Year 1 2022 - 2023

Welcome to Year One!

A very warm welcome from the Year One class team at Mersey Vale Primary School

 Mrs Edwards - Class Teacher (Monday - Thursday)

Ms Varetto - Class Teacher (Friday)

Miss Hoey - Teaching Assistant

Miss Jilani - Teaching Assistant

Thank you for visiting our webpage. This is a good place to find...

• class news
• pictures of things we have done
• examples of work we are proud of
• class display work
• homework information
• key sounds and words to practice at home
• class and school events   
• links to interesting websites we have enjoyed in class 

            ....and lots more

Curriculum information

Welcome to the second half of our Spring term. This half term we will be following the Literary Curriculum in our English work, studying the book The Odd Egg by Emily Gravett. We will be focusing on thought and speech bubbles, diary entries, writing letters, writing non-fiction reports and creating certificates. In maths we will be studying through our White Rose scheme, focusing on number place value 20 - 50, and measurements; length, height, weight and volume. Our phonics sessions will continue daily, with children working through the Read Write Inc scheme on set 1, 2 and 3 sounds. Learning new sounds and using their phonic knowledge to read and write words containing these sounds. The children also take part in daily guided reading sessions and should continue reading their books at home regularly. In science our new topic will be plants; looking at different parts of a plant and planting seeds and bulbs when the weather improves. In history we will be focused on changes in living memory; houses, toys, familes and technologies. In RE we will be looking at how and why we celebrate special times; linking into the start of Ramadan. In PE we will be practising our sports skills with Coach Reece. We have exciting topics for computing and music, as well as learning about our feelings and emotions in PSHE. In art we will be drawing spirals using different materials and in DT we will be looking at food and nutrition.

Year One Key Information

Start and End of the day

Mrs Edwards or Ms Varetto will be at the classroom door ready to receive children from 8.45 am when the bell goes until 8:55 am. If children arrive after 8:55 am then you should take your child and report to the school office on arrival. At the end of the day children are collected from the classroom door at 3:15pm. It is important that the class teacher knows the adult who will be picking up your child so we can ensure they leave with the appropriate adult. If there are any changes to picking up arrangements please let the school office know before 3pm. 

Water and Healthy Snacks

At Mersey Vale we have a system of healthy snacks for children to enjoy at morning break. The price of snacks is 25p per item and this should be paid using Parentpay. Most children have two items each day (snack and drink) and this costs £2.50 per week. The cost of snacks for this half term for those of you who prefer to pay it in full in advance is £18.50. Children who prefer to bring their own snack may bring healthy items but chocolate biscuits, crisps, sweets and fizzy drinks must not be brought as snacks. Snacks from home should be taken into class and stored in the class snack tray until playtime. Please help your child to make healthy choices.

P.E and Forest School

All classes take part in weekly PE sessions of gymnastics/dance/games as timetabled. Children are expected to change into their PE kit; Mersey Vale kit is available - t-shirt, shorts and PE bag. Children should also have navy jogging bottoms and sweatshirt in cold weather. A special hooded sweatshirt with the school logo is available and costs approximately £12.25 depending on the size. Please speak to the school office for more information about how any of these items can be ordered. Please ensure all items of clothing have your child’s name in. We find it most useful for children to bring PE kits into school on Monday and leave them in school until Friday. The children will be doing their Forest School session on a Thursday afternoon so will need a pair of wellies brought into school every Thursday, or if you have spares at home they can be left on their pegs.

Class Dojo

Updates about what’s going on in class, particularly related to specific children and their achievements, are also often shared through the Class Dojo website/app. We also love hearing about your exciting news so please keep adding photographs etc to your child's portfolio. Most parents in the class are already signed up to this and are hopefully finding it useful, but please let me know if you’re having any problems with this when you collect your child and I’ll be glad to support you in getting set up. Click here for the Class Dojo login page

Homework

Homework is given to all children in line with our Homework Policy. Homework is given out each Wednesday to be handed back in their folders each Tuesday. A weekly overview of what we’ve done that week will be on Classdojo. Additional homework projects, whole school, may be set from time to time and these will be outlined on the ClassDojo website.

Useful Apps and Online Resources

There are dozens of great apps that we use in school. Here’s a short list of a few of the most commonly used apps in Year One:

Oxford Owl  - Click here for online e-books for all ages - Oxford Owl

BBC bitesize maths games

For fun maths games visit BBC bitesize

Island Chase - Subtraction Race

How quickly can you solve subtraction problems? Use your fingers, counting cubes or a number line to work out the answers to these problems. Be quick or your speedboat will fall behind in the race!

Partitioning Fun! 

Can you partition these numbers and add them back together to help splat the ogre? Remember: go for level 1 to begin!

Subtraction Game

Have a go at this fun to test your subtraction skills. Remember: try 'within 5' if you're fin

Phonics play games - for reading key words

We use this game in school to read and recognise key (CVC) words, and match it to the picture shown. Have a go at home!

Splat square! - for counting and recognising numbers

The children use this splat square to count and recognise numbers. Have a go at home!

Espresso maths games - counting, adding and subtracting

These are just some of the maths games we play in class. The children know how to count the actions, objects or sounds. Some of the harder games are adding or subtracting numbers. Have a go at home!