We have a very exciting year ahead! This term our topic is Transport and Travel. The children will be exploring the exciting world of transport, looking into how the railways changed people’s lives overtime. We will be exploring lots of different types of transport both now and in the past comparing the best ways to travel and organising modes of transport onto a timeline by when they were invented. We will be comparing the difference between Cuddington and Aylesbury and will explore maps of the local area. We will consolidate this knowledge through our trip to the Cotswold Motor Museum, where the children will look at travel throughout the 20th Century, practise mapping skills and take part in hands-on activities as well as participating in a talk using objects and demonstrations

In Science, we will be looking at the properties of different materials. We will be doing experiments to test these different materials and we will be getting messy whilst doing this! For our RE lessons, we will be looking at ‘what does it mean to be me.’

Phonics

We will be starting with Phase 3 Bug Club as a recap for the children. We will then be moving on to Phase 5. I am aware that the children have already practiced some of the Phase 5 sounds but we will be consolidating this knowledge further. These will be taught using the Bug Club software. Occasionally, the children will be set online tasks on Bug Club to aid their learning.

Reading books

Your child will be given one reading book every Thursday to bring home. This will be related to the work they have completed in Phonics. They will have this book for a week and will be given a new one on the following Thursday.

Library day will be Friday. The idea of the library books is for the children to challenge themselves!

All books should be returned to school on Friday so we can send new books home with your child. The children will not bring new books home unless they have returned the previous week’s books.

Please continue to read to your child and to listen to them read as often as possible and complete the Reading Record. Re-reading passages, discussing the text, highlighting interesting or unknown vocabulary, and talking around the subject are all very worthwhile activities.

Learning Logs and Homework

The children will not receive any homework during the first half term. They may receive an activity to do in their Learning Log but this will be linked to an annual or national event such as World Book Day and is always really fun.

PE

PE kits stay in school for the half term unless the children need them for an out of school event. Please ensure all clothing is clearly named. In KS1, we often have items of clothing that go missing; having clearly named items makes it a lot easier for us to ensure that this doesn’t happen. Our PE days will be on a Tuesday and Wednesday.

Lost property

Please can I ask that you ensure all your child’s clothing is clearly named. Having them clearly named helps us to ensure pieces do not go missing. It will also help any other parents to return items, in the event of their child taking home another person’s belongings.

Thank you for your continued support as we begin our exciting Year 1 journey!

Miss Bailey and Mrs Smith