Form One Parents’ guide

2015 - 2016

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Class organisation
  3. Assessment
  4. Homework
  5. Communication
  6. Reading Guidance for Form One
  7. Maths ideas to support learning at home
  8. Form One Literacy Guidelines
  9. Handwriting guide
  10. Form One High frequency word lists
  11. Form One Numeracy Guidelines
  12. Marking
  13. Form One Topics
  14. French
  15. ICT
  16. PE
  17. Art
  18. Productions and Performances
  19. Useful apps and websites list
  20. Coffee mornings
  21. Uniform requirements

Introduction

This Form One Curriculum Guide has been written to provide parents with a brief outline of the areas the children will be working on over the course of the academic year and our aims in each subject. We review and develop our curriculum at all times so the information enclosed may alter slightly.

A welcome letter will be sent at the start of each term, which will highlight any changes to the class timetable, projects, planned trips, games sessions, times and requirements, as well as, descriptions of expected uniforms to be worn during the term.

Form One sees the children moving officially from the ‘Early Years Foundation Stage’ curriculum to begin ‘Key Stage 1’ of the National Curriculum. It is a highly rewarding year to teach, as the children are ‘sponges’ for learning at this stage. I am sure that when you look back in July you will be delighted with the amount of progress your child has made in all aspects of school life.

The children grow in confidence and independence and respond well to the more formal nature of their curriculum and timetable.

I hope that you find this Guide both interesting and informative and use it to support your child’s learning at home.

I wish you and your child a happy and fulfilling year.

Miss A Steel

Form One Class Teacher.

Communications

Reading Diaries

Daily communication to the form teacher can be made via your child’s reading record book;

  • Write a brief note in the book or send in a separate letter.
  • If you would like an appointment with your child’s teacher (or any other member of staff) please ask for an appointment by writing to the teacher or by telephoning or emailing the school office:
  • Each Form teacher can be contacted directly via email for school related information. However, please note that our teachers will be teaching your children throughout the school day and are unlikely to check their email accounts until after school. Miss Steel’s school email address is:

Appointments

We will arrange termly parents afternoons where you will be invited to discuss your child’s progress with Miss Steel. However, if there is a pressing concern then she is usually available to see parents, by appointment, from 3.30 pm onwards on Mondays and Thursday, depending on their commitments.

It is not possible for teachers to be available to see parents during the school day and it is very difficult for teachers to commit to appointments before school. Having said that, if there is a serious problem that cannot wait, contact the school office at once and we will arrange an appointment as soon as possible

Class Organisation

  • Both Junior One groups will combine in Form one. The class size will be up to 18 children and the teacher child ratio will be 1:9 or less.
  • Miss Steel is the Form One class teacher, and she is supported, full time, by Miss Western.
  • Miss Steel is responsible for the teaching of Numeracy, Literacy, Science, History, Geography, PSHE, Art, ICT and PE supported by specialist teachers for football and swimming.
  • Mrs. Hopkins teaches music.
  • Mrs Urbanekteaches Key Stage One French.
  • Mrs. Larke teaches DT and supports small groups for Numeracy
  • Miss Hayward is our Read Write Inc co-ordinator and she will be charting Form One’s reading development.
  • Mr Westermansupports the boys’ exam preparation.

Grouping

Within the class, and at the discretion of the form teacher, the children may be divided into ability groups for Literacy and Numeracy. This is to ensure that the children work at their own pace and receive appropriate support.

In the summer term Mr Westermanhas the boys for short session introducing concepts such as verbal and non-verbal reasoning.

Accommodation

  • The Form One class is in a large room on the second floor.
  • In core curriculum subjects, groups of 4 to 8 children may betaught
  • separately in different classrooms such as the science room.
  • Art and DT are taught in the Dining room.
  • Music in the Music room on the first floor.
  • Kensington Leisure Centre and Little Venice Sports Centre are used for rotated games sessions,which includes gymnastics, swimming and football
  • Dance is on Friday afternoons from a specialist Dance teacher
  • On other days games are played in Hyde Park.

Monitoring progress

Every child’s progressed is carefully monitored and recorded by the Form Teacher working with the Junior School Coordinator, Miss Mayer. Progress reviews will involve coordinators and appropriate members of the senior management team (Miss Mayer, as Head of Junior school, Miss Burke, Safeguarding Officer, Mrs Victoria Hampton, in her role as Head of Pastoral Care and Mrs Jacqueline Hampton, Principal.) Relevant teachers will contribute to these assessment reviews.

Assessment

  • Progress and attainment are monitored continuously by Miss Steel, throughout the year.
  • Individual targets are set for children to enable them to focus on specific areas for improvement.
  • Children will have summative assessments at different stages of the year but will be unaware that this is the case.These are carried out to aid teacher planning and to set targets.
  • Miss Hayward, (RWI coordinator), will assess the children’s phonics and reading development every six weeks. This will insure that the children are reading appropriate books for their ability.
  • The children’s literacy and numeracy skills are assessed against the national expected standard.
  • Spelling and Maths tests are held every Friday morning. These will include in the autumn term 10 spellings following spelling patterns and some high frequency words from Spell Zoo.
  • In the Summer Term the children will be set formal exams in Literacy and Numeracy and a combined History, Geography and Science quizzes. This will assist the teachers’ assessments of their understanding of the topics. This will also give an indication of how well children perform in a more formal test situation.

Special Educational Needs and disabilities.

Miss Urbanek BA Hons (Roehampton), PGCE (Kings College, London), Diploma in French (Redbridge College), Specific Learning Difficulties OCR Programme (UCL) Is the schools SENCo and is available for in school SEN assessment and support.

If it is agreed that a child will benefit from one to one specialist support with Miss Urbanek then this can be arranged at an extra charge.

Please see the SEND policy

Homework

You will find that the nature and purpose of homework changes and develops as your child moves through the school.

Please adhere to the time guide; we believe that at this stage the children should be spending most of their after school time just being 5 or 6! Saying this, the homework is slowly and progressively built on in preparation for moving into Form Two.

The homework in Form One will consist of spellings and a maths skill (number bonds, doubles) to learn/practise each week and be tested on. It will also include a written sheet focussing on a RWI book we are studying in our Literacy Lessons. When this homework is sent home we advise to spend a maximum of 15-20 minutes a week on each piece of homework.

If your child is struggling to complete their homework, with your support, in the recommended time, please notify Miss Steel.

If you want to extend your child’s learning further with homework topics please discuss this with Miss Steel and Mrs. V. Hampton.

Homework is outlined in your child’s homework book with instructions of how to complete the work.

Your child will receive: spellings, a sheet/activity on sentence writing or grammar in accordance with the RWI we will be studying and a Maths activity in accordance to the week’s maths concept. Homework will be given on a Friday and expected back on a Wednesday.

Aims

  • To develop independent study skills
  • To provide opportunities for parental support
  • To begin to establish study habits at home.

How you can help

  • Try to establish a routine
  • Find a calm and quiet place
  • Encourage your child to have a go
  • Encourage independence and perseverance and praise achievement
  • Written work should come back to school unmarked and unaltered
  • Ensure that the homework is completed in pencil.

Reading Guidance

The children will continue to follow the Read Write Inc. Scheme of work that they started in Junior One. This will expand on their phonics, the ability to read for meaning, information and enjoyment. The children will be asked relevant questions on their comprehension on the books read and their ability to predict and evaluate their ideas on the stories they have read.

At School: The children will read though the RWI books during school reading sessions 4 times a week.

At Home: The children will take Oxford Reading tree and Rocket books home to read, progressing on to early chapter books when they are ready.

When reading together at home:

  • Start with the title, look at the cover and talk about what you might find inside.
  • Encourage the child to predict what may happen next.
  • If your child gets stuck on a word ask them what might fit, look at the picture, then give the word.
  • Discuss the book e.g. character, sequence main events, likes, dislikes and interesting words, to build up your child’s comprehension skills. Progressing as children build up their sight vocabulary and knowledge of sounds
  • Encourage them to blend letters together; they will be learning to do this at school e.g. tr-ap not t-r-a-p

You can help when a mistake is made by:

  • If the meaning is not lost let the child read on.
  • If the meaning is lost, let the child complete the sentence then ask if that made sense, which word would fit or point to the picture
  • If the child is stuck, encourage use of strategies i.e. context, picture, sounds in word, grammar (what would make sense?)
  • Tell the child the word to maintain momentum and meaning.
  • Do not let the child attempt to sound out phonetically irregular words e.g. was and some. Remind them that these words are “Red words” and if necessary tell them the word. Use the Reception or Form One High Frequency word lists to highlight “Red words”
  • Paired reading is a useful strategy particularly for less confident and reluctant readers. An adult reads some of the book whilst the child points to the word, thus silent reading and then the child has a turn; usually alternate pages. More experienced readers can read a page each.
  • As your child acquires reading skills we begin to work on expression and the development of comprehension skills. The RWI books suggest useful comprehension questions on the back page of each book
  • Once a child wants to read in their head the focus at home can shift to a discussion about the book being read, although there is still a place for reading aloud regularly. Regardless of a child’s technical reading ability their reading material should be age appropriate (so that material is understood). Breadth of reading is imperative, rather than tackling more and more complex texts.

Reading for fun

  • Let your child see you enjoying reading
  • Visit a library or bookshop together
  • Read anything! – comics, recipes, poetry, newspapers, packets
  • Story tapes are good for reluctant readers and are excellent for developing vocabulary
  • Play alphabet games and sing songs
  • Make books at home
  • Choose a word and go on a word hunt
  • Use magnetic letters
  • Play I Spy, matching games, word bingo or junior scrabble

Useful Apps list

  • ABC pocket phonics
  • Delux spelling and learning game for kids
  • My spellings
  • My First App series
  • Interactive books and stories including The Wind in the Willows and Grimm’s Repunzel
  • Number bonds Pro
  • Bubbles of Maths
  • Tell the Time
  • Hairy Letters
  • Pirate Treasure Hunt

Useful websites

Math’s ideas to support learning at home

Much of the work done at school can be supported at home:

  • Play board games involving number operations e.g. Snakes and Ladders
  • The Early Learning Centre produce CD’s on multiplication tables which are very useful
  • Learn 3D and 2D shapes by identifying them in the house
  • Reinforce time telling by wearing a watch at home, but not at school.
  • Sequence days and months
  • Practice using money – recognising coins, calculating change etc.
  • Simple sharing activities help the understanding of division – share out sweets or playing cards
  • Cut fruit in to halves and quarters to help understand basic fractions
  • Ask your child to problem solve with you, e.g. there are four people having dinner, each person will have half an apple, how many apples do we need to get?

What is involved in a Read Write Inc. lesson?

RWI is a fast-paced, rigorous and structured phonics programme developed by Ruth Miskin; that helps get every child reading fast.

All our Junior teachers have been specifically trained to deliver high-quality teaching every day.

In Form One, every child is encouraged to read for meaning with three readings of each story to ensure that the story is understood and read with fluency and expression.

Children read complete fiction and non-fiction texts from a range of classic and contemporary leading children’s authors and poets including Julia Donaldson and Michael Morpurgo.

Vocabulary is taught in the context of the stories. Miss Steel uses the words and phrases, and the children are encouraged to use them in discussions and in their writing.

Children read powerful words to develop a knowledge of exciting vocabulary. These ‘power words’ are displayed in the classroom.

Our creative writing activities are linked to the storybooks that the children are reading as a class. They include many structured activities such as ‘Build a sentence’ to help the children become better writers. In Form one the children are encouraged to start to evaluate and edit their work to ensure accuracy.

Every day, children develop and share ideas through partner work. They think out loud before they write to help them hold more complex ideas and sentences.

Ten minutes each day is spent teaching new phonemes and spelling patterns, these cover the entire spelling requirements of the current Grammar, punctuation and spelling test for KS1

Autumn Term:

CVC, CCVC and CCVCC words, ch, sh, th, wh, ll, ss, ff, zz, ck, nk, ng, tch, ve, s, es, er, ai, oi, ay, oy.

Spring Term:

a-e, e-e, i-e, o-e, u-e, ar, ee, ea, er, ir, ur, oo (spoon), oo (look), oe, oa, ou, ow.

Summer Term:

ue, ew, ie, igh, or, ore, aw, au, air, ear, are, y, ph as f, un opposites, compound words.

Additional sounds such as ‘tion’ will be taught along with the RWI speed sounds program.

Form One Literacy guidelines

In Form One we continue to follow the RWI scheme and the Literacy curriculum taken from The Primary Framework for Literacy.

Aims

Our aims in teaching Literacy are to:

  • Systematically plan opportunities for practicing skills – skills such as skimming, scanning or analysing data which are taught in the context of literacy sessions, can be further developed through purposeful use in other areas
  • Provide real experiences, context and meaning for the development of core skills in literacy
  • Assist memory through providing opportunities for children to practice and use information in different contexts
  • Provide opportunities for application of knowledge in new contexts to involve children in higher-order thinking skills such as reasoning and problem solving

Speaking and Listening

This is an integral part of all curriculum areas. However a range of explicit activities (e.g. sharing news, Circle Time, assemblies) allows the children to focus on and develop their skills in Speaking and Listening.

These skills follow a progression in these areas:

  • Speaking for different audiences 
  • Listening and responding
  • Discussion and group interaction
  • Drama activities Language structure and vocabulary, expressive qualities and purpose of talk are taken into account.

Reading

Pupils learn the strategies to read with fluency, accuracy, understanding and enjoyment. They gain an appreciation that reading is an intrinsic aspect of the educational process and learn to value a wide range of reading material.