Year 1 2024 - 2025

"Do everything in love” 1 Corinthians 16:14

Learning to love, loving to learn

Welcome to Year 1

Our staff

Miss Webster (Monday- Wednesday) and Mrs Phillingham (Thursday- Friday) are our class teachers and Mrs Robertson will be supporting our learning.

The following information tells you a little more about the coming term in Year 1 and your child's learning. However, if you have any queries or questions please don't hesitate to contact us.

jenna.webster@st-marys.halton.sch.uk

jo.phillingham@st-marys.halton.sch.uk

General information

• Please tie up long hair.
• Please have a bottle of water at school every day. This can be refilled as necessary.
• Please bring a small school bag, reading book and homework record every day (if relevant to your child).
• Please return your homework on or before Wednesday for marking. Homework will be sent out on a Friday.
• All school uniform needs to be named but particularly jumpers and cardigans.
• A full PE kit should be in school at all times. 

PE is timetabled for Monday and Thursday during Spring 1. This will be outside whenever possible so please account for this when sending in your child's PE kit.

Spring Half Term 1 2025

Welcome Year 1!

Our Christian Values

During the Spring term, our Christian values are Respect and Courage.

"Respect everyone, and love the family of believers. Fear God, and respect the King." 1 Peter 2:17

Our roles and responsibilities

Photos coming soon!

Love of reading

Our class text for this half-term is 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt' by Michael Rosen. The children enjoyed an online zoom event with Michael Rosen last half term and couldn't wait to start reading another one of his books! 

English

In our second half term we will explore the wonderful text 'The Lion Inside' by Rachel Bright to develop our writing skills and write our own journey stories.

Our weekly routine will include Phonics, English, Handwriting and Guided Reading sessions. Daily reading at home continues to be essential, especially in Year 1, and we would ask that you question your child regularly on the book they are reading to develop a deeper understanding of a range of texts, to develop new vocabulary and strengthen writing skills.

Phonics

We will continue to use Little Wandle as part of our Phonics lessons to develop reading and spelling strategies. 

Maths

As mathematicians, the children will learn through concrete experiences moving onto pictorial and abstract methods as their confidence builds. They will also be expected to use their learning to reason about maths and solve problems. 

During the spring term we will focus on numbers to 20, comparing and ordering them, including addition and subtraction, then numbers up to 50.  We will work on measurement: Length and Height, Mass and Capacity. 

Science

As scientists, we aim to develop our knowledge and understanding, scientific skills and measuring and recording abilities. This half term we will be exploring animals including humans.

Geography

As geographers we are studying our Local Area this half term; we will learn to identify important places and mark these on a map or large scale plan and develop our locational language.  We will use our knowledge and skills then to plan routes using start and end points.

RE

For RE we will continue to use the Questful RE planning. This half term we will explore Jesus and what makes Him special and the topic of friendship, and then we will explore Easter. 

Justice and Responsibility

As we continue to live our lives and act out the teachings of Jesus, we will act for Justice and take responsibility for being stewards of God's creation and global citizens.  We aim to speak out for conserving the world and it's resorces including animals and endangered species.

PE

Our PE will concentrate on outdoor adventure activities (creative play,) dance (jungle animals) and Net games - striking (balance and control).

Art and DT

As artists, we will be using the Jungle for our inspiration and studying printing. Along side this we will be creating texture whilst looking at colour and line drawing.  We will study the artists David Shepherd, Rosanne Bar, John Moore and John Lloyd Williams.

We will also look at slider mechanisms and will design and make a slider incoroparated in an Easter card.

PHSE

In PHSE, we will follow the Heartsmart scheme. This will start with us reminding ourselves about the importance of keeping our emotional and mental heart healthy. "Too much selfie isn't healthy" and "Don't rub it in, rub it out!"

Music

As musicians, we will be using Charanga to explore different music genres and new terminology. We will be learning to compose our own melodies/pieces, rehearsing and performing them.  We will also look at how music is recorded graphically using symbols to create a score.

Computing

For the first half term we will be focusing on Digital Robots and how to make a robot move. We will also on have a focus on using the internet safely. 

Homework

Homework will be sent out on Friday and will need to be returned on or before the following Wednesday. We would also like children to read their Phonics reading book at least 3 times a week. Please come and see us if there are any difficulties or write a note on the piece of work. It is important to complete each piece as they will either build on taught skills or pre teach skills ready for the following week.

Possible trips & visitors

We are currently exploring possibilities for trips across the term. We do have a student teacher joining us this half term called Miss Humphries. She will be working with the children and staff to ensure all children are getting the best possible support. We look forward to the term ahead!