Welcome to Year 1

Year 1 is the first of two years within Key Stage 1 (KS1). The children have completed their time in the EYFS and are now following the National Curriculum. The children will continue with their daily Sounds Write phonic lessons, preparing them for the Phonics Screening Test in May/June each year. They will also continue with the Mastering Number Programme alongside CanDo Maths for their main maths lessons. We practice handwriting daily and the children will now begin to use un joined cursive ready for joining letters in Year 2.

The children come into school independently, put away their bag and coat and complete an early morning task. This ranges from reading, maths tasks and handwriting.

Register is then taken where the children share what they are having for lunch. As we are in Year 1 all children are eligible for Free School Meals. The options are a hot meal either meat or vegetarian or a baguette (with a packet of crisps)  with a meat or vegetarian option for the filling. All lunches come with a pudding, fresh fruit or yoghurt and we have the salad bar as well. Lunches can be booked via the Parentpay app. They still need to be booked even though they are free so the kitchen staff know how many to prepare.

We then have our first morning session until 10:20 when it is breaktime. Children are provided with a piece of fruit for snack but may bring a piece of snack from home if they wish. Breaktime is for 30 minutes, allowing the children to explore and enjoy our OPAL ethos.

After breaktime we have another session which brings us upto lunch at 12:00 where the children go into the dinner hall to eat their lunch.

The afternoon session is from 1:00 until 3:25 when the school day finishes on Monday - Thursday with Friday finishing at 1:00pm.

Our PE day is Tuesday but having a PE kit in school at all times would benefit your child as they then have a change of clothes if needed. PE kit includes either shorts or jogging bottoms with a t-shirt in your child's house colour. Shoes can either be trainers or daps.

Please can your child have a water bottle, coat, hat and change of shoes in school each day. This is to ensure they can enjoy all we offer and keep safe in our changing climate.

Three times a year, at the end of the Christmas Term, Easter Term and Term 6 the children take part in the Spelling Bee. To do this they are tested on 48 common spellings from the term. If they score above 35 they are then entered in to the Spelling Bee. Please find attached the 48 Spellings for each term.

Autumn 48 Spellings.pdf

Spring 48 Spellings.pdf

Summer 48 Spellings.pdf

Welcome to Term 1! Our whole school topic this year is titled, 'Lights, Camera, Action!' I am really excited  to share with the children the filmmaking journey. When did it begin? Who were important people of the time? What are we going to do?

Please find attached the planning for this term.

Mrs J

Topic overview.pdf

Week 1 - 2.9.25

What a fantastic start to our year! We all dressed up as our favourite characters and had fun finding out about each others summer holidays.  The children has their first drumming lesson where we spoke about how to play the drums and played along to some of their favourite nursery rhymes. Reading books went home and will be changed weekly. Doodle Baselines were also completed ready to start with homework next week.

Welcome to Term 2

This is one of my favourite terms as we have settled and are now trying our best in everything we do.  This term our topic is a Geography based one where we will be exploring the two Polar Regions and finding out lots of fascinating facts so expect lots of 'did you know....?' 

This term we join up with Year 2 and perform our Christmas Performance. We also have our Christmas Fair, Christmas Jumper day and Christmas Lunch.

Just a reminder that school dinners, whether that is a hot or baguette option is free for all children in KS1. Snack is also still provided to the children each day in the form of fresh fruit.

Please can the children have a change of shoes for playtime and lunchtime - ideally wellies if you have them. Also a warm coat or waterproof as we encourage all children to engage with OPAL at break and lunch.

Can cardigans and jumpers please have your child's name on as it makes it easier to return if we know who it belongs to. 

I look forward to seeing you all for Term 2 and as always please email or catch me on the door if you need to chat.

Mrs J

Poles Apart Topic Overview

Welcome back after the Christmas break. I hope you all had a wonderful time and are ready for the new term ahead?

This term we will be looking back in History at a key historical figure - Florence Nightingale. We will exploring who she was and how her life has made an impact on lives from her death to today still. 

As always please get in touch with any questions that may arise as the term progresses.

Can children have warm outdoor clothing with them this term as we are outside for both playtime and lunchtime.

Please can your child's cardigan, fleece, jumper be named as it makes it easier to return when lost.

Looking forward to seeing you all back on Monday 5th January and hearing all about your holiday.

Topic overview.pdf

Welcome to Term 4!

Thank you to all who came to our topic celebration at the end of last term. It was lovely to see you and for you to join in with the lantern activity linked to our Florence Nightingale topic. 

This term our topic is a Geography based one looking at our locality of Chiseldon.  We will be looking at where Chiseldon is on a map and also the many features shown on a map and their uses. We will hopefully be going on a walk around the village spotting features we have already seen on a map, fingers crossed we don't get lost!

PE this term will be ball skills and so will be outside. PE kits should if possible be in school at all times just in case your child needs a change of clothes or if we have to change the day we do PE on. Your child will need a pair of trainers or daps with socks. They will also need a t-shirt coloured to their house (if you are not sure of your child's house please ask) and a pair of either shorts/leggings or tracksuit bottoms.

Topic overview.pdf

This week has seen the children complete their first assessment week. We completed a maths and a reading assessment. All the children approached this with enthusiasm and a positive attitude, well done everyone!

Weekly Spellings:

Group 1:

dry

fly

might

mild

sky

nine

whine

sigh

child

wine

Group 2:

chat

chin

chip

ship

shop

shin

This week has been a busy week for Saturn Class. We finished our sentence stacking in English where we have been looking at how to write a non-chronological report.  We looked at the school's address in Geography and also our own addresses, noticing similarities and differences.  We celebrated World Book Day - see below for photos.

This week has been Arts Week and we have been exploring Pakistani Truck Art. Trucks are decorated to reflect the drivers' life, their likes, family, religious stories and are very, very colourful. We enjoyed finding out what the colours symbolise and designed our own.

Oracy words:

Amusement Park - a large outdoor area with fairground rides, shows and other entertainments.

Explain - make clear to someone by describing it in ore detail or revealing relevant facts.

Librarian - a person in charge of or assisting in a library.

This weeks spellings:

This week we completed our non-chronological report unit in English. We all wrote about the Robin.  This tied in nicely with our question for Science Week.  Our question was 'How do birds build their nests?' We were tasked with building a nest but we were not allowed to use our fingers!!! We had to use pegs as birds only have their beaks.  We initially thought this task would be easy but when it came down to building our nests the children realised it was not as easy as first thought. 

Shakespeare Week!

This week we have been reading the play Macbeth. We have focused on the witches spell looking at rhyming couplets and writing our own spells.

Welcome back to term 5.

This term we will be investigating The Great Fire of London. The children will be building upon their historical skills from our Florence Nightingale topic to explore why is the fire important to us today and what we can learn from the past and including people who were there at the time. 

The children will need to have an outdoor PE kit with them this term as we are practising catching and throwing and other ball related skills. Please can PE kits be in school all the time including a change of shoes as sometimes we may need to change our PE day to fit in with other curriculum experiences.

Next term the children will be completing the national Year 1 Phonics Screening and now more than ever it is important to encourage your child to complete their spelling homework and daily reading.  If you wish to further support your child with the upcoming screening there is a great website: www.phonicsplay.co.uk with games that we have been playing in class so wont be new to them for you to explore if you wish.

Topic overview.pdf

What an amazing first week back! The children came back to school with amazing attitudes to their learning and we have had a fun and busy week.  We have moved on to the numbers 17-20 in Maths. Began our new English write - a persuasive leaflet and enjoyed learning how Robins adapt during the four seasons in Science.

Please can they children have a PE kit in school at all times along with a change of shoes - they cannot run in school shoes. 

Have a great weekend!

This week we began our dive into the Great Fire of London. The children really enjoyed finding out where the fire began and the reasons behind it spreading so quickly. In English we have began sentence stacking for our persuasive leaflet.

As the weather is beginning to get warmer please can the children have a sun hat in school, a water bottle and their jumper/cardigan/fleece named.

Have a great week!

This week we have focused on Phonics. The class have been spotting nonsense words - sounding them out and then reading them. This is in preparation for the Phonic screening after half term.  In English we continued with our persuasive leaflet - how to persuade someone to visit our theme park. We have started looking at fractions in Maths, finding half of groups of objects and amounts.

Please keep reading with your child and practising spellings at least 3 times a week.