Year 1 Curriculum Overview
Year 1 Autumn 2024
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In English, the text, ‘Handa’s Surprise’ is taught, which is about a girl living in an African village, struggling to try and deliver fresh fruit to her neighbour. Pupils will write a list of their own fruits for Handa to transport and will write a new version of the story using different fruits and food items. We then study the classic, ‘The Gingerbread Man’ where we complete a retell of the story, followed by ‘Stick Man’ by Julia Donaldson. We use her exceptional story writing techniques to write a character description, and complete an exciting trail linked to the story. Reading centres around the Read Write Inc phonics programme and is tailored to meet the phonetical needs of your child. This term, our handwriting lessons and daily handwriting starters focus on printing letters using the correct formation, orientation and sizing. Finally, SPaG is a key focus within English lessons, focusing upon moving away from sentence-like structures to forming basic, grammatically accurate sentences that make sense and include a noun and a verb. Punctuation lessons focus on full stops, capital letters, question marks and exclamation marks.
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In Year 1 Maths, we explore place value as well as addition and subtraction within 10. This is to secure understanding of amounts, including ordering and comparing (e.g. more and less) before moving on to numbers within 20 (and then 50) later in the year. The Autumn term focus is number bonds to 10, exploring parts and whole as well as sorting 2D and 3D shapes.
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In Science, the topics of animals’ needs for survival and materials are studied along with a mini sustainability project based on plastics. Pupils also carry out practical investigations, making predictions, selecting materials, recording results and drawing basic conclusions for themselves based on these enquiries.
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Through the topic of “Our Amazing Country”, Year 1 and 2 study history and geography. In history, pupils will find out about the Great Fire of London and what London was like in 1666 whilst, in geography, we study the UK now, with a focus upon London as a modern capital city.
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In PE this term, pupils will receive lessons on ball skills with the support of Soccer 2000 coaches and will develop team building and target skills with their teacher.
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In Art, we will be looking at techniques including pointillism, paint mixing and collage/layering using the theme of the Great Fire of London.
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Computing focuses on the basic skills needed to access technology, such as logging on and using a mouse before moving on to writing digitally or creating music digitally.
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In Jigsaw, we are covering the topic “Being Me in My World” where pupils learn about feeling special, safe and part of a class. They consider rights, responsibilities, choices and consequences. We then move on to “Celebrating Differences” where pupils identify how people are similar in some ways and different in other ways, and think about what bullying is and how to deal with it and celebrate differences in everyone. We use Project Evolve to link this learning to online safety, focusing on self-identity and self-image and how to manage online information.
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DT this term has a focus on making a model fairground ride, using the London Eye as a starting point for our designs. DT explores the design, plan, make and evaluate model.
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In Music, Year 1’s learning focuses around a unit called ‘Hey You!’ and two half-units entitled ‘Rhythm in the Way We Walk’ and ‘Banana Rap’. Pupils will be given the opportunity to listen to and appraise songs, considering their own likes and preferences as well as comparing similar songs with a focus on the music, instruments and lyrics. Pupils will learn to sing and play instruments, including untuned percussion instruments.
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In RE, Year 1 and 2 study a unit called, ‘What can we learn from stories from the Bible?’ based around the stories of Moses, plus a unit in the second half term called, ‘Beginning to learn from Islam.’
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Our new oracy curriculum is based around speaking and listening and we are filtering discussion opportunities and talk tactics into all other curricular areas, as well as into homework tasks. Reading at home is encouraged daily in Year 1.
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Year 1 Spring 2024
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In English, the texts, ‘Ruby’s Worry’ and ‘Ravi’s Roar’ are taught in Miss Cespedes’ class and ‘Perfectly Norman’ and ‘Meesha Makes New Friends’ are taught in Miss Booles’ class, which are all by Tom Percival and about children who struggle to express their feelings. During the first block of writing, pupils will focus on retelling one of these stories and, during the second block, they will write a basic letter from the perspective of one of the lead characters. We then study the author Julia Donalson, reading ‘The Gruffalo’ in Miss Cespedes’ class and ‘Room on the Broom’. Firstly, we write a character description of the lead character and then we practise recalling the events from the story in detail and in chronological order. Reading continues to centre around the Read Write Inc phonics programme for all Year 1 pupils and is tailored to meet the phonetical needs of your child. This term, our handwriting lessons and daily handwriting starters focus on printing letters using the correct formation, orientation and sizing, with a focus on some of the tricky formations such as k and f. Finally, SPaG is a key focus within English lessons, with pupils continuing to produce grammatically accurate sentences that make sense and include a noun and a verb, and perhaps now an adjective or simple conjunction like ‘and’, to add some very basic descriptions and cohesive techniques. Punctuation lessons focus on full stops, capital letters, question marks and exclamation marks.
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In Year 1 Maths, we explore place value within 50 as well as addition and subtraction within 20. We explore these concepts in different ways, using concrete resources, visual models and diagrams to support us. In the second half of the term, we start learning about the measures of length and height, beginning with non-standard units like cubes and moving on to centimetres. We then learn about weight and volume, using units such as cubes and cups to measure and compare.
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In Science, we have now moved onto the White Rose science scheme of work. There is a focus of biology throughout the term, with the topics of animals and plants, plus seasonal changes and caring for the planet being studied. Furthermore, pupils explore through practical investigations, making predictions, selecting materials, recording results and drawing basic conclusions for themselves based on these enquiries.
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Through the topic of “Splish, Splash, Splosh”, Year 1 and 2 undertake historical and geographical learning. In history, pupils will find out about seaside holidays in the past whilst, in geography, we study the oceans.
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In PE this term, pupils will be receiving Soccer 2000 lessons on net and wall games, as well as working on sending and receiving techniques. With their class teacher, they will be learning invasion games and focusing upon the skills of striking and fielding.
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In Art, we will be completing two projects across the term. The first is a drawing unit called “Make Your Mark” where we will learn how to draw lines to represent movement, fill shapes, make outlines and add detail or pattern and learn how to use different marks to represent the textures of objects. After half term, we will be cutting and layering shapes and using watercolours and paints to create a landscape of a seaside.
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Computing includes the themes of programming, where we use programmable devices, such as beebots and floorbots, and creating media where we learn how to paint digitally.
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In Jigsaw, we are covering the topic “Dreams and Goals” where pupils learn about setting targets to achieve and be successful. We then move on to “Healthy Me” where pupils consider how to lead a healthy life, including food choices, road safety, using medicines safely and linking health and happiness. Our Project Evolve Online Safety lessons for the term concentrate on privacy and security, health, wellbeing and lifestyle.
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Design Technology this term has a focus on making a textile puppet and making a windmill structure that can turn. DT explores the design, plan, make and evaluate model.
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In Music, Year 1’s learning is based on a unit called ‘In The Groove’ in the first half term and a unit titled ‘Round and Round’ in the second half term. Pupils will be given the opportunity to listen to and appraise the songs, considering own likes and preferences as well as compare to other similar songs with a focus on not only the music and instruments but also the lyrics. Pupils will learn to sing the songs and play instruments, including untuned percussion instruments.
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In RE, Year 1 and 2 finish the Autumn Term unit called, ‘Beginning to learn about Sikhs’ plus, in the second half term study, ‘How and why some books are holy.’
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Reading a variety of genres regularly at home as well as keeping up-to-date with homework (which will provide opportunities to share and practise what has been taught in class) will support pupils’ development.
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Year 1 Summer 2024
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In English in Miss Cespedes’ class, the text, ‘Lost and Found’ by Oliver Jeffers is taught, which is all about friendship and support between an unlikely pairing of a boy and a penguin. During the first block of writing, pupils will focus on an Antarctic setting description and in the subsequent block, they will write an information leaflet (non-chronological report) giving facts about penguins. We then study ‘Tyrannosaurus Drip’ by Julia Donaldson, where a dinosaur hatches in the wrong nest and gets raised by fierce T-Rexes. Firstly, we write a retell of the story and then we write a character description focusing on the lead character. In Miss Booles’ class, the text ‘The Rainbow Fish’ by Marcus Pfister is taught, which is a lovely, heart-warming story of sharing including the happiness that sharing can bring. It also depicts how difficult sharing can be and the impact that sharing can have on friendships. They too will write a setting description (but this time based under the sea) and will again do a non-chronological report, but this time based on sea creatures. Reading continues to centre around the Read Write Inc phonics programme for all Year 1 pupils and is tailored to meet the phonetical needs of your child. This term, our handwriting lessons, and daily handwriting starters, focus on capital letter formation plus a revision of all lower-case letters ahead of the move into Year 2 where joining letters will begin. Spelling Punctuation and Grammar (SPAG) is a key focus within English lessons. By now, our non-negotiable expectations within writing are spelling most Year 1 common exception words correctly, using phonics or word banks to support spelling, beginning to show an awareness of how full stops and capital letters are used to demarcate sentences and showing an understanding of how to use capital letters for names, places, days of the week and the pronoun, ‘I’. In terms of genre-specific expectations, we focus on ensuring sentences make sense, using the conjunction ‘and’ to link two simple sentences together, using a question mark and exclamation mark and using basic adjectives to describe. Our Year 1 proof-reading expectations involve pupils now re-reading their writing to check that it makes sense and to independently begin to make changes.
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In Year 1 Maths, the topics are multiplication and division, fractions, position and direction, place value, money and time. In multiplication and division, pupils learn to count in steps of 2, 5 and 10, how to recognise and add equal groups, make arrays, make doubles and learn how to group and share. In fractions, students recognise and find half of a shape or quantity and move onto recognising and finding a quarter too. Within position and direction, pupils learn about ordinal numbers, and how to use the terms ‘turn, left, right, forwards, backwards, above and below’. Place value understanding now extends to numbers up to 100 and includes gaining knowledge on how to partition these numbers, find 1 more or less than given numbers and how to compare numbers. In the money block, we learn about the units of pence and pounds, how to recognise coins and notes and how to count in coins. For time, the concepts of days, months, hours, minutes and seconds are learned as well as how to tell the time to the hour or half hour.
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In Science, the topics of plants and seasonal changes are taught across the summer term. There is also a mini-project based on sustainability, focussing on growing and cooking. Furthermore, pupils explore through practical investigations, making predictions, recording results and drawing basic conclusions for themselves based on these enquiries.
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Through the topic of ‘Proud to be Wolves’, Year 1 and 2 undertake historical and geographical learning. In history, pupils will find out about our local history, whilst in geography, we study mapping skills.
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In PE this term, pupils will be receiving Soccer 2000 lessons surrounding athletics, as well as working on their gymnastic techniques. With their class teacher, they will be learning dance and yoga.
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In Art, pupils will be learning how to use textiles to create an abstract felt map. They will be continuing the textile theme by completing a unit called ‘Fibre Text Art’.
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Computing lessons firstly follow the topic of ‘Pictograms’ where pupils will be collecting data in tally charts and using this information to organise and present facts. Next, in the unit ‘Programming’, pupils will be designing and programming the movement of a character on screen for a range of outcomes. In terms of online safety, pupils will use our Project Evolve scheme to learn about online relationships and their online reputation.
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In Jigsaw, we are covering the topic ‘Relationships’ where pupils learn about being part of a family, what makes a good friend, people who help us and physical contact preferences. We then move on to ‘Changing Me’ where pupils consider how humans change as they grow, coping with change and the basic differences between girls and boys.
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Design Technology this term has a focus on cooking and nutrition, where pupils design and make a fruit/vegetable smoothie and make a healthy wrap. Design Technology explores the design, plan, make and evaluate model.
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In Music, Year 1’s learning focuses around a unit called ‘Your Imagination’ in the first half of the term. Pupils will be given the opportunity to listen to and appraise songs, considering their own likes and preferences as well as comparing similar songs with a focus on not only the music and instruments but also the lyrics. Pupils will learn to sing the songs and play instruments, including untuned percussion instruments. In the final part of the summer term, they will have the chance to ‘Reflect, Rewind and Replay’, selecting their favourite songs and genres from the past 12 months and revisiting them.
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In Religious Education, Year 1 and 2 will continue to study the unit we started last term: ‘How and why are some books holy? Special stories of Christians, Sikhs and Muslims’. We will also undertake a unit called: ‘What can we learn about prayer from stories of Jesus? Beginning Christianity’ during the second half of the term.
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Reading a variety of genres regularly at home as well as keeping up-to-date with homework (which will provide opportunities to share and practise what has been taught in class) will further support pupils’ development.
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