Welcome to Year 1!
We have an open door policy, so please do come and talk to use if you have any questions, worries or concerns.
Key Days for your diary:
PE Days - Wednesday and Friday 1FT
Tuesday and Friday 1P
On these days your child must attend school in their PE kit. The correct colour t-shirt for their house and either blue/black shorts or jogging bottoms depending on the weather. They may wear either their school jumper/cardigan or dark plain jumper on these days. Your child will need either trainers or plimsolls but they must be comfortable to wear for the duration of the day and to run around in. Please ensure they are warm enough to take part in outdoor PE as where possible we will be outside.
Library day - Wednesday
If you have any school library books at home these will need to be returned before issuing any new books to your child. If you are unsure of the books you have at home please let us know with a note in their reading record.
Each week we will visit the library as a class, allowing your child the opportunity to choose their own book to share with you. This book is for enjoyment and may not match your child's reading ability. Use these books to feed their imagination ready for story writing in Year 1.
Currently we have a smaller library selection located in the lower group room whilst the roof works are going on.
Homework - Reading, Numbots and Spelling Shed
We would ask that you read to and with your child as often as possible. The children will bring home reading books that match their phonic and decoding levels. Reading regularly is the most effective way to support your child's progress.
Numbots - 10-15 minutes a week
Spelling Shed 5 games a week
Change Books on: Thursday- allowing, ideally, for 3 reads of each book before changing.
Read once for decoding - sounding out the words.
Read the second time for fluency - can your child read it with some pace and expression?
Read a third time for understanding - take time to talk about the story - What did your child like or dislike? How did the characters feel? What do you think might happen next?
Autumn 1
English
Our English unit of work this half term is fiction writing based on the 'Rapunzel' story. We look at the formation of our letters on the handwriting lines as well as how to correctly construct a sentence. As the unit progresses we will be challenging the children to use adjectives to make their writing more exciting.
Year 1 Non negotiables
Please reinforce our Year 1 non-negotiables for writing at home. These are:
- Using our print handwriting, forming our letters correctly, starting on the line
- Sitting our letters on the line and ensuring ascending (tall) and descending (long) letters reach high/low enough.
- Putting finger spaces in between words.
- Using capital letters at the beginning of each sentence and for proper nouns.
- Using full stops at the end of sentences.
Phonics 
We will be following the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds programme to teach phonics and reading. Phonics involves breaking words down in to the smallest units of sound and teaching children how these sounds are represented with letters. Your child will take part in phonics lessons daily which will support their reading and writing. The reading scheme is in line with the phonics phases to give your child practice of the sounds they are learning and linked tricky words. The books the children will bring home have prompts to support parents in their child's phonic and reading development (they can be found on the reverse of the cover).
Reading
Please continue to read with your child as often as possible. Books will be changed on a Friday. We will assess your child's reading throughout the year to ensure they are progressing.
You will have the book at home for several evenings. Please read the book at least twice, ideally 3 times, with your child and talk about the story. Reading the same book several times allows work on fluency and expression alongside the skills of decoding and comprehension.
Reading Home Learning:
Mathematics
We use White Rose Maths as the basis of all our Maths planning at Park Mead.
To start the year we will be looking at Place Value to 10. Don't forget your children have Numbots logins and can use this to consolidate their basic number skills - the programme moves at the child's pace as they progress through the levels.. The ethos of White Rose is to ensure your child has a secure understanding of the basic number system, that can then be transferred to larger numbers.
Topic:
This year our Geography and History topics have changed and we are very excited to start this new journey with the children. We will be beginning the half term with a Geography unit that looks at the Weather and Seasons. We will focus on the weather in the United Kingdom and how it affects what we wear, our jobs and the activities we do.
Park Mead Primary School, Park Drive, Cranleigh, Surrey, GU6 7HB
01483 274315
info@park-mead.surrey.sch.uk
