Moving on to Year 1!

Transition from Year R Throughout the Year, staff from Year R and Year 1 regularly meet to talk about the children in each year group, focusing on friendships, progress and learning needs. The Year leader visits the children in MOOT times beginning in the Spring term.

In the summer term, we begin transition MOOT where Year R children come to the Year 1 classes to enjoy MOOT and get to know the adults in Year 1 and the new learning environment. This works by each Year R class visiting a Year 1 class over a period of a few weeks; they may have already told you about their first visit!

The PSHE topic for the whole school is ‘Changes’. This theme tackles the issue of change and aims to equip children with an understanding of different types of change, positive and negative, and common human responses to it. The topic seeks to develop children’s ability to manage the feelings associated with change. It aims to develop knowledge, understanding and skills in three key social and emotional aspects of learning: motivation, social skills and managing feelings.

The current Year 1 children prepare a welcome video for the new Year R children, just as your children will help the teachers prepare for the new Year R children coming into school in September. This allows them to feel proud of what they have achieved in starting school and support others in this change. They are always very proud of the video they make for the new children and feel more ready to move on to a new class themselves.

Particularly at this time, we encourage children to use our bubble time technique. The children can then share any worries they have confidentially with any member of staff in the school. We pop the bubble once the worry is shared to make it go away.

We also arrange to swap classes for story time to spend more time with the children in Year R so that the idea of moving classes is less daunting!

Creating new Year 1 classes!

Considerations for creating new class lists for Year 1: Friendships Balance of ability Special Educational Needs Balance of boys and girls

The children will find out their new classes on the morning of the 2nd July. They will spend the morning meeting their new class teacher and teaching assistant. They will get to meet the other children in their class too! You will find out in their school report at the end of the day.

There will be an open doors just after shuffle up day, on Friday 4th July. You can pop in and see your child’s new classroom and meet their teacher at 3:15. The children will also spend one more MOOT in Year 1 in their new classes.

Our Curriculum Autumn 1 Autumn 2 Spring 1 Spring 2 Summer 1 Summer 2 Superheroes To Boldly Go… Christmas Once Upon a Town Victorian Days Easter Town Mouse and Country Mouse Bugs and Beasties Numeracy – Ongoing PSHE – Ongoing Phonics and Handwriting - Ongoing P.E – Games, Gymnastics and Dance Ongoing (Games constant) ICT and eSafety- Ongoing Music- Ongoing (Spring 2 and Summer 1 peripatetic provision) Art and D.T- Ongoing through Creativity Time MOOT- 2 sessions a week

Superheroes! This is our ‘bridging topic’ at the beginning of autumn term. We find that by continuing with the same topic as the children have started in the last two weeks of Year R that the children are more confident in their learning in their new classes.

In Year 1 MOOT runs in a similar way to Year R, with well resourced indoor and outdoor learning areas and a free-flow between the classes. Each half term, topic related challenges are planned for each area of learning, and the children are able to share their achievements in review time.

We continue to run MOOT sessions twice a week until the end of Summer 2. In the last 2-3 weeks, the children drop to having one MOOT session as preparation for moving to Year 2, in which MOOT still runs once a week. We really value MOOT time to enhance children’s independent learning skills throughout the whole school.

Morning routines are very similar in Year 1 Children continue to self register their lunch choices by finding their own names. Each class has a visual timetable to show our learning for the day Children are encouraged to say goodbye to you at the door to start the day promptly and we find they are very quickly confident to do so.

Reading in Year 1

Reading In Year 1 we develop reading skills through guided reading sessions which we endeavour to do twice a week with every group. We also read individually with children, particularly if they find it difficult to concentrate in group reading tasks or are still developing their very early reading skills. We will monitor your child’s reading and move them to the next reading level when they are ready.

In Year 1 we encourage children to Changing Books In Year 1 we encourage children to change their own reading books from the colour coded boxes in the classroom. They may change their book any day in the morning as they arrive. We will show them how to do this and soon they will be able to do this independently.

Please remind your child to change their book as they come into class, and let us know if they are struggling to do this so that we can also remind them. We will ensure the children change their books at least twice a week, after we hear them read, if they do not change them that morning. Also, bear in mind that re-reading a book is a good way of consolidating reading skills, so it is not necessary to have a new book every day.

Reading diaries Children need more regular practise with reading than we can provide in school in order to make good progress. Please read regularly with your child at home and write a comment in the home reading diary when you listen to your child read. These comments can inform teachers about how your child is progressing in reading at home. Teachers and TAs will also place some targets for you to practice at home when necessary. Please make sure reading diaries and books are in book bags every day.

Phonics The children continue with daily phonics practise and we pick up the children’s next targets through discussions with the Year R staff and beginning our phonics lessons mirroring the planning from the last two weeks in Year R. We continue to work from the Letters and Sounds programme to inform our planning.

ai and ay ea and ee ie and igh Once the children are ready, we move on to learning some alternative spellings for the sounds they know and begin to look at common spelling patterns. ai and ay ea and ee ie and igh

We also learn new tricky words there because when though asked called please

Writing in Year 1

Please continue to practise basic skills to develop your child’s fine motor skills… Fine motor activities – pegs, scissors Pencil grip Pencil control through colouring and drawing patterns Letter formation in print or cursive script through different media – crayons, air writing, sand trays. Name writing in print or cursive letters.

Progression in writing In Year 1, we focus primarily on teaching sentence structure with the accurate use of finger spaces between words, and capital letters and full stops to demarcate each sentence. We work on extending vocabulary and acknowledge the importance of developing the children’s speaking skills in this.

Children then become more confident to write using more complex phonic sounds with greater accuracy in captions, simple sentences and other forms, such as letters, stories, poems and recounts. It amazes us how much the children’s independent learning skills progress over the year.

We have a writing booklet available from the school office or on our website which will help if you would like to understand more about progression in writing in Year 1. www.shirleyinfantschool.org.uk

Mathematics in Year 1

Number We continue to build on the children’s knowledge of number and equip them with a greater range of strategies to support their calculation skills in addition and subtraction. We build confidence in using higher numbers and in problem-solving skills as the year progresses.

Shape and Measure We develop children’s mathematical vocabulary in work on 2D and 3D shape. When the children are comfortable with measuring in everyday non-standard units of measure, we teach them to use standard units such as rulers and scales accurately.

We do not send regular maths homework out, however we may send resources to support the children’s learning home at key points in the year, or challenges which will support their in class learning. If you would like to know more about what your child will be learning in maths, we have a maths guide available to guide you through the learning objectives for each year group.

Helping with Maths at Home You can easily support your child’s mathematical vocabulary by applying the skills learnt in school in different contexts, such as: Following a recipe to bake a cake Using a shopping list and counting out money to buy items at the shop Adding the total of two dice instead of just rolling one when playing favourite board games

Home Learning in Year 1 Linked to each new topic, you will have the opportunity to complete a home learning task with your child. The children love sharing their learning with us and are proud of their achievements at home. These are optional tasks, and we plan them to allow you time to work on little projects with your child, not to burden you! You can spend as much or as little time as you wish on the activities, and please speak to the teachers if you would like any further guidance on what you could do.

Any Questions