Friday, 30 January 2026

 Hello everyone,

It’s been a fantastic week of learning in Year 1!

In English, the children finished writing their own stories based on our class book The Comet. They worked hard to include a clear beginning, middle and end, and to use their phonics knowledge to help with spelling. We then began a new unit of work based on Leo and the Octopus. The children thoroughly enjoyed listening to this story and discussing the friendship between the characters. They started by creating a piece of work called ‘This Is Me’, where they shared information about themselves, which will make a beautiful classroom display. The children also practised writing command sentences to give advice to the character, Leo, thinking carefully about how to help him.


In Maths, we started a new topic on addition and subtraction within 20. The children practised adding by counting on from the larger number and used number lines to help them solve number sentences. They also used practical resources to support their understanding and explained their thinking clearly.


In Computing, the children practised important mouse skills such as clicking, dragging and dropping. They then applied these skills to create their own pictures using the Paint program, showing great control and creativity.


In Science, we visited the Key Stage 2 playground to observe and draw a tree that the children had previously drawn in Autumn. They carefully looked for changes and were fantastic at spotting differences, such as the lack of leaves and changes in colour. The children were very excited to think about how the tree might look when we observe it again in Spring.


In RE, we discussed the different ways people celebrate the birth of a new baby. The children were excited when sharing their own experiences 


Next Week

Maths – The children will be doubling and subtracting by counting back and finding the difference.


English – The children will be using adjectives to describe Maya the octopus, they will write some questions that they would like to find out the answer to about octopuses and they will use conjunctions ‘and’ and ‘but’ to compare characters.


Art – The children will recreate the painting Numbers in Color 1958–59 by Jasper Johns.


History – The children will be learning about The Tower of London and how its use has changed over time


Science – The children will track to weather and explore weather symbols.


Computing – The children will be using a computer keyboard.


RE- The children will be learning about Baptism.


Spellings for next Friday’s test are:

Group 1: have, give, live, leave, cheese, choose, noise, tease

Tricky words: you, your


Group 2: fair, hair, pair, chair,

Tricky words: go

 

We hope you have a wonderful weekend


The Year 1 team


Friday, 23 January 2026

 . Good evening everyone,


It’s been another busy week in Year 1!


In English, the children planned and began writing their own version of the story The Comet. They will be finishing their stories on Monday. In phonics this week, the children learned the graphemes ‘le’, ‘al’, ‘c’, and ‘ve’. They also learned the tricky words ‘school’, ‘call’, ‘different’, and ‘ask’.


In Maths, the children explored number lines to 20. They practised estimating where numbers belong on a number line and comparing and ordering numbers to 20.


In History, the children really enjoyed learning about the structure of castles, including the different parts and their purposes.


In RE, the children drew their families and thought about the things that are important to them. They enjoyed listening to the story The Family Book by Todd Parr. They also named and wrote about the communities they are a part of.


Next Week

Maths – The children will start a new topic based on addition and subtraction to 20. They will add by counting on, add ones using number bonds, find and make number bonds to 20, and explore doubling numbers.


English – The children will finish their stories on Monday. We will then begin a new unit of work based on the book Leo and the Octopus by Isabelle Marinov and Chris Nixon. They will write in the first person to create a ‘This Is Me’ poster, use command sentences to give advice, and write a letter to the character Leo.


History – The children will learn about the people who lived in Medieval castles.


PSHE – The children will think about obstacles they may face when learning something new and how to overcome them.


RE – The children will think about the special ways people welcome a new baby and will begin learning about Baptism.


Spellings for next Friday’s test are:

Group 1: apple, bubble, little, puddle, ice, mice, nice, price  

Tricky words: she, we


Group 2: fur, burn, curl, turn

Tricky words: no


Note

Year 1 Class Assembly

Please note there has been a change of date for the Year 1 class assembly.

It will now take place on Friday 3rd July at 9:00am.

 

We hope you have a wonderful weekend


The Year 1 team


Friday, 16 January 2026

Good Evening,


The children have worked incredibly hard this week. Well done, everyone!


In English, the children continued working with the book The Comet by Joe Todd-Stanton. They used command sentences to write advice to help the character Nyla. They also wrote thought bubbles, making sure to use the pronoun “I”. In addition, the children learned about the suffix -ing and used it to write sentences.


In Phonics, the children learned alternative pronunciations for the graphemes ‘y’, ‘ow’, ‘g’ and ‘ph’. They also learned the tricky words ‘who’, ‘whole’, ‘where’ and ‘two’.


In Maths, the children have been learning about place value to 20. They explored the numbers 14–20 using counters, dice, Numicon, bead strings and multi-link cubes. They also practised finding one more and one less.


In Computing, the children used the Chromebooks for the first time. They learned what technology is and practised logging in and logging out independently.


In Art, the children really enjoyed mixing red, yellow and blue paint to create secondary colours.


Next Week


Maths – The children will continue learning about place value to 20. They will use a number line to 20, estimate, compare and order numbers.


English – The children will use a range of adjectives to write a recipe for a home, recount the story using a story map and begin planning their own version of the story.


Art – The children will recreate the painting Numbers in Color 1958–59 by Jasper Johns.


History – The children will learn about the structure of medieval castles.


Science – The children will observe and draw the tree in the playground that they previously drew in Autumn (weather permitting).


Computing – The children will develop their mouse skills by opening a program, clicking and dragging, and creating a picture.


Spellings for next Friday’s test are:


Group 1: flow, grow, show, snow, fly, cry, dry, try 

Tricky words: is, his


Group 2: food, moon, room, zoom

Tricky words: I

 

We hope you have a lovely weekend


The Year 1 team


Friday, 9 January 2026

 Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful and restful Christmas break. It has been lovely to welcome the children back after the holidays, full of excitement and wonderful stories to share.


In English, children have started a new unit of work based on the book The Comet by Joe Todd-Stanton. On Tuesday, they arrived at school to find a strange glowing light and a range of cooking utensils left in the classroom! They rehearsed asking questions and then wrote their own questions in their books to find out more about the unusual light and objects.They also used adjectives to describe Nyla’s home and used imperative verbs to create a poster.


In Phonics, the children have learnt the Phase 5 graphemes: ‘y’ as in happy, ‘ea’ as in head, and ‘wh’ as in wheel They also revised the tricky words ‘want’ and ‘water’, and learnt the new tricky words ‘any’ and ‘many’.


In Maths, the children have started a new topic on place value to 20. They explored the numbers 10, 11, 12 and 13, using counters, dice and multilink cubes to represent and understand these numbers.


In History, the children began their new topic on Castles. They looked at a variety of castles in the UK and learnt who built the first castles and why.


In Science, the children began exploring the season of Winter.


Next Week

English – The children will use command sentences to write a letter of advice. They will write thought bubbles and learn about the suffix ‘-ing’.


Maths – The children will explore the numbers 14–20, find 1 more and 1 less, and use a number line to 20.


History – The children will learn about UK castles built by the Normans.


PSHE – The children will identify their successes and describe how these make them feel proud.


RE – The children will explore how they belong to a family and community. They will draw and write about something that is important to their family.


ICT – The children will practise switching on and logging into a computer and use a mouse to drag and drop.


Science – The children will observe and draw the tree in the playground that they previously drew in Autumn. They will also track the weather, focusing on weather symbols and temperature.


Spellings for Next Friday’s Test


Group 1:

carry, happy, funny, silly, head, read, bread, ready

Tricky words: are, was


Group 2:

pain, rain, sail, tail

Tricky word: the


Notes

NumBots

The children’s NumBots login details have been stuck into the front of their reading logs. NumBots is a fantastic online maths learning programme that helps children build fluency in number facts, particularly addition, subtraction, number bonds and mental maths.


We hope you all have a fantastic weekend!


Mrs Flatley, Mrs Blatch & Miss Russon