Welcome to Year 1 Curriculum page

Religious Education – To Know You More Clearly

At Holy Cross, we follow the RED Religious Education Directory: To Know You More Clearly, which supports children in deepening their knowledge and love of God through scripture, tradition and lived faith. The curriculum is structured around six branches, one per half term:

1. Creation and Covenant

2. Prophecy and Promise

3. Galilee to Jerusalem

4. Desert to Garden

5. To the Ends of the Earth

6. Dialogue and Encounter

These branches help pupils explore salvation history, the life and mission of Jesus, the story of the Church, and the call to live out their faith today. Each year group builds upon this foundation, encouraging children to reflect, question and grow spiritually. The curriculum is closely linked to the liturgical year and supports our prayer life, worship and Catholic mission throughout the school.

Year 1 is a very exciting year, as we become more independent and develop our reading and writing skills as the year progresses. 

Home Reading

Reading is a very important aspect of learning, so we actively encourage children to read every evening. It is vital that your child has a book bag, so they are able to bring home their reading record and reading books. Book bags can be purchased from the main office. Book bags are to be brought to school each day. In Year 1 your child shall be given a book each week alongside their reading record for home reading.  Please comment in the reading record every time you listen to your child read.

We shall listen to your child read  in school through their home readers, as well as this we will have a guided reading lessons to assess their progress. The children will also have lots of opportunities independently to read and enjoy books throughout the week in school. Reading is essential to progress so please try and listen to your child read as often as possible.

Your child will learn to read following the Read Write Inc scheme. We will hold a phonics session at the start of the year and again before the Phonics Screening. This will go through how your child learns and answer any questions that you may have about phonics. If you need any further assistance please let me know.

Below are some useful documentations to help you get a further understanding.

PE

The children shall be doing PE on a  Tuesday and Wednesday. Children should come to school in their PE kit. Please ensure that your child's clothing is clearly labelled to avoid any lost items. It is vital for health and safety reasons that your child has the correct PE kit. 

Homework

Homework will be set using Mathletics and Purple Mash. Homework will usually focus on work covered during the school week and shall include a set of spellings for the children to practise reading and spelling . 

Mathletics

http://www.mathletics.co.uk/ 

This website can be accessed from home and encourages children to practise their maths skills. Each child has also been provided with their individual log in details for ‘Mathletics’, this can be found in their reading record. We actively encourage the children to access Mathletics at home to practise their maths skills.

Support

A positive work ethos makes all the difference to you child’s learning, so your support from home is kindly welcomed and encouraged throughout the year. If you have any specific questions about your child please do not hesitate to arrange an appointment with the office.

We look forward to working with you all throughout the year.

Year 1 Curriculum

Literacy
The children shall be learning:

• Lists, labels and captions- the children will create lists, labels and captions.
• Stories with familiar settings- the children will be learning 'Float' by Daniel Miyares. We shall be having lots of fun exploring the characters and settings, as well as creating stories maps and using actions to retell the stories.
• Senses poetry-  We shall use adjectives to describe what we can feel, smell, hear, see and taste.
• Instruction texts- we shall be creating a set of instructions. As part of instructions texts the children shall be creating information text maps and will then go on to use Talk for Write actions to retell the instructions.
• Information texts- We shall be looking at the different features of information texts to help us create our own.
• Fantasy story settings- we  shall be reading the story of 'Where the Wild Things are' and will then go on to create our very own story settings.

Guided Reading

We encourage you to read at home with your child whenever you can. Every morning the children will have a Guided Reading session following their phonics speed sound lesson. Throughout the week children are encouraged to read for pleasure, independently choosing a book from the library.   

Maths

During Year 1, we will be learning to count forwards and backwards, as well as recognise numbers to 100.  The children shall be working hard to order numbers; sequence numbers; find missing numbers and create their own number patterns. We willl also be learning  addition and subtraction; particularly recalling number bonds to 20. As the year progresses, we will go on to learn how to tell the time, recognise and identify 2D and 3D shapes, as well as measure length and capacity. We shall also be looking at sharing and multiplication. Throughout the year, we shall continue to tackle word problems related to each area of Maths and become super problem solving mathematicians!

Geography

The children will develop their Geographical understanding of locational and place knowledge, human and physical Geography and Geographical skills and field work through: 

Autumn: Continents and oceans / countries and capital cities and surrounding seas of the United Kingdom.

Characteristics of the United Kingdom 

Spring: Study hot and cold locations

(Seasonal and daily weather patterns) 

Summer: Study of human geography in the local area

Mapping and field work

Using maps, atlases, globes

Recognise the four compass points

History

The children will develop their Historical skills of chronology, Historical enquiry and interpretation though;

Autumn: Changes within living memory

Spring: David Attenborough and Mary Anning

Summer: Kitty Wilkinson

Science

Throughout the year as part of the curriculum in science the children will be studying four areas; 

Seasonal change

• Naming and recognising the four seasons.
• Observing and recognising the changes across the different seasons.
• Identifying different types of weather.
• Using a weather chart to record the daily weather and present a weather forecast.
• Identifying and describing how the length of daylight changes across the seasons.

Everyday Materials

• Distinguish between an object and material which it is made from.
• Identify and name a variety of everyday materials such as; glass, paper, metal, plastic and rock.
• Identify and describe the physical properties of some everyday materials.
• Compare and group together a range of everyday materials based on their physical properties. 
• Carry out the simple tests to observe what happens to different materials when they are heated and cooled.
• Identifying which material is best  to make an umbrella for a Minion - exploring different materials to see which are waterproof.

Plants

• Identify and describe the basic structure of a variety of plants.
• Identify and name a variety of plants. 
• Identify and classify trees as deciduous and evergreen.
• Identify and describe different trunks of trees and their leaves.
• Observe different types of plants over a period of time.

Animals including Humans-

• Identify, name draw and label the basic parts of the human body and say which parts of the body is associated with each sense.
• Identify and name a variety of common animals that are birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles and mammals
• Identify and name a variety of common animals that are carnivores, herbivores and omnivores.
• Describe and compare the structure of a variety of common animals (birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles and mammals, and including pets).

Art/ Design Technology

The children participate in a range of art and design activities to create pieces for a purpose using a range of materials. Children shall be given the opportunity to develop their creative skills. Over the course of the year the children will:

Autumn 1 - Art Drawing

Autumn 2 - DT Food and nutrition

Spring 1 - Art Painting

Spring 2 - DT Wheels and axels

Summer 1 - Art Textiles

Summer 2 - DT sliders and levers

Computing

The children will be focusing on basic computer programming. During the Computing sessions, we shall focus on E-safety and its importance. Just as we want to keep our child safe in the real world, we will want to do the same in the virtual world. It is important that we understand enough about the Internet to keep our children safe from harm but is equally important that we equip our children with the skills they need to keep themselves safe so they can experience the Internet positively and responsibly.

PSHE/RSHE

Our PSHE lessons cover 3 main areas-

-Relationships

-Living in the Wider World

-Health and Well-being

For our RSE lessons, we will be following the programme Journey In Love.

For our RSHE lessons, we will be following the programme Life to the Full.