Latchmere School

Year 1

SUMMER TERM

We hope that you all had a relaxing Easter break and are all looking forward to 
an exciting summer term in Year One. 
In Year 1, term is ‘Growing’, and our main topic for this half ‘Oh I do like to be beside the sea!’ the following half term.  We have lots of exciting lessons and activities planned and look forward to sharing our learning with you.

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.

Over this term, we will be studying a mix of non-fiction and fiction books including:

  • The Gigantic Turnip
  • Pattans Pumpkin
  • At the Beach
  • Cleam and Crab
  • The Sea Saw


Phonics screening  
We will be continuing to follow 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. 
The phonics screening check is a statutory assessment for all children in Year One. The screening check will take place on the week beginning 8th June 2026.

Maths

Our curriculum is based on the White Rose Maths programme. This term we will be 
focusing on:

  • Multiplication and division
  • Fractions
  • Geometry (position and direction)
  • Place value within 100
  • Measurement (money and time)
  • Children in Year 1 also have access to Numbots at home to help embed the core maths skills of subitising, number bonds, addition and subtraction. 

Curriculum Highlights

This term, in RE we will explore what it means to be a Muslim and a Jew and will be learning about important beliefs and objects for these religions. We will be look at net and ball games, invasion games, gymnastics and athletics (in preparation for sports day) in PE, to continue the focus on developing key skills in this subject. In Science, we will start to make comparisons between the two seasons of Spring and Summer, as well as across all four seasons. We will observe changes across the seasons by exploring the signs of Spring and Summer through nature and wildlife; this will link to our learning later in the year around plants. In Geography, the children will name, locate and indentify the seven continent and five oceans. In History, in the second half term we will be identifying and comparing beach holidays from the past and present. In PSHE, we will be looking at economic wellbeing, including discussing what money is, keeping money safe and spending/saving. 

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

We look forward to working in paternership with you to ensure that your child enjoys a happy and successful summer term.

The Year 1 Team

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

                

Key dates

Wednesday 6th May 2026

Wisley Trip

Summer 2 (TBC)

Beach Day


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 and be picked up at 3.20pm. Please remember to speak to the class teacher or email the class email address to record when alternative arrangements have been made for your child at the end of day. As you may be aware, we closely monitor the attendance of pupils at our school as there is clear evidence which shows the correlation between attainment and attendance and pupil well-being.

We believe working with families is very important, therefore when a child's attendance falls between 94%, we intervene quickly to work with parents to identify any barriers to regular school attendance and identify how we can support further.

Design and Technology

This term, the children will be taking part in two DT projects. They will be making smoothies and puppets. To help make this possible, we appreciate your support by donating to the year 1 parent pay DT fund. Any donations are greatly appreciated and ensure we can supply all the resources needed to run the projects successfully. The children always really enjoy the design, make and evaluate tasks and they learn 
many new skills.

Swimming

Swimming lessons begin for each class on the week beginning 
April 2026. The swimming sessions for this term are:  

Blue - Monday - 1 to 3pm

Purple - Tuesday - 1 to 3pm

Points to remember:

  • Please encourage your child to dress themselves independently
  • All children need to wear a swimming cap in the pool
  • Earrings should not be worn on swimming days, otherwise your child will not be able to swim

Thank you to those parents who have signed up to help supervise these sessions. Your support is very much appreciated as swimming lessons could not go ahead without it. Please see the sign-up sheets in class notice boards to see if you can help with any remaining sessons. All helpers must be DBS checked - please see the office for more information on this.