We hope that you all had a relaxing Easter break and are all looking forward to an exciting summer term in Year One to come. In Year 1, our main topic for this half term is ‘Growing’, and ‘Oh I do like to be beside the sea!’ the following half term. We have lots of exciting lessons and activities planned and look forward to sharing our learning with you.
Reading
Our goal is to create confident, fluent, independent readers. We prioritise reading at Latchmere School and have very carefully chosen the texts your child will study this term. We focus on word reading to develop fluency and encourage the whole class to join in through strategies such as choral reading (the whole class read together) and echo reading (the teacher models the reading and the class echo back). We also have the Latchmere Reading skills. These are based on comprehension skills such as retrieval, inference, summarising, making links, prediction and vocabulary.
Over this term, we will be studying a mix of non-fiction and fiction books including:
We will be continuing to follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds phonics programme. This involves daily teaching of phonics and up to three reading sessions per week for every child focussing on decoding, prosody and comprehension.
The phonics screening check is a statutory assessment for all children in Year One. The screening check will take place on the week beginning 10th June 2024. We will give out more information at the Year 1 phonics screening meeting (see below for date).
Maths
Our curriculum is based on the White Rose Maths programme. This term we will be focusing on:
- Multiplication and division
- Fractions
- Geometry (position and direction)
- Place value within 100
- Measurement (money and time)
Children in Year 1 also use the Numbots program to help embed the core maths skills of subitising, number bonds, addition and subtraction.
Curriculum Highlights
This term, in RE we will explore what it means to be a Muslim and a Jew and learning about important beliefs and objects for their religions. We will be looking at net and ball games, invasion games, gymnastics and athletics (in preparation for sports day) in PE, to continue the focus on developing key skills in this subject. In Science, we will start to make comparisons between the two seasons of spring and summer, as well as across all four seasons. We will observe changes across the seasons by exploring the signs of spring and summer through nature and wildlife; this will link to our learning later in the year around plants. In Geography, the children will name, locate and identify the seven continents and five oceans. In History, in the second half term we will be identifying and comparing beach holiday from the past and present. In PSHE we will be looking at our RSE module “Safety and the Changing Body” which will cover different ways of keeping safe including; what types of physical contact are never appropriate, what to do if you get lost, how to identify a hazard which could cause an accident or injury, understanding that some things are unsafe to put onto or into my body and who the emergency services are and how to call them.
You can find out more information about the Summer term learning by looking at the overviews and programmes of study on the website.
We look forward to working in partnership with you to ensure that your child enjoys a happy and successful summer term.
Thank you in advance for all of your support
Mrs Mann Ms Lavender Mr Davies Ms Conroy
(Indigo Class) (Purple Class) (Turquoise Class) (BlueClass)
Key dates
Painshill Park trip
10 May - Purple and Turquoise classes
13 May - Indigo and Blue classes
Updates and reminders
Swimming
Swimming lessons begin for each class on the week beginning Monday 22nd April. The swimming sessions for this term are:
Turquoise - Monday 1-3pm
Indigo - Tuesday 1-3pm
Blue - Wednesday 1-3pm
Purple - Thursday 1-3pm
Points to remember:
- Please encourage your child to dress themselves independently
- Please send a note from home if you would like your child to use goggles.
- All children need to wear a swimming cap in the pool.
- Earrings should not be worn on swimming days, otherwise your child will not be able to swim
Thank you to those parents who have signed up to help supervise these sessions. Your support is very much appreciated as swimming lessons could not go ahead without it. Please see the sign-up sheets in class notice boards to see if you can help with any remaining sessions. Please remember that all helpers must be DBS checked – please see the office for more information on this.
Beginning and End of Day Arrangements
All children should arrive in school between 8.40am-8:50am ready for the start of the school day and be picked up at 3.20pm. Please remember to speak to the class teacher or use the message book on the class notice board to record when alternative arrangements have been made for your child at the end of day.
As you may be aware, we closely monitor the attendance of pupils at our school as there is clear evidence which shows the correlation between attainment and attendance and pupil well-being. We believe working with families is very important, therefore when a child’s attendance falls below 94% we intervene quickly to work with parents to identify any barriers to regular school attendance and identify how we can support further.
Buddies
All the children in Year 1 have been paired with a ‘buddy’ in Year 4. We enjoyed creating Christmas cards and swapping them with our buddies last term. We hope at some point to have opportunities to meet with our buddy class for paired reading and other shared learning activities, however, until we can, we will continue to make cards and letters for them to support and encourage writing and reading.
Trips
Year 1 will be going on a trip to Painshill Park to take part in a workshop about “Growing”. We will be going on 10th May (Purple and Turquoise) and 13th May (Blue and Indigo). Please can you inform the office if your child suffers from travel sickness and give any required medication that morning before we set off.
Homework
Each child will be given a sheet to select particular activities throughout the term to complete at home. These activities are optional, but we enjoy focusing on home learning and the children’s achievements. We also encourage all children to read at home four times a week.