We hope that you all had a relaxing Easter break and are all looking forward to an exciting summer term in Year One to come. In Year 1, our main topic for this half term is ‘Growing’, and ‘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:

Phonics screening

We will be continuing to embed the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds phonics programme. This involves daily teaching of phonics and 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 9th June 2025. We will give out more information at the Year 1 phonics screening meeting (see below for date).

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 use the Numbots program 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 looking 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 identify the seven continents and five oceans.  In History, in the second half term we will be identifying and comparing beach holiday 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 information about the summer term learning by looking at the overviews and programmes of study on the website.

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

Thank you in advance for all of your support.

The Year 1 Team