Year 1 2026 - 2027

Welcome to Year One!

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

 Mr Ellis (Class Teacher), Miss Wilding and Mrs Aziz (Teaching Assistants) and Max the Puppy (Class Mascot)

Thank you for visiting our webpage. This is a place where you might 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 Autumn Term in Year One, especially to those learners and their families who are new to our school. This term we will be working (and playing) to establish some of the important routines that we'll be following for the rest of the year. Our phonics groups will be happening every morning and we will also have daily English lessons where we are looking forward to exploring two lovely picture books: Naughty Bus by Jan and Jerry Oke and I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen. Our daily maths lessons will initially focus on place value before moving on to cover addition and subtraction and geometry later in the term. Our Geography topic for the next few weeks will be 'What is it like here?', and will involve us investigating and learning vocabilary to describe the area around our school. In our Science lessons we will be thinking about the changing seasons and researching some of the ways that Autumn contrasts with both Summer and Winter. Our RE lessons will initially focus on some of the beliefs that are important to christians, before moving on later in the term to look at important festivals and celebrations that happen across a variety of faiths. The children have been very excited indeed to start their computing lessons, and have already begun learning some of the basic vocabulary related to the machines themselves as well as looking at how to use them safely and resposibly. Our main PE topic this term is gymnastics. In Art we will be learning about the process of using charcoal, and in DT (Design and Technology) will be learning how to create mechanisms using levers and sliders. Our music lessons will initially be based around songs and opportunities to play instruments from our music scheme Charanga, but later in the term we will be using our music time to learn (and perform!) songs for our festive performance in December. We also have an exciting new PSHE scheme this year which will begin by looking at friendships. 

You can find out more about what we will be learning across the coming year on the curriculum map which you should be able to open at the bottom of this page.

Year One Key Information

Start and End of the day

Mr Ellis or Ms Wilding will be at the classroom door ready to receive children from 8:40 am when the bell goes until 8:50 am. If you arrive after 8:50 am please report to the school office on arrival. Chidlren will be 'registered' there and brought to our classroom by a member of staff.  At the end of the day children are collected from the same classroom door at 3:20pm. It is important that the class teacher knows any adults who will be picking up your child so we can ensure they leave with the appropriate person. If there are any changes to picking up arrangements please let the school office know before 3pm. 

Water and Healthy Snacks

Children should bring in a healthy snack from home to enjoy at morning playtime. Fruit, cereal bars, yoghurt tubes and cheese dippers are popular choices. We discourage chocolate biscuits, crisps, sweets and fizzy drinks. During afternoon playtime children are offered a free piece of fruit.

Weekly Timetable

Tuesday: PE session with Mr Ellis
Wednesday: Homework due in and return phonics books
Thursday: PE with sports coach, homework and new phonics books sent out 
Friday: Borrowing books from class library and Forest School afternoon

All classes take part in weekly PE sessions of gymnastics/dance/games as timetabled. In Year One children are expected to change into their PE kits; Mersey Vale kits are available - t-shirt, shorts and PE bag - but 'unofficial' kit is of course absolutely fine. Children should also ideally have navy jogging bottoms and sweatshirts for cold weather sessions. Please ensure all items of clothing have your child’s name in. Most parents/carers seem to find it most useful to bring PE kits into school and leave them until half term when we will send them home to be washed, but you are obviously very welcome to bring and take them more frequently should you prefer. The children will be working on their Forest School session on Friday afternoons so will need to bring a pair of wellies and appropriate clothing every Friday.

Class Dojo

Updates about what’s going on in class, particularly related to specific children and their achievements, are 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 or send them as a private message for us to share on our big screen in class. Most parents 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 Thursday to be handed back in their folders by the following Wednesday. Additional homework projects, sometimes just for our class but also occasionally for the whole school, may also 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!