This term in Year 1 children will explore the question “Do our choices matter?” through an exciting journey into the past. To launch our learning with a special Wow Day, the children will meet a guest speaker who will share what life was like in the past. They will then become history detectives, working together to investigate mysterious artefacts such as old toys, photographs and household objects. The children will look closely for clues, ask questions and make predictions about what the objects are and who they might have belonged to, sparking their curiosity and encouraging them to think about how life and choices have changed over time.
Discover
Do our choices matter?
How we'll be doing it...
Wow day
A guest speaker about life in the past (September)
Authentic outcome
Role play/drama event around The Great Fire of London.
Autumn trips
Pantomime December 2025
Subjects
Phonics
At our school, we follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised phonics programme. Children take part in daily phonics lessons to develop their reading and spelling skills, with half-termly assessments helping us to monitor progress and provide additional support or intervention where needed. Guided reading sessions also follow the Little Wandle scheme, with children reading the same book three times each week in school to build confidence, accuracy and fluency. These books are then sent home as Collins eBooks, giving children the opportunity to practise and enjoy reading with their families. Our handwriting scheme also follows Little Wandle, supporting children with correct letter formation and recognition as they develop their writing skills.
Literacy
This term in literacy we will be focussing on the stories of Elmer, The Three Little Pigs, Cops and Robbers and Peepo. The children will be working on labels, lists and captions and building up their sentence structure with capital letters, finger spaces and full stops. The children will be continuing with their Little Wandle Phonics and reading journey throughout the whole of Year 1.
Maths
This term the children will heavily focusing on place value, addition and subtraction and shape. There will be lots of opportunities for practical maths as well as lots of problem solving and reasoning aspects. The children will really solidify their knowledge of numbers to 10.
Science
During the Autumn Term in Year 1 Science, the children will be exploring the topic Animals, Including Humans. They will learn to identify and label different parts of the body, such as the head, arms, and legs, and discover how we use our five senses to explore the world around us. The children will also investigate Everyday Materials, exploring their properties and carrying out simple investigations to find out which materials sink or float. Throughout the term, we will make links to Seasonal Changes, observing how the environment changes during autumn and discussing how these changes affect the world around us.
PSHE
This term Year 1 children will develop their knowledge of growth mindset and to determine the difference between a fixed and a growth mindset and how a positive growth mindset can be used effectively when carrying out school or out of school tasks.
Also children will develop their knowledge of families and relationships and how families can be different, what is a positive friendship and how issues can occur in relationships and how these can be overcome.
PE
Taught by Mr G. Year 1 will continue to develop their physical skills. Throughout a range of units the children will develop their agility, balance, coordination both individually and with others. The children will be taught to perform dances using simple movement patterns. Within team building and fitness children will learn to engage in competitive and co-operative physical activities both individually and with others. The children will learn to master running, jumping and throwing and catching.
RE
Through our RE days at school, the children learn about their own and others’ beliefs.
Our focus questions this year is: What do people say about God?
Computing
This term Year 1 will be developing their computer skills and knowledge of technology around us. The children will be interacting on the laptops by saving, retrieving, editing and typing on documents. They will also be interacting with digital painting by developing the use of drag, drop and clicking to have increased control over a programme.
DT
This term the children will be creating a wooden spoon toy as a gift for someone in their family. Based on the children knowledge of toys from the past the children will create a simple wooden toy using skills such as designing, constructing and evaluating. The children will use different material choices and choose the most appropriate method to join the materials together such as glue, tape or staple.
Music
This term children will enjoy a series of music lessons based around pulse, rhythm, dynamics and tempo. The children will explore a variety of music sharing their opinions.
The children will use their voices and instruments to maintain pulse and rhythm both individually and with others.
Handwriting
This term Year 1 will continue to develop their handwriting skills by forming letters and number of the correct orientation and size on the lines. We will be using the Little Wandle Scheme to support handwriting in Year 1.