Welcome to Year 1
Teacher: Mrs Patel and Mr Murrin
Support Staff: Miss Kevin, Mrs Stalham, Ms Herrero, Mrs Pasarica
We have an exciting summer term ahead of us, in Year 1. Our class timetable and our topics are on our school website, so please take a look at them. Bear in mind, the timetable is a guide and will vary due to the many exciting events we always have happening here at Monksmead.
The Year 1 team
We are incredibly fortunate to have a network of adults working within Year 1 this year.
Mr Murrin teaches Year 1 every Monday.
Mrs Patel teaches Year 1 Tuesday-Friday.
Miss Pasarica (‘Miss P’) teaches the class every Wednesday afternoon. She will primarily focus on History and Geography.
Miss Kevin continues to support the class daily as well as providing learning interventions to further support our pupils.
Miss Alma, Miss Herrero and Miss Stalham also continue to support our Year 1 pupils.
Transition
This year we have provided plentiful opportunities for play based learning to support the transition from reception to Year 1. During Spring term, we moved towards a more ‘formal’ style of learning, accessing the curriculum though a mixture of practical and written tasks. This will continue into summer term.
Children now complete core subject work at the same time, at tables, much like they will be doing as they move through the school.
The children have grown increasingly independent this year which has been a joy to see. It is wonderful to see them ‘having a go’ by themselves.
Through whole class teaching, the children are learning what to do when they are not sure, how to solve a problem, where to find help… all of which are very important life skills that will support them throughout their school journey and beyond.
Through whole class teaching, the children are learning what to do when they are not sure, how to solve a problem, where to find help… All of which are very important life skills that will support them throughout their school journey and beyond.
Homework
Homework is given out every Thursday and is due back in on a Monday, as it was last term. Please remind pupils to place their orange folder into the homework box.
Where work is set on Purple Mash, please remember to press the ‘hand in’ button so the wonderful work can be shared with us.
PE
Monday and Thursday
This term, PE lessons are on Monday and Thursday every week.
Children should continue to wear their PE kits to school on these days, and the kit needs to reflect our uniform policy.
-blue jogging bottoms
-blue shorts
-white polo shirt
-blue jumper
-black / white trainers
-hair tied back
-stud earrings removed/ taped
Reading in school
Reading is taught through our English lessons and Phonics sessions. In addition, an adult will hear each child in the class read at least once a week, on their allocated reading day. Children need to bring their reading books to school every day, as there may be opportunities for extra reading with an adult.
We have a ‘Reading Buddies’ session with Year 4 every Wednesday morning. Year 1s have the opportunity to read their books to the year 4 pupils.
Reading at home
It’s important to continue to read at home at least 4 times weekly and record this in your child’s reading record.
It is particularly important for the children to read their ‘phonics decodable book’ at least four times a week to really practise their sounds, especially as we are reconsolidating our ‘Phase 5’ sounds.
It makes a huge difference to the progress that the children make when they read at home and it is so important that they stay on track in Year 1. Reading is a key skill for their future school life.
As much as we do read at school, to really understand the books and have the practise that they need to become confident, fluent readers the children need to be reading regularly at home.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to pop in to school to see one of the teachers. We look forward to continuing to together to provide your child with the very best experience at school.
Thank you,
Mrs Patel & the Year 1 Team
Phonics and Reading
At Monksmead School we have adpoted a new synthetic phoncis scheme called ELS. ELS has a clear progression of reading books that are phonetically decodable. Books have been carefully aligned so that they specifically match what children have been learning in class. Children in Reception and Year 1 will bring home a phonetically decodable book, linked to their learning, each Friday. With ELS, there is a daily phonics lesson where the teacher teaches a new sound, or reviews sounds learned earlier in the week. This is shown to the class on the whiteboard. Children learn the letters that represent the sounds. They are then asked to read words and sentences with the new sounds in. Children will also practise writing the letters that represent the sounds.
Children learn to read letters or groups of letters by saying the sounds they represent. Pronounce the sounds as you would say them within a word. It is important to ensure that you (or the children) don’t add ‘uh’ onto the end, so for ‘m’ say ‘mm’ not ‘muh’ and for ‘l’ say ‘ull’ not ‘luh’. The below video gives you all 44 sounds in English.
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Please click on the links below to see the sounds the children learn as part of ELS.
To support their love of reading, children will also be encouraged to choose a 'sharing book' - this is a book that may or may not be fully decodable but can be enjoyed with parents and family members as a book to read together.
Science Knowledge Organisers - Summer 2026
Knowledge organisers for the individual topic area.
KS1 Long Term Plan 2025 - 2026