Welcome back to school! We hope you all had a lovely summer, and we are really looking forward to upcoming year!  

In the Autumn term, our theme work will revolve around ‘Our City’ where we will learn basic map reading skills and learn all about where we live.  

In English, we will start by reading ‘Beegu’ and creating a character description for our alien friend as well as creating some instructions on how to be a good friend.  

Reading  

Reading is such an important part of children’s learning. In Year One there is an expectation that children will read at home, with an adult, daily. Please ensure that you note what has been read in your child’s reading diaries and send these to school every day. A member of the team will check reading diaries regularly and praise the children for reading at home. Reading books will be changed every Tuesday and Friday.  

Phonics  

There is a substantial body of evidence which demonstrates that systematic synthetic phonics is the most effective method for teaching all children to read. Phonics teaches children how to recognise the sounds that each individual letter makes, identify the sounds that different combinations of letters make, and blend these sounds together to make a word. Children can then use this knowledge to decode new words that they see. We use ‘Twinkl Phonics’ to plan our phonics across Year One and supplement it with other resources also.  

During Year One, children will be learning Phase 5 phonics. This means that they will be learning to read and write longer words, and will begin to learn the different ways phonemes can be spelt. For example, they will learn that 'ai' can also be written as 'ay' and 'a_e'. Towards the end of the year they will begin to move into Phase 6 phonics. 

Children in Year One will take part in the Phonics Screening Check in June which is a statutory check from the government. The check comprises of 40 words - 20 of which are real words, and 20 are non-words.  

You can help your child to practise the skills involved in this check by helping them to segment (sound out) and blend those sounds to read each word. If you have any questions please do come and ask.  

PE 

Our PE lessons will take place on a Tuesday. Please ensure your child comes to school in the correct PE uniform (house colour t-shirt, black shorts/ jogging bottoms, plain black jumper and suitable outdoor trainers). One of the PE sessions will be outside so please ensure your child is dressed appropriately for the weather.  

Homework  

Our main homework, in Year One, is daily reading (as mentioned above). 

The Friday Messenger contains an optional weekly homework task.  

 

We look forward to the term ahead.  

Year One Team