Friday 17th April 2026

This week in Year 1, the children have been developing their counting skills in Maths, focusing on counting in 2s and 10s with increasing confidence.

In Geography, they have been learning to locate different places on a map, including identifying where Beijing and London are in the world.

The year group have also been busy rehearsing for their school worship, which will take place on Wednesday 22nd. They are showing great enthusiasm and teamwork during practice. 

Well done to Year 1  for their continued hard work and positive attitude to learning.

Next week : 

Swimming for 1MG 

Thanks for your continued support, 

Year 1 team 

Friday 27th March 2026 

A Wonderful Term of Learning, Fun and Hands‑On Experiences!

What a fantastic Term 4 we have had in Year 1! The children have worked incredibly hard and enjoyed a wide range of exciting, hands‑on learning opportunities. We are so proud of everything they have achieved. 

This term, our history learning focused on Queen Elizabeth II and why she remains such an important figure in British history.
To bring our learning to life, we held a very special Royal Day. The children had a wonderful time dressing up as kings, queens, princes and princesses. Our classroom was filled with crowns, cloaks and sparkling jewels!

A highlight of the day was our royal afternoon tea, where we enjoyed delicious treats and celebrated together. We were also lucky to listen to Mr French, who played on his royal trumpet. The children practised “recalling to the sound of the trumpet”, just like royal guards. It was a magical experience that helped deepen their understanding of royal traditions.

In DT, the children practised their cutting and food‑preparation skills.
They carefully chopped up a selection of fruits to create their very own fruit salads. This activity gave them the chance to:

• develop safe cutting techniques
• explore different textures and tastes
• follow simple step‑by‑step instructions

The classroom was full of fruity smells and even fruit‑related learning. 

This term we have truly indulged in the love of reading.
The children have made fantastic progress in phonics, showing growing confidence in blending, segmenting and applying their knowledge in their reading and writing.

We also celebrated World Book Day, which was a joyful reminder of how much our children love stories. They enjoyed sharing their favourite books, discussing characters and stepping into imaginary worlds. Although we celebrated on one special day, our passion for reading continues every single day in Year 1.

 Friday 20th March 2026 

This week in Year 1 has been full of exciting learning and creativity!

In English, the children have been busy retelling the story The Papaya That Spoke. They used wonderful actions to bring the story to life, showing great enthusiasm and confidence as they performed.

In Maths, we have been exploring mass, capacity, and volume. The children enjoyed hands-on activities, comparing and measuring different objects and liquids to deepen their understanding.

In History, we began learning about Queen Elizabeth II, discovering important facts about her life and why she was such a significant figure.

During P.E., the children practised their balancing skills. They had lots of fun trying to balance a bean bag on their heads—showing great focus and determination!

Home Learning
Children have been given a set of sounds with fun phrases to practise at home. Regularly hearing your child read will greatly support their progress and help them grow in confidence and enjoyment.

Looking Ahead:

• Monday 23rd March – Make the Rules Up! A fun and imaginative day where children will create their own rules and ideas.
• Wednesday 25th March – Ms Williams meets Year 1 (Ms Williams will be job sharing with Mrs Golding, teaching 1MG).
• Thursday 26th March – A Royal Day! Children are invited to dress up as queens, princesses, kings, or princes.
• Friday 27th March – Last day of Term 4. Church service at All Saints (8:45am arrival).

Upcoming Dates:

• Monday 13th April – Ms Williams starts in Year 1. 
• Wednesday 22nd April – Year 1 church service at All Saints.
• Tuesday 28th April – Year 1 school trip to Herstmonceaux Observatory.

Thank you for your continued support. We are very proud of all the children and their hard work this week!

The Year 1 Team

 Friday 13th March 2026 

This week year 1 have been answering the following in Science, "Why do the raisins move up and down in fizzy water? First the children made a prediction regarding what would happen when they put raisins in fizzy water and in still water.  There were some great answers such as 'I think the raisins will go up in the fizzy water', ' I predict that the raisins will go up on the bubbles, then the bubbles will pop when raisins go down' and 'I predict that the raisins will sink in the water because it doesn't have any bubbles'. 

Thursday 5th March 2026
World Book Day 

In Year 1, we had a truly magical World Book Day!

The children stepped into school as though they were entering the pages of a storybook, full of excitement and imagination. Throughout the day, we shared our love of reading by exploring favourite books, telling wonderful stories, and celebrating the characters we adore. The highlight was creating our very own reading crowns, decorated with books and characters that inspire us. One Year 1 child said, “I felt like I was inside my favourite story all day!” It was a joyful day filled with curiosity, creativity, and a wonderful sense of togetherness as we celebrated the magic of reading.

Friday 27th February 2026 

Our Magical Morning at School!

On Tuesday morning, we arrived at school ready for a normal day. But as we hung up our coats, we heard a strange little noise… It wasn’t a sound we recognised at all!

We looked around the classroom, wondering what it could be. Then much to our surprise we discovered a talking papaya! 

Yes, you read that correctly! A papaya… that talks!

It turned out that this cheeky papaya had escaped from our English story, The Talking Papaya! We couldn’t believe our eyes. The children were excited, curious and full of questions. How did it escape? Why did it choose our classroom? And can a papaya really talk?

The children were excited and full of questions, so we spent time learning the new story together, talking about the characters and retelling what happened. We then wrote speech bubbles for the cheeky papaya, imagining all the funny things it might say, which helped us practise using clear sentences and punctuation. Afterwards, we used our senses to explore a real papaya looking at its bright colours, feeling its smooth and sticky textures and  smelling its sweet scent, before using our new sensory vocabulary to describe it. It has been a magical and imaginative week full of storytelling, creativity and laughter.

***Important dates for your Diary***

This term

1MG class will be swimming in week 1,3 and 5

1P class will be swimming in week 2 and 4 

Wednesday 4th March Year 2 Church service- meet us there for registration

Thursday 5th March- World Book Day- come in dressed up 

Monday 8th June- Phonics screening begins 

Friday 13th February 2026

Friday 6th February 2026 

This week, we were delighted to welcome Mrs. Rushman and her wonderful dog, Dolly, for a very special visit. We want to extend a heartfelt thank you to both of them for taking the time to come and spend the morning with us.

The children were completely captivated by Dolly and showed fantastic empathy, care, and gentleness throughout the session. It was truly valuable for them to experience how to approach, interact with, and care for a calm, friendly dog in a nurturing environment.

We  shared a lovely story about a hospital dog, which the children listened to with great interest. This sparked a lively discussion where the children proudly shared their own experiences of having pets at home everything from dogs and cats to hamsters and fish!

Visits like these help the children build confidence, communication skills, and understanding of how to be kind and respectful to animals. We are incredibly grateful to Mrs. Rushman and Dolly for giving us such a meaningful and memorable experience.

Thank you again for making our day so special!

***Dates for your dairy***

Friday 13th- Last day of term- End of term 3

Monday 23rd February- INSET

Tuesday 24th February- back to school- Term 4

Friday 30th January 2026

This week the children in Year 1 have engaged with the traditional tale The Three Billy Goats Gruff with great enthusiasm and enjoyment. They listened attentively to the story and showed strong interest in the characters, particularly discussing the goats and the troll.

At the start of the week the children created a story map to help them understand and remember the key events. Throughout the week its been a delight to hear and see them telling the story in the correct order. In a reading session, the children read simple sentences linked to the story and worked together to add additional information to their pictures. They also wrote what the Big Billy Goat Gruff said. Most children have worked on sequencing the story, ordering events from first to last. This activity supported their understanding of story structure and improved their oral storytelling skills. During the beginning of next week, the children will continue developing their oral storytelling skills using puppets to act out the story. Below is the story map incase your child would like to tell you the story. 

In Science, the children are loving learning about animal groups. This week, they discovered that fish breathe underwater using their gills and will be making shiny fish scales.

Thank you parents for your continued support with your child’s learning. We truly appreciate the time and effort you put into helping your child at home — it makes a real difference.

Regular reading at home is especially important in Year 1 and greatly supports your child’s confidence and progress in reading. We kindly encourage you to read with your child as often as possible and to make use of the Supersonic Phonic Friends newsletters, which provide helpful guidance and reinforce the phonics taught in class.

While we do our best to listen to children read at school, it is not always possible for the class teacher to hear every child read individually each day. We are very grateful for the support of our wonderful volunteers, who help by listening to readers when they are able. However, reading at home remains a vital part of your child’s learning journey.

Thank you once again for your ongoing support and partnership. Together, we can help foster a love of reading and ensure every child continues to thrive.

   Kind regards 

    Year 1 team 

Friday 16th January 2026 

Busy Bees and Brilliant Learning!

This week has been full of excitement as we continued our learning about non‑fiction texts. We explored a range of information books and discovered so many amazing facts about bees! 🐝

To finish off the week, the children wrote their very own honey bee fact files—and they were fantastic!
Did you know that honey bees are the only type of bee that actually makes honey?
Or that they can fly up to 20 miles per hour?
Our class certainly does now!

After completing our most successful week of factual writing so far, we ended with a creative twist: the children made their own bees using junk modelling materials. It was messy, imaginative, and so much fun!

In Science, we explored different animal groups, which not only supported our English learning but also helped the children deepen their understanding of how animals are classified.

What a wonderful week of buzzing creativity, curiosity, and learning! 🌟

Friday 12th December 2025 

What a Fantastic Week at School!

This week has been truly magical! The children were delighted to welcome Santa, who brought joy and laughter to every classroom. After the excitement indoors, we ventured into the forest for a cozy treat—roasting marshmallows over the fire and sharing stories under the winter sky.

Alongside all the festive fun, our learners have been busy in English, creating beautiful acrostic poems that captured the spirit of the season. Their creativity and enthusiasm have been inspiring!

A huge thank you to all our parents for your continued support and encouragement. Your involvement makes these special moments possible, and we are so grateful to share this journey with you.

**Important dates for your Diary***

Tuesday 16th Secret present room

Wednesday 17th I-rock concert

Friday 19th - Church- Christmas service

Monday 5th January 2026- Start Term 3

 Friday 28th November 2025

   What a week it has been for our year 1 children leading up to the excitement

of the Christmas Fair! The children's learning is progressing well, particulary for their Christmas play songs and the playing of their instruments. You are in for a treat! Thank you if you have already provided us with your child's costume. 

In Maths, the children are learning about the properties of 3D shapes, and sorting them and 2D shapes into groups. Science has taken the children on a learning journey of discovering which materials are absorbent and non-absorbent, lots of fun happened involving paper, wellies, plastic gloves and t-shirts! In our English lessons, the children described and wrote about new characters, they were trying hard to form their letters correctly, sound out their words, and remember to use capital letters for names and at the start of sentences, not to forget fullstops in the correct places! 

Friday 13th November 2025 

We’ve had another wonderful and successful week in Year 1, filled with creativity, learning, and lots of enthusiasm!

English
Our journey through the Hundred Acre Wood continued as we met new and exciting characters. The children explored descriptive language and worked hard to bring these characters to life in their writing. We were impressed by their imagination and the effort they put into crafting vivid sentences. It’s amazing to see their confidence grow as young writers!

Maths
This week, our focus was on subtraction. The children discovered how helpful a number line can be when subtracting one number from another. Through hands-on activities and practical examples, they learned strategies to make subtraction easier and more accurate. Their determination and problem-solving skills really shone through!

 Friday 7th November 2025

 What a great first week back Year 1 have had! They have been working hard to get back into learning routines, whilst enjoying a day of Colour and Sparkle! The children dazzled us in their colours, glitter and sparkle! Thank you for all the Christmas Fayre donations, really appreciated. 

The famous Winnie the Pooh and his life in the one hundred acre wood has graced our English lessons this week, with enthusiasm! So far the children have drawn him, described him and where he lives. In Maths, the children are subtracting or taking away from an amount by crossing a diagonal line through the objects. Their Science lesson this week gave the children the opportunity to explore a range of objects and materials, sorting them into groups of opposites. 

Wishing you all a lovely restful weekend, and a hopeful learning week.  

                 Year 1 team 

Thursday 23rd October 2025 

As Term 1 comes to a close, we want to take a moment to celebrate the hard work, growth, and resilience shown by our students over the past weeks. From settling into new routines to embracing challenges in the classroom and beyond, it’s been a term full of learning and progress.

We’re especially proud of how our students have demonstrated the values of being Motivated, Articulate, Resilient, and Knowledgeable (MARK)—qualities that truly shape successful learners.

Thank you to all parents and carers for your continued support. Your partnership makes a real difference in helping our young people thrive.

We wish everyone a restful and enjoyable break. We look forward to welcoming you back refreshed and ready for Term 2!

***Important Dates***

Monday 3rd November back to school for Term 2

Friday 7th November Dress Down day- Colour and Sparkles - bring a toy (good condition) for the Christmas fair

Saturday 29th November Christmas Fair 1-4 PM

Friday 12th December Santa's Grotto; gift and photo

Tuesday 16th December - Secret Shopping Room

 Friday 17th October 2025

It has been another productive learning week for year 1. The children have been enjoying developing their Swimming skills in our school pool, and we are really proud of how independent they are becoming getting dried and dressed afterwards. In Maths, the children have been exploring number bonds to 10, and will continue to develop a systematic approach to making bonds to different numbers under 10. Their class read at the end of the day has been a chance for them to hear a story.  They have enjoyed these large books and are starting to say why a particular book might be their favourite! In English writing, the children have been holding a sentence in their head. They have first said the sentence to their partner, then counted the words on their fingers, watched the modelling of the sentence including capital letters, finger spaces and fullstops and then had a go at writing it independently with sound mats for support. Great efforts have been made!  

Wishing all the children 4 brilliant days of school before the half term holiday! 

Kind regards, 

Year 1 team 

 This week has been a very active one leading up to World Mental Health day,  seeing the children wearing yellow was a lovely delight, and a good reminder about the importance of taking care of our minds.  In worship the children thought about ways to support themselves when they felt worried, ideas were shared, these included taking a finger around hand fingers, counting to 10 and taking deep breathes. Outdoor Learning gave the children the opportunity to look for seasonal signs in Science including activities such as creating seasonal wands and potions, building on their growth motorskills; pulling and pushing on the forest playground and tying knots for a tug of Peace. In Maths, children learnt to explore a part, part whole model which involved them adding one part (group) to another part (group) to find the whole (total). In indoor Science the children explored the properties of materials and sorted them into groups.  

As the Autumn season gets cooler children need to continue to remember their named coats.  

Thanks for your ongoing support, have a lovely weekend. 

Kind regards year 1 team

Friday 3rd October 2025 

This week has been fantastic as the students explored the concept of comparing numbers using symbols such as 'greater than' and 'less than.' They engaged with various mathematical challenges, utilizing tools like number tracks and number lines to deepen their understanding.

In English, the children demonstrated their growing skills in using adjectives to enhance descriptive writing. We are incredibly proud of each student’s progress; their development is clearly visible and reflects significant growth in a short period of time.

Friday 26th September 2025 

This week in Maths, we explored the concept of one more and one less. The children engaged in a variety of hands-on activities to deepen their understanding, and it was wonderful to see how quickly they mastered the idea. Their confidence is growing, and they’re beginning to apply this knowledge in their everyday counting and problem-solving.

We came to an end of our current English cycle, and I couldn’t be prouder of the children’s hard work. They’ve been busy writing descriptive pieces, showcasing their fantastic understanding of adjectives and sentence structure. It’s been a joy to see their creativity flourish and their confidence grow as young writers.

Friday 19th September 2025

What an incredible week it’s been—full of learning, discovery, and inspiring Forest School adventures with 1P!
In Maths this week, we explored different ways to represent numbers. Every child had a go at writing numbers in words and practiced counting on from any given number—such a fantastic effort from everyone!

In English, we focused on using adjectives to add detail and excitement to our writing. We also learned how to join two sentences using the conjunction 'and', helping us extend our ideas as we described Nell the detective dog. The children showed great creativity and progress in their writing!

Friday 12th September 2025

What a wonderful first full week Year 1 have had!  This week in Literacy, we explored character description using Detective Dog. The children practised writing simple sentences using adjectives to describe Detective Dog's appearance, personality, and actions.  In Maths, we focused on representing numbers in different ways, including: using objects and pictures.

Our Science lesson had us discussing different types of weather and how they change with the seasons. We talked about what to wear in different weather and seasonal activities.  Now it is Autumn, even if the morning looks bright, conditions can change quickly, and we aim to get outside for play and learning whenever possible, therefore a labelled rain coat is necessary please. 

We've noticed that when the weather is warm, many lovely school cardigans and jumpers are being taken off during the day. However, we're finding it tricky to match them back to their owners at home time. To help us (and your child!), please ensure all cardigans and jumpers are clearly labelled with their name. A permanent marker or name label works best, as biro tends to wash off quickly. 

Thank you for your support in helping us keep track of everyone’s belongings!

Have a lovely weekend and we look forward to seeing you at the Meet the Teacher meeting on Wednesday at 9am-9.25am. 

Friday 5th September 2025 

We’ve had a fantastic first week back at school, and I wanted to take a moment to share how proud we are of how well the children have settled in after the summer holidays.

This week, our focus was on helping the children feel comfortable in their new environment. They’ve enjoyed exploring our learning areas, engaging in playful activities, and taking part in fun challenges that support their development.

One of our key learning experiences this week involved sorting and organising shapes and colours into different groups. The children used their observation skills to explore various ways to categorise objects, and it was wonderful to see their curiosity and enthusiasm shine through.

Thank you for your continued support. We wish you all a restful and enjoyable weekend, and we look forward to welcoming the children back on Monday for another exciting week of learning!

~Monday 21st July 2025 

Dear Parents and Carers,

We are delighted to welcome you and your child to Year 1! This is an exciting time filled with new learning adventures, friendships, and opportunities to grow. We look forward to working in partnership with you to support your child’s development and make this year a happy and successful one.

As we prepare for the new school year, we hope you are enjoying a restful and joyful summer holiday. May it be filled with sunshine, laughter, and special moments with family and friends.

We can’t wait to meet you all soon and begin this wonderful journey together!

With warmest wishes,

Miss. Podlasin, Mrs. Golding and Mrs. Martin 

****Dates for your dairy****

Wednesday 3rd September First day of Term 1 (Years 1—6)

 Friday 26th September Day of Languages

Thursday 2nd October Poetry Day

Tuesday 21st October Parent Consultation Evening 3.30-6pm TBC

Wednesday 22nd October Professional individual photos

Thursday 23rd October Parent Consultation Evening 4.30-7pm