Sycamore Class

Welcome to Sycamore Class

In Year 1, this is the first time the children are introduced to the National Curriculum and all this involves. The step up from Foundation Stage to Key Stage 1 marks an important stage for the children; no longer being the youngest children in the playground is an exciting concept and the school becomes ‘their’ school and something to be proud of. The guiding principle at this crucial stage is the notion that learning is fun and in Sycamore we aim to foster an enthusiasm for knowledge.

At the beginning of the year we endeavour to make the transition from the Early Years Curriculum to the National Curriculum as smooth as possible for each child. We continue to have a ‘learning through play’ approach.

As the year progresses the curriculum takes a topic based approach, allowing us to foster links across subjects to promote a greater understanding. Each topic focuses on a different curriculum area including History, Geography and Science and this year our topic titles include: History of shopping/transport and communication, everyday materials, animals including humans, seasonal changes and plants and continents and animals that live there.

Mathematics and English lessons will take place daily. Alongside this, daily Phonics and Reading sessions will take place which will build the children’s confidence with sounding out and blending in time for the Year 1 phonics screening test in June. In addition to our daily phonics lessons, we will have weekly spelling lessons which will cover the Year 1 spelling objectives.

Learning about a variety of text styles encourages huge strides in our writing, while listening to and participating in stories allows the children to explore, investigate and create. In maths we learn about number, shape, space and measure and we begin to record our progress in number sentences and charts.

For the latest Sycamore Class newsletter please click the link below. This contains more information about what we will be learning in Year 1 along with other relevant information. If you have any questions or concerns not covered by the newsletter please do not hesitate to contact me.

Mrs Needham