A Guide to Key Stage One
Welcome to Years One and Two
You and your child are very welcome to the Key Stage One (Years 1
and 2) classes. It is a brilliant phase of school, where the children
have lots of fun with activities and events such as Pirate Day, Parent
Activity Mornings and Sports Week (to name just a few!). The
children work very hard and their independence will increase as they
move through the key stage.
We hope you find the information in this Welcome Book useful.
Throughout Key Stage One you will receive information on what your
child will be learning in class and updates on how they are doing.
Please don’t hesitate to approach your child’s teacher if you have
any questions and queries.
Keep visiting the school blog which is frequently updated with
current and relevant school information.
The Key Stage One Team:
Year 1:
Miss O’Connor
Miss McKeever
Mrs. Carey
Miss Donnelly
Year 2:
Miss Murphy
Mrs. Deasy
Mrs. O’Donnell
Mrs. Kehoe
Miss Holloway
Miss Saunders
Mrs McPhillips
Mrs. Hurst
Things to remember EVERY DAY:
Reading book – please put in the class reading book box.
PE Kit – Bring this in on Monday and keep it in school all week. Take
it home on Friday to wash…but don’t forget it on Monday!
Water bottle – please put your water bottle in the class water
bottle boxes.
A Coat – Even on a sunny day it is a good idea to keep a
waterproof coat on your peg (labelled with your child’s name) just in
case.
A smile!
Class Prayers
We are a part of God’s family. A special part of our school day is when we join
together to pray. These are our class prayers.
Morning Offering
Father in heaven
I give you today,
All that I think and do and say.
And I united
In all that was done,
By Jesus Christ
Your dearest son.
End of the day
At the end of the day
I sit and say,
Thank you God
For my work and play.
I tried to be good
As I know that I should,
That’s my prayer
At the end of the day.
Morning Routine
8:45am - staff on duty
Children can be left in the playground from this time. (If you arrive before you
must stay in order to supervise sensible behaviour. Staff supervision begins at
8:45am)
8:55am – line up time
Children come to the line with their belongings. (coats, bags, PE kit, reading
books etc). In Key Stage One children are becoming more independent. By giving
the children the responsibility of putting away their own belongings, we can
encourage this independence.
Hometime Routine
3:30pm – end of day
Children are dismissed from their classroom as follows:
Y2 Miss Murphy – outside door to the corner garden area
Y2 Miss Holloway – outside door to the KS1 playground
Y1 Miss O’Connor – outside area by the old nursery
Y1 Miss McKeever – outside area by the old nursery
A Happy Class
Every day we try our best to make our class a safe and happy place to learn by
making good choices.
If we make good choices, then we get rewards in our special Friday Golden
Jumper Assembly.
Look at all the certificates we can get during the year!
We also get house points during the week. These are added up and each half
term the winning house has a house treat!
St John’s Houses are:
St Clare
St Teresa
St Francis
St Vincent
Friday is also Golden Jumper Day! This is when a superstar girl and
a superstar boy are chosen to wear the golden jumper for the
week. We feel so special when we get this!
Curriculum
Each half term we will send you a letter to inform you of what we will be
learning.
We hope you find the following information useful.
Phonics
You will already be familiar with phonics being taught through Letters and Sounds from Nursery and
Reception meetings in school.
What is Phonics?
Words are made up from small units of sound called phonemes. Phonics teaches children to be able
to listen carefully and identify the phonemes (sound) that make up each word. This helps children to
learn to read words and to spell words
In phonics lessons children are taught three main things:
GPCs
They are taught GPCs. This stands for grapheme phoneme correspondences. This simply means that
they are taught all the phonemes in the English language and ways of writing them down. These
sounds are taught in a particular order. The first sounds to be taught are s, a, t, p.
Blending
Children are taught to be able to blend. This is when children say the sounds that make up a word
and are able to merge the sounds together until they can hear what the word is. This skill is vital in
learning to read.
Segmenting
Children are also taught to segment. This is the opposite of blending. Children are able to say a word
and then break it up into the phonemes that make it up. This skill is vital in being able to spell words.
Letters and Sounds continues in Key Stage One with children in Y1 receiving a 15-20 minute phonics
session every day. At Year 2 the focus becomes Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar.
Why is Phonics Useful?
Phonics is a way of teaching children to read quickly and skilfully.
Research shows that when phonics is taught in a structured way – starting with the easiest sounds
and progressing through to the most complex – it is the most effective way of teaching young
children to read. It is particularly helpful for children aged 5 to 7.
Almost all children who receive good teaching of phonics will learn the skills they need to tackle new
words. They can then go on to read any kind of text fluently and confidently, and to read for
enjoyment.
Phonics works best when children are given plenty of encouragement and learn to enjoy reading and
books. Regular reading at home and practise of phonemes and sight words will help support this.
(DFE document)
Singapore Maths
As you may be aware from the media there have been considerable changes to the curriculum at
Key Stage One.
In order to keep you as fully informed as possible, the following information is about the
introduction to a new maths resource at St. Johns. It has been introduced at many schools within the
Chorlton area and is endorsed by the government to support the new, more challenging Maths
curriculum.
Key features reinforcing the new challenging curriculum are:
 A mastery approach – this gives children enough time on a topic to grasp it thoroughly
before moving on.
 An emphasis on problem solving and collaborative learning.
 Use of concrete apparatus (counters, tens frames, tens and ones) for children until they are
secure and then moving on the pictorial and abstract.
 Quality Talk – where children can explain their thinking, methods, explain and reason.
 Focus and Guided Practice – encourage group and paired work with resources to support.
Teacher questioning encourages children to explore and problem solve.
 Workbooks – allow independent work allowing children to show their understanding.
How does this work in the classroom?
A Mastery and Problem Solving Approach:
At the start of the lesson the children are
introduced to a problem. The children
discuss it together, with the teacher
highlighting important vocabulary such as
altogether and add.
Use of concrete apparatus (counters, tens frames, tens and ones) for children until they are secure
and then moving on the pictorial and abstract:
Using concrete apparatus, children are encouraged to explore and investigate the problem. They do
this with apparatus such as counters, tens frames, tens and ones and whiteboard and pens. Children
work with a partner or with a teacher led group. The emphasis is on children finding out ways for
themselves, with partner or group support to share ideas.
Quality Talk – where children can explain their thinking, methods, explain and reason:
The children come back to the carpet or whiteboard are where they can share ways in which they
explored the problem presented. Some children may say they did it in their head so we emphasize
that is a great skill to have but is very hard for the teacher!
We ask the children if they used any of the apparatus on the table to help them or maybe things
learnt in previous lessons. Children share their ideas if they are confident and those less confident
listen to the different ways used. As time goes on, those less confident soon see they can share their
ideas too!
Focus and Guided Practice – encourage group and paired work with resources to support. Teacher
questioning encourages children to explore and problem solve.
This may involve recording a problem solving method in their journal. This is sometimes modelled by
the teacher, other times children record their own method of problem solving.
It may also involve a practical activity.
There may also be a teacher guided session where a
method is demonstrated and discussed.
Workbooks – allow independent work
allowing children to show their understanding:
Further information along with this letter can be found on the school blog. In addition, links to
videos from the Singapore Maths Team are there for you to view. Please feel free to take a look and
do not hesitate to contact us if you have further questions.
Homework
All homework tasks will be set on Monday and will be expected to be handed in by Thursday
of the same week
In Year One, children are expected to read with an adult for around 10 minutes each day,
revise keywords or phonics from the week and complete a 20 minute task once a week.
In Year Two, children are expected to read for around 15 minutes and practise their weekly
spellings each day. In addition they complete one 20 minute task (English / Maths / Topic)
per week.
Finally… thank you for your continued support. The Key Stage 1 staff are very
much looking forward to receiving the children in September. If you have any
concerns or questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.