Starlings 2025 - 2026

WELCOME TO YEAR ONE - STARLINGS

Our class teacher is Miss Charlton and our teaching assistant is Miss Nelson.  Mrs Buckles will also be supporting in class and Mr Ault will be teaching PE.

We can’t wait to go on an exciting learning journey with you this year!

Look what we will learn about in Year 1:

Phase 1: September to February

Writing

During Phase 1, we will focus on three lovely texts to inspire our writing. Firstly, we will read 'Lost and Found' by Oliver Jeffers and write an adventure story. Using this text, we will focus on combining words to make sentences, using capital letters and full stops, and using capital letters for names of people and the personal pronoun 'I'. Secondly, we will read 'Nibbles the Book Monster' by Emma Yarlett and will focus on using oracy skills to discuss what Nibbles might do in different fairy stories and sequence sentences to form a short narrative. This text will support the children to write a diary entry from Nibbles's point of view. Finally, we will read 'The Lion Inside' by Rachel Bright to learn how to use the suffixes -ing, -ed, -er and -est correctly and write a story.

Read Write Inc (RWI) and Reading

For RWI groups from Red to Orange, your child will bring home a storybook and a book bag book each Thursday.  The yellow group and upwards will bring home an additional book bag book.  Your child will have read the storybook that week with their teacher and will be confident; bringing it home enables them to 'show off' their skills to you and boost their confidence.  The storybook(s) will be new, and your child will need your support.  These books provide them with various familiar, new and challenging texts to read.

Please check Class Dojo to find out which group they are in, which sounds they have learnt that week and which books they have in their book bag.  Each time they move to a new group, they will receive a RWI bookmark.  On this bookmark are the ‘red’ words practised in that group;  regular practice supports fluency and confidence in reading and writing. 

Each Thursday, your child will also bring home a 'Bedtime' storybook of their choosing.  Bedtime storybooks are to be enjoyed with an adult. Reading to the children ensures that they experience the magic of a story coming to life and have a purpose and love of reading. Children should read their reading books daily at home with an adult to support fluency and understanding. 

Maths

In Maths, we will explore the composition of numbers up to 10, compare quantities, and use our oracy skills to discuss math challenges with our peers.  We will also be exploring 2D and 3D shapes. As a class, we then build on our knowledge of numbers up to 10 as we explore numbers up to 20 and then up to 50.

History and Geography

During Phase 1, we will be exploring our class theme, 'Explorers. We will develop our inquiry skills by asking and answering historical questions about our local area of Lostock and how that differs from Northwich. Using our learnt knowledge of the countries that make up the United Kingdom, we will locate the capitals and discuss how the inventions of Steam trains and cars impacted where people could travel. 

Science

In science, we will look at the topic of 'Materials'.  We will investigate objects and work out what material they are made from. We will also be exploring the school grounds to understand the changing seasons, why the seasons change, and what clothes we should wear in different seasons.

RE

In RE, we will focus on Christianity and worldwide views. In Autumn 1, we will work to answer the key question, 'What does the story of Creation teach people?' whilst thinking about what people with similar and different worldviews believe about how the world was made. 

In Autumn 2, we will look at the key question: Why is baptism special? And how people of different faiths welcome babies.

Phase 2: February to May 

Writing

In this phase, we will focus on two beautiful texts to inspire our writing. Our first text, The Curious Case of the Missing Mammoth by Ellie Hattie, has us following  Oscar through a magical museum of curious creatures to find the mammoth before the clock strikes one! This magical story will inspire our writing as we explore exciting verbs and adjectives to bring our recount alive!  Toys in Space by Mini Grey. 

Maths

In this phase of  Maths, we will continue to explore the composition of numbers up to 50, compare quantities, and use our oracy skills to discuss math challenges with our peers.  We will also investigate length and height, mass and capacity.

History and Geography

Staff are currently busy planning our whole school shared topic. Watch this space for further details coming soon!

Science

In science, we will further explore the topic of 'Materials'.  We will be investigating objects and working out what material they are made from. We will also be exploring the school grounds to understand the changing of the Seasons, why the seasons change and what clothes we should wear in different seasons. We will then move on to our topic of Animals, where we will identify, describe and compare different animals and also explore the different parts of the human body and which part of the body is associated with each sense.

RE

During Phase 2, we will explore Christianity in more detail and will answer the question: What did Jesus teach people about God’s love?  We will enjoy learning about the stories that Jesus told through dramatisation. We then continue with the Christian Faith and will explore the question: What do you think is the most important part of the Easter story?

Phase 3: May to July 

Writing

In this phase, we will focus on our final text of the year,  Goldilocks and Just the One Bear by Leigh Hodgkinson sees us exploring what happens when Bear wanders out of his fairytale and into the big city where Goldilocks lives. The children will consolidate their knowledge of suffixes whilst also learning to correctly apply the suffix un- to a word to change the meaning of verbs and adjectives.

Maths

Exploring numbers to 100 will be our next step in this phase, and we will use this knowledge to understand how to multiply and divide and understand fractions of a half and a quarter.  We will learn about o'clock and the half-hour in time, and also explore money.

History and Geography

We will use our Inquiry skills to understand the historical significance of the Moon landings and how the invention of Space changed people's lives. We will investigate who the first astronauts were and whether animals have travelled to space.  We will add the Moon landings to our class timeline and learn about when the first rocket landed on the Moon.  This links to Geography, where we explore what the astronauts could see from outer space; we label the continents and learn about positional language.

Science

In science, we will further explore the topic of 'Materials' and continue with our Seasonal explorations. We will conduct investigations and write conclusions to our findings.

RE

We continue to explore Islam in this phase -  How and why are Allah & Muhammad (pbuh) important to Muslims ? And How do Muslims celebrate new beginnings?

PE

Please note that PE for your child will be on Wednesdays and  Fridays. Your child should come to school dressed in their PE kit on this day. 

• Black/navy PE skirt or shorts, black/navy leggings or joggers 
• Plain white or school logo t-shirts, plain blue/black hoodies, or school logo hoodies 
• Trainers that can be fastened independently.
• Please remember that children will need to remove their earrings 

Please can we also ask that your child has a drink bottle with water. 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in contact.

Miss Charlton x