• Year 1 Learning

Class Teacher: Mr Franklin

Teaching Assistants: Miss Darlington, Miss Howard, Mrs Roberts, Miss Shaw

Welcome to Potter Class

We are named after Beatrix Potter, a famous British author who wrote and illustrated more than 20 children’s books, including her most famous, ‘The Tale of Peter Rabbit’. This year we will be reading lots of her books and finding out all about her. She was born on 26th July 1866 and died on 22nd December 1943. As well as being an author, Beatrix Potter was a very keen botanist and sheep farmer. From a young age she was a keen writer and kept a diary which she often wrote in a secret code – this code was not cracked until years after her death! Due to her love of nature and wildlife, in her will she left her estate to the National Trust, this included sixteen farms and over 4000 acres of land. You can now visit her home ‘Hill Top Farm’ in the Lake District.

To ensure a smooth transition from Reception into Year 1, we will be providing the children with lots of opportunities to learn through play as they would have done in Early Years. As the year progresses and the children settle, there will be less play based learning and more structured lessons.

In Year 1, we will be learning about all kinds of exciting topics in geography and history including Our Community, Remembrance, Sir Robert Peel and Amazing Africa. In science, we will be learning about plants, materials, senses, animals and changing seasons. Throughout these topics we will be using the Key Skills: Communication, Application of Maths, ICT, Working with Others, Improving our own Learning and Performance and Problem Solving.

We encourage and support the children to read daily both in and out of school. The children will enjoy listening and sharing stories every day in class.  They will also continue to have access to a variety of online reading books using their log in for Bug Club.

At South Failsworth Primary School a positive attitude to learning and good behaviour is celebrated using our reward system. Children are awarded mission merits for following the Secrets of Success. Their learning and behaviour are also celebrated in class.

Important messages

• We will share your child’s learning with you through the Seesaw app. This will include videos and photos of work they have done individually and in groups. We will also use this app to communicate any important messages or reminders.
• Children will receive spellings via the Seesaw app on a Thursday ready for a test the following week. Please ensure that you help your child to practise these at home.
• Reading books will be changed once a week. The books will only be changed if they are read at home and recorded in the yellow Reading Record book. Remember, each recorded read counts towards the 100 reads award.
• Children will also have access to books, matched to their current reading level, on the Bug Club website (https://www.activelearnprimary.co.uk/). Children will have an individual password to access the books which will be allocated to them each half term.
• Please ensure that every item of your child’s clothing and their book bag are clearly labelled with their name.
• PE lessons will be on Wednesday and Thursday. Please send your child to school wearing their PE kits on these days.

We are very excited to work with you and your children this year.