YR/1 Acorn Class
Welcome to Acorn Class!
Acorn Class is our first class.
We are a mixed Reception and Year 1 class. This class is taught by Ms Gray (Monday and Tuesday) and Mrs Rose (Wednesday-Friday). Our teaching assistants are Mrs Johnson, Mrs de Frond and Mrs McCaffery who help support the children with their learning.
Like all Early Years settings, play is integral to the children’s learning and so we have a Continuous Provision approach to our learning, of which the Year 1 children are very fortunate to be able to have access to.
Year 1 have a more formal style in terms of their learning, but their Continuous provision comprises challenges that reinforce the week’s objectives they have in the Foundation subjects. They have weekly Topic, Art, RE, RSHE and Science lessons, which the Reception children can access too but on a more appropriate level.
Acorn class is a very busy and fun place to be. The children love playing together and it is wonderful to see the older children supporting the younger children in their learning and emotional development. Similarly, the younger children look up to the Year 1s and are continually challenged in their learning by working and playing alongside them.
Long Term Planning
Medium Term Planning
Meet the Teacher
Phonics and Reading
Phonics is taught through the systematic synthetic phonics scheme 'Little Wandle'. Each week, new sounds are introduced and rehearsed. At the end of the week, the new sounds are added to a keyring for practise at home daily. Alongside these, tricky words are also introduced. These are words which cannot be sounded out and therefore are read by sight. These words are also added to the keyring for consolidation at home. In Reception, we learn the sounds of Phase 2, 3 and 4. In Year 1, we consolidate these sounds and move to learning the sounds in Phase 5.
Children will read in groups three times each week. They begin by reading wordless books. This allows them to develop 'book skills' and develop vocabulary. Once children are able to confidently blend sounds into words, they will move to a book containing words which focus on the sounds that they know and are confident with. The same book will be read each reading session and then sent home to read a further three times. This repetition aims to develop fluency and confidence and allow children to read automatically.
In addition, we have a wide selection of books in our reading area for children to enjoy in class and to take home to share with family on a daily basis. It is not expected that the children will read these to the adult, but that the adult will read to the child, encouraging them to join in repetitive phrasing, or predicting words in a sentence.