Welcome to Year 1

A Very Warm Welcome to Year 1

Welcome back to the first part of the Spring term 2026 from all the Year 1 team.
We are really excited to jump into teaching and learning with our amazing topic:

‘What's in the skies above my eyes?’

This half term we will be learning about the skies above our eyes. We will be learning about the American aviator, Amelia Earhart, who was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean and she set numerous other flight records. In Science, we will be continuing our study of plants by planting and exploring this in Winter. We will also be looking at sustainability in Science and how to care for our planet.

Our focus text this half term will be ‘How to catch a star’ by Oliver Jeffers and ‘The skies above my eyes’ by Charlotte Guillain.

Over the half term, we will also be learning:

• Maths - Place Value to 20, Addition and Subtraction to 20.
• Science - Planting, Seasonal Change, Growing and Cooking, Sustainability
• Computing - Programming Robots
• History - Amelia Earhart 
• Art - Simple Printmaking
• RE - What did Jesus teach us?
• PSHE - Living in the Wider World (E-Safety).
• Music - Football Progression Snapshot
• PE - Gymnastics (Mrs Julian) and Football (External Coach)
• Outdoor Learning

Key Dates for Spring 1

PE and Outdoor Learning

In the Spring, PE takes place EVERY Tuesday and alternate Mondays. Please see the following timetable:

As part of our commitment to ensuring all children are fully prepared for PE lessons, we kindly ask that your child brings in their PE kit at the start of each half term. The kit should be placed in a clearly named bag and left on their peg for the duration of the term.

PE kit consists of:

• Black shorts or jogging bottoms.
• White T-Shirt
• Trainers

In addition to PE kit, please ensure your child has a set of clothes for Outdoor Learning. These clothes should be ones that can get dirty and wet, as activities may include gardening, mud kitchen play and other hands-on learning experiences, in varying weather conditions. It's important that these clothes are durable and suitable for outdoor play and include a waterproof coat and wellies, when necessary. Please only send these on Outdoor Learning days and these will be sent home after the sessions.

Homework in Year 1

Reading - We ask that children read at home with somebody FIVE times a week and record this in the communication diary. This will support children to apply their phonics learning and develop their fluency and comprehension skills. Each half term, children will also be sent home with phonics sounds or words to practise.

Phonics support and pronunciations can be found: https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/reading-schemes-oxford-levels/essential-letters-and-sounds/

Spelling - Spellings will be sent home every Friday in the communication diaries for children to practise. This will support them to apply their phonics knowledge and develop their spelling of tricky words. This will also support their writing.

Maths - Please use Numbots at home to support children's number fact fluency. Logins can be found at the front of communication diaries and you can log in on computers, tablets or phones. This can be accessed using this link: https://play.numbots.com/#/account/school-login/23244

Knowledge Organisers

This is the key knowledge which children will learn in each subject. We will be using these at school to support the children and you can use these at home too.