Sparrows
Welcome to Sparrows Class! We are Year 1 and we love learning, exploring, and discovering new things every day. We enjoy finding out about the world around us through hands on activities. Here, you can find out more about our class and all the wonderful things we will be learning throughout the year. If you have any questions, please let us know!
Class Teacher
Miss Davies
PPA Teacher
Miss Moore
Teaching Assistants
Mrs Donaldson
Class Teacher
Miss Davies
PPA Teacher
Miss Moore
Teaching Assistants
Mrs Donaldson
Sparrows
Welcome to Sparrows Class! We are Year 1 and we love learning, exploring, and discovering new things every day. We enjoy finding out about the world around us through hands on activities. Here, you can find out more about our class and all the wonderful things we will be learning throughout the year. If you have any questions, please let us know!
Class Teacher
Miss Davies
PPA Teacher
Miss Moore
Teaching Assistants
Mrs Donaldson
Class Teacher
Miss Davies
PPA Teacher
Miss Moore
Teaching Assistants
Mrs Donaldson
In Sparrows Class, we follow the National Curriculum for Key Stage 1 and provide a broad, balanced, and engaging curriculum that supports the development of every child. We believe that children learn best when they are actively involved in their learning, so we aim to make lessons as practical, meaningful, and hands-on as possible. Through exploration, discussion, investigation, and real-life experiences, we help children develop their knowledge, skills, and confidence across all areas of the curriculum.
We are committed to creating a nurturing and inclusive learning environment where every child feels valued, challenged, and supported. We encourage curiosity, creativity, resilience, and independence, helping children to become enthusiastic learners who enjoy discovering more about the world around them. Our goal is for every child to flourish academically, socially, and emotionally during their time in Year 1.
Class information
PE days
Tuesday and Wednesday
Book of the term
The Tiger Who Came to Tea
PSHE focus
Me and My Relationships
What we're learning this term
Art
In art this term, we will be looking at self-portraits inspired by Picasso. We will learn about the artist and use what we discover to create our own portraits of ourselves.
Computing
In computing this term, we will be exploring and using Purple Mash, our computing scheme of work, to learn how to stay safe online. Children can access Purple Mash at home if they wish.
English
In English this term, our key texts are The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr and The Suitcase by Chris Naylor-Ballesteros. During these units, we will be exploring setting, character and plot. Our grammar focus this term is capital letters and full stops.
Handwriting and Phonics
We will have daily phonics and handwriting lessons, where children will continue learning new sounds and practise accurate and precise letter formation, following the Read Write Inc Letter Village lessons. Your child will be given a new phonics book to read at home every week.
Mathematics
In maths this term, we will be covering counting to 10, counting objects to 10 and counting to zero, comparing numbers of objects, ordering numbers, comparing numbers, making and adding number bonds, adding by counting on, and making number stories.
RE
In RE, we will investigate the key question ‘Who made the world?’. We will look at how wonderful the natural world is and how we should look after it, explore the Christian creation story and Harvest Festival, and think about being thankful for what we have.
PE
This term, our focus will be personal development and dance. We will develop fundamental movement skills for balance, coordination and control, learn to navigate space and change direction and speed safely, and explore the movements of dance, including simple sequences, repeating patterns, musicality and artistry.
PSHE
Our focus this term is ‘Me and My Relationships’. In this unit, we will look at why we have classroom rules, how we show we are listening, feelings, how feelings can affect our bodies, and friendship.
Science
We will explore materials through five key questions: What is the difference between an object and a material? What are the properties of different materials? Which materials are man-made and which are natural? Does it matter which materials we use? Which would make the best shelter for a teddy?
Phonics at Staverton
We teach phonics using Read Write Inc, a systematic, synthetic programme. In EYFS, Year 1 and into Year 2, daily reading sessions are based around the Read, Write Inc programme. Sessions begin short – around 10 to 15 minutes – and build up gradually to 45 to 50 minutes as children progress.
This promotes pupils' phonics knowledge and decoding at word level, developing reading fluency, and using the alphabetic code to encode for spelling. Children engage in reading a variety of Read Write Inc phonic books matched to the progression on a one-to-one basis. Comprehension and reading for pleasure are developed through reading a whole-class book on a daily basis.
Through this, children learn to:
- Decode letter-sound correspondences quickly and effortlessly, using their phonic knowledge and skills
- Read common exception words on sight
- Understand what they read
- Read aloud with fluency and expression
- Write confidently, with a strong focus on vocabulary and grammar
- Spell quickly and easily by segmenting the sounds in words
- Acquire good handwriting
Once children complete the Read Write Inc Phonics programme, they are taught reading through whole-class guided reading sessions. As part of guided reading, children are also taught spelling using the Read Write Inc Spelling programme.
Find out more about our approach to phonics on our Reading page.
Targeted academic support
We use Read Write Inc to regularly assess children's progress in phonics. Sometimes it's necessary to provide extra support for children with word reading. For this, we use 1:1 tutoring to ensure all children are able to read fluently using recall of their phonic knowledge. Teachers ensure that children at risk of underachievement have daily one-to-one reading, which is carefully tracked.
