Welcome to Year 1

Summer 2 2026

Useful Documents 

Dear Parents and Carers, 

We wish you a warm welcome back after the half term break. We hope you have had a restful and enjoyable time with your families. We look forward to the exciting term ahead of us. The children will be reminded of our school values of Respect, Good Manners, Patience, Perseverance and Honesty and they will continue to earn dojo points for good behaviour, attitudes and effort. Punctuality and good attendance is key to supporting your child's education and ensures they do not miss vital learning.

As part of our school expectations, we will continue to remind pupils of our school values of Respect, Good Manners, Patience, Perseverance and Honesty and they will continue to earn Dojo points for good behaviour, attitudes and effort.

Homework

Your child’s homework grid will be sent home at the beginning of the term and will focus on reading, phonics and handwriting plus support for maths. 

Please encourage your child to complete their homework each week.  Homework is given out on a Friday and is expected to be completed and returned no later than the following Wednesday.  We do encourage adults to support with homework so as to develop your child's understanding of skills and strategies to fulfil the task.  

It is important that your child learns to practice their phonic sounds as this will support their blending skills for reading and with spelling. It is crucial that you read with your child as much as possible at home to support their phonics and also their understanding of different texts. I must impress on you the importance of your child reading regularly as this supports their development in their oracy and writing skills as well.  It is vital that they learn their weekly vocabulary as this is linked to the book they will be reading in class the following week.

P.E.

P.E. will take place on Thursday afternoons. Please ensure your child comes to school in their full P.E kit - Yellow P.E shirt with the school's logo, black joggers or shorts or leggings, black pumps and their school green sweatshirt. Also make sure that your child has their earrings removed or covered by plasters from home on this day. 

English

In English this half term, In English this half term, our theme is 'Robots'.   We will be learning about all the key features of a recount. We are going to focus on a fictional recount about - yes you guessed it - Robots! We will use our prior knowledge to use sequencing words and place events in the correct order. We will be able to use vocabulary suitable for a fictional piece of writing; remembering to use adjectives for description of character and setting. Our focus we will remain on making sure that pupils are using the basics in their writing: capital letters, punctuation, finger spaces and that it makes sense. Phonics will continue throughout the day and there are some links in the website star for you to support your child at home.

Maths

We will be practising our 2x, 5x and 10x times tables which all year 1 children should be able to recall confidently. Therefore, we ask that you practise these with your child as much as possible. We will begin the half-term focusing on money. We will begin by looking at coins to help us identify them trough shape, marking, size and colour. After this we will explore notes in a similar fashion, by looking at the colours of the notes and their markings to help identify them.  We will then be introducing new concepts of measurement, focusing on volume and capacity; we will be drawing upon previous knowledge of fractions. We will then move on to measuring mass, using vocabulary such as 'heavy/heavier' and 'light/lighter'. We then find mass using non-standard units.  We will end the year by looking at Geometry exploring the important elements of position, movement and turns. We will begin by describing the position of one object relative to another, using terms such as: 'top' , 'middle' and 'bottom'; 'around', 'close', 'near' and 'far';  and 'on top of', 'in front of' and 'above'.  We will end with turns: navigating whole turns, half turns, quarter turns and the notion of clockwise and anticlockwise. 

Science

The science topic this half-term is 'Biology- Animals including Humans'.  We will begin by focusing on identifying common features and comparing similarities and differences and changes over time. We will then move on to looking at the human body and recognising and labelling the different parts and then saying which part of the body is associated with the 5 senses.  We will look at each sense and discover how we use our senses in different ways to explore the world around us and use them to classify things and objects into different groups. We will then talk about body parts in relation to maths, eg., 'My arm is x straws long', 'my hand is larger than yours'. In P.E we will also demonstrate how we follow instructions involving parts of our body.   

History

This half-term, we will be exploring how significant people in history have shaped our world today. Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole were both nurses at the time of the Crimean War. We will be able to say where events happen on a timeline and spot similarities and differences between ways of life in different time periods, plus between the two women. We will use simple historical concepts such as now/then and same/different in relation to a significant other. We will demonstrate what we know and understand about the past in different ways whilst understanding historical concepts and using them to make simple connections and draw contrasts. We will be using different sources and stories to show how we understand events and how these shape our lives today. We will learn how the two women changed practices in hospitals and treating the sick, highlighting the need for cleaner environments and a healthy living.   

Computing

This half-term in computing we are focusing on exploring where technology is used in our  local community. We will discuss which types of technology we have in our homes and in local businesses. We will learn about the technological devices in use in our daily lives and how some of these facilitate communication of a variety of formats. We will understand what is meant by technology and will identify a variety of examples both in and out of school. We will then look at online safety and how we interact with others with different forms of technologies; thinking also about considering others and always being respectful and polite when communicating.  We will compare the speed and ease of technology to non-technological actions, eg., email, buying an app or painting on screen.   

If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to discuss these with us at the beginning or end of the school day or arrange an appointment through the school office.

Myself and the other members of the Year 1 team are really looking forward to another exciting and fun half term! 

From all the Year 1 team:

Mrs Smith - Class Teacher (Tuesday- Friday)

Mrs Begum - Class Teacher (Monday)

Mrs Ali - PPA Teacher 

Mrs Haji - Teaching Assistant 

Ms Iqbal - Special Support Assistant