Ranked 49th out of 16,783 in The Sunday Times Parent Power league tables of the best primary schools in England. The ranking is based upon average scores in English, grammar and maths.
Ranked 49th out of 16,783 in The Sunday Times Parent Power league tables of the best primary schools in England. The ranking is based upon average scores in English, grammar and maths.
Latchmere School

Year 1

Autumn Term

We hope you have all had a great time over the summer and that you are now looking forward to the exciting new school year ahead! We know that, as we enter this year, you might have many questions – we are happy to answer any questions that you have and thank you in advance for your support. We are looking forward to getting to know you and working together to ensure that we have a very happy and productive year. Our aim is that every child in Year 1 is confident, motivated to learn and able to enjoy school life to the full.  We hope that you all enjoy the new experiences and challenges that Year 1 has to offer.

As we begin the new academic year, we would like to remind everyone about the importance of attendance. Many of the subjects we teach rely on carefully sequenced and linked lessons and a missed lesson can have a detrimental impact children’s understanding and ability to ‘keep up’ over the year. If your child will be absent for any reason, please let us know and do speak with your teacher if you have attendance difficulties that you need support with.

Transition from Reception to Year 1

Our aim is to ensure that every child experiences a smooth transition from the Early Years Foundation Stage to Key Stage 1. The Year 1 curriculum builds upon and extends the experiences that children have had in Reception and we continue to value the experiences play offers. Learning through play will continue and the children will gradually be eased into more formal learning as the term goes on so that they remain motivated, enthused and eager learners. Please don’t hesitate to speak to us if you have any questions or queries.

Reading

Our goal is to create confident, fluent, independent readers. We prioritise reading at Latchmere School and have very carefully chosen the texts your child will study this term. We focus on word reading to develop fluency and encourage the whole class to join in through strategies such as choral reading (the whole class read together) and echo reading (the teacher models the reading and the class echo back). We also have the Latchmere Reading skills. These are based on comprehension skills such as retrieval, inference, summarising, making links, prediction and vocabulary.

In Year 1, our main topic for this half term is ‘Senses’ and the second half term’s topic is ‘Toys’.  We have lots of exciting lessons and activities planned and look forward to sharing our learning with you. We will be studying books including:


We will be continuing to embed the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds phonics programme. This involves daily teaching of phonics and up to three reading sessions per week for every child focussing on decoding, prosody and comprehension.

Please see the phonics page on the website for further information.

Maths

Our curriculum is based on the White Rose Maths programme. This research-based initiative ensures that the skills and concepts children taught are fully embedded before moving on. The children are taught strategies such as bar modelling and have plenty of opportunities to use ‘manipulatives’ such as counters and dienes all the way through the school.

This term we will be focusing on place value within 10, addition and subtraction within 10, geometry (shape), and place value within 20.

Children in Year 1 also use the Numbots program to help embed the core maths skills of subitising, number bonds, addition and subtraction. Each child will receive their own log in for use at home later this half term.

Curriculum Highlights

This term, in Geography we will be learning about where we live and taking part in a guided walk of the local area.  This will provide the children with an opportunity to identify some of the human and physical features we have learnt about in class.  We will be developing fundamental skills like skipping, jumping, and balancing whilst also growing our teamwork skills in PE, to focus on developing key skills in this subject. In Science, we will be identifying parts of the body and looking at our senses.  Our topic in History will be Toys, where the children will make comparisons between old fashioned and modern toys.

You can find out more information about the autumn term learning by looking at the overviews and programmes of study.

 Thank you in advance for all of your support.

The Year 1 Team

Miss Lavender (Purple class), Mrs Leung (Blue Class) and Ms Allmand (Blue Class)

                

Key dates

'Get to Know You' meeting– Wednesday 17th September 2025 at 2:30pm

Geography walk – Date to be confirmed


Updates and Reminders

Beginning and End of Day Arrangements

All children should arrive in school between 8.40am-8.50am ready for the start of the school day. Please say goodbye to your child in the playground and encourage them to come to the classroom doors independently. This is important to help keep the doorway clear and also to develop increasing independence. If you would like to talk to your child’s class teacher, please let us know and we can arrange a meeting.

Our school gates will be opened shortly before 3.20 pm.  If you have arranged for your child to be collected by another adult, please speak to us at drop off or send an email. Please be aware that we are unable to send a child home with someone if we have not been informed of this arrangement. 

Class Notice Boards

Each class has its own notice board for messages.  If you wish to post a notice, please first show it to the class teacher. 

Class Representatives

Parents who volunteer to be class reps form an important link between the teachers and parents of each class. Please decide between your class and let your child’s teacher know your class representatives. We would like two reps per class. 

Snacks

Children are able to bring in a healthy snack for morning playtime and at story time at the end of the day. This should ideally be fruit or vegetables but could include crackers, breadsticks and rice cakes. Please label their snack. Each class offers a daily selection of fruit and vegetables but please note our supply can be limited.

Water bottles and bags
Children should bring water to school each day in a bottle with a spill-proof top. Please remember to put your child’s name on the bottle. This will be brought home at the end of each day to be washed and refilled.

Every child needs a named bag. If there are any letters to go home these will usually be put into their book bags so please check regularly. Please ensure your child’s bag fits easily in their locker.

School Uniform

Please ensure that everything that your child brings to school is labelled including: school uniform, P.E kit, water bottle, snack pots, hats, gloves, scarves and coats. It is especially important to label your child’s jumper as this is the most commonly lost item.

P.E. Kit

Children come to school in their P.E kit on days when they have P.E. We ask that children are dressed appropriately for the weather – we would appreciate it if children could wear long sleeves and long trousers (preferably in navy, grey or black). They will need their usual coat and their school bag on these days.

P.E. is taught twice a week in Year 1 on Tuesday and Wednesdays.  Children wear their PE kits to school on these days.

Medication

Please ensurethat the office has up-to-date information regarding medication for children to be administered at school. 

Contact Address and Telephone Numbers

If you have moved recently or changed your home or mobile telephone number, please let the office staff know.  It is important that we can contact you quickly if your child is unwell.

Parent helpers and DBS Clearance

We really appreciate the support that parent helpers can offer in school. As you can appreciate, we are only able to ask parents who have an up-to-date DBS form. Please speak to the office if you need to apply for clearance or if you are unsure whether your DBS form is up to date. Thank you.