1. Welcome to year 1 Today we are going to share with you some of the exciting things we are doing in year 1and some useful tips on how you can help at home. Your children's teachers are Mrs Duffill and Miss Green.

2. Daily routines Arriving at school… Your child’s learning day at school begins as soon as they arrive in the morning. Being able to organise their own things is part of developing their independence so wherever possible its beneficial for them to be left at the school gate.  We are very happy to receive messages in the form of notes.  Of course we understand that sometimes an urgent or confidential issue arises and in that instance we are always available in the morning if it is something that affects that day.  We maintain that we have an open door policy, and are always happy to talk to you after school. Arrival time…  As you are aware, register is taken at 8.55 and collective worship is at 9 so please arrive to allow plenty of time for your child to sort his or her belongings out.

3. Other housekeeping Uniform…. Its great to see that many have got their school uniformed named. This is really important (even hats, gloves etc) In this snowy weather it’s a good idea to send in a spare pair of socks or tights Change of PE days…. This term PE days are Tuesday and Wednesdays so please can earrings be removed if children are unable to remove them themselves.

4. Homework Hand in dates are Mondays and given out the next Tuesday. There will be a tray in classrooms for children to put their finished homework. Homework is now set out in a ‘homework book’ which allows children and parents to take pride and value the work they have done at home. An evaluation form for child and parent allows you to write your feedback on how your child got on in their homework. It was lovely to read comments from last weeks homework!

5. Reading Its really lovely that parents are writing in their children’s yellow reading records books because this enables us to see the progress a child has made with their book at home and whether it needs to be changed. The children are involved in a wide variety of reading activities throughout the school day and reading individually to the teacher or classroom assistant is just one part of this. We are aiming for the children to read at least once a fortnight to either the class teacher or teaching assistant and be heard in a guided reading session alongside this so therefore they are actually being heard once a week. We will change their reading scheme book once a week but we would really like them to develop their enthusiasm for reading and broaden their repertoire by reading other materials at home too. This could be: –instructions for a game –information on a cereal packet –library books –books from their book shelf at home

6. Our topic is TOYS We have been able to link this topic to many areas of the curriculum.. –We are learning all about toys from the past and comparing them with modern toys today. We have arranged for a visitor to come in to share their favourite toys from their childhood. –In Geography based sessions the children will be creating their own maps of Toytown. –In Science the children have enjoyed learning about how toys are either pushed or pulled and investigating how to push toy cars and boats using water and air. –In Art and DT the children have been making observational sketching using new pencil techniques they have developed to draw pictures of teddies. (In art week the children have been developing weaving techniques too) –In ICT the children have been using the mouse to draw teddy bear pictures on the computer. They have also been exploring and finding out about toys from the past.

7. Numeracy We have been thinking more about addition and subtraction and developing other strategies of working out such as finding the difference between numbers. We have been using a range of teaching methods including practical ones, number lines and counting on in our head which suit different children’s needs. We have also been teaching the children about ‘number facts’ and how these can be used to solve calculations. For examples doubles and number bonds. It will be useful to practise recalling these at home so children learn them off by heart.

8. Literacy The children have been looking at stories with patterned sentences and planning and writing their own versions based on these. We encourage children to ‘sound out’ and spell phonetically so don’t be concerned if their spelling is incorrect at this stage. The children are also working hard to put full stops and capital letters in their sentences. As well as reading, writing plays an important part at home as well. Any opportunities for writing around the home are beneficial such as writing a shopping list, writing letters, writing as part of imaginative play, making their books.

9. Phonics Last but definitely not least is the all important phonics. As you are aware the children will be taking part in the government’s statutory test in June so its really important to keep practising the phase 3 and phase 5 sounds and applying it in reading both real words and nonsense words. As your child develops as a reader they will be less inclined to sound out words however its important to keep practising this so that they are able to segment nonsense words in the check. The check is in a child friendly format with pictures of alien words next to nonsense words.

10. Thank you for listening!