A smooth transition into Year 1 is extremely important to ensure continued progress as children move into learning the Key Stage One curriculum.
Our Year 1 cohort has 34 learners this year.
Year 1 will be learning through these exciting topics…
To see the learning that will take place and the mini foci the children will learn through, please look at the topic webs that will be updated throughout the year on this site.
Children in Year 1 (Key Stage 1) follow the National Curriculum which consists of three core subjects – English, Mathematics and Science and eight other foundation subjects – Computing, History, Geography, Design Technology, Art & Design, Music, Physical Education and Religious Education. The development of skills in Personal, Social, Health Education and Citizenship underpins our school curriculum.
At Pinewood we teach these subjects through half termly topics, where subjects interrelate with one another. The topics at Pinewood all begin with a ‘Wow’ start. These are designed to introduce the new topic and motivate the children about what they are learning. Planned progression leads up to a ‘Quality Outcome’ at the end of our topic, which is often decided by the children as to the form of media this will take and the intended audience. This provides the opportunity for the children to communicate their learning to others and feel a sense of achievement.
These topics are delivered through an approach that aims to develop the skills for learning. The thinking skills we promote are – enquiry, information processing, reasoning, creative thinking and evaluation.
Some core aspects of learning are taught separately on a daily basis e.g. phonics, guided reading and maths sessions.
In addition to this, the children will experience additional ‘focus weeks’ to enhance the curriculum and provide further experiences.
The National Curriculum consists of three Core subjects – English, Mathematics and Science, and seven Foundation subjects of Art and Design, Computing, Design and Technology, Geography, History, Music and Physical Education, Religious Education is also a compulsory subject but different local authorities have their own syllabus so it is not part of the National Curriculum.
At Pinewood we use the ‘ELS scheme to teach and learn phonics. This focuses on learning the sounds that letters make when on their own and when in grouped together as digraphs or trigraphs. It incorporates how to blend sounds together in order to read words and how to segment sounds in order to write words.
Our early reading books focus on phonics and decoding that is linked to the phonics they are learning. As the children pass the phonic screening and become more confident in decoding, they also take home colour band books, that are made up of a variety of different schemes. This enables the children to develop tastes in reading books at the same time as developing the skills of decoding texts and comprehending them.
PSHE and Citizenship is integrated into our curriculum to ensure children are prepared for life in modern day Britain. We follow SCARF themes aiming to ensure children develop their social and emotional aspects of learning. We have a strong focus on Me and my relationships, Valuing difference, Keeping myself safe, Rights and responsibilities, Being my best, Growing and changing.
