Week Beginning 19th January 2026

The children have had a great week of learning in Year 1. This week, we have been finding out about Amy Johnson, a famous explorer who broke many records for flying all around the world in her trusty Gipsy-Moth plane, Jason. The children loved finding out about her life and what she achieved. We've also been learning about another famous explorer, Paddington Bear! The children have been using adjectives to describe parts of Paddington stories and next week, they will be having a go at writing sentences from our key text, 'Paddington at the Palace'. 

Our Phonics Workshop for parents will be on 20th January at 2pm. This will be an opportunity to understand strategies and techniques to support your children at home. Please see the Parent Mail that was recently sent out and let the office know if you can attend. We hope to see lots of you there.

English - The children will write sentences to imitate the story of, 'Paddington at the Palace'.

Phonics - There are 2 new sounds next week, 'g' saying /j/ and 'wh' saying /w/.

The parent information sheet can be found here: Parent Information Sheet

Maths - The children will be continuing to work on using addition and subtraction to solve problems. They will work practically and use pictorial models to support their learning.

Geography – The children will learn more about the seven continents and their characteristics. 

Art - We will be practising our sculpture skills using pipe cleaners and foil inspired by the work of artist, Anthony Gormley.

Home Learning:

My Maths, Numbots and Twinkl Phonics App log ins are stuck into the front of your child's Reading Record.  Please speak to your child's teacher if you need any support with any of these platforms.

Additional help with reading/phonics:

If you are wondering how you can provide general support for your child at home, our advice is to hear them read as often as possible. Please do not worry if your child brings home the same book from time to time- this is to gain confidence and fluency before moving onto different sounds in other books.

We also have an excellent link to some high quality texts that you may want to consider when choosing children’s books to read or buy!

Additional Maths:

By the end of Year 1, children are expected to:

• count forwards and backwards in ones to 100
• be able to count in 2s, 5s and 10s
• find one more and one less than a given number up to 100
• recognise the value of all coins
• know number bonds (numbers that add together) to total 10 and 20.

Messages:

It is really important to put children’s names in all their clothes, on packed lunch boxes, water bottles, coats etc- otherwise they do not go home with the correct child. We already have some unclaimed and unnamed items from this week. If you could all check that all items are named, we would really appreciate it. 

Please could water bottles be placed into a plastic bag in their school bag to protect school reading books. All water bottles must only contain water and NOT squash please. 

Please note, our fruit at school is delivered on a Monday, but sometimes later in the day. Please could you provide your child with a snack on a Monday to avoid them getting hungry if our fruit has not been delivered. 

Key Information and Dates:

Please wear PE kits on a Thursday.

Thank you for your continued support.

Have a great weekend!

Mr Parsons and Mrs Stoodley