Curriculum Overview - Year 1
Across the school, each year group’s curriculum is based around the international primary curriculum. This helps us develop skills that enhance our learning. Geography, History, Design Technology, Art, Music, ICT, Science and RE are all linked together. We know that children learn best from having exciting challenges that nurture their creative abilities.
Maths and English follow a specific curriculum to help children develop key foundational skills. Whenever possible, children are given opportunities to develop their investigative skills within these lessons.
Children will develop their knowledge about how the brain works and materials through our topic lessons. The key outcomes will be to explore and reflect on their learning, helping them to tackle different challenges presented to them throughout the year.
- Children follow a scheme called ‘Read Write Inc.’, incorporating all aspects of the English curriculum including phonics (sounds), reading, writing, grammar and spelling.
- Children read everyday in class to their partner and teacher during a formal literacy lesson and through 1:1 reading sessions with teaching assistant.
- Pupils decode unknown words using their phonics knowledge.
- Children write on a daily basis about the story of the week.
- Using their phonics knowledge, children sound out words in order to spell them accurately.
- Children take part in shared writing with the class teacher and peers.
- Children write about pictures from the story they have been reading that week, as well as in planned writing activities that are less structured.
Grammar and Punctuation
- Children learn to punctuate their writing - encouraged firstly to punctuate a sentence with a capital letter and a full stop.
- More complex punctuation is then introduced such as commas, inverted commas (speech marks) and exclamation marks – spoken and written word.
Using and Applying
- Children learn how to apply their number skills to everyday life.
- Children are introduced to money and learn to recognise coins, including solving money calculations.
- Children explore mathematical concepts through a variety of practical and written tasks. They are encouraged to discuss their findings with their peers.
- Children firstly secure their number facts to 10, then apply to addition and subtraction number sentences.
- Children learn to write a number sentence and solve it using a variety of methods to solve addition and subtraction number sentences; for example using cubes, a number line and a 100 square.
Shapes, Space and Measure
- Children learn how to partition a number into tens and units to ensure a secure number knowledge with numbers up to 20 and beyond, then progress onto repeated addition (first introduction to multiplication) and sharing (first introduction to division).
- Pupils learn to identify and name common 2d and 3d shapes including their properties.
- In measure, the children understand the terms length, weight and capacity. The children explore these skills during practical activities and when capable they learn how to record their findings using the correct units.
- Children learn how to collect and record data first using a tally chart.
- Children then learn how to transfer this information into a pictogram and then interpret the information. Once this skill is secure, the children then apply this knowledge to presenting and interpreting information in a Bar Chart, Carroll Diagram and a Venn Diagram.
- Children identify objects according to the materials they are made from.
- They classify and sort materials according to their properties.
- Children learn to recognise and name the physical properties of materials.
- Children understand how light and dark occurs.
- Children learn how light travels.
- Children explore the rotation of the Earth and how this causes seasons and day and night.
Plants and the Environment
- Children identify and name common flowering plants.
- They describe and label the basic structure of a flowering plant.
- Children understand what is required for healthy growth.
- Each child is responsible for planting and watering a sunflower seed.
- Children learn how to create a timeline.
- Children learn about events that are important to us.
- They identify how to use objects to find out more about an event.
- Children learn about important events that happened in our local area.
- Children understand how we can find out about an event by interviewing someone who was there.
- They learn how to use different sources to learn about a national event.
- Children learn about events of global significance by asking and answering questions.
Through Christian stories, children will be able to use some religious words and phrases to recall some of the things that Christians believe about God. Recognise Christian beliefs about how people should treat others and recall why the Christian bible and stories that Jesus told are important to Christians.
Children will learn:
- The parable of the builder.
- The parable of the kind neighbour.
This term, children will be working on using a variety of skills to illustrate an e-book.
This unit will particularly engage children who love the illustrations in the books they read. It is a great opportunity for the children to work creatively.
This unit will enable the children to:
- Use the web safely to find ideas for an illustration.
- Select and use appropriate painting tools to create.
- And change images on the computer.
- Understand how this use of ICT differs from using paint and paper.
- Create an illustration for a particular purpose.
- Know how to save, retrieve and change their work.
- Reflect on their work and act on feedback received.
- Children learn the names of classroom percussion instruments and how to group them according to how they are played.
- They learn how to recognise long and short sounds and perform them with their voice.
- Children learn the difference between pulse and rhythm and how to play instruments in different ways to illustrate a picture or setting.
- Children learn to compose a sequence of sounds and perform them in time to the pulse.
Art & Design
- Children draw on different surfaces.
- They experiment with a variety of media; pencils, rubbers, crayons, pastels, felt tips, chalk.
- They observe and draw shapes.
- Children investigate textures by describing, naming, rubbing, copying.
- They observe and draw landscapes as accurately as possible, some small discussion of proportion and where the sky is.
- Design - children model a house from recycled materials.
- Make – (cross curricular link with RE) children take part in cutting and sticking activities include making flowers, paper plate faces, collage a Hanukkah star, paper lanterns, paper dragons and moving pictures
- Evaluate – (Cross curricular link with science) children design and make a boat that can carry 4 paperclips on water & test the suitability of materials to act as a waterproof roof for a bear’s house.
- Children have the opportunity to design and make a toy car that moves, using wheels and axels.
- Cooking and Nutrition – Children design a healthy plate of food using collage. They create a healthy menu on using Lesson Maker, an ICT programme.
- Children will develop their Gymnastics skills which include balancing, travelling, hopping and running.
- Children will also learn the rules of Tag Rugby and take part in this team sport.