Year 1 Newsletter Friday 1st May 2026

May 1, 2026

English
We will be using the plans that we created last week to write our own ‘voyage and return’ story. We will be writing as independently as we can and practising using all of the things that we have learnt in English including capital letters, full stops, finger spaces and conjunctions (and, but). We will also practise editing our own work.

In phonics, we will be reviewing the following sounds in preparation for the phonics screening check:

ea /e/ as in head

ir /er/ as in bird

ou /ow as in cloud

oy /oi/ as in toy

The tricky words we will focus on this half term will be:

many      who        whole       two         any

Don’t forget to review the sounds and tricky words in the front of the reading records whenever you read with your child. 

Reminders
Parent Volunteer Meeting Wednesday 6th May 9am to discuss upcoming fundraising and events for the summer term. Please let your child’s class teacher know if you are able to attend. Kind regards Mrs Taylor.
Maths

We will be starting our new area of fractions this week. We begin this unit by recognising, finding and making half of objects and shapes. We will also be learning to do the same for quantities. We will be addressing all of this by completing simple problems.

Topic
In geography we will be comparing the similarities and differences between the physical and human geographical features in both Witham and Clacton. 

In art we will be exploring Gaudi and creating our own picture in the style of this influential artist by completing the missing section. 

In DT we will be testing and evaluating shop bought smoothies and choosing the ingredients to create our own. 

In science we will be learning the function of each part of a plant and why this is important. 

Homework
Children will be bringing home real and fake words to add their sound buttons to, in preparation for the phonics screening check.
Top Players
Top Dancer

Class 4

Nathan Jackson

Class 5

Arthur Stevens 

Class 6

Angel Wright

Top Player

Class 4

Jacob Thursby

Rehmat Fahad

Class 5

Thea Vincent

Class 6

Archer Tutton

Finley Gilbey

Children’s Health Project

Class 4

Edwin Sanders

Class 5

Luna Van Loo Clooney

Class 6

Henry McTigue