Year 1

Phonics

What is Phonics? 
Phonics is a way of teaching children to read quickly and skilfully. Children are taught how to recognise the sounds each individual letter makes and to identify the sounds that different contributions of letters make such as ‘sh’ and ‘oo’.   Children are taught to read by breaking down words into separate sounds or ‘phonemes’. They are then taught how to blend these sounds together to read the whole word. We use Little Wandle Letters and Sounds revised to teach phonics at our school. 

The phonics screening check 
The National phonics screening check is a statutory assessment that was introduced in 2012 to all Year 1 pupils and is a quick and easy check of your child’s phonics knowledge.  All year 1 pupils will take the phonics screening check in summer term.

It comprises of a list of 40 words and nonsense words (words that are phonetically decodable but not actual words with an associated meaning e.g. brip, snorb). It will assess phonics skills and knowledge learnt through reception and year 1 where each child is asked to read on a 1:1 basis to an adult familiar to them. They will be asked to ‘sound out’ a word and blend the sounds together. 

The screening check will identify children who have phonic decoding skills below the level expected for the end of year 1 and who therefore need help. 

'Our aim is to prepare children for the future and for lifelong learning in a diverse and everchanging world with opportunities as well as challenges.'

Mathematics

At Hatchell Wood, we use the National Curriculum and the accredited White Rose Maths to structure the long term and medium term overview of our mathematics teaching.

The vast majority of children are taught in their own year groups, in mixed abilities. In every year group, concepts are taught using concrete resources, moving on to pictorial methods before developing abstract working. This approach means that most children can access the same learning while building a solid understanding. Where appropriate, some children have a personalised curriculum. All children are given an equal opportunity to achieve to their highest potential.

As well as discrete maths lessons, children also consolidate their understanding during topic lessons and through daily Maths Meetings which include key mathematical facts.

English

At Hatchell Wood, we believe that every pupil has the right to be able to read, write and communicate with others effectively. English is the main medium through which the rest of the curriculum is learned and taught and a major way in which children interpret the world around them, develop knowledge and understanding and communicate with other people. The teaching of English, in all of its forms, has a high profile within the school.

Writing

In the teaching of writing we use 'Pathways to Write'. This covers skills we want the Year 1 children to achieve through the teaching of keys. Each half term we complete writing tasks about a different book and we work on our 'mastery keys'. These are things like joining sentences with the word 'and' or using a range of punctuation in our sentences. 

Here is an overview of the books we study.

Phonics

During Year 1 children continue to develop their phonologic knowledge of letters and sounds. They use this knowledge to segment and blend words to read. This supports writing as they move onto segmenting words to spell. They work through the phases of the letters and sounds documents. We begin with phase 3 in Autumn Term and move towards Phase 5 in Summer Term.

As part of Year 1 Book Talk study the children hear the same book everyday for a week. This means the children know these books inside out. The children verbally answer questions on these books linked to reading VIPERS. The books come under six categories: Quality Text, Rhyming/Poetry, Diversity, Traditional Tale/Non-Fiction, Well Being and Love of Reading. The children then have access to these ‘special’ books as part of Continuous Provision and we hope it encourages a love of reading and a genuine interest in a range of books.

Topic

Autumn 1 History – How am I making History?

This half term we will be learning about our own personal history and exploring how we remember special events.

We will be focussing on:

• Growing up from babies to elderly.
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• Finding out what it was like for children in the past?
• Comparing the past to what their childhood is like now.

Autumn 2 – Geography – What is it like here?

This half term we will be learning about where we live and exploring our school and local area using maps.

We will be focussing on:

• being able to name the city in which they live.
• Make a map of the classroom and our school grounds
• How we feel about our playground and can we make any improvements?

PSHE

We use to Jigsaw PSHE scheme of work to prepare children/young people for life, helping them really know and value who they are and understand how they relate to other people in this ever-changing world.

Weekly Celebrations

The weekly celebration is the same for each year group. These are designed to draw out a key theme from each week and reinforce its application; in turn, this ensures the Jigsaw learning is translated into behaviour and attitudes and is not confined to the lesson slot on the timetable.

*Our Sex and Relationship Education Progression Map can be found here and our SRE Supplementary Lessons plan can be found here.

Religious Education

We use Discovery RE scheme of work to learn about different religions and beliefs. Christianity is taught in every year group, with Christmas and Easter given new treatment each year, developing the learning in a progressive way. Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism are also covered.

Home Learning

In year One we ask that you read with your child on three occasions during the week and record this in the ‘Reading Record Diary’. We may also sometimes send home some phonics activities. 

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