as possible from a range of different sources. •Phonics is taught 2/3 times a week and the children also work in small groups with the teacher/TA on letters/sounds/words that are appropriate for their level. These sounds are shown in the weekly overview.

-1:1-Phonics

How we teach different subjects: Maths

•Maths is taught through a range of practical and engaging activities. •We will follow the national curriculum for Maths and units will be repeated throughout the year to develop deeper understanding of the units covered. •Children will be stretched through the use of problem solving activities aimed to challenge their understanding of a mathematical concept. •Maths activities are often practical and so will not always produce a ‘piece of work’ in their books. Each time that we work with your child we make notes about their understanding and areas to focus on for the next session.

How we teach different subjects:Writing

•Children take part in regular writing activities. These will be a range of free choice, directed independent activities and work with the adults. •We teach both fiction and non-fiction writing throughout the year, as well as poetry. •For each writing unit, we teach specific grammar and punctuation objectives. •Please see the weekly overviews for detail on the genre of writing that we are covering and the grammar and punctuation objectives•We use the blue and green highlighters when children work with us.

Books & Feedback

Assessment• We assess the children’s ability in every lesson and make notes on how they

manage an activity and whether or not they have met the learning objective.

• These notes then feed into an individual assessment profile which is completed and updated every half term.

• Throughout the year teachers will complete the profile and will be able to inform you of any areas that your child may need to practise.

• The information collected on the assessment profiles will feed into a database (Target Tracker) which will give each child a score according to the expectations for the end of the year.

• At the end of the year you will be informed whether your child is working below, at or above the national average in each subject.

• It is important to remember that the language of assessment has changed but the process has not.

InterventionsTypes of interventions: Maths – Louise Foulkes (assistant head) is working with the Year One team in maths this term. Each week she will be taking children to do some booster work – going over new concepts and supporting their understanding. The class teachers identify these children and they vary each week according to what we have noted. She also is working with some children who are more secure in the concepts and doing some challenge work where they will be applying what they know in a problem solving activity. Phonics – Extra phonics sessions in one to one and small groups to consolidate letter sounds. Handwriting – Children will be working with Ceyda once a week doing some work to develop their fine motor skills and handwriting. BRP (Better reading partners) – Aimed at children who have developed the basis skills, ie know their letter sounds but just need a boost to help develop their blending, sight recognition and fluency. Each child will have 3 extra reading sessions a week with the class TA.

These small groups will take place during assembly times and in the afternoons. We timetable these carefully to ensure that the children do not miss out on learning in other areas of the curriculum. We will inform you if your child has been recommended to take part in a small group and provide you with further ways to help support your child at home.

Home Learning• The children will continue to receive half termly home learning featuring a

range of activities/projects. • We believe in providing a wide variety of learning activities that fit with

the school’s creative ethos. • The activities are designed to bring parent and child together in a shared

learning experience, demonstrating to the child that learning is not solely a teacher/pupil experience and can happen in the home as well as in school.

• Some of these activities will produce an end product but others may not. It’s the process that is important.

• There will be times in the day/week where home learning can be shown/discussed. Please be aware that it is not always possible to show work that your child has done on the day they bring it on.

Trips• This year we will be booking trips for the whole year in advance and we are

trialing a new system for payments of trips.• The total cost for all trips will be £30 (£15 for children that receive Pupil

Premium). We are asking that parents pay the full £30 this half term and if the trips do not total the full amount then your payment can be carried over to the following year, or credited to your account.

• The money for trips should be paid online on the school payment system. • A letter will shortly be coming out about trips but at the moment the provisional

trips are:Science Workshop - Friday 13th November. This will be held in the school hall and is based around our

science topic of Animals including humans.Museum of Childhood - Friday 29th January 2015. The children will be engaged in two sessions where

they will find out about toys from the past and order some toys on a timeline. The children will also have a chance to explore the museum in small groups.

Railway Fields - summer term.

We always need parent volunteers though cannot always guarantee places on coaches unfortunately but you are always welcome to meet us there.

Website: New website coming soon!