Red Oak Primary School, Lowestoft, Suffolk

Welcome to Key Stage 1.

In Key Stage 1 our aim is to build upon the progress made in the Early Years Foundation Stage by continuing to provide the children with the skills they need to become effective independent learners. Our lessons focus on providing the children with every opportunity to engage with the New National Curriculum (2014) enabling them to build and develop their skills in a safe and supportive learning environment. The children are able to demonstrate their positive learning behaviours (engagement, enthusiasm, independence, resilience and perseverance) through a wide and varied curriculum.

The school day:

Every morning children complete handwriting and spelling activities as well as their daily Read, Write, Inc. and Literacy and Language lessons. Fridays are our Extended Writing days when the children are given the opportunity to produce a longer piece of writing demonstrating all the skills they have learnt throughout the week. Children read every day in these lessons, they also share reading with their Class Teachers in Guided Reading sessions. Reading is an integral part of your child’s learning therefore we ask for your support in hearing your child read every night at home (Remember to write this in the planner) Each child that reads every night at home will receive an extra 5 golden tickets!!

Please ensure that your child’s planner is in school every day with their reading book.

Children are taught Mental Maths skills each afternoon as well as learning Arithmetic, Data and Measure, Geometry and Reasoning in our daily Maths Makes Sense lessons.

During the afternoons children are able to apply their Maths and Literacy skills in their Enquiry lessons which focus on Science, History and Geography alongside Religious Education, Computing, Physical Education, Music, Art/Design Technology, Modern Foreign Languages (French), Personal, Social, Health, Education and Library.

In Enquiry in this term Year 1 will be learning about the Victorians through their topic ‘Vile Victorians’ where they will go back in time to discover what life was like long ago. In their Enquiry Topic Cast Away (Autumn 2) Year 1 will be looking at stories about Pirates and exploring life on a desert island.

Year 2 children will be learning about the importance of keeping fit and healthy in our Science Topic ‘Super Human’ and will also become big explorers in our Geography Topic as they begin to explore the local area and beyond. (Please see Medium Term Plans for further details)

Homework:

Every Friday your child will receive either Maths or Literacy homework and on some occasions homework will also be linked to our enquiry topic.

PE kits need to be in school every Monday and can be taken home to be washed on a Friday. Although classes have designated PE days these can sometimes change.

We also ask that children bring their water bottles to school every day.