Year 1

My name is Mrs Horn and I am the year 1 teacher. I have been teaching at Dame Dorothy since 2009 and I really enjoy it – I’m sure your children will too. The other main staff member working in year 1 is Miss Ward. If you have any queries or concerns, please feel free to speak to either member of the year 1 team.

Our Classroom

Our classroom will be organised very much like early years. There will be opportunities for independent learning in our learning environment, as well as adult-led activities.

Maths

Dame Dorothy Primary School boasts excellent mathematic skills. The children are becoming confident when it comes to completing their mental maths on a morning. It is important that the children get to school promptly at 8:45am so they don’t miss this. In lesson time this term, we will be looking at multiplication and division, fractions, position and direction, place value to 100, money and time. Please help your child at home by showing them o’clock and half past and getting them to help use and count out money.

Literacy

This term, we will be looking at extending our writing using all aspects of grammar that we have learnt so far. We must continue to remember our capital letters, finger spaces and full stops. We also need to make sure our sentences make sense and will begin to edit them, if necessary!

Topic

This term, our topic is called Paws, Claws and Whiskers. We will be doing lots of exciting activities, including a bit of food technology.

In science this term, we will be looking at animals including humans and plants. We will be planting some seeds of our own to see if we can make them grow!

Spellings

Spellings will be sent home on a Friday in the children’s homework books. The majority will be year 1 common exception words (or red words) that the children must be able to read and spell by the end of the year. Please help your child to learn these words each week.

Music

Music is active and fun in Y1! We encourage the children to respond to music with movement, actions and singing. Key listening skills are developed with activities to copy back clapped patterns and repeat sung melodies. They are introduced to some musical language, for example ‘the pulse’. They take part in weekly singing lessons. As the term progresses they will be introduced to a range of tuned and untuned percussion instruments; for example, Boom whackers, glockenspiels and rhythmic percussion.

ICT

We have the opportunity to use a wide range of ICT resources such as laptops and iPads. We ensure that the children are aware of how to keep safe when using the internet and they are always extremely responsive to this. Over the year, the children will be learning basic programming skills and will also learn how to write simple instructions (algorithms) to make things happen; the children are really motivated by this.

PE
PE lessons are on Monday afternoons. Your child should come into school wearing their normal school PE uniform, along with trainers. Please make sure any earrings are removed on PE day. We will be doing athletics for the first half term, followed by orienteering, via expert teaching from our PE coaches. Please make sure that all items, especially the jumpers, are clearly labelled to avoid any confusion should the children remove them.

Homework

Homework and reading books are sent home on a Friday. These should be returned by the following Wednesday (the Monday is fine if you have finished). All homework set will be relevant to learning in class. Homework is a great way of keeping parents informed about class learning, as well as giving the children the opportunity to consolidate their skills.

Please read with your child and make comments in the reading record book provided. Reading is very important to practise at this stage and any reading you do will be helpful to your child. Read together, share favourite stories, read a range of fiction and non-fiction, whatever takes your fancy! Above all, reading should be fun and we aim for children to want to read, so try not to make it a chore.

Coming to school and going home safely

Please drop your child off at 8.45am at the Y1, 2, 3 entrance.

Staff are on hand to support children in the cloakroom. We encourage them to hang up their own coats and bags to develop their independence.

Home time is 3:10pm. At home time, the children will be dismissed from the same door they entered that morning. Staff will be on hand to supervise and to make sure children are dismissed safely to parents.

A few reminders

Please email me at teacher@damedorothy.org.uk if you have any queries or concerns: I’m happy to help!

Water bottles can be brought into school – either a school one or a different one from home. Please ensure your child can identify their own bottle. They can access water from their bottles whenever they need to.

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