St. Peter's Catholic Primary School

Both parents and children may feel anxious about the transition from EYFS to Year 1 but we aim to make sure that children are able to transition as smoothly as possible and quickly feel comfortable in their surroundings. In the first term of Year 1 we still follow a Continuous Provision environment, this is what the children are used to from their EYFS experiences and will help them to settle in to their new classroom and learning environment. In the Spring and Summer Terms, we move towards a more formal way of learning in preparation for the children's transition into Year 2.

The children in Year 1 are encouraged to become more independent in their learning and build upon what they already know from EYFS. We aim to give the children as many opportunities as possible, ranging from sporting events to outdoor learning to class trips.

At the end of Year 1 the children take part in a Phonics Screening, this is a chance for the children to showcase all of their brilliant phonics skills that they learnt over the past 2 years. You can find out more about the screening on the ‘Reading’ subject page.

Make sure that you keep checking our School twitter page to see what Year 1 are up to!

In Year 1, we place importance on independence and organisation skills. Children are expected to:

• Be responsible for their own belongings: cardigans, jumpers, water bottles, book bags, etc.
• Be organised each morning by putting their book bag and bottles away and getting out their reading record.
• Spend time reading and learning spellings at home.
• Go to the toilet and get drinks at appropriate times.
• Use a knife and fork correctly at lunchtimes.
• If your child comes in wearing lace up trainers, please make sure they are double knotted to minimise the need for staff to retie them during the day.
• Enjoy their learning. 😊

In Year 1 P.E. takes place on a Wednesday and Friday. On these days we ask that the children come into school in their P.E. kits which consists of a black t-shirt with logo, maroon shorts, black St. Peter’s hoodie or school jumper, extra socks. On cold days, children may wear black tracksuit bottoms/leggings.

In Year 1 we have four English lessons each week. We aim to build on the writing skills that have already been taught in EYFS. We follow the Pathways to Write scheme, where each half term we focus on a new and exciting book, which we base the majority of our writing work around. We provide real life writing opportunties to encourage a love of writing and to develop creativity. At the start of Year 1 the majority of writing will be in small focus groups so that adults can support the children and help them to achieve their own personal targets. Towards the Summer Term, as well as group work, the majority of children will write as a whole class where we will encourage more independence and ownership of their own work.

Our classroom has a fantastic Book Area full of exciting and varied books for the children to enjoy and share. Each day we have dedicated Story Time where we share a book from our Book Area. Reading is at the heart of everything we do in Year 1!

In Year 1, as well as continually recapping on the Phases taught in EYFS, we focus on Phase 4 and 5 of the Letters and Sounds ‘Little Wandle’ scheme. The majority of children entering Year One will already have experience of reading and spelling words with adjacent consonants, such as trap, string and flask. They will also be able to read and spell some polysyllabic words.

In Year 1, children will learn more graphemes and phonemes. For example, they already know -ai as in rain, but now they will be introduced to -ay as in day and a-e as in make. Alternative pronunciations for graphemes will also be introduced, e.g. -ea in tea, head and break. With practise, speed at recognising and blending graphemes will improve. Word and spelling knowledge will be worked on extensively.

In June, the Year 1 children are tested on their Phonics Knowledge in their Phonics Screening Assessment. They will be asked to read real and nonsense words to show their knowledge of the phonemes and graphemes that have been taught in their past two school years. There is more information about these assessments in the documents below.

Children take part in daily Phonics lessons which last around 30 minutes. At St. Peter's we follow Letters and Sounds 'Little Wandle' scheme. 

Click on the attachments below to find out more about the ‘Little Wandle’ phonics scheme that we use, progression of graphemes and phonemes and helpful information and advice to support your child at home. Find further support on the 'Phonics' page of our website or at the Little Wandle website.

Children take part in a small group Reading Practise session three times per week. The same book will be read in each of these 3 sessions with a different objective for each read. The first session of the week will focus on developing decoding skills, exposing your child to the graphemes that they have already been taught. Each book will be 90% decodable so that the children will develop more independence in reading and feel achievement even in the first few weeks of the Autumn Term. The second Reading Practise session will focus on the skill of fluency, children will re-read text that they are familiar with as well as copy the phrasing modelled by their Teacher. The third Reading Practise session will look at comprehension skills, how well the children can answer questions about what has happened in the text and use pictures and words to find the answer to a question. These books will also be sent home for your child to read throughout the week. Books must be in your child's bookbag each day.

A Phonics information Evening for parents is held each year by our school's Phonics and Early Reading Subject Leader and your child's class Teacher. At this meeting we will talk to you indepth of what we teach, how we teach and why we teach phonics and reading skills as well as providing you with many activities and resources that you can use at home to support your child.

Each week your child will take home 2 books:

1. Phonics Phased Book - This book is matched to your child’s individual phonics level. Your child’s teacher makes continuous phonics assessments based on their reading throughout the year, these assessments will inform your child’s phase level. All words contained within this book should be decodable for your child.
2. Reading for Pleasure Book - This book is chosen by your child from their class library. It is a book for children and parents to share together. The aim of this book is to promote a love of reading.

Please read at home as often as possible (preferably every night) and write in your child’s Reading Record Book.

Recommended Reading Books for Year 1:

Please click on the image below to see a list of 50 books recommended for Year 1. There is also a PDF of books we love.

Click on the image to find out more about Little Wandle...

Please see the video and documents below for an example of Phonics Screening Test.

In EYFS, children learn to use numbers 1-10 in their Maths work. In Year 1, we build upon this important skill, learning to use, recognise and write numbers to 100.

The children will learn about topics such as number, place value, adition subtraction and early division and multiplication.

We use practical activities, songs and actions to help us to develop these skills. Please see the videos below.

In Year 1 homework will be handed out in your child's Homework Folder on a Friday and due in the following Thursday. The subject sent home as homework will differ each week. All homework must be either sent into class by the due date or uploaded to Seesaw as a Photograph. Also inside your child's homework folder will be a weekly Phonics Round-up, this is to inform you of the graphemes and phonemes that have been learnt at school this week and words / sentences for your child to read and write at home to apply their learning.