Welcome to 1D's class page!
In 1D your class teacher is Miss Dickinson. Mrs Lister and Mrs Head also work in 1D. We are super excited to welcome you into our Year One family. It is a fun and sparkly place to be and we are going to have an awesome year in school! We can't wait!
In 1D we love to make learning exciting and fun. It is a massive step moving into Year One after learning in Reception. We are all here to make that step as happy and easy as possible. We are always here to help and support all the children and their parents/carers in our class. Please come and speak to us if you ever have any questions, concerns or worries.
School Council
At Blakehill, we have a school council. We will vote for a class councilor to represent our class and share our class ideas at school council meetings. Joshua was voted by his peers to be our class councilor this year.
Coming to school in the morning
School begins at 8.45am every morning. It is really important that children arrive on time as learning begins straight away. We make the most of every moment in school and so being at school on time is really important.
When you leave your child with us at the door, they will come in, hang up their coat and empty their own book bag. We try to encourage children in Year One to be as independent as possible. If they have a water bottle or fruit snack we ask them to leave it in their own pigeon hole above their peg. If they have a PE kit or lunch box this will also be left on their peg. I know it is really tempting to help them (especially in the first few weeks) but they can do this on their own with just a few verbal reminders. They then come straight through into the classroom and will complete a morning activity before joining me on the carpet for register and morning exercises.
Leaving School at the end of the day
1D finishes school at 3.15pm each day. We begin to get children ready for home time at 3pm. At this time children will collect their own book bag, water bottle and coat. We will then finish our day with a story. At the start of the year it might take us some time to get to know you all so please be patient with us. We want to make sure that all children get safely to the correct parents. Hopefully we will get faster as the year goes on.
PE
Children in 1D do PE lessons every Tuesday and every Thursday. They no longer need to come to school dressed for PE. Please can you ensure that they have their PE kit now in school for these days. Their kit needs to be hung on their peg whilst they are in school and should be clearly named as they can easily get muddled when the children are changing. Children need to have an outdoor and indoor PE kit in school. In winter we will still be having some PE lessons outside unless the weather is unsafe. It can be quite cold out their so an outdoor PE kit is really important.
Homework Projects
We will be encouraging children to continue their learning from school at home with you. Every Half term we will be asking you to work together at home with your child to complete your own project linked with the learning that we are doing in class. For our first half term we will be learning about 'ourselves' in science. We would like you to complete a project of the same title at home.
I am hoping that you will be able to be creative with your learning. It can be written work although I would love to see some alternative ideas. Maybe you could try making a model, drawing, painting, making your own movie. Perhaps you have a better idea? I'm so excited to see what you can create.
Word Mountains
In Year One children complete weekly word mountain challenges. Each word mountain shows a set of spellings for your child to learn. Every Friday children in Year One are tested on their word mountain.
If they spell each word correctly they will move on to the next word mountain.
Please can you help your child by practising their word mountain spellings at home each week so that they are confident to have a go on Friday.
High Frequency Words
Children will be given a set of high frequency words in an envelope to practise at home. These are words they need to be able to read on sight. They should not need to sound these words out. If they accurately read the full set when tested at school they will then move up to the next set. If your child completes all the given high frequency words then they will be given an alternative weekly home challenge to complete. Children will be given a weekly test day for high frequency words. These will be tested by Mrs Lister.
KIRFs
KIRFs stands for Key Instant Recall Facts. We do these in maths lessons. Usually we practise them at the the beginning of a lesson. Each half term children will be given a KIRF to focus on. We will send home sheets to support you to practise this KIRF at home. At the end of the half term we will test each child to assess their understanding and confidence.
Snacks and Drinks
We encourage all children to bring a named water bottle to school each day. School is a busy place and your child uses a lot of energy. We find that children are often thirsty. It is helpful if every child has their own named water bottle which they will be able to access between lessons and during break times. Please can you ensure that the bottle is only filled with plain water. We do not allow juice or flavoured water in water bottles in school.
Fruit is available daily for children to select during their morning break. The type of fruit varies from day to day. We encourage children to self select this and support them to peal bananas and oranges if they still struggle to do this independently. If you prefer to send in a snack for your child at break then this is absolutely fine. We allow a healthy fruit snack or cereal bar to be sent in from home. Please do not send crisps, biscuits, chocolate based bars/ snacks etc.
Uniform
At Blakehill we ask that all children come to school wearing the correct uniform daily. In colder weather remember that children will still play outside. This means that they will need a warm, waterproof coat to protect them against the elements. If it is snowy or icy it would be sensible to send children with a pair of wellies to change into for when they are outside. In very cold weather please send your child with a warm hat and gloves too.
When the weather is hot we ask that all children have sun cream applied before school and bring a suitable sun hat for play time.
Reading Cafe
In Year One we have a morning Reading Café on Thursday morning at 8.30 am until 8.45 am. This is an opportunity for you to come into school with your child and spend some time reading with them in the classroom. The Reading Café will not take place in the first few weeks of school. We will let you know when the Reading Cafe will begin.