Week Beginning 9th February 2026

We have had a fantastically busy week in Year 1! We welcomed Bex from Frogs Drama on Tuesday and the children loved immersing themselves into the life and travels of Amy Johnson- thank you Bex for a great day!

This week the children wrote some beautiful poems about themselves based on the book, 'I Am Nefertiti' by Annemarie Anang. We talked about ways to speak positively about ourselves and how this can help us when we are not feeling confident or have worries, just like Nefertiti in the story. We are so proud of all of their work- look out for it on the St James' Writing Blog soon!

Next week is another busy week in school with lots going on. On Wednesday afternoon, the children in Stour class will be taking part in BCP's STEPS scheme to educate children on road awareness. A huge thank you to all of our volunteers who have helped so far. We have our whole school golden token reward, a planetarium visit in the church- how exciting! 

Next week is also Children's Mental Health Week as well as Safer Internet Day. These are both very important causes and we will be completing lots of activities throughout the week to inform the children about these important subjects. 

Worship- Our worship theme this week is: Love

English - The children will be exploring poetry and we will be writing a shared poem. 

Phonics - Next week, the children will learn the sound 'ea' making the /e/ sound like in 'bread' and 'head'. 

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

Maths - The children will be exploring counting in multiples of 10.

RE - We will be consolidating our knowledge of how Christians and Hindus use water as a precious symbol. 

History- We will be thinking about how air travel has changed from the past to the present. 

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