Welcome to our New Class

Who are we?

Mrs Jones teaches Everyday

Mrs Hayward teaches every Wednesday afternoon.

Miss Abbott is a TA supporting the children every day.

Transition from Reception to Year 1

Our aim is to ensure that the children experience a smooth transition from the Foundation Stage to Key Stage One. The Year 1 curriculum builds upon and extends the experiences that children have had in Reception. Learning through hands on experience will continue to be an important part of the school day and the children will gradually be eased into more formal learning as the year goes on so that they remain motivated, enthused and eager learners.

All children’s needs are identified individually. They will have their own end of year targets in reading, writing and maths and will be working at their own level to reach that target. The steps towards those targets are reviewed regularly and changed if necessary.

Topics and the Play

We teach a range of topics with different main subject focuses. During this year our topics are:

Not all subjects are taught all year. The curriculum is organised so that learning is linked to make it more meaningful.

Some subjects however are in taught in separate units- R.E. and PE.

A topic outline with ideas for how you can support your child will be sent home at the beginning of each term.

The KS1 play Christmas play will be in December this year. As usual there will be two tickets per family, with a waiting list for spares.

Trips and visits

There will be three trips or visiting workshops that you will be asked to pay for this year- one each term. We plan to have one workshop in school and one local trip out. Both of these will be a maximum of £5.50 each. In the Summer term there will be day trip on a coach, which again, has not been finalised. The cost of this will be around £15.

We are aware that these trips and visits are not cheap but we try hard to keep the costs down without comprising safety.

Daily Routines

Keeping you informed

-Daily notices are on the whiteboard in the morning.

-Thursday letter-PLEASE read it! This goes out with the youngest child in your family in school. If your child is absent, a Thursday letter will be kept in class for him/her.

-Annual dates card

-Thursday letter and yearly calendar/dates are on the website https://www.highfieldhall.derbyshire.sch.uk/

* Handwriting

Attached is a copy of the handwriting style. There are 2 packs. One is the 'patter' (how to do it) for print writing and one is for joined writing.

Encourage them to sit correctly when writing: bottom on the chair, tummy touching the table and feet on the floor (or a box) for stability. Make sure they correctly place the letters on the lines and use the 'froggy legs hold' for their pencil. This year they will consolidate correct letter formation and next steps will be to put diagonal lines on letters, ready to join.

* Reading

Attached is a copy of the common exception words that children should be able to spell by the end of Y1. Alongside those, they should be able to use phonics to read and write a range of words.

In class the children are taught to recognise letters, groups of letters and to hear sounds. We teach them the skills of reading and they do a lot of practice in class however they all need further practice at home. Their phonics folders with the new sounds they have learned, will be sent home every night so that you can practice reading and spelling the target words.

We aim to hear your child read daily so please make sure the book comes back to school even if you haven't heard your child read. Please record when you have read with your child and feel free to comment so we know what you have read together and when to change their book.

Homework

Reading 10 minutes, three times a week at least please

Reading and Spelling- regular practice with the old and new phonics sounds and codes in their phonics folder.

Weekly Wednesday work- a task will come home on a Wednesday. It may be linked to the topic, a maths task or game, a speaking task or something to find out. It will have a date on it that the task has to be completed by or when to hand it in.

There will be lots of ideas for how you can support your child's learning on the Topic Programme for each half term.

Naming belongings

Please could you make sure that all clothes (including PE kit and plimsols), book bags and lunch bags are clearly named.

If you lose any items of clothing, please check the going home box in the classroom or lost property box in the disabled toilet in the cloakroom of the main building if it is not in the classroom.

Morning routines

The gates will open at 8.45 and the bell will go for the registers to be taken at 8.55 the classroom door will then be closed.

If you come after 9.00, the classroom door will be closed for your children’s safety. Please knock and you will be met by Miss Abbott. Your child can then put their coat and bag away and join us for the register.

Hair, earrings and jewellery.

In PE and dance the children with long hair must have it tied back and earrings must be removed or taped up.

If your child can’t remove his or her earrings, you might want to remove them before school on PE days.

Children should not wear necklaces, bracelets or rings to school.

 Contact between you and us

You are welcome to meet us any time to discuss your child’s progress or if you have any other concerns. It is advisable to make an appointment after school when we have more time, as the morning is often very busy.

There is an Open Evening in November (no appointments necessary) and there will be Parents Evening meetings with appointments in March 2019.

Adult help

We would gladly welcome any support from you in the classroom and we usually require help on trips and visits outside school. If you are going to come in to help more than four times in a month, you will need to have a Disclosure, Vetting and Barring check (it used to be called a CRB). Mrs Shelbourne in the office can arrange for this.

We would welcome any regular support you can give to hear children read. Please see me if you can offer an hour or two a week.

Y1 Phonics Check

In June 2019 the Y1 children will all be checked on their ability to decode using phonics. You will be notified how they have done at the end of the year.

* Medical Issues

Please make sure we have up to date medical information about your child.

If your child needs medication during the school day (other than inhalers and epipens) you will need to fill a medication form given out with these notes. If you use it, please collect another from the office.

Water Bottles

Please make sure you send a bottle of water with your child every day. It should have a sports cap on top so that it doesn’t spill.