Year 1 Class Blog: 

10th March 2025

The sun shone for us on Tuesday this week, when it was our afternoon in Wild Space as part of the Forest Schools programme. We have braved the wind and the rain and got used to it always being cloudy, so the sunshine was very welcome this week!

There was much activity building different structures, including a water system, house and a bridge. Children were also wool winding, making bark rubbings, climbing, playing on the log swing, cooking different recipes in the mud kitchen and much more!

Thursday was World Book Day and the children enjoyed many stories throughout the day. These included 'Cat in the Hat' from Mrs Foster and 'Hamilton's Hats' from Mrs Hall. The children enjoyed seeing everyone else's character costumes in whole school assembly and sharing their favourite books with their friends.

The children made their own book marks to take home to use, followed the clues for the words in the crossword all about reading and carefully counted many different story characters.

Thank you for helping the children become a book character for the day. They all looked wonderful!

24th February 2025

This week in our Art lessons Year One children designed and created their own Rose window. This learning is linked to their understanding of buildings and architecture, following on from their amazing Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral drawings that they shared with you recently in our class assembly. We have displayed these on our classroom windows for all to share. The colours look really beautiful with the light shining through, and the children are very pleased with their Rose windows.

On Friday afternoon the children had their first school swimming lesson at the Hudson pool. We talked about what to expect at the pool and the importance of listening carefully and following instructions. The children behaved perfectly and everyone tried their very best!

We had a great afternoon at the pool and the children have all got a swimming group and swimming teacher who will guide them to make progress in their water confidence and swimming skills over the next half-term.

Well done, Year One! We are very proud of you all!

10th February 2025

This week in our Geography lessons Year One children were learning about all things weather! We discussed the weather associated with the different seasons and how meteorologists are able to forecast the weather.

We watched weather presenters delivering their forecasts for the daily weather for the country and in our own local area. The children learned about the different symbols used to show people what the weather will be on a map and the digital technology used to convey this.

After Mrs Foster had become a weather presenter for the day, the children delivered their own forecasts in pairs. The classroom was full of excited chatter about the weather and what this would mean for their audience. Great fun learning!

The children were also excited to hear that it is their turn to go swimming every Friday afternoon after the half-term holiday. Please see the letters that came home this week for all the details.

It was lovely to meet so many parents again this week to discuss progress in learning for the Year One children, at Parent Consultations. Thank you for supporting the children's phonics further at home with the pack given out at these meetings. Home and school working together to aid reading development is so crucial, and we thank you for your continued support in this.

3rd February 2025

Thank you to our parents and families for coming to share in our learning at our class celebration assembly on Friday. It was wonderful for the children to be able to share their achievements with you and they were so excited to do this! We were so proud of all the children for speaking so clearly and with such confidence in front of an audience. A class full of Year One Superstars!

Friday was also Number Day in school and it was fantastic to see so many children covered in numbers! We enjoyed a morning full of number activities, including making a mathematical star full of our own special numbers.

Next half-term we will begin by revisiting our number learning so far this year, including number bonds to 10/20, addition. subtraction. one more/less and counting in ones, twos, fives and tens forwards and backwards to and beyond 100. We will then move on to early multiplication by making equal groups with objects.

We are going to be very busy in our Maths lessons!

27th January 2025

This week Year One children have enjoyed working on line drawings of important buildings in their Art lessons. They have looked carefully at photographs of St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey in London to make their own pencil sketches. The children have thought carefully about the shapes they see, applied their knowledge of creating different types of lines and added the details to their drawings. They are very proud of these and are looking forward to sharing them with you at our celebration assembly next week.

In Maths we have been learning about the value of coins and notes and counting these to find totals. Our skills of counting in twos, fives and tens have been key in these activities. Please continue counting at home in different ways to support the children's key Maths skills.

We look forward to seeing you at Year One's class celebration assembly next Friday 7th February at 2.30pm. The children have lots of learning from this term to share!

20th January 2025

This week the children have enjoyed seeing and sharing how their writing skills have developed and improved since the start of Year One. They looked at the first page in their English books from September and compared this with their writing now. There were a lot of smiling faces during this activity, which was wonderful to see! The children are excited that their parents will see their hard work at Parents Evening, very soon.

The children had a great first afternoon at Wild Space on Tuesday, as part of the Forest Schools programme. They spent the time exploring the area this week, trying some of the different activities and enjoying exploring the outdoors with their friends. Many thanks for sending in a change of clothes each Tuesday for this great opportunity to take learning outside. The children couldn't wait to get out there!

13th January 2025

The children in Year One are very excited to be starting their 'Forest School' learning next week! We will go to the 'Wild Space' at the bottom of the school field behind Pre-School and learn through being outdoors. Thank you for ensuring that the children bring their 'Wild Space' clothes bag each Tuesday. Please see the letter coming home this week that explains this session and the clothing required in more detail.

In school every day starts with Collective Worship in the hall, followed by Phonics. We continue to follow the Sounds-Write approach which links a sound to its many associated spellings. The children write on their white boards every day during these sessions and also in their Sounds Write Phonics and English books. We read at every possible opportunity in a range of contexts and ways such as from the board, from decodable storybooks, from selected passages of text, in cross-curricular activities, individually and as a group or class. The link between reading and writing is clear, from the text we read together to the writing linked directly to that text. The children loved reading Michael Morpurgo's 'Coming Home' last half-term and then writing as if they were the robin in the story, making the long journey home for Christmas.

Thank you for encouraging your child to read at home every day. It really does make a huge difference to their rate of progress in their reading journey. School provides a decodable text which is directly linked to our phonics learning in class that week and a library book for you to share together. The children tell us about the books that they read at home too, which is always wonderful to hear. Many thanks for all your encouragement and support.

6th January 2025

It was lovely to welcome back all our lovely Year One children to the Spring Term this week. After a catch up with everybody about their holiday we got straight back into our learning, with interest and enthusiasm!

We are looking forward this term to continuing with our two PE lessons each week, for which there is a different focus on each day. On Thursday we will be in the hall working on gymnastics skills and on Fridays we will be outside on the playground developing our throwing, catching and games skills. Thank you for ensuring that the children have their school PE kit, trainers and are wearing no jewelry for these lessons.

In Maths this week we have been learning number bonds to 20 and reinforcing our addition skills through these. This is building on our work with bonds to 10 before the holiday. The children have worked practically with a range of different resources to support their thinking and they then started to look for patterns in number, working systematically to find all possible pairs. Counting in twos, fives and tens will be of great benefit when we begin our 'Money' unit next week. We worked on counting a lot in the Autumn Term and continued reinforcement at home would be really beneficial for your child, such as counting forwards, backwards and in multiples of 2, 5 and 10 together.

Thank you for your continued support and happy counting!

16th December 2024

What a week! We had a lot of illness in Year One this week and the children all wished their friends better soon. Despite the challenges, the children worked hard to perform their Nativity to their families and friends and they truly did shine! Their confidence and enjoyment in participating in the performances alongside their Reception and Year 2 friends was an absolute pleasure to see. Thank you to all our lovely parents who smiled, clapped and encouraged the children all the way through from beginning to end. The children were so excited to see you all there!

Last week we enjoyed Christmas dinner on Christmas Jumper Day. This week we enjoyed a Christmas movie with popcorn and hot chocolate as part of our 'Pride in Elm Day.' This is when we acknowledge and say a huge 'well done' to all those children who have shown amazing behaviour for learning throughout the term. It has been a pleasure to teach Year One children this term and to be a part of their learning journey. We look forward to another exciting term in the new year.

In the meantime, wishing all our amazing children and families a wonderful Christmas and and very Happy 2025!



Love from Mrs Foster and Mrs Hall x

9th December 2024

This week we have been developing our cooking skills in Design and Technology. We rolled up our sleeves, washed our hands and got to work making jam tarts in our classroom.

The children followed the recipe instructions for each step of the making process and were more than happy to get their hands messy! It was wonderful to watch their enthusiasm to make something from scratch. They learned how to solve little problems along the way, such as how to roll out the pastry without it sticking to the rolling pin or breaking apart.

Once cooked, the children enjoyed the 'taste test' and agreed that they had done a great job! They thought through carefully anything they would do differently next time to make them even better. There was even enough left  over for every child to take a couple of jam tarts home for their families to enjoy.

2nd December 2024

Another week full of learning, and another brilliant event for Year One children to join in with, as part of our Elm school community. On Friday, the children and staff took part in the 'Rudolph Run' to help raise money for a charity in our community.

Many, many thanks to all parents who helped the children gain sponsors for their run and help us raise an incredible amount of money to help those in need. The children really understood why they were taking part, and they had a lot of fun in the process!

Thank you for helping the children to get their costumes/clothes together for their performance of 'The Big, Big Story' based on the Nativity, alongside our Reception and Year Two friends. We are busy learning the songs and Year One's own special song is 'It's Gonna Be Great!' which is especially for our lovely shepherds and sheep. The children are already getting excited about performing for their families.

25th November 2024

What an amazing, wild Wednesday Year One had this week! Our daily class 'Countdown to Banham Zoo' had finally reached its special day and the children and staff were so excited to be taking our learning out and about.

We started our day at the zoo with a talk about 'Grubs up', linking directly to our learning about animals in Science. The children were able to touch a model of a tiger's skull and feel how sharp their back teeth were, understanding that carnivores needed these to tear their meat. The three tigers at the zoo were definitely intrigued by our arrival and came over to us right next to the glass, which was simply amazing for the children to get such a close look at these powerful mammals. Their excitement was wonderful to see, as they watched the tigers closely, in awe!

Another great experience was the children being able to see and touch a giant stick insect and cockroach, if they wished. Many children chose to do this and impressed us all with their courage to try new experiences.

Our day was summed up by one child's words in response to "Did you have a good day?" to which they replied "It was SO, SO good!"

18th November 2024

We have been thinking about 'Justice' in our Collective Worship this week and some children have earned a special Elm sticker for their thoughtful responses. One day a week we have Collective Worship in our classroom to give all children the opportunity to reflect on and discuss their learning from whole school assemblies. The children listen carefully and share their thoughts respectfully.

In our Sounds Write Phonics this week we have been thinking about 'one spelling, different sounds' in a range of words. Recognising this is such a key skill and the children are learning to apply their new knowledge when decoding unfamiliar words in their reading.

Thank you to all parents for supporting the children's learning at home. It has been lovely to see the many reading, writing, number and art activities linked to our learning in school that the children have brought in to share from home.

11th November 2024

'In November we Remember'

We began the week with Remembrance Day on Monday, when we joined the rest of the school to mark the two minute silence. All the children were so respectful of this and showed how much they understood its importance to many people today. Well done, Year One!

In our Maths lessons this week we have been learning addition. We then joined in with fundraising for Children in Need on Friday and did some Pudsey Maths to put our skills to the test! We had great fun counting, adding and problem-solving alongside Pudsey Bear.

Thank you for helping us to raise money for Children in Need.

4th November 2024

It was lovely to welcome Year One children and parents back to school after the half-term break. There were lots of smiling faces coming into school and lots of keen children eager to tell us their holiday news!

The children were very excited to see that their seascapes inspired by Monet are now proudly on display in our school Art Gallery in the hall. As we complete new units of learning in Art, the work of different children will be selected to be displayed so that by the end of this year, everyone in Year 1 will have had their amazing art work displayed for all to share and enjoy.

The children used their brushes so carefully to show how the sea could look and feel, whilst recognising the different tints and shades of colour. The children are so proud of their masterpieces which really make us appreciate the natural beauty of the world around us.

Well done all Year 1 artists!

21st October 2024

This week has been such a busy one in Year One! The children were very excited to gather all of their books together, ready for their parents to share on Thursday afternoon and evening. In the classroom, the children looked back on their learning across this first half term in Year One and they were so happy to see the progress that they have made across the curriculum. We are so proud of their achievements and it was fantastic to be able to share this with our parents.

Year One children have been consistently applying their Sounds Write Phonics skills in their reading and writing lessons every day. They have started to write simple sentences which include the different spellings we have learned to represent the same sound. We have also focused on forming capital letters in our handwriting lessons, to include at the beginning of our sentences and for names of characters

in our class story 'Hansel and Gretel.'

Some children have also started to bring in their linked learning from home, which has been wonderful to see!

14th October 2024

In Year One the children have been busy developing their understanding of number and place value. The children have worked hard to develop their number formation and to order these carefully, particularly the 'teen' numbers. They have practiced counting in twos, fives and tens and enjoyed singing some great counting songs to help them in this! The children have also worked very practically to represent and support their mathematical thinking and understanding.

In English we have enjoyed reading 'Hansel and Gretel' and we have been writing sentences together about what happened in this amazing story! We look forward to sharing our writing with you very soon.

It was great to see so many children enjoying the Friends of Elm disco last week. Some dazzling dance moves from Year One children and lots of fun with their friends!

The children are very excited about their Mums and Dads looking at their books and talking to Mrs Foster at Parents Evening next week! They are so keen to share their Year One learning and for parents to see their progress across this first half-term in Year One.

7th October 2024

In our Art lessons this week Year One children have been busy learning how to mix secondary colours. This builds on our learning about primary colours in previous weeks. The children have enjoyed mixing red and yellow to make different shades of orange to paint their own sunflowers. We looked carefully at Van Gough's sunflowers and created our very own Year One masterpiece, which we have proudly displayed in the classroom. It looks beautiful!

We have been listening carefully in Collective Worship assembly each day. We have been exploring the theme of 'trust' and next week we will create our own 'trust pebble' to add to our class 'Reflection' display. This currently is full of hearts with the children's pictures and words about their families and friends, based on the theme of love. The children spoke thoughtfully about those they love and those who love them. It was a wonderful discussion, with all the children contributing their thoughts and understanding.

30th September 2024

In our Sounds Write Phonics lessons this week we have continued with our new journey, learning the 'Extended Code'. This builds on the children's knowledge and skills of the 'Initial Code' which was taught throughout EYFS. This week we have been focusing on the sound /ae/ and the different spellings that can represent this sound. We "Say the sound and read/write the word" throughout all our phonics lessons and across the wider curriculum. The children are focused, engaged and keen to learn in all of our phonics lessons which involve a variety of learning games and activities. Keep up the good work, Year One!

On Monday 7th October at 2.30pm we will be running a Parent Information Session for parents of children in Years One and Two, to explain our approach to the teaching of phonics. You are very welcome to join us to find out more and ask any questions.

We had a wonderful afternoon at the church on Friday, celebrating Harvest Festival alongside our friends in the rest of the school. We listened carefully to the Year 6 children leading the service and sang our Harvest songs with enthusiasm!

23rd September 2024



In Year One this week we have really enjoyed developing our artistic skills. We have studied Mondrian's painting 'Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue' and discussed how he used the primary colours. We then created our own squares and rectangles using strips of black paper and then carefully painted some of these in the same style as Mondrian. The final result was similar paintings that are all uniquely different in some way. They look amazing and the children are all so proud of their masterpieces!

We have also started learning our harvest songs for the festival in church next week, which we are all looking forward to celebrating. As we are learning about Christianity in our RE lessons, our visit to All Saints Church will help us to learn more about this special place of worship in our community.

16th September 2024



This week we have been learning to read, write and order numbers in our Maths lessons. We worked together as a class and then in small groups to match numerals to number words. It was quite tricky, but by working as a team we achieved our goal!

In Science this week we have been learning all about the parts of our eyes. We also discovered that most children in our class have brown eyes! We collected the data to find this out and added our results to a chart on our Science Working Wall. We also had great fun looking carefully at our own eyes in the mirror. Our eyes are amazing!

We looked at aerial views of different objects and places in Geography this week, including our own school. We were able to tell where our Year 1 classroom was from above, from its shape and location. We then worked in groups to make an aerial view of a place out of Lego.

We could describe our aerial views in detail!

9th September 2024

Welcome to Year One! The children have settled really well into the new routines and learning of Year One and we thank parents for your support in this. It has been wonderful to see so many smiling faces as we begin the new school year together.

This week we have enjoyed the story of 'The Gruffalo' in our English lessons and applied our phonics skills to "Say the Sound and Write the word" when writing sentences. The children continue to learn their Sounds Write phonics each day through a range of different activities and lots of reading together.

Thank you for sharing your child's reading from home with us. We really appreciate your support in developing the children's reading skills in partnership.

Curriculum visits and enrichment activities: