09/01/2026
Happy New Year and welcome back to school! The children have settled in brilliantly and have enjoyed a busy and exciting week of learning.
In English, we began our new model text, The Magic Porridge Pot, which quickly captured the children’s imaginations. They loved creating their own thumb pots and writing about the wonderful and magical things their pots could produce. In Maths, we started our new unit on numbers to 20, developing a secure understanding of place value. The children worked hard to learn that, for example, the number 12 is made up of 1 ten and 2 ones.
In Geography, the children enjoyed learning about the United Kingdom and discovering how the flag is formed from the four different countries within it. In DT, they showed great focus and creativity while weaving with paper and materials, preparing them for our next exciting unit on sewing.
In Music, we introduced the children to our school play, and there was a real buzz of excitement as they began learning the songs in preparation for our performance at the end of the Spring term.
We are also looking forward to our trip to Ely Cathedral in two weeks’ time. If you would like to volunteer and support us on the day, please get in touch with your child’s class teacher—we would love to hear from you.
Maths
We loved welcoming so many parents into the classroom this week to join our Learn with Parents maths lesson. The children have been focusing on place value, using tens and ones accurately to build, draw and write numbers from 10 to 20. It was wonderful to see the children confidently explaining their learning.
Writing
We have continued to enjoy reading The Magic Porridge Pot together. This week, the children learnt all about suffixes, focusing on -ing to show the present tense and -ed to show the past tense. They practised using these suffixes in their own writing.
DT (Design Technology)
The children had their first experience of sewing this week. They learnt how to thread a needle, use a simple stitch and even how to carefully undo a stitch if it went wrong. Everyone showed great concentration and resilience.
Art
In Art, we began our new topic on architecture. The children learnt that an architect is a person who designs buildings, and that architecture is the art of designing buildings. They shared lots of thoughtful ideas about different types of buildings.
Geography
In Geography, we learnt all about one of the countries of the UK – Scotland. The children created their own geographers’ reports, showing where Scotland is located, the Scottish flag, and what you might see there, such as people wearing kilts, Hadrian’s Wall and the Loch Ness Monster.
We have had a fun and exciting week in Year One! Instead of going to the Cathedral on Wednesday, we spent the morning exploring our Forest School area and then enjoyed doing maths on the playground. Working outside allowed us to be very creative – we made up our own maths games, created number lines, and practised addition and subtraction using chalk and some of our playground toys.
In DT, we have started our bunting project. The children are sewing their designs onto bunting to help raise awareness for World Wildlife Day.
In writing, we have begun learning about how to write a recount. The children have really enjoyed creating a story map with actions and ordering the events of what we have been doing this week.
In geography, we have continued learning about the United Kingdom, with a focus this week on Northern Ireland. What facts can you remember about Northern Ireland?
We have had another very busy and exciting week in Year One.
We have been working hard rehearsing for our upcoming play and it is wonderful to see everything starting to come together. The children have been practising their lines, songs and dances and their confidence is growing each day. Please continue to practise lines at home as this really helps the children feel prepared and confident for the performance.
In Writing, we are creating our own narratives based on The Tiger Who Came to Tea. So far, we have written detailed character descriptions and used exciting adjectives to bring our ideas to life. We also enjoyed having our own tea party in class when a tiger came to visit us, which gave us lots of inspiration for our storytelling.
In Maths, we are continuing our learning on place value within 50. The children have been exploring tens and ones, building numbers using practical equipment and representing numbers in different ways.
In Art, we have been creating our own pointillism pictures. The children carefully used small dots of colour to create detailed images inspired by this artistic style.
In Science, we are learning about how to take care of the Earth and discussing simple ways we can help protect our planet. In History, we have been learning about Kings and Queens of the United Kingdom and talking about the role of a monarch.
In Computing, we are beginning to learn about coding. To help us understand how instructions work, we pretended to be robots and gave each other clear, step by step instructions to move around the classroom. This helped us see how important it is to be precise when programming.
In PSHE, we are learning about healthy and safer lifestyles. We have been identifying different parts of the human body and learning the correct vocabulary for body parts.
We are very proud of how hard the children are working and we are looking forward to another fantastic week of learning.
