Departments: Infant 1

In Year 1, we further develop the values and skills that the boys have acquired in the Early Years. Daily routines are maintained, whilst boys are encouraged to become more responsible in caring for their belongings and for producing more independent work.

In English, boys have more formal lessons in Year 1, concentrating on reading, phonics, spelling, grammar and handwriting. Writing on lined paper at this stage ensures that boys make lower and upper case letters the correct size. We encourage excellent presentation at all times!

In Maths, boys work initially with numbers to 10, working up to 20. By the end of the year they know how to construct numbers to 100. Topics, including money, data handling, measuring and shape are covered through the year with some concepts being enhanced through computer work in the I.C.T. suite.

A wealth of educational opportunities can be found in and around our beautiful school grounds. Close observation of mini beasts in their natural habitats, and change through the seasons are an excellent stimulus for science topics. In Year 1 these include Living Things, Forces, Light and Materials. The grounds are also a great resource for art work covered in Year 1, including observational drawing. The children see the richness and importance of their immediate environment, and learn how to care for and respect it.

Learning maths concepts through games: Understanding of mathematical concepts is enhanced through practical work and playing games.  Traditional games like tiddlywinks can be used to practise addition of numbers.  Here, the game has been adapted to reinforce money work.  Values of coins are added to make a total amount, and the coins are then put into purses.  Dominoes can be used for addition of simple number bonds, and are valuable in helping understand of double and near doubles.

Science investigations – sounds: We investigate how sounds are made when we make our own simple instruments with everyday objects.  It’s amazing how many different sounds we can make using everyday provisions such as rice and pasta.  We play instruments in different ways such as banging or shaking, to make more different sounds.

Art in our local environment: The grounds around our school inspire us to produce lovely art work.  Following a walk around school, we painted leaf pictures using autumn colours.  We use the local environment in our science investigations about plants and animals too.

Open – ended questioning: Open – ended questions and activities encourage the children to think independently.  They start to understand that there may be more than one solution to a question.  When asked to sort the living things into sets, there may be several ways of doing it – those with feathers, those without, those with fins, those without, the number of legs, body covering – the list goes on!

Cross – curricular links: Curriculum areas overlapped as we made our frog puppets.  We were learning about life cycle in our ‘living things’ topic in Science.  At the same time we were practising our cutting, sticking and paper folding skills in design technology.  We get better all the time!

Christmas: Christmas is always a busy time in school.  We make cards and calendars to take home.  We make party table mats in our computer lessons, and enjoy our concerts and parties in the week or two before Christmas.  This year we heard sleigh bells announcing the arrival of a very special visitor to our Christmas party!