Year 1

At the start of the year, we aim to support children in the transition from the Early Years setting into Year One in a gradual, staged approach. This allows the children to adapt to new routines during the first half of the Autumn term. Initially, we are guided by the principles of The Early Years Foundation Stage approach to learning and then introduce the National Curriculum requirements. In Year One, the children are taught in a more formal way but are still encouraged to develop their independence through self-directed opportunities within our classroom environment.

The Year One curriculum is designed to build on the learning that has taken place during Reception. Throughout the year children will have the opportunity to learn skills in fun and practical ways, such as designing and making windmills, creating their own puppets and visiting a local farm to bottle feed the new lambs.

Developing early reading is an important part of the Year 1 curriculum. In addition to English lessons, children have a daily Phonics session in which they are taught to recognise new phonetic sounds and to read and spell words through sounding out and blending. New sounds are taught using the principles and progression of Read Write Inc. In the Summer term all Year 1 children will participate in the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check. This is a national assessment of each child’s ability to decode and read words using their phonetic knowledge. The check consists of 40 real and pseudo words for the children to read. The children know these as ‘Alien Words’ e.g. brip, snorb.