St. Joseph's Catholic Primary School

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Class 1

If you wish to know further information relating to the curriculum in Class 1 please do not hesitate to speak to Mrs Honeyman and Miss Naylor, the class teachers,via Class Dojo.

A very warm welcome to all of you- to those families completely new to St Joseph’s and to those with children already in older year groups. We are all new to Class 1, including ourselves and Miss Brindle, our Teaching Assistant, and we are really looking forward to sharing a happy year of learning and new experiences with your children.

Our main aim this term is to make sure that all of your children have a positive start to their school life at St Joseph’s. We will introduce them gently to the people, spaces and the routines that will soon become familiar during their time here. Finding pegs, choosing lunch and putting pumps on need to be figured out. . . and then there’s making new friends, learning to get along, managing feelings and understanding our expectations of their behaviour in our indoor and outdoor spaces.

Much of our learning in Class 1 is interconnected; we will learn about aspects of Literacy through song; we might repond to our RE through artwork; cover aspects of History through talking about photos or learn about Science on a walk in the school grounds. Children achieve many of their Early Learning Goals through the continous provision inside and outside of the classroom as part of their daily routine. Other aspects of learning are outlined below:

Literacy (speaking, listening, reading, writing).

We begin the term by finding out a bit more about our children; encouraging them to talk about themselves and their families and about what they like and what they don’t like. We share books on this theme; including ‘It’s OK to be different’ by Todd Parr and ‘Peace at Last’ by Jill Murphy.

The children are already preparing for writing with their ‘Funky Fingers’ activities each morning; developing their fine motor skills through threading, pinching, placing and squeezing. The first couple of weeks will see us work on name recognition and name writing. We will also work on correct letter formation linked to our daily phonics sessions. As the children’s knowledge of letters and sounds builds, along with their fine motor skills, they will be ready to write and we will begin writing words, phrases and sentences linked to our learning inside and outside the classroom.

The children will enjoy a fun phonics session each day; working on each letter sound and learning how to blend sounds together to make words. Children will bring home a list each week with the sounds they are learning at school. Please go through these each day so the children can recognise and say them quickly and fluently. They should also practise writing the letters as they have been shown at school- one of the best places for this is on a steamed up shower screen or mirror at bathtime! These are the early stages of reading and we will send further information about reading later in the term.

Maths

Our focus this first term is counting and understanding the concept of numbers from 0-10. We will use ‘Numberland’ as our main teaching tool. Number Land is the place where numbers live. This is created by the children over the Autumn term through a carefully sequenced plan.

Each number is introduced and explored in different ways each week through a variety of questions and tasks. As a new number is introduced, the questions and tasks will also include how the new number relates to the previous numbers that have been learned.

R.E.

Our RE focus this term is ‘God’s World’. The children will learn and reflect upon God’s love and care for each and every one of us. They will hear about and respond to the things that God has created for us and understand that He made each and every one of us different and special.

P.E.

The children have PE sessions twice a week, on Tuesday with Mrs Honeyman and Thursdays with Mr O’Leary.

For the children who are wearing ear-rings these are the days that ear-rings should not be worn to school.

The fundamental movement skills of hopping, running, jumping, throwing and catching are developed and practised in these sessions through fun activities.

Changing for PE is also a skill on its own. Practising getting dressed and undressed at home helps. Thankyou for your support in sending in a full P.E kit inside a soft P.E.bag. This will come home at the end of each half-term for washing. Again thankyou for making sure that each piece of your child’s PE kit is clearly labelled with their name. Please can I ask that the labelling is checked before the kit is returned after the half-term holiday. It is vitally important in this current pandemic that your child is able to recognise their own clothes and take them off and on.

How can you help at home?

A strong partnership between school and home is vital for your child’s education. During your child’s time in school, your input will be required in different ways at different stages. You have already done a great job in preparing your children for school; we have had a very calm couple of weeks as your children have arrived with all the things they need, ready to learn! As mentioned previously, your children will start to bring phonics materials home from school; please ask the children to explain what they are all about and practise with them. As we progress through Class 1, the most helpful thing you can do is to read with your child each day.

In September, this is you reading to them; share as many stories as you can; read the same ones again and again; talk about what you are reading, what is going to happen next? Who’s your favourite character? As we go through the year, your child will start to bring books home and will read them to you! How exciting! We aim to develop in our youngest children a love of books and reading that will be life-long.

We hope that this is enough information for now. We will be in touch through Class Dojo with further updates, reminders and information that you will need as we go through the term. Please contact us through class Dojo or through the school office if you ever have any concerns; large or small.

We are really looking forward to getting to know you and your children over the next few weeks and months and thank you all for your ongoing support.

Exploring Class 1

Our Class 1 children have been busy exploring the indoor and outdoor learning areas. 

EYFS – Home/School Learning Opportunities to Promote Communication and Language. The PDF below contains suggestions for activities to help with communication and language skills for reception children. 

Please click on the link below to download a copy of -What to expect, when? Guidance to your child’s learning and development
in the early years foundation stage.

EAL ( English as an additional language) RESOURCES for parents

Below are a few of the learning activities we took part in last year.

Class 1 Stay and Play

The children in Class 1 had lots of fun showing their parents the what they do in school.

Chickens

Class 1 had some exciting visitors when Mrs Irons brought some of her chickens into school.  We had the opportunity to see these birds up close and observe them, and even had the chance to stroke their lovely soft feathers. 

Class 1 Assembly - Jonah and the Whale

Class 1 led an assembly based on the story of Jonah and the Whale, attended by the whole school and their families. They worked very hard  learning their lines , singing a song and saying a prayer using sign language.

Baptism with Father Firth

Father Firth visited the school to show the children what happens in a Baptism.  He performed a mock Baptism on our class doll  and the children chose the name Elijah.  Class 1 and 2 children had a wonderful experience learning about this special sacrament.

Long Term Planning

Planning

Please find below an outline of the topics covered in your child's class. 

If you wish to know further information relating to the curriculum in Class 1 please do not hesitate to speak to Mrs Honeyman and Miss Naylor, the class teachers.