Year One have been busy! What with academic assessments, Nativity rehearsals and Christmas shopping, we are starting to count down to the holidays!

Year One have continued to work hard at being a cohesive class, highlighted in their acting out of the story of Guy Fawkes in our Topic lessons and of Edgar the Excitable Dragon in our English lessons. It is great to see them taking turns, making group decisions, and listening to each other.

Moreover, we have started a Friday tradition of giving each other rays of sunshine. Normally, rays of sunshine are awarded by the class teacher to a pupil. However, we've taken this one step further and the children are recognising the good behaviour of other children each week.

Finally, we're also spreading joy by sharing positive interactions that happened at break and lunchtimes. This change from complaints to gratitude and praise, creates a positive atmosphere in the classroom for productive, happy work. 

Over the last four weeks, Year One have been studying The Queen's Hat by Steve Antony, linking into our theme of Bright Lights, Big City as we explore our capital city. The culmination of all our English work on this text is a retelling of the story, not only focusing on our non-negotiables of capital letters, finger spaces and full-stops, but also using adjectives to describe. Looking back on Year One's first piece of writing at the start of September, it is wonderful to see just how far they've come in only a few months.

We've also been impressed with Year One's artwork of Guy Fawkes, linking Art and History together, and their leaf rubbings in Science, as we explore the differences between seasons.

Finally, Year One have been making a great effort to learn the songs for their Nativity performance with Year Two and we can't wait for you to come and listen to their beautiful singing.

For the last two weeks, we have been joined by a volunteer student teacher. It is great for children to be taught by different members of staff and for them to learn how to be respectful to visitors. Moreover, it's an opportunity for us to work on our class cohesion and demonstrate how well we can work as team to make everyone feel welcomed.

For example, in PE we have been practising our 2x, 5x and 10x tables in relay races. We've not only been learning how to hop, skip and jump (as well as our times tables), but most of all, we've been learning how to support our fellow team players.

Likewise, in RE, we have studying how Muslims represent Allah through intricate patterns and beautiful artwork as opposed to idols. Together, Year One made a beautiful tiled picture, showing how different parts piece together to represent the whole. Can you guess what the picture is?

We've also continued respecting each other's backgrounds by learning about home languages in PSHE.

Finally, take a look at our Story Maps for The Queen's Hat - these are leading onto independent narrative stories by the end of the week, so watch this space for some impressive Wow Work soon.

When the sun shines, Year One love to start their Maths lessons outside. Usually, we focus on times tables practice, using different movements for x2, x3, x4, x5 and x10 to reinforce the patterns. However, this week we've started playing an Odd and Even game, Addition Family Facts game and Number Bonds to 10 game. The use of rhythm, repetition and rhyme aids their memory for mathematical knowledge. It is great to see Year One then applying this knowledge in their independent work back in class.

We've also been having fun in Art, painting the background to our Guy Fawkes portraits, and in doing so, exploring the reasons why the painter may have chosen a dark, mysterious night's sky as the backdrop for this historical figure.

What a fantastic start back Year One have had!

From firework art creations (at home as well as in school), to learning about prepositions, to using sketchpad to draw on ipads, to learning how to say 'hello' in all the different languages spoken in our class, we have had an exciting start back to the Autumn Term.

Thank you to those parents that attended Parents' Evening last week, and I look forward to meeting with more parents after school tonight. It is great to see how children's learning is supported, encouraged and extended at home. Together, we educate.

Year One had a lovely treat recently when Year Six shared their stories with us in the Learning Garden. It was a chance to re-establish inter-age group reading buddies. Year One loved the stories of monsters, aliens, cookie jars and faraway lands! It's really important to have role models to look up to, and Year Six demonstrated to Year One what they will one day be capable of.

Wishing you all a lovely half-term break.

We love to get outdoors in Year 1, and so the opportunity to go outside and create clay faces, as part of our Art curriculum, was a fun and relaxing way to spend our Monday afternoon (without causing lots of mess in the classroom!).

We've not only been creating in Art, but thinking about the idea of creating and creation in RE as we look at different creation stories for a range of religions. As part of a thematic curriculum, it's rewarding when we can draw links between different subjects and draw on our knowledge from one subject in another.

We look forward to more creating next week as part of Geography Week, when we will be building bridges and baking scones as we focus on London in Year One.

As part of celebrating Black History Month, Year 1 have been learning about the Black British author and illustrator Dapo Adeola who created the book 'Hey You: An Empowering Celebration of Growing Up Black'. As part of our PSHE curriculum on families, we've been using Hey You to recollect baby memories that we've even been told by family members, or can remember about new babies being born into our extended families.

One child commented that the message of the book is "you can be anything you want to be in life." I love that conviction and positivity! Let's keep on instilling that message into our children so that they grow up confident with aspirations.

Alongside PSHE, we've also enjoyed getting crafty with our collages of self-portraits in Art. It's wonderful to see children's self-expression and creativity come alive.

We have been fortunate to have a sunny September this year, with mild weather that has allowed Year 1 to get outside easily.

Year 1 have adopted the Learning Garden for their daily maths movement practice, where we practice times tables with different actions; counting forwards and backwards with marching; and play maths games involving months of the year, times of day, and quantity of number.

The children really enjoy having an additional boost of fresh air. Subsequently, they focus on group whiteboard learning and independent tasks much better when they return to the classroom.

Watch this space to find out how else we manage to get outdoors with our learning this autumn!

Autumn 1 Week 3:

We are settling into our routines in Year 1. Becoming familiar with bringing in purple reading folders everyday, for example. Getting used to remembering library books and water bottles. Following the timetable of daily phonics, weekly spellings, maths tests and home reading. What is great about a clear routine is that, once established, we can have fun within these known boundaries, which means pupils feel safe.

For instance, you'll see from the photos that lots of movement is going on in Year One, whether in class or playing games outside as a physical break from academic learning, which benefits everyone - including teachers!

Moreover, we're finding moments of calm within our afternoons now, such as this week's Art lesson where the children learnt to shade with different types of pencils. Children were focused on learning this new skill, particularly how to hold a pencil differently when shading compared to writing. I look forward to seeing children applying their shading techniques in their Home Learning (grids should be the correct ones on the website now, apologies for any confusion).

If there's one thing that Paddington Bear likes, it's his marmalade sandwiches (often kept for emergencies under his hat).

This week, Year One have made and enjoyed their own (jam) sandwiches as part of literacy, learning about writing instructions. Children's work is always more purposeful and meaningful when it relates to tangible experience.

What's more, in Science, Year One have been exploring the everyday materials that they can find around the school playground; in Art, we've been drawing full length self portraits; and in Phonics, we've been reviewing sounds taught in Reception.

There's been an excellent effort with home reading, so please keep it up!

Finally, don't forget to support your child with their spellings and home learning grid.

Have a great week!

Autumn 1 Week 1:

It's been a joy to start the new term with Year 1. They are eager to learn new skills and have fun!

We've been recalling our Summer Holidays in English, producing some beautiful independent work, showcasing the children's prior phonics knowledge.

We've also been sorting and counting tangible objects. The class greatly enjoyed sorting children into groups and trying to work out the sorting rule, .i.e. one group all has plaits, or another group all have cardigans.

Finally, we've been learning class poems and songs to aid routines and build a strong class culture. I hope you hear some snippets at home.