Year 1 Blog
If you wish to contact the Year 1 team, please use the following email: year1@lostockhallcps.co.uk
Meet the Year 2 Staff
Below is a powerpoint with lots of information about year 2.
Weekly Update - Monday 22nd June 2026 - Friday 26th June 2026
It has been an extremely hot and busy week in Year 1. We have really enjoyed the sunny days, even if they have been a bit too hot. We enjoyed taking part in our Dance to Heart showcase with the rest of school and the children remembered and performed the dance incredibly well! It was wonderful to watch.
English
In English this week, we have continued looking at the story of 'The Snail and the Whale'. We have been retelling the story this week in preparation for our 'star write' that we will be doing next week. The children have been really focusing on including the skills we have learnt and ensuring they are using -ed ending in their past tense. It has been lovely reading their work this week!
Maths
We have continued to look at place value to 100. We have been looking and comparing and ordering these numbers this week, making sure that we are looking at the tens and ones so that we are able to compare the numbers and decide which ones are greater than, less than and equal to. We also looked at our part whole model again to help us partition the numbers. Well done Year 1.
Wider Curriculum
We started our final Geography topic this week, looking at our school grounds. We have been looking and investigating where the plant life is in our school and completing a sketch map of our school grounds. We are looking at the layout of our school next week which will be very exciting for our children. In Science this week we looked a some different birds, we looked at the similarities and differences between the different birds, this helped us recall all our earlier work on animals and humans. In art this week, we have been using the watercolours to mix light and dark colours to add to the minibeasts we drew last week. Fabulous work Year 1.
Next week is an incredibly busy week with sports day on Monday, Sampler Day on Thursday where the children will spend the day in Year 2 with Mrs Cookson or Mrs Dixon. Friday is our school trip to Blackpool Zoo, so please make sure you are resting this weekend!
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Weekly Update - Monday 15th June 2026 - Friday 19th June 2026
Another week is over and Year 1 have been working extremely hard this week!
English
In English this week, we have been looking at the story of 'The Snail and the Whale'. We have again looked at forming the last tense by adding -ed and writing sentences using verbs that have the -ed ending and even spotting -ed endings in sentences. This is helping us prepare for our 'star write' next week. Well done Year 1.
Maths
We have moved on to look at place value to 100. We have been looking at counting from 50 - 100 and also looking at where these numbers sit on the number line and also partitioning these numbers into tens and ones! It is amazing to see how far we have come in our number work and understanding!
Wider Curriculum
In PE this week we have been practising for our sports day. The children have been taking part in races so that we can group the children in the fairest possible way! It was great to see them all giving their all. In history this week, we have completed our topic of healthcare and medical science. This week, we looked at our NHS we looked at the history of the NHS and completed a timeline to show how it has developed since 1948. In science this week, we investigated whether taller trees had thicker trunks. We went to the outdoor classroom to measure some of the trees with string. We took these back to class and measured them to see which ones were thicker. We found out that the taller the tree the thicker the trunk. Well worked Year 1.
Have an amazing weekend, it looks like the sun will be making a reappearance!
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Weekly Update - Monday 8th June 2026 - Friday 12th June 2026
Welcome back and also welcome to our new and updated website! We hope you like the new look and have all received your message from Mrs Webb about our app where all of our communication will be moving forward. Any questions or queries, please ask! A big thank you to all the parents who came to our Skip 2 be fit day. Your participation and sponsorship have really made the day one to remember. The children did amazingly well and I am sure you can see from their scores, they really gave it their all!
English
In English this week, we have had a bit of a different week, with our focus being on our phonics screening check. The children worked incredibly hard and all did their best. The results from this will be communicated to you with our end of year report that comes out in a few weeks. We have also found time to consolidate our skills that we learnt prior to the half term break. Again the children worked hard and challenged themselves further. Well done all!
Maths
We have again been consolidating our knowledge of number facts alongside addition and subtraction. The children have blown us away with how much they have remembered and can apply in Maths and this puts us in a great position as we move towards the end of Year 1 and preparing the children for Year 2. Fabulous work Year 1.
Wider Curriculum
In history this week, we have continued to look at our topic of healthcare and medical science. This week, we looked at Rosalind Franklin, we looked at her discovery of DNA and made our own DNA helix. The children all worked incredibly hard. In science this week, we looked at which parts of plants that we eat whether it is the root, stem, leaf or flower. The children worked really hard and were fascinated with which parts of plants we eat. We have also started our new art topic by looking at the work of Eric Carle and thinking about what it is that we like about his art.
Thank you for your continued support. Have a wonderful weekend!
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Weekly Update - Monday 18th May 2026 - Friday 22nd May 2026
It has been an extremely busy half term in Year 1 with lots of preparation for the phonics screening check in June. We have had another busy week (we feel like every week is busy at the moment!) with lots of learning happening. A special good luck from all of Year 1 to Miss Berry who is starting her maternity leave after half term! We can't wait to meet baby Berry!
English
In English this week, we have continued to look at 'We're going on a lion hunt'. This week we looked at using the skills we have learnt in our writing by ensuring that we have included them in our sentences. We also looked at editing a piece of writing and then completing our star write. It was another great piece of writing from Year 1 and it is great to see how the children are now writing much longer pieces of work.
Maths
We have looked at length and height this week. We have thought about what is length and what is height, we also looked at measuring using different objects before being introduced to measuring in centimetres. We also looked at how to use a ruler. The children worked really hard on this concept this week and have achieved so much.
Wider Curriculum
In history this week, we have continued to look at our topic of healthcare and medical science. This week, we looked at Florence Nightingale, an extremely important historic figure from the past who was instrumental in helping soldiers and healthcare and is someone who even featured on our money! We looked at key events during her life and used this information to create a storyboard. In science this week, we have focussed on making predictions. We looked at different seeds and bulbs and used our knowledge to make predictions about what flower they would become. It was so interesting to see how the children used their knowledge to help with their predictions, they did a great job!
Thank you for your continued support. Have a wonderful half term, especially with the heatwave we are expecting. School opens again on Monday 8th June.
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Weekly Update - Monday 11th May 2026 - Friday 15th May 2026
It has been another busy week in Year 1. We have had our class photos today and we cannot wait to see what the final picture looks like.
English
In English this week, we have looked at the story called 'We're going on a lion hunt'. We looked closely at the 3 different settings of the lake, grass and swamp. We came up with adjectives to describe these and then wrote some sentences using these adjectives. We then moved on to look adding the suffix -er to change the meaning of words such as long becoming longer and using these in our writing. We are continuing our work on this story next week and look forward to completing our star write.
Maths
We have looked at position this week. We have thought about the different types of turn you can make such as quarter turn, half turn, three quarter turn and full turn, linking to our recent work on fractions. We have also looked at postional language such as above, below, left and right to help us describe where objects might be placed. The children enjoyed looking at the different positions. Next week, we are looking at length and height!
Wider Curriculum
In history this week, we have continued to look at our topic of healthcare and medical science. This week, we looked at Edith Cavell, another important historic figure from the past who was instrumental in helping soldiers and healthcare, this time during World War I. We looked at key events during her life and used this information to create a storyboard. In science this week, we have focussed on looking at leaves, we thought about the differences between deciduous tree leaves and evergreen tree leaves. We thought about how some leaves are large and flat and some leaves are thin and needle like. This has helped us to understand how evergreen trees stay green all year round. In PE this week, we were lucky to join in with a UK wide PE lesson with Joe Wicks. We joined thousands of pupils from up and down the UK to complete a workout and listen to a question and answer session with Joe.
Have a lovely weekend, however you spend it! See you on Monday.
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Weekly Update - Tuesday 5th May 2026 - Friday 8th May 2026
It has been an action packed week in Year 1, we have been very busy even though it has been a shorter week this week!
English
In English this week, we have looked at the visual literacy piece called ‘catch it’. We have been completing our pre-writing activities, using adjectives to describe the characters, building sentences that use adverbs and also how to create questions that we can use in our writing. This culminated in us using these skills to complete our retell of the short film. The children worked really hard to follow their I’m a clever writer checklist and make sure all their basic skills were within their work. Well done!
Maths
We have continued looking at fractions this week. We have really studied the concept of quarters. We have looked at how to find a quarter of an object before looking at the quarter of an amount. We also looked at the relationship between quarters and halves and discovered that a quarter is half of a half!
Wider Curriculum
In history this week, we have continued to look at our new topic of healthcare and medical science. This week, we looked at Mary Seacole, an important historic figure from the past who was instrumental in helping soldiers during the Crimea War. We looked at her life and created a storyboard of her life. We look forward to looking at other important historical figures in the coming weeks. In science this week, we have continued to look at plants. We looked at the differences between garden plants and wild plants. We thought about how garden plants are grown to make people’s gardens look pretty compared to wild flowers that are natural to the area and help to attract wildlife. In computing this week, we have continued using a word processor to do our writing and have looked at how to change the font and size.
Have a lovely weekend! See you on Monday.
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Weekly Update - Monday 27th April 2026 - Friday 1st May 2026
It has been an action packed week in Year 1, we can’t believe it is already May, it has been lovely to see the sunshine make another appearance this week and hopefully it stays for the long weekend!
English
In English this week, we have looked at the story of ‘How the Elephant got its trunk’. We have been completing pre-writing activities, building sentences that use the skills we learned over the course of Year 1 so far. We have also continued making sure our letter formation is of the correct standard and we aren’t forgetting our punctuation at the end of our sentences. On Friday, completed our star write, it was lovely to read the children’s work and seeing the fabulous vocabulary they have included! Well done!
Maths
We have started to look at fractions this week. We have thought about how fractions, like with multiplication and division, need to be in equal groups. We have really focused on the concept of a half; whether that is half of a shape or the half of an amount. The children have grappled really well with this challenging concept and are ready for us to look at quarters next week!
Wider Curriculum
In history this week, we have started to look at our new topic of healthcare and medical science. This week, we looked at some picture evidence to interpret whether or not it is a hospital or staff from the past or present. It was amazing to see the conversations that the children had when deciding whether it was the past or the present. In science this week, we have continued to look at plants. We thought about the different parts of plants and how they are made up of leaves, roots, a stem and the flower. We are looking forward to investigating plants even further in the coming weeks. In computing this week, we have looked at using the keyboard to type a sentence and using the keys such as backspace, space and enter key when writing on the computer.
Have a lovely bank holiday weekend and we look forward to hearing about your bank holiday on Tuesday!
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Weekly Update - Monday 20th April 2026 - Friday 25th April 2026
English
In English this week, we have continued looking at the story of 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. We have been completing our pre-writing activities, building sentences that use the skills we learned last week. We have also looked at ensuring our letter formation and handwriting have been of a high standard and spent a lesson practicing our handwriting. We completed our star write. The children did a fantastic job and it was great to read to read their retell and see how they have incorporated everything we studied in this unit and how much their writing has improved. Well done Year 1!
Maths
We have continued to look at multiplication and division. We have been making arrays to help us to see the equal groups. We also looked at doubles again and the concept that a double is always an even number. We finished the week by looking at grouping equal groups together and also the concept of sharing equal groups to help us understand the concept of division. Great work Year 1!
Wider Curriculum
In history this week, we have completed our work on Kings, Queens and Castles and thought about similarities and differences between royal residences thinking about how castles are not used for protection any more and how some castles are still lived in by our royal family today. In science this week, we have started to look at plants. We went on a plant hunt in our school grounds. We thought about plants in funny places, plants with flowers and also trees. We also set up an experiment about whether or not beans or seeds need water to grow. We will be looking at these in the next few weeks. In music this week, we used the glockenspiels to create our own superhero name and ensured that we used both high and low pitch.
Have a lovely weekend in the sunshine!
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Weekly Update - Monday 13th April 2026 - Friday 17th April 2026
It has been a very busy first week back. We can't believe that it is the summer term in Year 1 already! It has been lovely to hear about your break and all the exciting things you have been doing.
English
In English this week, we have been looking at the story of 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. We have looked at how to change verbs into the past tense and when we use the past tense. We have also looked at editing and improving a piece of work. We then looked at using capital letters for the days of the week and using more exciting verbs instead of 'ate'. The children did a fantastic job and it was great to read their sentences!
Maths
We have started to look at our new maths block on multiplication and division. We have looked at counting in 2's, 5's and 10's and also looked at equal and unequal groups and how to add equal groups. The children worked very hard on this difficult concept.
Wider Curriculum
In history this week, we have looked at the life of the first King William. We have thought about the different royal residences that he lived in and which ones are still around or can be visited. In science this week, we have looked at the work of Jane Goodall and how she became to be the expert on chimpanzees. In art this week, we have started our weaving topic and looked at the work of Michael Brennand Wood and thought about why we might like his work.
Have a lovely weekend however you spend it!
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Weekly Update - Monday 23rd March 2026 - Friday 27th March 2026
It has been another busy week in Year 1. It has been a very fast half term and we hope you take the time to rest and recover in preparation for the summer term!
English
In English this week, we have been looking at writing instructions. We have focussed on ensuring we have been using our time words to help people know which instruction comes first and exactly what they need to do. We completed another star write on this and it is amazing to see how much our handwriting and sentence structure has developed since September. Well done Year 1.
Maths
We have been looking at capacity this week. We have thought about comparing how much is in each container and using our words for comparison to help us.
Wider Curriculum
In history this week, we have looked at the life of the first Queen Elizabeth. We have thought about the different royal residences that she lived and lwhich are still around.
Have a lovely break, enjoy the chocolate eggs and Happy Easter when it arrives!
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Weekly Update - Monday 16th March 2026 - Friday 20th March 2026
It has been another busy week in Year 1. It has been lovely to see the lighter nights and mornings paying us a visit, especially with the warmer weatherm, spring has definitely sprung!
English
In English this week, we have been looking at the story of 'The Queen's Handbag.' We have focussed on ensuring our capital letters are in the correct place for the names of the places that the Queen visited. We completed another star write on Friday and it is amazing to see how much our handwriting and sentence structure has developed since September. Well done Year 1.
Maths
We have been looking at mass this week. We have thought about what mass is and been using non-standard measurements to weigh different objects and also compare the weight of different objects. The children have grappled really well with this and it is amazing how well their knowledge has grown.
Wider Curriculum
In history this week, we have looked at the life of Queen Victoria. We have thought about the different royal residences that she lived and looked at some of the monuments to commemorate her life. The children were fascinated to know that she was the first royal to live in Buckingham Palace and also Balmoral Castle. In Science this week, we looked at what animals eat and were introduced to the new vocabulary omnivore, carnivore and herbivore. We applied this new knowledge to help us decide which animals eat meat and don't eat meat.
Have a lovely weekend, especially now the weather has perked up! See you on Monday!
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Weekly Update - Monday 9th March 2026 - Friday 13th March 2026
It has been another busy week in Year 1. Thank you to all the parents who came to our Poetry Performance on Tuesday. It was great for the children to have so much support and I am sure you will agree, the children performed fantastically! It has also been lovely to see so many of you this week for parents evening. It is always nice to share the children's successes and also show you the progress they have made.
English
In English this week, we have been looking at the story of 'Jack and the Beanstalk' again, but this time we are rewriting it with some changes. We have changed the character, the magic beans and even the beanstalk. It has been great to see the children use their own creativity to retell a known story and also watch them apply all the skills from our 'I'm a clever writer' checklist that we have covered so far. Well done Year 1.
Maths
We have been continuing to look at our place value to 50. This week, we have focussed on using number lines to plot numbers to 50. We have been looking at working out the scale on the number line to know whether we are counting in 10s or 1s. We have also estimating what number is being shown on the number line using our new number knowledge. The children have worked really hard on this and it is great to see their understanding of number grow!
Wider Curriculum
In art this week, the children used pastels to colours a castle in the style of Paul Klee, this is in preparation of us completing a castle collage in the style of Paul Klee. In history this week, we have been timelining the life of our former monarch Queen Elizabeth II. The children were fascinated by her long reign and have learnt about some of the important residences in her life. We also had a very special visitor on Tuesday, Stephen from Creative Builders Workshops joined us for a lego workshop. The children worked really hard building Lego models of Big Ben and also Windsor Castle. The children worked incredibly hard following the instructions Stephen gave and also working together to build some incredible models!
Have a lovely weekend however you spend it! See you on Monday!
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Weekly Update - Monday 2nd March 2026 - Friday 6th March 2026
It has been an extremely busy week in Year 1, with preparations for our poetry performance taking place. We are looking forward to seeing you all on Monday 9th March at 2:45pm to showcase our efforts!
English
In English this week, we have been looking at poems and practising and reciting poetry, which we will be showcasing next week at our poetry performance. We have also managed to write some acrostic poems this week, some of which will be performed on Monday. We can’t wait for you to hear them!
World Book Day
World Book Day was a fantastic success, thank you for all your efforts with joining in the fun of the day. It was lovely to share the books the children brought in from home and we also watched a live reading of the story ‘Zog’ by the Burnley Youth Theatre. It was a delightful celebration of reading and books!
Wider Curriculum
In art this week, the children used a range of sketching pencils to add a range of detail to a castle drawing. In science this week, we have continued to look at different animals and we have thought about what features the different animals type such as a beak, fur, dry skin. In computing, we have again been looking at grouping items together, we looked at counting groups of items and how to organise groups to help us count the groups. In RE, we have been thinking about how we would welcome someone famous into the classroom and linking this to how Jesus would be welcomed by the crowds in Jerusalem.
Have a lovely weekend! See you on Monday!
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Weekly Update - Monday 23rd February 2026 - Friday 27th February 2026
It has been lovely to see everyone again this week after our half term break! We can't believe we are in the second half of the spring term! This year seems to be flying by. It was certainly nice to have the lighter mornings and evenings!
English
In English this week, we have been looking at the retelling a familiar story - 'Jack and the Beanstalk'. We have really focussed on using a range of openers such as 'Once upon a time,' 'After a while,' 'Instantly,' as well as finishing our retell with 'They all lived happily ever after.' We completed a magnificent 'star write' on Friday and looking back at the children's work over the year, it is clear to see the progress they have made in their sentence length and presentation. Well done Year 1! You have worked so hard!
Maths
We have started our new unit of work looking at place value to 50. We have really been looking at the make up of the numbers, the patterns that we can see in the numbers and comparing them to the numbers we have already studied. We have also been looking at partitioning these numbers (basically separating them) into tens and ones and thinking about how many tens are in the number and how many ones. It is amazing to see how far the children have come in their number work and their understanding of number. Fantastic work Year 1.
Wider Curriculum
In Science we have started our new topic looking at anumals including humans. We look at the similarities and differences between different animals and also learnt the names of the different animal groups. We started our new data handling unit in computing. We looked at labelling and matching groups together. The children worked incredibly hard with this. In art, we started looking at the work of Paul Klee in preparation for our collage work. History saw the start of our brand new unit looking at Kings, Queens and Castles. We looked at our current monarch King Charles III and how our previous monarch was his mother Queen Elizabeth II who was our longest reigning monarch. We finished the lesson by looking at whether or not we knew who some of the monarchs of the past were to help us understand the past a little bit more.
Have a lovely weekend however you spend it! See you on Monday!
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Weekly Update - Monday 9th February - Friday 13th February - Creative Arts Week.
This week has been our creative arts week. It has been a fantastic week for us to show off our creative side.
We have had a wonderful workshop looking at body percussion. We have also been transported to Greece. We learnt a traditional Greek dance with our visitors from Ludas Dance and managed to perform it as a whole class. We certainly have some amazing dancers in Year 1. We finished the week by looking at completing our DT project. We also worked with a real life artist and used clay to help create a picture of Europe that will be returned to school when it is completed. We cannot wait to see the finished product. At the end of the week we created a moving picture to help us tell the story of 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff'. We also managed to share these stories with our friends from pre-school.
It has been a very busy week full of fun, adventure and learning new skills. Well done Year 1 you have worked so amazingly well.
Thank You!
We would again like to take this opportunity to say another 'Thank You' for all your help and support this half term. It always seems to go rather fast as we move towards the lighter nights. The children have been super busy and have worked their sock off! We have been thrilled with the amount of reading that is happening each night at home - so please keep it up after the break.
Enjoy the half term break and we look forward to seeing you on 23rd February.
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Weekly Update - Monday 2nd February 2026 - Friday 6th February 2026
English
In English this week, we have been looking at the retelling a familiar story - 'The Three Little Pigs'. We have really focussed on using exciting openers such as 'once upon a time', 'The following day', 'After a while', to really vary our sentences. The children have really thrived with the challenge of making their sentences correctly formed and using all the steps to our 'I'm a clever writer' checklist. Well done Year 1!
Maths
We have been continuing to add and subtract numbers within 20. This week, we have been focussing on using a number line to help us subtract. We have used the strategy of counting back on the number line alongside our strategy of crossing our to help us solve our subtraction questions. The children have really worked hard remembering the strategies that they used when subtracting within 10.
Wider Curriculum
In Science we have been looking our sense of hearing. We listened to the same sound and moved further back each time to see how the sound changed. The children loved investigating the change in sound and coming to a conclusion at the end. On Tuesday, we had a lovely visit from our Islamic faith friend, he told us about the Muslim holy book and how the follower of Islam pray. We also had a great visit on Thursday from Coach Dave from South Ribble to take part in an inclusion festival. We took part in lots of different activites using different senses linking to our Science learning. It has been a very enjoyable week! Next week is our creative arts week, so we will be visited by lots of outside agencies with some lovely activities planned.
Have a lovely weekend! See you on Monday!
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Weekly Update - Monday 26th January 2026 - Friday 30th January 2026
English
In English this week, we been looking at another story by the author Minnie Grey ‘Toys in Space;’. We have focused on using the past tense and how it is formed using the suffix ‘ed’. We have also been using the first person in our writing as though we are the character of Wonder Doll. It was amazing to see how the children coped with this different way of retelling a story.
Maths
We have been continuing to add and subtract numbers within 20. We have been focussing on our number bonds to 20 and how these link to our number bonds to 10. We have also been looking at our doubles and doubling numbers to 10. The children have also been completing their assessments and they have worked incredibly hard on these! Well done!
Wider Curriculum
In Science we have been completing an investigation into our sense of smell. We have been given 6 smells and we had to guess what the smell actually was. In RE we have been looking at Islam and what Muslims believe about God. This week we have looked at the words merciful and compassionate and what these words mean in relation to Allah. In History, we have been looking at toys that our parents would have played with and thought about the similarities and differences between the toys they played with and the toys that we play with. It has been a very busy week!
Have a lovely, restful weekend! See you on Monday!
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Weekly Update - Monday 19th January 2026 - Friday 23rd January 2026
English
In English this week, we have continued looking at the story of 'Traction Man' by Minnie Grey. We have been retelling one of his adventures ensuring that we are using exciting vocabulary and some of our brand new openers. We finished the week with a ‘star write’ and it was wonderful seeing the progress the children have made with their writing since September! Well done Year 1!
Maths
We have completed our work on place value to 20 by ordering and comparing numbers. We have also began our work on addition and subtraction to 20. We have looked at using our number bonds to 10 to help us add to 20 and looking at the patterns and commonalities between the numbers. The children have really worked hard using these new methods and strategies.
Wider Curriculum
In Science we have been continuing to look at our senses and our sense of taste. We completed a taste test to see if we liked the different tastes and also thought about ways to describe them. In History, we have looked at the toys we played with as a baby and how our toys have changed since we were a baby.
Have a lovely weekend! See you on Monday!
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Weekly Update - Monday 12th January 2026 - Friday 16th January 2026
English
In English this week, we have been looking at the story of 'Traction Man' by Minnie Grey. We have been focussing on looking at the character of Traction Man and describing him at different points in the story. The children have been using adjectives to describe Traction Man alongside using a range of openers to help vary our sentences. The children have really been working hard on their sentence writing this week. Well done Year 1!
Maths
We have continued looking at the place value of numbers to 20. We have been using a number line to plot numbers 0-10 and also using this number line to help us compare the numbers. We have also been looking at greater than, less than and equal to in the context of numbers to 20. It has been a great way to consolodate the learning we completed in the autumn term and it has been great that children have been applying the strategies that we learnt to help us compare larger numbers.
Wider Curriculum
We have been continuing our new units of work this week. In Science we looked at which body parts are used for each sense. In Art, we have been using toys to create a photograph of a still life piece that we can recreate in the style of Nigel Humphries. In History, we have been looking at modern toys and thinking about the similarities and differences. In computing this week we have been thinking about directions and ensuring that our directions are precise so the bee bots know exactly what we are asking them. It has been a very busy week!
Thank you for your continued support! See you on Monday!
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Weekly Update - Monday 5th January 2026 - Friday 9th January 2026
It has been lovely welcoming you all back to school for the start of a new year and a new term! What a busy week we have had in Year 1, starting off with a great visit from the panto to show us 'Snow White'. Mr Monckton and Mr Jardine did a fantastic job dancing with the performers!
English
In English this week, we have been looking at retelling our Christmas day. We looked at consolidating all the skills that we learnt last term, such as including time words, capital letters, full stops and focussing on our handwriting. This work has culminated in a 'star write' and it was amazing to see how many of the skills we learnt last term have been remembered. Well done Year 1.
Maths
We have been looking at the place value of numbers to 20. We have been thinking about how many tens are in the number and how many ones are in the number. We have then looked at counting forwards and backwards to 20 before looking at one more and one less a certain number. The children have worked really hard and it has been great to see their understanding of number deepen.
Wider Curriculum
This week has been the start of our new units of work. In history we have started our very first history topic looking at toys. We focussed on being a historian and using evidence to decide whether something is from the past or the present. In science, we have started to look at our bodies and what the names of body parts are. In computing, we have started our very first programming unit of work. We have been using the beebots to help follow a simple code. The children loved using the beebots and seeing how they can be programmed.
Thank you all for your continued support! We hope you have a restful weekend!
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
December 2025 Update
Due to the migration of our website, we are uploading our whole of December update.
Maths
We spent much of December look at 2D and 3D shapes and their properties and also how to organise these into repeated patterns. The children were amazing at getting to grips with the shapes and identifying their properties and also identifying patterns including similarities and differences.
English
In English, we continued to develop our ‘I’m a clever writer’ skills but looking at visual literacy and the Christmas adverts of ‘The Bear and the Hare’ and ‘Edgar the Dragon’. The children’s writing has really improved and it has been amazing to see their progress. We completed December by sorting instructions for making our fruit salad in DT.
Wider Curriculum
December was a time for us to complete our units of work. In art, the children completed their pinch pots and decorated them. We also completed our DT work to make a fruit salad. In geography we looked at the continents of the world and what the weather and climate is like in our world. In science, we completed our work on materials by looking at and testing different materials for their waterproofness and toughness.
The Year 1 team would like to thank you all for you cards and gifts, it was greatly appreciated!
We hope you have a lovely Christmas! Enjoy the break.
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Weekly Update - Monday 24th November - Friday 28th November
None of us can quite believe we are nearly in December already! As Mrs Webb sent out via the app this week, our website is undergoing migration so this will be our last update for a few weeks!
English
In English this week, we have been looking at another 'Supertato' adventure. We have continued looking at extending the number of sentences we have been writing and using a pronoun such as 'he' or 'it'. It has been a pleasure to read the children's writing and seeing the progress they are making.
Maths
We have completed our unit looking at addition and subtraction within 10 and have begun our unit looking at 2D and 3D shapes. We have extended our learning from Reception to look at 3D shapes, the number of faces, vertices and how they are made up of 2D shapes. The children have worked really hard to understand 3D shapes and we are moving on to looking at 2D shapes next week.
Wider Curriculum
This week has been parliament week. We have looked at the work of Parliament and how it is made up of the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the monarch. We looked at who our Prime Minister is and how this all links to the making of laws. We have also been looking at the properties of materials in Science and how some things are see-through, stiff and bouncy and which materials have these properties. We have also been looking at the season in the UK as part of our Geography work, which was a great reminder from our Science work last half term.
Thank you for your continued support! We hope you have a great weekend!
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Weekly Update - Monday 17th November - Friday 21st November
It has been another busy week in Year 1. It has been lovely to hear the children talk about the change in the weather and identifying the changes in the season that is creeping up on us.
English
In English this week, we have been looking at 'Supertato'. We have been looking at extending the number of sentences we have been writing and using a pronoun such as 'he' or 'it'. We finished the week with a 'star write' using all the skills we have been using up until now to retell the story of 'Supertato'. It has been a pleasure to read the children's writing and seeing the progress they have already made.
Maths
We have continued to look at addition and subtraction within 10. We have been looking at subtraction using a number line to help us with our subtractions. The children have wroked practically showing the jumps to take away a number and also completing the related subtraction number sentence. Again, the children have worked really hard on this essential concept of Maths. Well done Year 1.
Wider Curriculum
In computing this week, we have been painting a picture in the style of Henri Matisse using the computer to recreate this picture. In Science we have been identifying the material that objects are made from such as a greenhouse being made from metal and glass. In Geography, we looked at the countries that make up the United Kingdom. We now know that we live in the country of England and England makes up the United Kingdom with Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. The children have been working really hard expanding their geographical knowledge.
We hope you have a great weekend!
See you on Monday!
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Weekly Update - Monday 10th November - Friday 14th November
It has been another busy week in Year 1. We have had a few issues with morning snack not being labelled and the children not being able to find their snack. Please can you ensure that morning snack is clearly labelled with your child's name. This can be in a labelled sandwich bag, a labelled pot or even labelled on the skin of the fruit.
English
In English this week, we have been looking at 'Oliver's Fruit Salad'. This is another story containing our characters from last week and it has been great to see them on another adventure. We have been continuing to follow our 'I'm a clever writer' approach and ensuring our sentences start with a capital letter and end with a full stop but this week, we have been focussing on including an adjective to describe a noun such as the pretty fruit salad. Some of the sentences that the children created have really been creative and it has been a pleasure to read.
Maths
We have continued to look at addition and subtraction within 10. We have been looking at subtraction and how this is related to addition. One of the main concepts we looked at was that of 'fact families' and how these are created from looking at the two different parts and the whole. We discovered that there are eight in total and used a part whole model to help us create these fact families. The children worked very hard on this very difficult concept.
Wider Curriculum
We used plasticine this week to practise the skills we need to make a pinch pot this week in art. The children worked extremely hard and really used their fine motor skills well. In computing, we continued to look at using the computer to recreate a piece of art work from the artist Piet Mondrian. The children worked so hard to create these. In PSHE this week, we have been looking at bullying and what bullying is as part of anti-bullying week. We though about the difference between teasing and being unkind and how this can become bullying.
We hope you have a great weekend, even if the weather is a bit wild!
See you on Monday!
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
year-1-blog
Weekly Update - Monday 3rd November - Friday 7th November
It has been lovely to see everyone back and rested after our half term. Thank you for your support on Monday with the unavoidable school closure. It was lovely to see the work you completed at home!
English
In English this week, we have been looking at the story of 'Oliver's Vegetables'. We have been continuing to follow our 'I'm a clever writer' approach and ensuring our sentences start with a capital letter and end with a full stop. It has been great to see that the children have remembered these skills that we practised before the half term. They produced some wonderful work and it has been lovely to read. Well done Year 1!
Maths
We have continued to look at addition and subtraction within 10. We have been looking at addition problems and using our part, whole model, number line and 10s frame to help us solve the problems. The children have worked really hard to ensure that they have been fully understanding the information that they have been given and have managed to solve some rather tricky problems!
Wider Curriculum
It has been lovely to start our new units of work. In Geography, we are looking at the world and our school and have been perfecting our mapping skills to create a map of the classroom. We have been looking at the artist Kathy Jeffers and looked at her pinch pots in preparation for making our own. In computing, we began our new unit on painting using the computer, the children worked really hard to create a portrait of themselves.
Thank you for all your continued support. We hope you have a lovely, restful weekend ready for another week!
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Home Learning 3rd November 2025
Home learning - 3rd November 2025
Due to the school closure today, we have uploaded some home learning for the children to complete. All the information you will need is on the home learning document and we have uploaded two PowerPoint documents to support the work you complete. Please bring any work you complete into school tomorrow or feel free to email it to the Year 1 email address.
We look forward to seeing you tomorrow!
Mr Monckton and Mr Jardine.
Weekly Update - Monday 20th October - Friday 24th October
Where have 8 weeks gone? It has been a very busy half term with lots of new learning and routines. Thank you for your support this half term, it was lovely to see the homework pieces that you have been completing at home. Please enjoy the week off so you are rested and ready for another busy half term.
English
In English this week, we have completed our first star write. We have been looking at the story of 'Whatever Next'. We have been continuing to follow our 'I'm a clever writer' approach and ensuring our sentences start with a capital letter and end with a full stop whilst using a range of time openers. On Thursday we completed our first 'star write' where the children had to complete a retell of the story using everything we had completed earlier in the week. They produced some fantastic pieces and really focussed on ensuring they were following the checklist well. Well done Year 1!
Maths
We have continued to look at addition and subtraction within 10. The children have been looking at fact families to help build up our number bonds to 10. This is a really crucial part of Maths and sets the foundations for Maths as they move through the school, so regular practice and quick recall of these number bonds will really help them moving forward.
Wider Curriculum
We have worked hard completing a pictogram of the features of the park following on from our fieldwork. We have also completed our work looking at the seasons in science, by looking at the weather and how it is reported. We have also worked hard in computing, thinking about the rules for staying safe on the computer and when using technology. In art, the children have painted their potraits and they have been added to the backgrounds that they completed in an earlier lesson, we have also changed our corridor display to display these wonderful pieces of art. They look incredible.
Thank you for all your support this half term! Enjoy the half term break and we look forward to seeing you on 3rd November.
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Weekly Update - Monday 13th October - Friday 17th October
It was so lovely to see so many of you this week for our parents evening. It was lovely to share with you the successes that we have had in Year 1 so far and how well we have all settled into our new routines.
English
In English this week, we have been looking at the story of 'Alan's big scary teeth' by Jarvis. We have been continuing to follow our 'I'm a clever writer' approach and ensuring our sentences start with a capital letter and end with a full stop whilst using a range of time openers. It is amazing to see how far the children have already progressed with their handwriting and sentence building. They have been using some great vocabulary and they have also used their phonic knowledge to help them spell new words. We are really looking forward to completing our first 'star write' next week!
Maths
We have started our new maths unit on addition and subtraction within 10. The children have been introduced to the part, whole model to help them see how a number can be made up of two or more different parts. We have then progressed to using these models to help us write simple addition number sentences such as 6+2=8. The children have worked hard to complete this work, using practical equipment to help show the parts and whole before writing a number sentence.
Wider Curriculum
We have spent some time reviewing our fieldwork and answering questions about the human and physical features of our park in geography. In science, we have looked at the season of autumn and what the weather, daylight hours and trees look like. We will be using this information to compare the other seasons throughout the year. In computing, we have been looking at using a keyboard to type and opening and closing a document on the computer. The children have blown us away with how well they can use a keyboard and mouse.
Next week is another busy week and we are looking forward to the halloween disco on Monday night alongside those who are joining us.
Thank you for your continued support! Enjoy your weekend.
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Weekly Update - Monday 6th October - Friday 10th October - Life skills week
This week has been our annual life skills week. Many thanks to Mr Law for coordinating this for the whole school.
Throughout the week, we have been learning how to tell the time in a practical way. Our main focus has been on telling the time to the hour and half an hour. The children have really worked hard on this as the week has progressed.
On Monday, we learnt some sign language, learnt how to look after our pets and went to the wellbeing jungle with our visitor Lauren, whilst we were in the wellbeing jungle, we met a range of animals who help us to stay healthy. Our favourite was the soothing monkey who taught us how to take 5 deep breaths to help keep us calm.
On Tuesday, we had an amazing time in forest school, we built shelters for Mr Jardine and Mr Monckton to stay in, we also learnt how to use a flint to light some cotton wool. We also learnt all about the coins we use to buy things from Denise who works at HSBC.
Wednesday saw us learning about what we wanted to do when we were older and having to work. We had lots of different careers ranging from a policeman to a paleontologist.
On Thursday, we practiced our cutting skills and using a knife and fork as well as learning to tie our shoelaces.
Friday was a very busy day, we went for our road safety walk and put into practice all the things we had learnt about crossing the road at all the different crossings from zebra crossings to pelican crossings.
It has been a really enjoyable week and it has been fantastic to learn some skills that we will use throughout our lives.
We hope you have an enjoyable weekend, whatever you have planned.
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Life Skills Week 2025
Weekly Update - Monday 29th September - Friday 3rd October
What a week it has been, we have now entered October and have been in Year 1 for one whole month. It is incredible how much progress the children have made in such a short space of time.
English
In English this week, we have continued to look at the story 'Peace at Last' and have been using the words 'the,' 'he,' 'she' and 'they' to start our sentences. The children have worked really hard to focus on their handwriting and forming their letters correctly. They have also been concentrating on starting sentences with a capital letters and finishing our sentences with full stops. They have worked really hard grappling with these essential parts of sentence writing. The sentences we have read have really blown us away!
Maths
We have been continuing our work with place value this week and continued looking at greater than, less than and equal to. We have also been looking at ordering numbers from greatest to smallest, smallest to greatest and finally looked at the number line compared with our number track. The children have been amazing at ordering numbers and it has been lovely to see the progress they have made.
Wider Curriculum
Wednesday was an incredible day. The children had an amazing time with Dave from Skip 2b fit and worked so hard skipping (look at the pictures below). We have also been looking at different feelings we experience in PSHE and how we can change our feeling from being a negative one to a positive one. In Science this week, we look at the number of daylight hours and how this changes with each season before the children completed a pictogram to show this. They produced some amazing pictograms!
Have a lovely weekend, even if the weather has become wintry.
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Skip 2b fit
Weekly Update - Monday 22nd September - Friday 26th September
It has been a very busy week in Year 1, with lots of learning and new experiences.
English
In English this week, we have started our first 'I'm a Clever Writer' unit. We have looked at the story 'Peace at Last' and began to use a time word to help start our sentence. We have also been introduced to the 'I'm a Clever Writer' checklist to help with our writing. We have been saying our sentence a few times before writing it. Then when we are writing, we focus on our capital letters and lower case letters, our ascenders and descenders and making sure we have our finger spaces. The work the children have produced has been amazing and we can't wait to continue our work on 'Peace at Last' next week.
Maths
We have been continuing our work with place value this week and been looking at greater than, less than and equal to. We have been introduced to the mathematical symbols for these and been using our practical equipment to help show numbers using these symbols. We have also worked hard to see which numbers are larger and smaller in preparation for ordering numbers next week.
Wider Curriculum
We have had a fantastic trip to Tardy Gate Park today to complete some geography fieldwork. We completed an observational sketch and also a tally chart of the features of the park, before we explored the new equipment that has arrived. The children were very sensible walking to the park and crossing the very busy roads. We have also been looking at how the leaves change in each season in science, drawn eyes in art and also used our mouse to create a picture on the computers in computing.
We hope you have a lovely weekend.
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
year-1-blog
Weekly Update - Monday 15th September - Friday 19th September
It has been another busy and action packed week in Year 1.
English
In English this week, we have been developing our handwriting even further and have been looking closely at correctly forming upper case letters in preparation for starting our 'I'm a Clever Writer' units next week. We have really honed in on the fact that a capital letter fills the whole line compared to our lower case letters. It is amazing to see the progress they have made.
Maths
We have been continuing our work with Place Value and have been finding one less and counting backwards within 10. We have used a range of equipment to help us understand what 1 less looks like and also how practical equipment can help us count forwards and backwards.
Wider Curriculum
The children have been very busy preparing for our geography fieldwork. They have been showing the route we will take to get to the park and also what pieces of data we will collect when we are at the park. We have also been looking at the Christian creation story in R.E and visited the IT suite in computing to look at the differences between desktop and laptop computers and completed a puzzle using the mouse correctly. The children have been working so hard and it is great to see the progress they are making already.
We hope you have a restful weekend.
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Weekly Update - Monday 8th September - Friday 12th September
What a busy week we have had in Year 1 with the introduction of more formal learning as we started our new topics in Science, Computing, R.E, PSHE and Music. The children have coped really well and are adjusting to the new routines.
English
In English this week, we have been developing our handwriting even further and have been looking closely at correctly forming our zig zag letters and our robot arm letters. It is amazing how the children's handwriting has already improved over the space of just 2 weeks.
Maths
We have been continuing our work with Place Value and have been finding one more and counting on within 10. We have also been getting to grips with using practical equipment such as 10s frames, counters and also a 10 track to help us represent the different amounts and count forwards within 10.
PSHE
The children have decided upon a set of Class Rules, which we will now follow to ensure that we have a learning environment where we can flourish and learn safely; to be the best that we can be.
R.E
In R.E we have been creators and created some fantastic pieces of art using only natural materials found in the outdoor classroom. I think you will agree, they look fantastic.
We hope you have a great weekend.
Mr Monckton, Mr Jardine and the Year 1 team.
Weekly Update - Monday 1st September - Friday 5th September 2025
'Welcome to Year One!' On this blog you will find weekly updates of what we have been up to.
English
Our focus in English this week and for the next few weeks will be on handwriting. We have been looking at our curly caterpillar letters and how we ensure they sit on the line within our books. It has been amazing to see how the children have improved over the course of the week.
Maths
In Maths this week, we have been looking at numbers to 10 and grouping objects together before counting the objects in the set. Again, the children have really impressed us with how hard they have worked and all the things they have remembered from reception.
Wider Curriculum
In our wider curriculum, we have been looking at all the routines and new subjects we will look at in Year 1. We started our new Geography topic of 'Our local park' we looked at the points of a compass and also some of the directional language we will need to know in order to give directions. The children worked really hard!
We hope you have a great weekend.
Mr Monckton and Mr Jardine