We can’t believe it either but there is now only one term left of Year 1! The children have worked super hard this term and this week is no exception. We’ve enjoyed lots of Easter festivities to get us all in the mood for the break, such as the wonderful Easter Church Service this morning. But of course, the real highlight has to be the Easter Bonnet Parade! We were yet again amazed by all of the dazzling creations your children wore!

Thank you to all the parent and carer volunteers who accompanied the children on our Hyde Park trip. The children had an absolutely wonderful time at the Ecological Centre and we all enjoyed the fabulous sunshine. Long may it last!

Homework over Easter

There will be no spelling homework, no Mathletics, no book bag book this holidays. The children will have received a pack of Phonics games for you to have a go with them over the Easter holidays. We will be having a mock Phonics Screening in the first week when we return to school so it’s very important the children do keep practicing their reading over the holiday.

What else is coming up:

St. Stephen’s Park Run on Wednesday 30^th April  It’s time to sponsor the children enjoying a fun run – for Year 1 taking place in the playground.  Sponsorship forms will be coming home tonight.  As an incentive the ten children who raise the most will win an exciting trip to White City Living Private Cinema (plus popcorn!)

St. Stephen’s Got Talent Kids Edition on Thursday 8^th May.  Auditions will take place on Thursday 24^th April.  Get practicing during the holidays!

What we have been up to

As you can imagine, there’s been a lot of talk of Easter this week. English was no exception! This week, in English, we were revising ‘ed’ words by describing what the Easter Bunny did to prepare for Easter.

In Maths, the children completed end of term assessments in both Arithmetic and Reasoning.

In Science, the children completed their end of term assessment about plants.

In R.E., the children learnt about the events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The children then drew a picture of the part of the Easter story that meant the most to them before, yes you’ve guessed it, completing an end of term assessment about Easter!

In Relationships and Health, the children learnt about who can help them and how to make an emergency call.

In Geography, the children completed an end of unit assessment all about their topic At the Farm.

And to top off the children’s hard work during last week’s Science Week, we found out that our school had been selected as one of the recipients of the Plastic Clever Schools Action Fund! This funding will enable us to purchase refillable whiteboard pens and glue sticks to reduce our plastic usage. Well done us!

If you’re looking for some more (and free) local Science fun over the holidays, we can recommend Imperial’s family workshops. More info here – https://www.imperial.ac.uk/white-city-campus/community/events/

We wish you all a wonderful break, and of course a very very happy Easter.

Kindest regards,

Mrs Lowrey and Mrs Wordsworth

What a total triumph!

The children were absolutely brilliant in their Class Collective Worship! They danced and sung beautifully as well as remembering their lines. Amazing! We are extremely proud of all the hard work and effort that they have put into daily rehearsals and practice. How well they have done!

An enormous thank you to all of you for helping the children learn their lines, practise the songs, the lovely costumes you provided and helping them dance at home.  And a massive thank you to the rest of the Donaldson team, Miss Lulu, Miss Alijca and Miss Habibah.  They have also worked so hard to help the children be the very brilliant performers they were. Thank you to all you support these last few weeks- we are so grateful for it.

Upcoming Events

We’re almost there! Just one week of school left before a well-deserved Easter Holiday! And as ever, it’s been another busy week of learning and fun. It was so wonderful to see so many of you enjoying our delicious (vegetarian!) breakfast at the Mums and Chums breakfast this morning.

Easter Bonnet parade

Mr Schumm reminded the children today that the Easter bonnet parade is on Tuesday (1^st April), so now is the time to start getting creative and whipping up a fabulous Easter hat!

Homework this week

In the spirit of Science Week, we have decided not to print the homework sheets this week, in order to save on printing. Instead, the children have written their spellings in their homework books themselves. You can access the electronic version of the spellings here: Week 5 in case you want to clarify any of the spellings.

Please note that this will be the final week of homework and reading books for the half term. Therefore, we will not be sending home reading books or homework books next week. We will send home some Phonics revision at the end of the week though.

Science Week

Of course it’s been Science Week! This week we’ve enjoyed a range of brilliant activities. On Monday, we were joined by Common Seas (an ocean conservation charity) during Collective Worship. They also came into our science lesson learning about pollution in the ocean. We thought about how pollution impacts food chains within the ocean. We then used plasticine to make our own food chain models!

On Thursday, we enjoyed our trip to BBC Park. The children enjoyed spotting the signs of spring. We also got to work tidying up the planet by picking up litter in the park! Thank you to all the parents who volunteered to help us with this.

Finally, this afternoon we had an amazing session with Linda our resident scientist. We learnt about soluble materials. We tested different materials to see if they dissolved. We then thought about recycling and sorted objects by their material in order to recycle them.

What we have been up to this week

In Maths, we began and finished our short unit on measurement thinking about using centimeter rulers to measure objects and then talk about objects being longer or taller and shorter.

In English we have continued and finished our work on our class book Tidy. We designed a poster and wrote a letter from Badger to the animals to say sorry and to

ask for help to keep things tidy.

In Art, the children did printing using Lego to explore primary colours.

In Computing, the children were digital artists. They created their own paintings on Busy Things and then signed the artwork with their signature.

Best wishes,

Mrs Lowrey and Mrs Wordsworth

Week 5

What is coming up:

Class Collective Worship – Rehearsals

Rehearsals for our collective worship are in full swing!

Please can we ask once again that you practise your children’s lines with them and help them remember when to say them! Don’t forget to teach them to be loud too!

The week ahead:

Homework

No Mathletics or spellings this week! Instead homework this weekend ties in with this theme with children logging water usage at home – Miss Bill has sent an email on this activity.

There are a few tweaks to the usual schedule for Donaldson next week we wanted to make you aware of:

Monday 24th March: We will have PE on Monday rather than Wednesday. The children should come to school in their P.E. Kits on Monday and school uniform on Wednesday please. We will instead have a dress rehearsal for our Collective Worship on Wednesday afternoon.

Thursday 27^th March: We will perform our Collective Worship at 9am. In order to ensure the children have enough time to get changed into their costumes, please can they be brought into school at 8:30am. The children must be in school no later than 8:45am. Those staying to watch the performance can then go straight to the main hall to wait for the performance to begin, where there will be tea and coffee available. The performance should be finished no later than 9:30am.

British Science Week

It’s Science Week at St Stephens from 24th-28th March. This year, our focus is Sustainability to tie in with the Great British School Clean campaign and our new school Climate Action Plan.

https://www.keepbritaintidy.org/get-involved/support-our-campaigns/great-big-school-clean

Each year group has chosen a different focus for the week to tie in with our overall theme and Y1 are focusing on plastics and the oceans. We are going meat-free all week at lunchtimes and switching off both the heating and photocopiers to save energy and resources (so do check the weather to make sure your children are dressed warmly if needed!)

A gentle reminder that we would be very grateful if could you send in any plastic bottles, bottle lids, old buttons of any shape and size into school as the children are going to be making some art inspired by the ocean.

https://www.keepbritaintidy.org/get-involved/support-our-campaigns/great-big-school-clean

Sustainable speakers will be popping into classrooms including some of our amazing parents. We also have sessions from Common Seas, the Plastic Clever Schools initiative, ecoactive and an old friend – Linda (previously our Scientist-in-Residence and now Engagement Officer at Imperial College).

The library reading focus for Science Week will tie in with our theme with lots of green reading materials. Our School Councillors are monitoring food wastage and water usage throughout the week. We will also going meat-free all week at lunchtimes and switching off both the heating and photocopiers to save energy and resources.

And if that wasn’t enough it’s also Earth Hour this Saturday evening at 8.30pm (although surely children will be in bed by then!). Join in by switching off non-essential lights and dedicating 60 minutes to Give an hour for Earth.

https://www.earthhour.org/

Trip

We will also be going litter picking as part of our week of Science learning and as part of a school trip to find signs of Spring.

H & F Council have kindly lent us litter picks to help us keep the school and local area clean and log how much rubbish we collect during the week.

Further details have been sent to all parents via Parentmail.

Please ensure on the day of the trip, the children have waterproof coats for the trip, as we will be going regardless of the weather. The children should come to school in the school shoes that day, but may bring a change of shoes (e.g. wellies or trainers) to change into for the trip.

What we have been up to

In Maths, we began our short unit on measurement thinking about using unifix to measure objects and then talk about objects being longer or taller and shorter.

In English, we continued our unit on the book Tidy looking at plurals, sequencing and retelling the story and looking at the un prefix and the ed suffix – phew!

In Geography, we made compasses! We discussed how and when we might use them before looking at real compasses and working out where North was.

In RHE, we thought about where money comes from and about all the different ways that money is spent in our homes. We wrote down all of our ideas in our purses.

Finally, in RE we continued to look at the Easter story and learnt what happened at the Last Supper and thought about what it teaches us.

Have a lovely and restful weekend.

Kindest regards,

Mrs Lowrey and Mrs Wordsworth

Good afternoon folks!

What a sensational week of activities we have enjoyed and strap in as there’s even in more on the horizon for the rest of term.

Arts Day

Today we celebrated Arts Day with the usual St Stephen’s flourishes. Our theme this year was Let’s Draw London. We started the day with a fantastic Collective Worship led by the artist and illustrator Clair Rossiter. Clair also finished our day, with a brilliant workshop. The children worked with Clair to create their own map of London.

But that’s not all… We also created tissue paper skylines of London, made concertinaed London houses in the style of the artist Hundertwasser, and made watercolour dinosaurs who escaped from the Natural History Museum!

For our last activity, we were inspired by the artist Stephen Whiltshire. Stephen Whiltshire is from Hammersmith and went to Queensmill School just along the Uxbridge Road. Stephen is on the Autistic Spectrum, and as a result struggled to learn to talk. However, he had a phenomenal ability to remember and draw. He creates unbelievably detailed drawings of London from only his memory. Inspired by Stephen, we had one minute to look at pictures of the Natural History Museum. We then had to draw the pictures from our memory.

There will be an opportunity for you to see some of the spectacular artwork we made today at the upcoming Arts Café. The Arts Café will happen after school on Friday 28^th March, where a selection of artwork from the entire school will be on display. Every child will have at least one piece of work on display, so be sure to pop by and spot your child’s masterpiece!

Parents Evening and Open Classroom

Parents Evening will be happening this week on Wednesday and Thursday online. You should have received a Parentmail earlier this week inviting you to book an appointment. Please make sure that you have booked an appointment as soon as possible.

On Wednesday 19^th March and Thursday 20^th March, there will be Open Classrooms. This is a chance for you to come in and see your child’s books before your Parents Evening appointment to get a sense of how your child is getting on. There is no need to book to come along to Open Classroom, just wait in the playground after drop off and we will let you in. The Open Classroom will run for 9:00am-9:20am, whilst the children are in Collective Worship.

British Science Week

British Science Week is coming up on the week of the 24^th of March! As part of our British Science Week learning, the children are going to be making some art inspired by the ocean. In order to help us, please could you send in any plastic bottles, bottle lids, old buttons of any shape and size into school.

We will also be going litter picking as part of our learning. Please see Parentmail for more details.

Class Collective Worship – Rehearsals

Please can we kindly ask once again that you practice your children’s lines with them? Don’t forget to teach them to be loud too! A parentmail has gone out about what the children should wear and we would be very grateful if your child could bring their outfit in this Monday 17^th March in a labelled bag ready for some dress rehearsals we have scheduled.

What we have been up to

In Maths we have finished our learning about place value to 50 and will begin looking at measurement of length and height next week.

In English, we started our new book Tidy by Emily Gravett.  We have been learning how Pete, the badger likes everything to be neat and tidy, but realizes it’s good to know when to stop.  We roleplayed other characters in the book to ask Pete questions.

In Geography we thought about what happens on a farm in the different seasons and then drew a picture of us visiting a farm in our favourite season making sure to add a sentence as to what we would expect to see happening on a farm during that season.

In RHE, we thought about the importance of looking after things. We talked about all the ways we can look after a new plant and then drew a picture of something we would look after and wrote about how we would do it.

Finally, in RE we continued to look at the Easter story with this week’s lesson focusing on Palm Sunday and talked about what it must have been like to be in crowd that day.

Have a lovely, restful weekend, and finger crossed the spring sunshine returns.

Kindest regards,

Mrs Lowrey and Mrs Wordsworth

Week 3

World Book Day

An enormous congratulations and thanks to all parents and carers that helped produce some of the best World Book Day costumes we have seen! The children looked magnificent and really enjoyed the day. The highlight was when Year 5 children came with their hand made pop-up books to read with the children. Both classes seemed to really enjoy the experience.

Today, as part of marking the wonder of books, Year 1 also enjoyed listening to the story of “How the Story Tree Came to Be” today which was performed by Big Foot Arts Education.

Homework this week

There will be no spelling or Mathletics homework this week. Instead, we ask that you spend some time this weekend participating in the Usborne Sponsored Reading Challenge.

Class Collective Worship – Rehearsals

Rehearsals for our collective worship are in full swing!

Please can we ask once again that you practice your children’s lines with them? Don’t forget to teach them to be loud too! A parentmail has gone out about what the children should wear.

What we have been up to

In English, the children have written some truly amazing descriptive writing pieces in English, based on our brilliant book We’re Going to Find the Monster! They included adjectives, sentence starters and, in some cases, exclamation marks! We can’t wait for you to see them during our book look drop in a couple of weeks.

In Maths, we have been thinking about our numbers to 50. Today’s lesson was putting numbers on number lines up to 50 but we have also been grouping amounts into tens as a simpler and quicker way of counting larger numbers.

We thought about the idea of ‘grace’ in RE specifically understanding how God showed forgiveness by sending a rainbow at the end of the story of Noah’s Ark. We discussed when we have been given second chances and drew pictures of the rainbow.

In Geography, we looked in more detail at life on a farm and we identified the different farm buildings.

Finally, in Relationships and Health Education, we talked about different environments within school, which one was our favourite and how we can look after the environments we like.

Have an exceptional weekend.

Kind regards,

Mrs Lowrey and Mrs Wordsworth

What a wonderful start back to the new term we’ve had!

Class Collective Worship

As you know, we’re beginning to rehearse our wonderful Class Collective Worships. Donaldson Class Collective Worship will be on Thursday 27th March at 9am. You should have now received a copy of child’s lines. Please help your child this weekend to learn their lines. We have also sent a parentmail with links to the two songs the children will be singing.

World Book Day

World Book Day is upon us again! On Thursday 6^th March it will be World Book Day. On the day, the children should come into school dressed as a character from a book. The theme this year is Heroes and Villains.

What we have been up to

In Maths, we finished our learning about addition and subtraction. We found the missing number using number lines. We also began our new unit all about place value within 50. Today we had to order numbers correctly between 20 and 50 and created a giant number line!

In English, we began our new unit on the book We’re Going to Find the Monster. The children loved imagining what their own monster would be. The highlight was walking around school and imagining all the different places a monster could be hiding!

In R.E. we began learning about Noah’s Ark. This week we listened to the story and then had to order the key events.

In RHE we started our topic on Rights and Respect. This week we learnt about how our behaviour impacts others and thought about a positive bit of behaviour we could do and wrote down our promise to do it.

In Science, we carried out our own plant dissection! We split the flowers into their different parts and labelled them.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Kindest regards,

Ms Lowrey and Mrs Wordsworth

Week 1

Dear Parents/Carers,

We made it! Can you believe we are already halfway through Year 1!! The children have settled in so well to their new classroom, playground and lessons – well done them (and us!)

Phonics Groups

The children continue to make excellent progress in Phonics and we are really proud of how they are getting on.  After half-term there will be some movement between the groups, so your child might have a different teacher, but all the children are following the same Read, Write Inc. programme.

If you have any questions about Phonics, please do get in touch with the Year 1 team.

This week

This week in English we completed the work on our book Mr Magnolia by Quentin Blake by creating our own poems with lots of alternate ‘oo’ spellings and using the suffix –ing.

In Maths we have continued our learning subtracting on a number line, finding the difference and practicing subtraction using counters and ten frames with numbers to 20.

In Science, we identified the different parts of a plant and dissected a daffodil labelling all the parts as you can see in our pictures.

In RE, we got the opportunity to put all of our Creation questions to the nearest contact to God we could find – Father Denis! We learnt that the church is doing lots to help keep our planet green by renewing, recycling and remembering!

In RHE and Computing this week, we have been learning about how to stay safe online.  In RHE we talked about what we could do when we feel unsure about something on the internet and learnt how to share pictures safely online.

Finally in Art, we created beautiful heart-warming cards that we cannot tell you any more about just in case they land on your doorstep on the 14^th February!

No spellings homework this week! Instead the reading books are with you at home to practice along with a previous Phonics test paper for you to practice at home if you have time. You can check pronunciations if unclear here – Bing Videos

And if your child does not yet know how to blow their nose this would be another great thing to practice over the holidays – there are so many sniffles around.

On our return in Spring 2, it may be an idea to pack spare bottoms (including pants and socks) if you are aware that your child may have accidents – just so they don’t come home commando if an accident should occur! We do have some clothes in lost property but not underwear!

Happy Valentine’s Day and happy half term all.

Ms Lowrey & Mrs Wordsworth

It’s been another fun week this week in Year 1. The children looked resplendent in their scarves today celebrating Children’s Mental Health Week. And as usual, it’s been a busy week!

British Science Week Poster Competition

Look out for details via Parentmail of the annual poster competition run by the British Science Association to launch British Science Week taking place from 10^th-14^th March which St Stephens will be supporting. There are prizes to be won so do encourage your children to take part – you’ve got to be in it to win it!

What we have been up to

In English we have begun our new unit based on Mr Magnolia by Quentin Blake. This week, the children have been using their ‘oo’ sounds to create lots of rhyming words and silly sentences.

In Maths, we have continued with addition. The children practised their number bonds to 20. Today, we began learning about subtraction within 20 by subtracting using a number line.

In R.E., the children thought about what makes people special. Each child was given a member of the class and they had to come up with a reason they were special.

In Science, we learnt about wild plants and identified them by their descriptions.

In History, we were detectives! We identified whether toys were old or new based on their materials.

In RHE, it was Children’s Mental Health Week. Inspired by the film Inside Out the children designed their ‘Islands of Personality’ and thought about what is important to them. We also enjoyed a Zoom about Cracking Careers this week, where we learnt all about people who help us.

Finally, in Computing we enjoying practising logging on to Busy Things so we could use enjoy learning with this on-line resource over half term.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Kindest regards,

Mrs Wordsworth and Mrs Lowrey

Week 5

Another busy week for Year 1 full of fun-filled activities.

Today, to mark Lunar New Year, the children spent a wonderful day learning about the country of Mongolia and how the people of Mongolia enjoy this special national holiday.

And a big thank you to all the parents and volunteers who came to help out in the kitchen and decorate our school so beautifully for Lunar New Year.

And another big thank you to all those who attended the online Phonics meeting.  If you have any further questions, do please be in touch via email, so we can help.

Wear your SCARF day

On Friday 7th February, it will be Wear your SCARF day in honour of Children’s Mental Health Week. On this day, the children can come into school wearing their favourite scarf in addition to their normal school uniform.

What we have been up to

In English, we continued with our non-fiction topic sorting fiction and non-fiction texts, finding out how to use capital letters for proper nouns and finally writing our own fact file on Mars using features such as headings, facts, photographs and (in some cases) captions. Next week, we move onto Mr Magnolia by Quentin Blake.

In Science, we continued learning about plants. This week, we created our dream gardens full of our favourite trees and plants. The children really went to town here and included pet dinosaurs, castles, swimming pools and rainbows!

In History, we continued to learn about toys from the past. This week we learnt how toys have changed in living memory.

In Computing, we enjoyed celebrating Coding Day! We loved playing Rodocodo – a game all about coding where you have to programme the Rodocodo Cat to move in certain directions.

In RE, we came up with questions that we would like to ask God, if we had the opportunity, on His Creation such as did it really only take 7 days to create the Earth and why did you make giraffes have such long necks!

Finally, in R.H.E., we enjoyed welcoming the Life Bus to our school.  They held a Mental Health and Wellbeing workshop for Year 1 where they discussed how to take care of our feelings.

Have a great weekend!

Kindest regards,

Mrs Lowrey and Mrs Wordsworth

Week 4

It’s been such an exciting week it’s difficult to choose a highlight! I think our learning in History this week has been the star on the show. On Thursday, Year 1 enjoyed interviewing a special visitor about toys from the past… Mr. Schumm! Mr. Schumm showed us his Cowboys and Native American town which was handmade by his grandfather. It really was very special. And then on Friday, we enjoyed yet more History with our drama workshop led by CREW drama.

Year 1 Phonics meeting

We would like to remind you about our Year 1 Phonics Meeting on Tuesday 28th January at 6pm on Zoom. We expect the meeting will finish around 6:45pm.

During the meeting, we will be discussing what Phonics is, as well as how you can support your child with their Phonics at home. We will also be explaining the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check, which will take place in June and all children will have to sit.

There will also be an opportunity to ask any Phonics questions you may have. If you have any specific questions ahead of the meeting, please email Mrs Allen and we’ll address them during the meeting.

You can access the meeting on Zoom via the link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87139454344?pwd=vnAa8JVyrbTL1oUrtAT8EcNgm3t7tH.1

We will share the presentation slides we will be using ahead of the meeting for those who are unable to attend.

Lunar New Year

On Friday 31^st of January, we will be marking Lunar New Year with a day of special activities. As part of the day, the children may come into school wearing something red (a lucky colour in many Asian cultures which is worn traditionally in China on Lunar New Year).

What we have been up to

In English, we have begun our new unit on non-fiction texts. Next week, the children will write their own non-fiction fact file about Mars. So this week they have been learning about the difference between fiction and non-fiction, as well as learning some facts about Mars.

In Maths, we have finished our unit on place value within 20. This week the children matched numerals to their written names and compared numbers within 20.

In Science, we began our new unit on Plants. This week, we identified what plants are and spotted some around school.

In R.E., we continued to learn about God’s Creation. We designed a poster about how we could take care of the Earth.

In D.T., we made our very own hand puppets inspired by the characters of Little Red Riding Hood.

Finally, in RHE we had our discussion about good and bad touches.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Kindest regards,

Mrs Wordsworth and Ms Lowrey

Week 3

It has been another great week in Year 1 and the children have been working really hard!

Thank you to parent and carer volunteers.

A huge thanks to all the lovely parent volunteers who joined us on our chilly visit to BBC Park as part of our Science curriculum. We really appreciate your time and help and the children had a wonderful time spotting the signs of winter.

Outdoor Library Photo Competition

Thank you to those who have submitted your photos for our outdoor library photo competition. Don’t forget, you still have one more week to enter. Email your entries to Mrs Allen: e.allen@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk

Upcoming Events.

Movie night

Movie night is confirmed for the afternoon of the 23^rd January.  The film will be Despicable Me – a family classic.  Tickets are available to purchase via your Parentmail account.  Please note that there will be no after school clubs.  However, Clubhouse will be running as usual.  Dismissal will be from the Year 1 classrooms at 5pm.

Relationships and Health

Next week we will be learning the lesson ‘Good and Bad Touches’.  During this lesson the learning objective will focus on what kind of physical touch is acceptable, comfortable, unacceptable and uncomfortable and how to respond – including who to tell and how to tell them.  Please feel free to get in touch if you have any further questions.

Year 1 Phonics meeting

We are delighted to invite you to our Year 1 Phonics Meeting on Tuesday 28th January at 6pm on Zoom. We expect the meeting will finish around 6:45pm.

During the meeting, we will be discussing what Phonics is, as well as how you can support your child with their Phonics at home. We will also be explaining the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check, which will take place in June and all children will have to sit.

There will also be an opportunity to ask any Phonics questions you may have.

You can access the meeting on Zoom via the link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87139454344?pwd=vnAa8JVyrbTL1oUrtAT8EcNgm3t7tH.1

We will share the presentation slides we will be using ahead of the meeting for those who are unable to attend.

What have we been up to?

In Maths, the children have continued their learning about place value within 20. This week, they have compared numbers within 20 and found one more and one less of numbers within 20, as well as playing a fun game of place value bingo!

In English, the children finished their learning on Toys in Space. This week, the focus has been on writing a description of Cuddles, making sure we extended our sentences using ‘and’. On Friday, the children wrote brilliant Wanted posters of Cuddles using brand new and exciting adjectives to describe him.

In Science, we continued learning about the seasons. We visited BBC Park again and noticed if a tree was deciduous by reminding ourselves that these trees shed their leaves.  We then spotted different signs of winter including ice, pine cones, evergreen trees and deciduous trees.

In Computing, we continued learning about learning about our topic technology.  We learnt the different names of the main parts of a computer and how to use a mouse to click and drag across the screen.

In RHE, we talked about what happens to our bodies when we are nervous. We then spoke about who could help us when we’re worried about something.

In History, we carried on learning about the history of toys from beyond our memory. We came up with questions that we would like to ask someone older than us about the toys they grew up with as next week we will have a special visitor to ask about their toys growing up!

Finally, in D.T., we designed our own hand puppets based on the characters of Little Red Riding Hood.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Kindest regards,

Ms Lowrey and Mrs Wordsworth

Week 2

Welcome back! We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and a great start to 2025! Year 1 have had a busy (albeit cold) return to school this week, and are already hard at work again.

Our new routine and timetable including change in homework book day

As you will have seen, Year 1 will now have P.E. on a Wednesday instead of a Monday. We’ve therefore had to make a couple of adjustments to our timetables, and you can find an updated version of our class timetable on this webpage.

As a result of this change, we are also changing the day that homework books and reading books are given out in order to give our wonderful support staff enough time to make sure that they are changed correctly.

Therefore, homework books will now be collected on a Thursday, and new homework will be issued on a Friday.

Reading books will now be collected on a Monday, and new reading books will be issued on a Tuesday.

Here’s an overview of the week regarding the uniform and when books are in- hopefully this helps!

MONDAY- normal school uniform, reading books returned

TUESDAY- P.E. Kit, new reading books issued,

WEDNESDAY- P.E. Kit

THURSDAY- normal school uniform, homework books returned, Library books returned and replaced

FRIDAY- normal school uniform, new homework issued

The spelling tests will continue to be on a Thursday morning during the Phonics lessons.

Upcoming school visit

As you know, there is an upcoming school visit to support our Science learning. Please ensure on the day of the trip, the children have waterproof coats as well as any other winter accessories (hats, gloves, scarves) for the trip, as we will be going regardless of the weather. The children should come to school in the school shoes that day, but may bring a change of shoes (e.g. wellies or trainers) to change into for the trip.

Please refer to our earlier Parentmail for more details.

Outdoor Library Competition

Before Christmas we officially launched our competition to take a photo of your child reading in the most exciting place they can think of. We will be using these pictures to then decorate our KS1 Outdoor Library area. Some of our current entries include reading to a horse, on Santa’s sleigh and even on top of a bin! If you have not yet entered the competition, fear not- there is still time and there are still plenty of house points up for grabs!

Please email your photographs to Mrs Allen (e.allen@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk) by Friday 23rd January.

What we have been up to

In English, we have begun our new unit based around the book Toys in Space by Mini Grey. This week the children have been using their inference skills to predict what the story is about. They were also introduced to the character of Hoctopize and explored how he was feeling, learning new vocabulary for ‘sad’.

In Maths, the children began the week by revising their addition and subtraction skills within 10. We then began our new unit on Place Value within 20. The children began by using 10 frames to recognise numbers within 20.

In History, the children really enjoyed the beginning of our new unit all about the History of Toys. This week, the children created their own mini-museum in order to discuss their favourite toy.

In D.T., we began our new unit of textiles. The children practised using three different techniques to join materials: stapling, gluing and safety pins.

In RHE, we have begun our new unit Keeping Myself Safe. This week, the children explored why sleep is so important for development. We learnt that Year 1 children should get between 9 and 12 hours of sleep each night. We then helped Harold plan a healthy sleep routine. This is the Knowledge Organiser for RHE this half term so you can see what else the children will be learning about this half term. Year 1 Keeping Safe

In Science, we continued our unit about seasonal changes. This week, the children learnt about deciduous and evergreen trees. Next week, the children are looking forward to trying to spot some deciduous trees at the park.

In Computing, we began a new computing unit all about technology. This week, the children were surprised to learn that technology is not limited to computers but includes anything humans have made to help them. They then identified different types of technology in the classroom.

Finally, in R.E. we have begun our new unit all about the Creation Story and God’s creation. This week, the children listened to the Creation Story and created story wheels in order to tell the story.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Kindest regards,

Mrs Wordsworth and Ms Lowrey

My goodness, we’ve made it to the end of the first term of Year 1! What a busy term we’ve all had, but the children have settled in brilliantly and are already making amazing progress. We’d like to start our blog this week by thanking you all for your incredibly generous gifts for Christmas.

Homework this week

Over the Christmas Holidays, there will be no spelling or Mathletics homework. We are however sending them home with some Phonics activity sheets with Maths and Phonics pinned games via Busy Things.

New games days – add

From January, P.E. will take place on a Wednesday. Therefore, the children will need to wear their P.E. kits to school on Tuesdays and Wednesdays next half term.

Upcoming local visit

You will have seen a Parentmail earlier this week about a local visit next term. We still need volunteers to join us for the trip. If you would like to volunteer for either class, please email Mrs Allen (e.allen@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk)

Outdoor Library Photo Competition

After a positive initial introduction this term, we’d like to give our outdoor library in the Key Stage One Playground a bit love. We have decided to create a new and exciting display to decorate the area! We would like as many photos of the children reading a book in the most exciting place they can think of, for example: under the bed, in a tree, inside a wardrobe! The winning entries will be displayed outside in our library area (and there may even be some House Points for grabs!).

Please email your entries directly to Mrs Allen: e.allen@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk

Favourite toys

Next half term, Year 1 will be learning about the history of toys. For our first lesson, the children will be discussing their favourite toy with the class. To support the children with this, we are going to create a mini-museum in our classroom made up of the children’s favourite toys. Please can all children bring in one favourite toy on Friday 10th January. Please attach a label to the toy with your child’s name on it.

What we have been up to

As you can imagine, this week has been all about continuing with the Christmas theme following on from fabulous Nativity performances last week!

On Monday and Tuesday we carried out our DT day (in two halves) constructing windmills which will be put to good use in the school garden.

We said a fond farewell to Miss Rachel who leaves us for a life in Cornwall after many years service to the school – she will be missed.

We were lucky enough to enjoy a wonderful production of The Emperor’s New Clothes on Wednesday afternoon.

The children, of course, also enjoyed an afternoon of dancing and party games on Thursday with those in Liddell lucky enough to wear their own clothing as their prize for the most house points.

In English we watched Mog’s Christmas Calamity. We then wrote sentences about the story using the past tense by adding –ed to words.

In Maths, we revised adding and subtracting by playing a game of Bingo. We then wrote numbers as words and created a poster all about a number. Finally, today we revised 2D Shapes and used them to make a Christmas picture.

Have a wonderful Christmas for all those who celebrate, and a Happy New Year!

See you in January!

Kindest regards,

Mrs Wordsworth and Ms Lowrey

Wow! What an exciting week we’ve had. Of course the highlight was our Nativity Performances yesterday. The children were utterly brilliant and dazzled the audiences. Thank you to all those who came to watch yesterday, your support is always appreciated. We hope you enjoyed it!

The fun doesn’t stop there – the children also look wonderful today in their Christmas jumpers! We really enjoyed our Christmas lunch today and getting into the festive spirit.

Homework until January

Hopefully you will have seen the Parentmail sent yesterday about homework this week and next. This week, the children will take home a Reading Book, but they will not have Mathletics or spelling homework this week.

During the Christmas holidays, we will not send home any homework. Instead, we will send home some optional Phonics resources.

What we have been up to

As you can imagine, much of this week was spent rehearsing and performing the Nativity!

In Maths, the children completed their Reasoning and Arithmetic End of Term Assessments. They did really well, and you should be very proud of them.

In English, the children wrote a letter to Santa asking for some presents for Christmas (if anyone’s elves do need any more ideas – we’re very happy to share the letters!)

In R.E., we learnt about King Herod in the Nativity Story. We compared Herod to the Grinch as they both had hearts that were ‘two sizes too small’ and were jealous of others.

In our History topic ‘Travel & Transport’, we learnt about Apollo 11 and the first people to walk on the moon with millions watching live as Neil Armstrong took ‘one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.’ We asked the children to ask their grandparents if they remember watching this momentous occasion in history.

Finally, in Relationships and Health Education, we looked at the phrase ‘it’s not fair!’ (which we’re sure none of your little angels have ever uttered…) and thought about what it means to be fair. All week we have been remembering to carry out random acts of kindness which included helping each other get ready for the Nativity shows!

Story Competition
Mrs Pereira writes: It may make for a nice Christmas project? The local story competition run by Daunt Books is back again, with every child who enters getting a £5 book voucher. Most years, we have a winner at St Stephen’s who receives a voucher and the glory of seeing their stories published – so a good success rate. Click on the link: https://www.ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk/teaching-and-learning/library-corner/ and check out the info in the sidebar.

Have a wonderful weekend (just 1 week left!)

Kindest regards,

Mrs Wordsworth and Ms Lowrey

Firstly, thank so much to all those parent volunteers and the parents, family and friends who came along last Saturday and spent time at our amazing St. Stephen’s Christmas Fair.  An absolute triumph and much enjoyed by all the children.  We are so grateful for your time and any contributions made at these wonderful events.

We’ve not got long left of this term and the Christmas excitement is well underway.

Homework

This week there will be no homework (green books) coming home with the children.  We will be sending home reading folders as usual. We ask instead that if possible please spend some time this week practising the song and dance for the Nativity. You can find the music and lyrics here:

Y1 Donaldson When you’re a star Y1 Finale lyrics

Phonics Groups

We have assessed the children in Phonics again.  From Monday, some of the children will be in new groups and likely to have a new teacher.

The Nativity

As you will be aware there are two performances of the Nativity show on Thursday 12^th December, one in the morning at 9.30am the other in the afternoon at 2pm. There is no need to book. Thank you to all parents who have brought in their child’s costumes. If you have not brought them in yet, they need to be in on Monday morning ready for our first dress rehearsal.  Please could we also request that all the children have white trousers or white leggings as their bottoms, as white tights are too thin under the strong stage lights.

On Monday, Wednesday and Thursday we ask that all children with long hair come into school with their hair tied in a low pony-tail. This way we can ensure that their headdresses fit comfortably on their heads.

The children have all worked really hard and are looking really excellent! We’re excited to see as many of you as possible at the performances on Thursday!

Christmas Jumper Day

Next Friday the 13^th of December, it will be our annual Christmas Jumper Day. The children should come into school in their normal school uniform with a Christmas Jumper instead of their usual school jumper.

What we have been up to

In Maths we finished our learning about 2D and 3D shapes! We learnt how to match and sort different 2D and 3D shapes and created repeating patterns.

In English, we finished our unit on Traditional Tales by rewriting the characters and sneaky plans of Little Red and the Hungry Lion. The children wrote phenomenal pieces of work that showcased how far they have come along this term.  Well done!

In History, we continued to learn about transport. This week the children learnt about the invention of the aeroplane and had a go at making paper aeroplanes!

In R.E., we have learnt about the role of the Shepherds in the Nativity story.

And finally in Science we tested waterproof materials!

Have a wonderful weekend,

Mrs Lowrey and Mrs Wordsworth

It’s been another busy week in Year 1 and the children are starting to get into the Christmas spirit with Nativity Rehearsals! With the Christmas Fair tomorrow, we really are getting into the season now- hopefully, we’ll see lots of your smiling faces enjoying the day tomorrow!

Nativity

As you know, we have two Nativity performances coming up on the 12^th of December at 9:30am and 2pm. There is no need to book tickets for the performance. We look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible!

Thank you to all those who have handed in your costumes for the Nativity. Just a reminder that we would like all costumes, in a labelled bag, given in by Wednesday 4^th of December.

Donaldson Class need to wear white top and bottoms and black shoes.

Finally, please spend some time this week practising the song and dance for the Nativity. The children need as much practise as possible between now and the big day in order to feel super confident on stage. You can find the lyrics here: Y1 Donaldson When you’re a star Y1 Finale lyrics

What we have been up to

In English, the children started the week by writing brilliant ‘Wanted’ posters looking for the Big Bad Wolf. We then started our next unit based on Little Red and the Very Hungry Lion. We started by comparing the story to the traditional story of Little Red Riding Hood. We then thought about the difference between ‘and’ and ‘because’ and used them in sentences. Finally, today we analysed the feelings of the different characters throughout Little Red and the Very Hungry Lion.

In Maths, we started the week by completing our addition and subtraction end of unit quiz. The children did brilliantly with this and you should be very proud. We’ve now begun our new unit on shapes. This week, we have identified and sorted 2D shapes and have begun identifying 3D shapes.

In History, we learnt about the history of cars. The children had to design the car of the future!

In Science, we explored the suitability of different materials for different purposes.

In R.E., we explored why Mary and Joseph were chosen to be Jesus’ parents in the Nativity story.

In computing, we used the Bee Bot simulator to practise giving it instructions to move around a map.

Finally, in Relationships and Health, we thought about school rules and why they are important.

From our Scientist in Residence

As you may be aware, Linda, our Scientist in Residence has now finished her time at St Stephen’s. She has written to the children to say goodbye…

Hello St Stephens!

This is a little note to say a big thank you to each and every one of you. It has been amazing to have been your Scientist in Residence and working with all of you doing fun Science experiments, to learn together, and to answer all your great questions. I love Science and I loved doing Science with you all – and I hope you love Science too!

Thank you,

Linda

Have a wonderful (festive!) weekend!

Kindest regards,

Mrs Wordswoth and Ms Lowrey

Spellings Homework- Week 4

It’s been another exciting week here in Year 1.

Firstly, a massive thank you to all the parents who performed on stage last night at St. Stephen’s Got Talent.  And a huge round of special applause to McNaughton’s class teacher, Mrs Allen, for braving the stage last minute as a glamorous Magician assistant.  And a huge thank you to all you – the parents who came to support the event.  Your support means the world.

Well done to our Y1 School Council reps who represented our school on a recent visit to the Houses of Parliament. They took part in special activities, bumped into our local MP, Andy Slaughter, and even had a chance to put the classes questions to Parliament staff.

Behaviour Policy

Our new school behavior policy has been launched this week and the children took part in a special assembly to go through our new values – Be Safe, Be Ready ad Be Respectful. You will see posters around the school helping the children to learn these values.

Punctuality

We have noticed an increasing number of children arriving to school in the morning after 8.55am. We would like to remind you that all children need to arrive at school by 8:55 as the register will be taken at 8:55. Any children who arrive after this time will be marked late on the register.

If your child does arrive after 9am we ask that you please take them round to the office so that they can be marked in on the register, rather than to the classroom directly, as the doors will be locked for security. Once we have entered the register, the class teachers are unable to change it, and the office staff have to do it for us. If children arrive late without telling the office, the admin staff have to disrupt lessons in order to check with us whether the children have arrived.

Gym Days

A quick reminder that the children should be wearing shorts or tight leggings for Gymnastics lessons as well as T-Shirt or a leotard. As it is now chilly, you may also wish for your child to also wear jogging bottoms. We ask that the children either wear their shorts underneath their jogging bottoms ready for Gymnastics, or pack their shorts in their bags and change into the shorts for Gymnastics. Children with long hair should also have their hair tied up and out of their face.

Nativity

We are looking forward to seeing you all at our forthcoming Nativity performances on Thursday 12^th December at 9.30am and 2pm. Costumes need to be in a clearly labelled bag by Monday 2^nd December please.

Y1 Donaldson – Stars – White leggings/trousers, white top and black plimsolls.

If you can also continue to help your child with lyric and dance rehearsals so they are word (and move) perfect! You can find the lyrics here- Y1 Donaldson When you’re a star Y1 Finale lyrics

Christmas Fair and Cards

You can now purchase tickets for the upcoming Christmas Fair on Saturday 30^th November between midday-4pm and also buy Christmas cards lovingly made by your offspring (£5 for 10 cards)! Do check Parentmail for details on how to purchase these items.

What we have been up to

This week in Maths, we continued our work on subtraction writing number sentences. We even went outside and used leaves to help us with our subtraction number sentences, gathering leaves and then taking some away to find out how many were left.

This week in Science, we continued our new Materials topic by finding out the difference between a material and an object. We looked around the classroom to find examples of objects made by different materials such as plastic, wood, stone, glass, fabric and metal. You could reinforce your child’s learning by playing this game at home and when walking to school too.

We started our new topic in R.E about Characters from the Nativity beginning with the Angel Gabriel who spread the ‘good news’ regarding the imminent birth of Jesus to both Mary & Joseph and the Shepherds. The children watched a short film on the Nativity and wrote out the ‘good news’ themselves.

In History we shared our favourite memories of our recent trip to the London Transport Museum before learning about the invention of trains and the impact this had on people’s lives. The children loved the carousel of train activities laid out for them to reinforce their learning such as building their own trains out of lego and comparing different photos of trains. We shared our memories of train journeys we had taken around the world with one child even experiencing a train journey in Russia!

Have a lovely weekend!

Kindest regards,

Mrs Wordsworth and Ms Lowrey

Week 3

It’s been another busy week in Year 1, and the children have been working hard as usual! Thank you to all those who were able to come in for our Open Classrooms on Tuesday and Wednesday. We hope you found the chance to look at the children’s books useful and enjoyable. We also enjoyed ‘meeting’ with you this week during Parents’ Evening. As always, if you have any follow up questions or concerns you’d like to talk about, we are always available via email.

Trip to the London Transport Museum

On Wednesday we went on a class trip to the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden. We took part in a session called Joe’s Busy Bus on a time travelling adventure through the Museum’s galleries with Joe – the first black bus driver in London. He told us all about the different vehicles that kept London moving and about the different jobs in transport in the past and present. We had a good look around the Museum exhibits and even had time for a play in the All Aboard area. Thank you to all our amazing parents and carers who came along to help out – we couldn’t have done it without you!

What we have been up to

This week was anti-bullying week. On Tuesday we wore odd socks to celebrate the cause. For Relationships and Health this week, we learnt about bullying and the difference between bullying and teasing. We learnt that bullying is a repeated action, which can include teasing.

In English, we enjoyed continuing to learn about How to Babysit a Grandad. We had to order the instructions for caring for a Grandad. We also planned our own instructions. Finally, we wrote our own instructions!

In Maths, we have begun to learn about subtraction. This week, we used part-part-whole models to write subtraction number sentences. We even had a go at writing fact families based on part-part-whole models. This was an extremely challenging topic for Year 1, so please do practise this at home if you have time.

In Science, we began our new unit about Materials. This week, we identified different common materials: wood, plastic, glass, stone, fabric and metal in our classroom. This is something you may want to practice with your children, both at home and when out and about.

In Computing, we continued with our unit all about traditional tales. We played a game on Busy Things where we had to dress a dog as different characters in traditional tales!

In R.E. we completed our mini-unit on the Saints. We learnt what a Saint is and their qualities. We then learnt about some famous Saints, for example Saint Nicholas, Saint George and Saint Patrick! Next week, we will start our new R.E. unit… The Nativity!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Kindest regards,

Mrs Wordsworth and Ms Lowrey

Week 2

The children have come back to school with a spring in their steps! As we start the second half of term it is amazing to see how much they have grown up already. They are now used to the Year 1 pace and timetable and managing to do some fantastic work.

Please find our updated timetable and RHE (Relationships and Health Education) curriculum map for Autumn 2 on the blog. Year 1 RHE -Valuing Difference

Hopefully by now, your child’s postcard has found its way to your letterbox – thank you for all the donations of stamps to help with this activity.

Open Classroom Book Looks

Thank you to all those who have booked in Parents’ Evening slots for the 12^th and 13^th November! Hopefully, you will have also seen the information encouraging you to come in for Open Classroom time between 9-9.30am on those days to have a look at your children’s books. This will give you the chance to look at their work ahead of our catch-ups. There is no need to book for the Open Classroom- you simply need to turn up. Please wait in the playground and we will open the doors to the classroom at 9am.

Hispanic Day

The highlight of the week has been our amazing Hispanic Day today! The day started with a brilliant dance performance in Collective Worship! It was amazing. The children then enjoyed a brilliant dance workshop led by the dancers from Collective Worship.

In class, Year 1 have been focussing on Mexico! We were concentrating this year on the natural environment of Mexico. We learnt that the national animal of Mexico is the Golden Eagle, and we enjoyed making our own Golden Eagles using the toilet rolls we had collected. We also learnt that the dahlia is the national flower of Mexico. We used watercolours to create beautiful paintings of these vibrant flowers. We also loved looking at some traditional elements of Mexican dress. We made our own sombreros using playdough and we created stunning flower crowns. It’s been a busy day of arts and crafts!

What we got up to

In Maths, we have been answering missing number addition questions to 10 using a number line to help us find the answers. Some of the children still find it tricky when counting on using a number line so practice at home may benefit them. We have also added a number bonds to 10 poster for you to use at home. Number-bonds-of-10-poster

In English, we started our non-fiction topic and have been learning all about bossy verbs (or commands) to read and write instructions. We used our instructions to help us make jam sandwiches (delicious!), as well as writing out our own instructions on how to clean our teeth and starting our new book which is the brilliant How to Babysit a Grandad by Jean Raegan.

In Science, we started our Seasons topic (which we will be running throughout the year) looking at Autumn! We walked to the BBC (Hammersmith) Park with a nature spotter to look for signs of Autumn such as golden leaves and even managed to find some mushrooms at the base of a tree!

In History we began our new topic on Transport (Past and Present) and we sorted out pictures of different modes of transport into Past or Present categories. This will stand us in good stead for next week’s trip.

In Computing we played games linked to the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears practicing structuring the story and predicting what would happen next. These games are ‘pinned’ on Busy Things if your children have time to play at the weekend – they were very reluctant to stop at the end of the lesson!

We were also very lucky on Wednesday to be joined by The Riot Squad for a performance linked to Road Safety called, ““MUFFIN, DON’T GET SQUISHED!”  The children learnt how to cross a road safely.

In RHE this term, we are ‘Valuing Difference’ so this week’s lesson was a pre-assessment to find out what we already know thinking about all the things that are the same about us and all the things that are different.

Next week, is Anti-Bullying Week with the theme of ‘Choose Respect’ and we will be thinking about the importance of being kind, empathetic and always being respectful.  And, finally, just a reminder that next Tuesday 12^th November will be Odd Socks Day when children are invited to wear odd socks to school as a symbol of our individuality and to celebrate difference.

As ever have a lovely weekend.

Kindest regards,

Mrs Lowrey and Mrs Wordsworth

Wow! We’ve already finished our first half term in Year 1! The children have worked incredibly hard these last eight (!) weeks, and they’ve settled beautifully into Year 1. They really deserve this relaxing week off next week.

We also really enjoyed seeing the Lidell children enjoying their well-deserved non-uniform day on Thursday. Well done, Lidell!

Black Voices Week

This week we have been celebrating Black Voices Week. On Monday, the children enjoyed an amazing Collective Worship led by Paige from Barefoot Productions entitled Hidden Figures. It was fascinating to learn about some less known black figures throughout history, including John Blanke, Henry VIII’s trumpeter!

In Year 1, we have been learning about the work and life of the Reverend Sybil Phoenix.  She is a community leader from Lewisham who has fostered over 100 children, set up a Youth club, and was the first Black woman to receive an MBE.  She created a garden for children and adults to enjoy full of ceramics that she had made herself, many of which were inspired by her childhood in Guyana.  Year 1 will be designing their own gardens for them to play in and planting seeds of her favourite flowers.

Upcoming trips

You should have received a Parentmail this week outlining the details of an upcoming trip to support our Science learning. We would like as many parents to volunteer to join us on what is a really fun and easy trip for the children. If you would like to volunteer to join us, please email Mrs Allen directly: e.allen@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk

Dance

There will be no more dance lessons from next half term, as it will be Year 6’s turn to enjoy Miss Grace’s excellent lessons. The children have really enjoyed having this extra opportunity this half term.

Hispanic Day

We will be celebrating Hispanic Day on Friday 8^th of November. This year, Year 1 will be learning about Mexico! On the day, the children need to come into school in either traditional Hispanic dress, or in the colours of the Mexican flag (red, white and green).

As part of Hispanic Day, the children will be doing some craft using cardboard cylinders (e.g. toilet roll and kitchen loo inner tubes). Please send your child in with as many of these as possible after the holiday!

Homework over half term

Over the half term holiday, there will be no homework on Mathletics or spellings set for the children. We will still send home reading books as usual though.

We have also ‘pinned’ some Maths activities on Busy Things. These are completely optional, however, if you or your child would like some fun, educational games to play over the holiday this is a great place to start! You can find your child’s Busy Things login in their homework book.

What we have been up to

In English, we read If I Had a Gryphon. The children really enjoyed imagining which monster they would like as a pet! They also wrote poems about their pet monsters and explored rhyme.

In Maths, we continued to learn about addition. We practised adding together two numbers using a number line.

In Science, we completed our learning about our senses. This week we investigated our sense of hearing! We listened to different sounds and had to make a scientific prediction of what the sound was!

In Geography, we made our own postcards to send home. Keep an eye on your post to spot your postcard!

In Computing, we created some more amazing digital art. This time we used ‘Lively Lines’ on Busy Things to create moving pictures!

Finally, in Art, the children drew a still life of a fruit and used all that they had learnt about lines this half term to create beautiful and realistic drawings!

Have a wonderful half term holiday and we’ll see you in November!

Kindest regards,

Mrs Lowrey and Mrs Wordsworth

Greetings on our ‘Red Card to Racism’ day – it brightened our day to see all the children resplendent in red today.

Homework

Hopefully you will have seen the Parentmail about homework moving forward. All spellings are now linked to the speed sounds being taught in the new phonics groups and there are story books to match. Any questions, please do get in touch.

An appeal for stamps

Next week in Geography, the children will be sending themselves a postcard! You should have received a Parentmail this week asking for all the children to bring in one 2^nd class stamp each. Please send this in to school by Wednesday in a named envelope.

What we have been up to

In English we have been imagining we are the Bird in Yeti and Bird, imagining we are writing a letter home to his mum in which we describe Yeti’s home with all its majestic woods and frozen mountains.  We have carefully planned what we wanted to write and today we wrote some incredible letters full of beautiful description.

In Maths we are continuing our work on adding together two numbers up to10 using numicons, counters and Part Part whole models. The children started to write out our own addition number sentences. This week’s Mathletics tasks are linked to this topic.

In Science, we loved our practical lesson on the sense of taste, trying out different food items to predict and then confirm if they were sweet, salty, sour, bitter or bland. You may want to test them out on their taste buds during meal times!

In our final RE lesson on Islam we learnt about Mosques and discussed the similarities and differences between Mosques and churches.

In Geography, we looked at the difference between rural and urban areas and decided that we lived in an urban area! Don’t forget to bring in a 2^nd class stamp by next Tuesday (now Monday for Donaldson as the time of our Geography lesson has changed) for our final lesson in our Where we Live topic so that children can write their addresses on postcards to send home.

In Computing, the children became digital artists. The children created their own artwork using Busy Things and learnt how to use the fill tool to create stunning artworks. I have attached some of them for you to admire!

Next week, is Black Voices Week with the theme of Reclaiming Narratives and we will be planning lessons linked to this important topic – more next week!

Enjoy the last weekend before the half term break!

Kindest regards,

Ms Lowrey and Mrs Wordsworth.

Spellings homework- Week 7

What a wonderful week we’ve had in Year 1! The real highlight was World Mental Health Day on Thursday. The children really shone in all of their beautiful yellow outfits (well done for finding something yellow!). We really enjoyed World Mental Health Day, particularly when Mrs Wordsworth led us in a yoga session- we truly found our Zen!

Phonics groups

This week and last, we have been busy assessing the children’s reading and Phonics. They all did brilliantly – well done Year 1! On Tuesday next week, (15^th October), we will be splitting the children into their new Phonics groups. There will be five groups in total, taught by: Mrs Allen, Mrs Wordsworth, Ms. Lowrey, Miss Joanna and Miss Lulu. Mrs Wordsworth’s group will also be taught by Miss Stefania on Mrs Wordsworth’s non-working day (usually a Thursday). There is nothing to worry about with which group your child is in, we simply do this so that we can tailor the teaching to the pace that the children will benefit from working at. All the children will be taught the same things by the end of the year, and the groups are extremely fluid. If you have any questions about the Phonics groups, please feel free to get in touch with your class teacher.

There will also be an adjustment to how the homework is set next week, so keep an eye out for a Parentmail next week with more details!

What we have been up to

In English this week, we began our new unit on Yeti and Bird. Our books for the rest of the half term all star different monsters. So on Monday, the children had a go at describing different monsters. We then got to know the story of Yeti and Bird and ordered the story.

In Maths, we began our new unit on Addition and Subtraction. The focus for now is on Addition. This week, we have been introduced to the Part-Part-Whole model and the children even had a go at writing number sentences using a Part-Part-Whole model! Addition and Subtraction can be quite a challenging topic so any extra practice at home will be hugely beneficial.

In Science, we had a wonderful time exploring our sense of smell! The children had to smell different items and predict what they were. We also talked about our favourite smells such as mint, roses and….wet dog!

In Computing, we continued to learn about the keyboard. This week we challenged ourselves to write whole words on Busy Things.

In RHE, we discussed what it meant to be a good friend. We then made friendship flowers where the petals highlighted the qualities of a good friend such as playing together nicely.

In Geography, we learnt about the continents. This week we had to label a world map with the names of the seven continents and remember the name of the continent in which we live – Europe. We also learnt a new song to help us recall the names of the continents which you may want to practice at home (be warned – it’s rather an earworm!) – Seven Continents Song (youtube.com)

In R.E., we learnt about how Muslims pray (Salah) and how they prepare for prayer through Wudu (washing). We learnt why some Muslims use a prayer mat so that the space is clean and designed our own prayer mats.

Finally in Art, we learnt about how we can use different types of lines to make our drawings look more realistic. We drew a still life of some fruit and vegetables being careful to add lots of different types of lines to make our drawings look exactly like the objects we were drawing!

Coming up next week..

Don’t forget that on Thursday next week it will be our Movie Night. This term the film being shown is Inside Out 2! Don’t forget to purchase your child’s ticket via Parentmail.

On Friday, it is Show Racism the Red Card Day when children can come into school wearing something red!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Kindest regards,

Mrs Wordsworth and Ms Lowrey

It’s been another busy and exciting week in Year 1! The children have been working incredibly hard on all of their learning and they’re really getting into the swing of things.

Harvest festival

It was wonderful to see many of you at the church on Wednesday to celebrate Harvest festival.  The children were behaved and sang beautifully. Thank you to all those who donated harvest gifts.  These generous gifts will be donated to the Upper Room, a charity that has close links with St. Stephen’s.

Parent readers

As you will have seen via Parentmail, Year 1 has requested for any parent/carer volunteer readers. This would ideally take place in the afternoons or first thing before 9.20am. You would, however, need an up to date DBS which enables you to work with children on a 1:1 basis which we can organise via our school office.  If you are interested, please email l.wordsworth@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk  or o.lowrey@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk  if you would like to volunteer.

Busy Things

In your homework books we have included the children’s Busy Things logins. This is an educational website run by the London Grid for Learning, with lots of educational games. If your child would like additional games to play on the computer, this is a really great place to start especially for revising what we have been doing in school.

We will not set homework on Busy Things, and using it is completely optional.

What we have been up to

In English, we have finished our unit on The Smile Shop by becoming writers ourselves and writing a new version of the story, making sure we described all the wonderful things in the shop with adjectives.

Maths, we continued our unit on Place Value, which we should finish next week. We were introduced to the greater than and less than signs and used them to compare both objects and numbers. The children all really grasped this concept brilliant and we were super proud of their learning! We were also introduced to the number line! Today, the children completed an end of unit quiz on the topic- they did brilliantly! Well done, kids!

In Science, we continued learning about the senses – this time focusing on touch. We had to feel a mystery object in a bag before describing how it felt. We then had a guess about what it could be!

In Geography, we continued learning about the United Kingdom. This week we revised the four countries of the United Kingdom and their flags which the children have now mastered. We then went onto learning the capital cities of each country and their landmarks – a heads up that this element was super tricky for the children and would benefit from reinforcement at home. One answer really made us laugh about the legend of who is rumoured to be lurking in Loch Ness… ‘Sherlock Holmes’ came the answer!

In RE, we continued to learn about Islam. This week we learnt about Aqiqah, which is how Muslims celebrate new babies being born. We had to create our own Aqiqah card!

Art was an amazing lesson this week! We were thinking about colour and using different media and materials to colour. First the children drew around some 2D shapes, making sure they overlapped. They then coloured them in using paint pens, colouring pencils, charcoal and pastels. The results are brilliant!

Finally, in RHE we have reminded ourselves that hurt feelings aren’t always so easy to see and how important it is to make ourselves feel better, just as we do when our hurt bodies.

Have a wonderful weekend enjoying what might be the last of the warmer weather this year!

Kindest regards,

Ms Lowrey and Mrs Wordsworth

It’s been another busy and exciting week this week in Year 1! It was so lovely to see so many of you last night at Family Supper. We hope you all had a great time.

Upcoming Trip- volunteers needed!

As you will have seen via Parentmail, Year 1 will be going on a trip in November (see Parentmail for full details). Each class needs 3 parent volunteers to join us on the trip. If you are able to volunteer please email Mrs Wordsworth (l.wordsworth@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk) to do so.

Homework and Reading Folders

Thank you to all those who returned their homework and Reading folders this week. Please can we ask that the green homework books stay in the blue folders, and the reading books and records stay in the clear folders. As Year 1 continues, there will be more elements to the homework, and it’s important that the items stay in the correct folder so that they don’t get lost.

Property

Also, on the subject of things getting lost, we would be grateful if you could please ask that you talk to the children about looking after their belongings. We have noticed that a lot of children are getting to the end of the day without jumpers and cardigans and with no idea where they are! As you can imagine, it is tricky for us to keep to keep track of thirty children’s belongings and we want to encourage the children to be responsible for their own belongings and begin to build their independence. In school we encourage them to put their jumpers straight in their bags or on pegs if they want to take them off but I suspect many of them end up in the big playground after PE or are dropped on the floor rather than being carefully placed inside of their bags. We feel as though a chat from home about looking after belongings and valuing our things may help the children to be a little bit more responsible with their jumpers! It’s also a great help if you make sure that all of your child’s belongings are named, as this increases the odds of them being returned to your child 10 fold!

What we have been up to

In English, we have begun our new unit based on The Smile Shop by Satoshi Kitamura, a lovely tale set in a busy market. We played detective and looked for clues in images from the book and predicted what happened next.  We have also written some beautiful sentences about how the main character is feeling and how a smile costs nothing!

In Maths, we continued our unit on Place Value, which we should finish next week. We were introduced to the greater than and less than signs and used them to compare both objects and numbers. The children all really grasped this concept brilliantly and we were super proud of their learning!

In Geography, we continued learning about the United Kingdom. This week we revised the four countries of the United Kingdom, but also learnt their flags. This is a really challenging topic for Year 1, so if you do get a chance to practice at home it would really benefit the children.

In RE, we continued to learn about Islam and we read some traditional Muslim stories and thought about their messages. We then drew a picture from our favourite story and said how they made us feel.

In Science, we continued our learning about the body. For the next few weeks, we will be investigating our senses each week. This week we investigated sight! The children had to play ‘eye spy’ to spot different items.

In Computing, we learnt about the keyboard. We first of all had to spot the letters of our names and then even had a go at writing a sentence on the computer!

In Art, we continued our drawing unit by focusing on making lines. This week, we used our learning about lines to create a group-art work inspired by waves. We used a range of different lines and media to create huge artworks, all whilst listening to Debussy’s La Mer!

Finally, in RHE, we thought about the different feelings we might have in a day. We talked about what we could do if we ever feel sad or worried and then cut out and stuck a picture of how we were feeling on that day.

Have a wonderful weekend and fingers crossed we get a break from the rain!

Kindest regards,

Mrs Lowrey and Mrs Wordsworth

It really feels like we’re getting into the swing of things now and we’ve had a great week in Year 1, with the children settling in brilliantly!

So many highlights this week including our super sunny walk around Shepherd’s Bush on Wednesday! It was great to see the landmarks of the place we live, like Westfield! Thank you so much to all the parents who kindly donated their time to come with us for our walk!

Another highlight was our delicious Ethiopian lunch on Friday to celebrate Ethiopian and Eritrean New Year – so many delicious dishes to choose from. Big thanks to Miss Lulu, Miss Hana, Yasmin’s mum and all our amazing volunteer cooks.

And thank you for so many of you coming to our Maths/English meeting on Tuesday morning. You should by now have received the presentation used at the session via Parentmail.

And keep your eyes peeled on Parentmail for details of another trip taking place this November – volunteers always welcome!

Reading Books and Homework Books

This will be the first week of books going home. Books are not due back on the same day of the week so that you have a full week for both at home.

Homework books are returned to school on Wednesday and new homework is given out on Thursday.

Reading books are returned to school on Thursday and new reading books are issued on a Friday.

This week Mathletics has also been set for the children to complete. The children will have two activities on Mathletics to complete each week linked to their current topic. The children’s login details can be found stuck on the inside front cover of their homework books.

What we have been up to

In English, we completed our learning on The Shopping Basket. We designed our own dream shopping baskets full of doughnuts, lollipops and balloons.  Then we wrote some amazing sentences describing them.

In Maths, we began practicing our number formation to 3. Some children are reversing their numbers which is completely usual at this stage and practice makes perfect! We carried on with our Place Value work counting from different numbers, looking at 1 more of each number and even counting backwards!

In RE, we continued to learn about Islam. This week we focussed on learning about the Qur’an and how Muslims show respect to their Holy Book.

In Science, we continued to learn about the body. We carried out different actions like waving to a friend or hopping on one leg and discussed what part of the body we were using!

In RHE we focused on thinking about our feelings learning how body language can help us read how someone is feeling and respond to their feelings. We played feelings charades to read different emotions before drawing our own emotion at that moment for the display board.

Tri-borough Singing Group

Please find details below of two singing groups run by the Tri Borough music hub.

Our First Voices choir (years 1-2) is a group for children who love singing and enjoy taking part in performances. The students learn fun songs, rounds and musical games, as well as increasing their confidence when performing and developing fundamental musical skills.

Registration – Tri-borough Music Hub (speedadmin.dk)

You can also contact Evie directly via email (evie.asio@rbkc.gov.uk) if you would like to discuss further.

Have a lovely relaxing weekend.

Kindest regards,

Mrs Lowrey & Mrs Wordsworth

What a week we’ve had! It’s been the first full week of lessons in Year 1 and the children have coped admirably with all of the learning. I’m sure they’ll all be ready for a restful weekend tomorrow.

Firstly, a massive, enormous, heart-felt thank you to our incredible FOSS team and all of you! Every parent, grandparent and carer who turned up, baked, sorted uniform, organised, rallied, walked and enjoyed one of the many amazing events.  Through your participation and support we continue to be able to offer so many wonderful experiences for the children.  Thank you!!!!

Key Stage One Maths and Reading Meeting

You should have received a Parentmail this week inviting you to attend a meeting on Tuesday 17^th September at 9am in the Upper Hall. We will be discussing how Maths and Reading are taught in Key Stage One, and how you can support your child at home. There is no need to RSVP for the meeting, simply turn up on the day! The meeting should finish by 9:30am.

If you have any particular questions in advance please email Mrs Allen (e.allen@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk) and we will try to address it during the meeting.

Adults entering during drop off

We’d like to thank all parents and carers who have been supporting us in ensuring that only children enter the building in the morning. As we said in our Parentmail, this is really vital to help the children build their independence and keeps the cloakroom from becoming too busy. If you need to speak to your child’s teacher, please knock on the white doors and we’ll come and speak to you.

Helping your child learn to change

We’ve noticed a lot of the children are struggling with changing their clothes throughout the day, including taking off their own jumpers. Can we ask that you spend time over the coming weeks practising these skills with your children so that they can take off and put on their jumpers independently? By Year 1, children should be able to get completely dressed and undressed independently, only requiring support with trickier elements such as buttons. This is an important skill for your child to have, and it very important that they have opportunities to practise this at home- for example, by dressing themselves in the morning.

Library Books

This week, Year 1 took home their first library books of the year. These books are an invaluable resource and provide the children an opportunity to read for pleasure (a lifelong skill!). Please do spend time this week reading your child’s library book with them.

Our Library session is on a Thursday, so please can all library books be returned to school on Wednesday in preparation for their session.

Homework and Reading Books

We will be beginning to send home homework and reading books next week. In the meantime, please spend some time learning the Year 1 Bible Verse with your child. You can find the Bible Verse on this page.

What we have been up to

In English, we have started our learning based on the book Shopping Basket. The children absolutely loved acting out the story and sequencing the order the characters appear in. We also learnt how to make words plural and used this skill to write our own shopping lists.

In Maths, we have begun our unit of Place Value within 10. This week we have practised sorting and counting objects.

On Wednesday you may have spotted some body outlines on the floor- there wasn’t a crime scene… it was our Science learning! This half term, the children are learning about the body and our senses. This week, we had to label parts of the body. We did this by drawing around some of our classmates and then labelling the body parts using cards.

In Geography, we have begun our unit: Our Local Area. This week we used iPads to learn about different landmarks within Shepherd’s Bush. Next week we will be spotting these landmarks on our trip.

In R.E., we have begun our learning about Islam. This week we were visited by a special visitor… Mrs Ghoul! Mrs Ghoul spoke to us about Islam and the things that are special to Islam. We then came up with some questions we wanted to find out the answer to over the course of the unit. Next week, we’ll be learning about the Qu’ran.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Kindest regards,

Mrs Wordsworth and Ms Lowrey

Welcome back!

We have had a wonderful first few days back getting to know all of your wonderful children. They have settled really well into Year 1 and are already doing some brilliant learning. What a fantastic start of term!

Reading Books

This week, we have decided not to send home any reading books with the children in order to give us time to listen to every child read to ensure they have a book at the accurate level. From next Friday, every child will have a reading book to take home with them for the week so it is super important the children are bringing bags into school.

PE, Gymnastics and Dance

For Donaldson Class, P.E. will take place every Monday afternoon and Gymnastics on Tuesday mornings.

During the Autumn 1 term, both Year 1 classes will have an additional Dance lesson on a Tuesday afternoon.

On these days, the children will need to wear their PE kits to school with long hair tied up.

What we have been up to

This week, we have talked a lot about what we did over the summer as well as what we are looking forward to doing in Year 1.

In RHE, we came up with some rules for our Year 1 classroom and thought about how rules help us to learn.

In English, we read Zehra Hicks’ Flying Lemurs, which tells the story of a little lemur who remembers how brilliant he is at jumping, skateboarding and throwing custard tarts!  Then we wrote sentences about how fantastic we are all at sorts of things.

In Art, we were excited to receive brand new sketchbooks! We created a front cover for these books that showed off not only our artistic skills but also the things that we love!

In Maths, we practised counting forwards and backwards to 20 by playing lots of exciting maths games!

From next week, each class will be following their usual timetable. You can see a copy of our class timetables on this page along with our Curriculum Map and RHE (Religious and Health Education) scheme of work.

Year 1 will be going on a local visit soon to support their learning in Geography (please see Parentmail communication sent recently for further details). Each class will need 3 parent volunteers to join us for the walk so if you would like to volunteer please do so by emailing us – details below.

If you have any further questions please feel to get in touch via email shown below.

Have a wonderful weekend enjoying the last of this gorgeous summertime weather!

Kindest regards,

Mrs Lowrey and Mrs Wordsworth

o.lowrey@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk

l.wordsworth@ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk