Welcome to the Spring Term in Year 1

Our topic for the term is 'Fairytale Kingdom' and our main focus is to explore 'Traditional Tales' from around the world. This half term we will be going on a magical adventure through the world of fairy tales. We will be researching the history of our favourite stories and discovering where they came from. After half term we will be continuing our adventures across the world, focusing on stories from far away lands.

Numeracy and Literacy activities will continue to be taught in the morning, followed by topic activities in the afternoon. Different subjects from the six areas of learning, will be introduced over two weeks.

We are extremely fortunate that on Friday afternoons, Ms Ellett, our school music specialist, will teach the children music and develop their understanding of a variety of instruments. Mrs Loughran will work with the children to improve their Personal and Social Education. Through play, stories and songs, the children will learn to form positive relationships and develop respect for others.

The children will listen to and read a variety of fairy tales from around the world. Through oral discussion we will be talking about the history of the stories and the lives of their authors.

During our skills sessions, children will be introduced to consonant clusters, letter names, rhyming words and reading texts independently.

This term Year 1 will be continuing to follow the Numicon scheme of work. Through practical activities, the children will be learning lots of new number skills and reinforcing their knowledge of addition and subtraction. The children will also be learning to find how many by grouping, handle money and tell the time on an analogue and digital clock.

The children will be using ICT to consolidate their knowledge of shape and measures and learning new problem solving skills through fun, practical activities.

The skills and resources used during numeracy sessions will be available throughout the day. This allows the children to transfer the skills learnt in numeracy to other subjects and activities.

This term has a Geography focus and we will be learning about making plans and following directions.

We will be cutting, folding and gluing to create collage work inspired by Castles. Digital skills will continue to be developed through the use of laptops and i-pads to create posters. Throughout the term we will be continuing to learn about e-safety and coding.

We will be participating in the School Eisteddfod and learning about celebrations from other cultures such as Chinese New Year.

In Welsh we will be concentrating on the questions 'Beth wyt ti eisiau?' and 'Oes...gyda ti?' in particular.

Within our classroom we will be encouraging the children to take age appropriate responsibility whilst continuing to be clear, firm and compassionate.

Activities will provide opportunities for children to take different levels of responsibility for a range of tasks. We will also be creating situations with different roles, to explore situations from each person's perspective.

• Children should bring a water bottle and fruit, if required, to school each day.
• They should also have their reading book in school on their given reading day.
• P.E. will usually be on a Monday. Children may attend school in the agreed P.E. kit on this day.

Thank you for your continued help and support,

The Year One Team.

Parents Evening - week beginning 24th February

Don't forget to book your parents evening appointment. All parents have received an email with an invitation to book the appointment online. If you have not received an email please contact the school office.

Download our School App via the Play or App stores - The School App will provide you with up to date information about activities and events at Oldcastle Primary School. Please look out for our weekly newsletter issued via The School App and available on our website on a Friday afternoon. The newsletter contains all forthcoming diary dates for the school.