Year 1 2025 - 2026
Welcome to the Year 1 Homepage
The Year 1 team is Mrs Argent-Belcher (Monday - Thursday) and Mrs Bailey (Friday)
Miss Franklin and Mrs A Davies will also be supporting the children throughout the week.
What the children can expect in year 1:
The autumn term of year one builds on the fabulous experiences they have had in the Early Years, providing opportunities for teacher-led learning as well as engagement in self-led learning activities with their peers both indoors and outdoors. This ensures that the children continue to learn the social skills needed to work collaboratively, as well as developing their independence skills.
During this year the children will build on their phonic knowledge alongside a range of other reading strategies on their journey towards becoming an independent reader and they will develop the basic skills required in writing and maths to ensure they have strong foundations in place for their learning journey.
As the year progresses, the children will develop their independence by moving from working in groups to a whole class approach which supports their transition into Year 2.
P.E. lessons will take place on Tuesdays (gymnastics) and on Fridays, (athletics) so please come to school dressed in your PE kits.
Guided Reading books will be read three times in school over Monday-Wednesday and go home on the Wednesday. Please aim to read this with your child a further two times before returning it the following Monday.
Autumn Term 1
In English we will be starting a book in Autumn 1, called Lost and Found.
We will be using spaces between words, combining words to make sentences and begin to use capital letters and full stops. We have a beautifully illustrated picture book by Oliver Jeffers to create a real purpose for writing and support children's enjoyment of reading and writing.
Each day the children are read at least one story, and often poetry. Regular exposure to rhyme and narrative improves memory, vocabulary, concentration, emotional intelligence, grammar structures and phonetic awareness: these lay an excellent foundation for reading and writing. Please do read books at home- we are passionate about this!
In Maths we will start by looking at numbers to 10, including comparing numbersmof objects, ordering, making number bonds, adding by counting on and addition to 10 . We follow the Maths No Problem scheme, using concrete objects to first make it, then journaling with a draw it, write it, explain it approach.
We are looking forward to learning about toys past and present in our history topic this term. We start with what the children know – what they like to play with themselves, what they have seen those younger and older than them playing with and then we extend this to explore what their parents, grandparents, school staff etc played with.
We gather information from a range of sources to help us compare old and new objects including looking at examples of toys (real items and images), books, using the internet and talking to each other and adults in our family and in school. Through this we get a greater understanding of what is the same and what is different about toys the children play with today and those that older generations played with. This topic is usually very popular with our Year 1’s!
To start off our topic we are inviting our Year 1 children on Wednesday 16th September to bring into school a toy that they enjoy playing with (not their most precious toy in case it gets lost or broken and not one that is valuable). They will have the opportunity on that day to tell us about it – what it does, how it works, what they like best about it, where they got it from etc. Please support your child in preparing them for this. It would be helpful for them to practice what they will say at home to increase their confidence. We will encourage and reassure them as they do this.
If you would prefer to send in a photograph of the toy your child can bring the photograph in, or you can email it to the year one team (rachel.argentbelcher@oldfield.cheshire.sch.uk) and we will display the photograph on the classroom screen as the children share on the 16th.
To support the children in getting a greater understanding of toys from the past, we would warmly welcome any parents / grandparents/ aunties/uncles to talk to the class about what they enjoyed playing with when they were younger. You would be welcome to come into school on Wednesdat 23rd or 30th September in the afternoon. Alternatively, if you would like to share with the class but are unable to attend in person on those afternoons, you may like to film yourself talking about the toy / s that you played with when you were younger. If you email the clip to the year one team, we will share them with the class. We will be sending home a survey with the children to ask questions about toys that their older family members may remember playing with.
Please get in touch if you would be interested in supporting us with this and we can chat about it further. Your support would be really appreciated, the children learn so much from hearing people talking about their own experiences and being able to ask questions, it really helps to bring our learning to life.
In RE we will be exploring the question: What does it mean to belong? and later in the term exploring why and how Christmas is celebrated by Christians.
In Computing we will be exploring technology all around us.
In Science this term we will continue to look at Identifying Materials. We will consider their properties and best uses. The children will learn to compaare and group materials.
We will go on weekly walks to observe the signs of summer, including the many late Spring bulbs we planted in December.
We hope to celebrate our new knowledge about animals with a trip to Chester Zoo on Tuesday 2nd June.
Our Art Topic is self-portraits. We will look at the work of different artists and copy their style to create different self-portraits. We will look at Edward Ofosu, Julian Opie and Frieda Kahlo. They will learn to collage as well as sketch using light, short strokes with a carefully chosen pencil and paint colour.
In Geography we will be looking at the four seasons, exploring the months in each season and the weather patterns.
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Over the year, we will be working through the My Happy Mind modules. This term, we extend the work started in Reception, with the modules: Meet the Brain and Celebrate.
Meet the Brain module - this module introduces children to how their brains work and why caring for them is essential.
Key Concepts:
- The brain helps us with many jobs—thinking, feeling, learning, and decision-making.
- Looking after our brain helps us be our best selves.
- When we learn something new, our brain remembers it for next time—this supports a growth mindset.
Children meet characters like Berty and Betty who explain brain functions in a fun, relatable way.
We explore different breathing strategies to develop mindful techniques, all of which help children to manage their emotional states and care for their brain. We link this directly to our emotion coaching work using the Zones of Regulation approach. Each week we will be practising different strategies to develop our own toolbox of ways that help us.
We will start by recapping on some strategies we used last year, including Tunnel Breathing, wall pushes, counting colours, having a drink / snack and drawing / colouring.
Throughout the week we build in reflection time to appreciate how our brains helped us during the day.
Celebrate module - this module focuses on helping children discover and appreciate their unique character strengths.
Key Concepts:
- Every child has special traits that make them who they are.
- Recognising and celebrating these strengths builds self-esteem and confidence.
- Children learn to value their individuality and the strengths of others.
This module helps to build a positive self-image, feel more confident in ourselves, encourages children to be proud of who they are and lays the foundation for empathy and appreciation of diversity.
We look to build this into our school day by pointing out children’s strengths in everyday situations and encouraging them to talk about what makes them feel proud.
In music this term, children will be developing their musical knowledge and creativity through singing, movement, and rhythm games. They will learn some songs by heart, understand what each song is about, and begin to recognise the sounds and names of different instruments. Through activities like dancing, marching, and pretending to be animals or pop stars, children will explore how music makes them feel and how they can express themselves through movement. They’ll also discover that music has a steady pulse, like a heartbeat, and learn to create rhythms using words, such as their names, favourite foods, and animals.
