A warm welcome to Year 1
We are so excited to welcome you all to Year 1.  This year you will be supported by Mrs van Zyl, Mrs Darbyshire and Mrs Robinson.

Learning in Year 1 continues from the wonderful learning that took place in Reception, with the learning environment designed to build upon skills learnt in Reception.  Children will have access to continuous provision activities throughout the day both in and out of the classroom, and we are delighted to have a brand new year 1 outdoor area for September.  Teaching consists of short-whole class teaching sessions along with small group and one to one work.  In order to continue to foster independent learners, children are encouraged to complete ‘challenge tasks’ throughout the week, the outcome of these are discussed during daily challenge chat sessions where the children can share their successes with their peers. 

Curriculum
Children continue to work on the Early Learning Goals in the Autumn term.  As their learning progresses, they move onto the National Curriculum.  We love to share with our families the wonderful work that the children produce, and this is done through SeeSaw.  A yearly curriculum overivew of the learning that will be covered can be found at the bottom of this page, along with a detailed weekly outline of learning for the Autumn Term.
 
Phonics and Spelling
Phonics is the primary method used to teach children to read and write. Every child in Year 1 joins in with a fun, active and engaging daily 20 minutes phonics session teaching systematic synthetic phonics. Phonics allows children to learn the letter sounds in a clearly defined sequence with increasing difficulty. They will learn to blend (put together) the sounds in a word in order to read it,and segment (split up) the sounds in order to spell it.  Pearson's Phonics Bug is the scheme used to teach phonics at Middleforth and is based on six phases. All children will be provided with an access code to online phonics games which are linked to the learning taken place in school.  

Reading
At Middleforth we use a reading scheme that links with the teaching of systematic synthetic phonics by using decodable Phonics Bug books. Children are encouraged to read at home and in school; taking part in a weekly guided reading session, reading on a one-to-one basis with staff and when COVID restrictions allow parent helpers.  Children are offered the opportunity to lend books from the school library and when safe to do so enjoy visits to the local library.   

Maths
At Middleforth we use the White Rose Maths scheme, this approach to teaching means all children have the same opportunities to learn and the support they need to fully grasp concepts. Teaching is based on the use of Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract (CPA) approach.  This system of learning uses physical and visual aids to build a child's understanding of abstract topics. Pupils are introduced to a new mathematical concept through the use of concrete resources.  Pictorial is the “seeing” stage. Here, visual representations of concrete objects are used to model problems. This stage encourages children to make a mental connection between the physical object they just handled and the abstract pictures, diagrams or models that represent the objects from the problem.  Children move between Pictoral and Abstract approach through scaffolding and challenging examples.  As a result, children benefit from improved learning retention and develop mathematical understanding, reasoning and problem-solving abilities that will stay with them for life.