Year 1 children have made a fantastic start to the Spring Term! 

Class Teacher - Mrs Hodge and Mrs Guy,  Learning Support Officer - Mrs Lewis

Class Teacher - Miss Walters. Learning Support Officer - Mrs Harris

• January - Determination and Perseverance

• February - Honesty and Trust 

• March - Learning and Effort

This term, as part of our Literacy Tree work, our young readers will explore two captivating books: Leo and the Octopus by Isabelle Marinov and The Comet by Joe Todd-Stanton. 

Leo and the Octopus tells the story of Leo, a boy who struggles to understand the world until he forms a heart-warming bond with an octopus named Maya. The book teaches readers about friendship, empathy, and neurodiversity. Through this story, children will develop skills such as inferring emotions, building empathy, and enriching their vocabulary.

Meanwhile, The Comet follows Nyla, a young girl navigating the challenges of moving to a new city, who discovers the magic of imagination through a mysterious comet. This beautifully illustrated tale explores themes of change, resilience, and wonder, encouraging visual literacy, critical thinking, and creative expression. These stories offer a meaningful opportunity for pupils to reflect on emotions, deepen comprehension, and express their creativity in class discussions. 

We will continue with our daily phonics sessions, children will be re-capping on previously learnt sounds and gaining new phonics knowledge, along with our RWI scheme. We will be focusing on set 1, 2 and 3 sounds, along with red words. In group activities, we will be applying their phonics knowledge to read and write words, phrases and sentences. 

We will continue with our daily Helpwr Heddiw sessions, re-capping everyday Welsh language and phrases throughout the day. This will enable us to develop our skills in Welsh through oracy and role-play activities, reading and writing. 

In Mathematics and Numeracy this term, pupils will focus on a variety of key concepts designed to build their confidence and foundational skills. They will explore fact families, helping them understand the relationships between numbers, as well as practice counting on and back to strengthen their number fluency. We will focus on addition and subtraction skills and will consolidate previous learning using a variety of apparatus and practical experiences. Lessons will also cover place value, allowing pupils to deepen their understanding of how numbers are structured. Additionally, pupils will develop their measurement skills by investigating height and length through hands-on activities, fostering their ability to apply mathematical concepts to the world around them.

This term, we will continue to prioritise outdoor learning and health and well-being lessons to support the holistic development of our pupils. By engaging in activities outside the classroom, children will have the opportunity to build important social skills such as teamwork, communication, and empathy, while also strengthening their connection to nature. These lessons encourage active lifestyles, boost mental well-being, and provide a space for pupils to reflect, collaborate, and develop resilience. 

During our physical development lessons, we will be focusing on gymnastics and dance. The children will develop their movement skills by learning to travel in different ways, hold simple balances, and create basic shapes with their bodies. In dance, the children will use music, stories and their imagination to create movements. They will practise moving at different speeds and levels, responding to rhythms and expressing ideas through dance. We look forward to seeing the children build confidence, creativity, and enjoyment in PE.

Mindful Moments

In a study by the University of Exeter on the impacts of mindfulness for children, it was found that ‘there is reasonably strong evidence for the positive impact of mindfulness on a wide range of mental and physical health conditions, on social and emotional skills and wellbeing, and on learning and cognition.’

Each week will focus on one of our senses, and we will do some mindful activities around these. Such as a senses walk, making a glitter jar to ‘watch our thoughts settle,’ practise some simple breathing techniques and mindfully eat a snack.

This term’s unit of work, Sunrise to Stardust, will take pupils on an exciting journey to explore space, Earth, and the components that make up the Universe. They will investigate global weather patterns and the impact of human actions on changing weather, including extreme phenomena such as volcanoes, earthquakes, and flooding. As part of their learning, pupils will deepen their understanding of day and night, the changing seasons, and the cycles and rotations of the Earth and moon. Building on their prior knowledge from Progression Step 1, pupils will reflect on how human activity influences Earth’s environment and consider the implications for the planet’s future. This unit aims to inspire curiosity and a deeper connection to the world and beyond.

Children will also celebrate St. David's Day by participating in 'Welsh Week' and take part in Welsh based activities to celebrate the Eisteddfod and St. David's Day. Children will be able to wear House Colours or Welsh Costumes to join in the celebrations. on March 2nd. 

• Children should bring a water bottle to school each day, labelled with their name. 

•  P.E. will be on a  Tuesday.  Children should attend school in the agreed P.E. kit on this day.

• We have a number of children in school with a nut allergy.  We strive to be a nut-free school so please do not send in nut products in packed lunches. 

Thank you for your continued support.

The Year One Team.

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