A typical year 1 pupil is between age 5 and 6. At this age, the children are expected to socialize effectively and cooperate with others in the learning environment. Self- awareness, self-management and self-confidence are also great milestones expected of children at this stage as they begin the path to Key Stage 1

Building effective emotional, social and personal abilities as earlier mentioned is a core focus for the Year 1 pupils at the Shepherd school. We understand that these abilities will help peg learning different subjects and practical life schemes, that will in turn, imbibe the needed learning and life skills in the children.

The Shepherd school understands that this is the class where every learning foundation for the key stage is laid, hence, the reason for proper grooming. The children will be assessed at the end of the year to see if they have reached the expected standard. All children are supported in order to achieve this and are given extra guidance as needed.

English skills

They will learn English through all sorts of wonderful stories and they will also act out stories that may be familiar to you at home. They will plan and write their own wonderful creative stories, poems, design posters, break words in syllables to spell and pronounce. They will learn to write in sentences, use exciting language and also improve their handwriting in cursive.

Maths skills

In Mathematics, the main focus at the Shepherd School is to ensure that pupils develop confidence and mental fluency with whole numbers, counting, and place value using numerals, words, and the four operations. The use of practical resources helps to achieve these.  Pupils at this stage use a range of measures to describe and compare different quantities such as length, mass, capacity/volume, money and time. They should also develop their ability to recognize, describe, draw, compare, and sort different 2 and 3 dimensional shapes and use the related vocabulary.

Beyond Literacy and Numeracy

There are a wide range of topics covered in Year 1, and your child will undoubtedly have their personal favourites. Some of the Year 1 activities include:

• experiments (Science)
• product design (DT)
• learning the history of things (History) and about the local area we live in (Geography)
• dancing, playing games and using gym apparatus (PE)
• painting, drawing and more creative processes (Art)

We also develop their social skills and empathy for each other during RE. Year 1 is an important year for your child’s increasing independence. The days are so varied and busy, the hours just fly by!

How can I help my child in Year 1?

Carry on reading

Reading at home with your child is so important. It helps them to develop their learning in lots of areas. Your child’s teacher will send a reading book home each evening, and, apart from spellings (and the odd bit of research), this is likely to be the only homework your child will get.

You may not always have time to read the whole book, but just a few pages a day can increase their confidence and get them into the routine of practising and applying their phonic knowledge. Sometimes parents say ‘Oh my child wanted to read a book from home’. As long as they are reading, that’s fantastic.