Shillington and Stondon Federation

Year 1 - Puffins

Welcome to Year 1 and Puffins Class

Hi, welcome to Puffins class, I am Miss Ralevic and I am the Puffins class teacher. We are also very lucky to have the additional support in class from Mrs Addy, Mrs Vye and Miss Fox as 1:1 Teaching assistants. We work really hard in all of our learning and enjoy and celebrate our achievements with each other. We learn that it’s ok to make mistakes and that we should always keep trying. We have the same 3 rules throughout the school which makes it easy for us to follow. They are: ‘Keep safe’, ‘Use your values’ and ‘Be the best that you can be’. We learn about and practise these rules every day.

Our Daily Routine

In Year 1, we begin the year continuing the practices of Early Years to deliver the Year 1 curriculum. This is to ease transition and make it as seamless as possible. As the year progresses, we slowly introduce more table learning and less continuous provision so that by the end of the year, they will be ready to transition into Year 2. We use our outdoor space as an extension to our learning environment as much as we can. Phonics and English currently take place in the morning, then we have Maths and other foundation subjects in the afternoons. Formal learning sessions are punctuated with continuous, enhanced and linked provision where learning can be extended in a variety of ways.

Key skills are important

Our daily teaching of the core subjects build on children’s skills throughout the year and they are also applied in a cross curricular approach. We focus on reading a great deal in Year 1 and make sure we squeeze in any opportunity to read where we can! We apply our Phonics to help us read and spell multiple times throughout the day and love reading to the adults in our class. We encourage children to read daily at home and to practise their phonics and number bonds.

We believe in the power of a Growth mindset

In the class we celebrate making mistakes as the children know that mistakes are the key to success. If children get stuck they use their Growth mindset to try and solve the issue and not give up. A key phase we use in school is I can’t do it…yet! Children learn the importance of perseverance and determination. We try hard to develop resilient children.

Our Year Ahead

Year 1 have phonics screening towards the end of May where they are tested to check their reading skills with real and made up words.

Please follow the link for a practise sheet: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/ government/uploads/system/uploads/ attachment_data/file/809990/2019_phonics_practice_sheet

How we keep our bodies and mind fit and healthy

Year 1s are very active and any opportunity we have, we will use to jump around and dance. We have 2 hours of PE a week and have lots of movement breaks throughout the day, in addition to our play times. To keep our mind healthy, every day after lunch we take part in 15 minutes of mindfulness activities. This can include a range of activities such as yoga, meditation, and colouring.