Welcome to Year 1

1R - Mrs Rowley

1SL - Mrs Samrai (M,T) and Mrs Littlewood (W,Th, F) 

Important Information

Important messages will be communicated via the app so please make sure you are checking there regularly. Please don't hesitate to contact your teacher either in person or via email admin@didsburyroad.stockport.sch.uk if you have any questions or concerns.

Books

Children will bring home a library book, home reader (Autumn term only), levelled reading book (scheme book) and a Monster Phonics book. Please sign and comment in their reading records whenever they read at home as this will help us to monitor children's progress. If you do not have a yellow reading record please ask in the office for a new one. 

Scheme books will be changed on a Monday.

Monster Phonics books will be collected in on a Monday and your child will be given a new book on a Wednesday.

Home Readers (Autumn term only) will be changed on a Monday.

Library books will be changed on a Monday.

PE

On PE days, please send your child to school in their PE kit. They will wear their PE kit all day instead of school uniform.

PE days for Autumn term are:

1R - Thursday and Friday

1SL - Tuesday and Thursday

Please ensure your child comes into school wearing the correct PE kit on these days.

Navy or black shorts/leggings/joggers, white or house colour T-shirt and a black or navy sweatshirt. 

Please no logos or branded items. 

PHONICS

Your child will learn phonics daily in the classroom and we want you to continue to practise their phonics learning at home.

Here are some easy online resources to play at home with your child.

Most of the games can be accessed on a phone, tablet or computer and each website has a few free options without having to subscribe.

If given the option, focus on phase 3 and 5 (digraphs, trigraphs and split digraphs).

Monster Phonics handwriting formation: https://youtu.be/_6h3lBZcY80

Pure Sounds: https://youtu.be/oJGDN5p-Kvg

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/english-games/5-7-years/letters-and-sounds

https://www.phonicsbloom.com/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zdt6rmn/articles/zncgvk7 - move across the map to a spelling game that will help your child build words using their phonics.

Alphablocks and other phonics videos are another great way to consonlidate and repeat learning.

Thank you to those parents who come to our recent phonics evening; we hope you found it useful. Here are the PowerPoint slides. If you have any questions about how to support your child with phonics, please do not hesitate to contact their class teacher.

Phonics Screening Check Support

The Phonics Screening Check commences the week after our half term in May/June.

Your child will be asked to read 40 words with their teacher. Half of the words are real and half of the words are nonsense/fake words made from sounds they have been learning in class.

We encourage the children to sound out (segment) every word and then blend the sounds together to say the word.

For example:

train = t-r-ai-n - train

or a fake word 

phoap = ph-oa-p - phoap

They will still get the word correct if they sound it out before blending it.

Sounds you can focus on are:

ar (car)

ur, ir, er (fur girl, hammer)

ew, ue (screw, glue)

ou, ow (out, cow)

au, aw, (haunt, saw)

ie (pie, fries)

ure, ear (pure, tear)

a_e, e_e, i_e, o_e, u_e (split digraphs - words usually ending in an e)

Here is a an example of the phonics screening check.

The pass rate is usually around 32/40 but this can change year on year.

Phonics Screening Check 2025

Please access the links above this message for support, play the games we have been sending home and continue to read at home with your child over the two week break! 

If you have any questions or need further support please approach your class teacher.

What are we learning in Autumn 1?

Our first topic is - Magical Me!

• English: We will be focusing on consolidating core writing skills - capital letters, finger spaces and full stops. We will be learning about ourselves, our families, our bodies and what makes us unique. We will read 'Our Class is a Family’, ‘What Makes Me a Me’ and ‘Funny Bones’ and use this to help us write basic sentences based on familiar stories.
• Phonics: We are following the Monster Phonics scheme through daily Phonics lessons. We will also be practising our spelling of common exception and high frequency words, as well as covering the spelling of Year 1 words including numbers, contractions, days, months and colours.

• Maths: This half term we will start with place value to 10. Our next topic is addition and subtraction within 10.Our last topic is Geometry, focusing on 2D and 3D shapes. We will continue to follow the Mastering Number scheme to consolidate the number facts we have learned this year.

• Science: We will be learning all about the human body and our senses.
• Geography: We will be learning about where we live and our presence on a map (our house, our street, our town, our country)
• History: We will be looking at the history of ourselves and stages of human life.
• Art: We will be creating Autumnal art using printing techniques and painting self-portraits.
• PE: In our indoor PE sessions we will be focusing the fundamentals of movement and team building games. Outdoor PE will focus on ball skills. 
• PSHE: We will be learning about friendships.
• RBV (Religion, Beliefs & Values): We will be looking at our focus question 'What does it mean to belong to a faith community'.
• Computing: We will be working on basic computer skills and becoming familiar with an iPad.