Dear Parents, Guardians and Children,

Welcome to Elstar Class, I am very excited to kick off the year getting to know you all and starting our learning journey together in year 1.

Outlined below is what we will be learning in the autumn term.

English

We are going to start off our English topic recounting all the wonderful things we have gotten up to in the summer holidays. Followed on from this we will be exploring ‘Handa’s Surprise’ by Eileen Browne and ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ by Michael Rosen. We will be focussing on learning about stories from other cultures, labels, lists and captions.

Maths

In maths this term our topic is all about numbers to 10. We will be focussing on recognising numbers, counting, comparing, adding and subtracting.

Phonics

We will be doing daily phonics for 30 minutes every day and this will increase to 1 hour daily sessions over the course of the term. Phonics is the most effective way of teaching children to learn to read.  By providing them with the skills to tackle new words they can become fluent readers.

Reading

Children should be reading at home every day for at least 10 minutes and ensure they get their recording record signed. Children should bring their reading records into school every so a child is able to listen them read. Books will be changed on Tuesdays and Fridays, if the reading record has not been signed at least twice the book will not be changed.

Science

This autumn term we will start our science topic focussing on weather and seasons and will be moving onto materials.

PE

Children will be having 2 PE sessions each week on Monday and Thursday.

 On PE days the children are expected to come to school in the following NOT UNIFORM:

• Bottle green shorts
• Red Pippins t-shirt
• Trainers
• Socks (if children wear tights regularly) 
• Black/Grey/Navy jogging bottoms
• Sweat band (if needed to cover a religious bracelet)

Please make sure that children are not wearing any jewellery on PE days apart from for religious reasons. 

Homework

The children will be receiving their homework on a Friday and will be expected back in the following Wednesday. Alongside their homework, the children will be bringing home spellings each week to practice (in the next coming weeks), this book will be kept at home and will be brought in for the spelling test only. 

The children have all settled in well and we can’t wait to do lots of learning this term.

As always, if you have any problems or questions, please send me an email at znasir@pippins.slough.sch.uk  

Miss Nasir