
Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, is special to Christians because it was one of the first places in England where people learned about Jesus. A man called St Aidan built a church there a long time ago, and he helped many people become Christians. Lindisfarne is still a holy place where people go to pray and feel close to God.
Our class teachers are Mrs Acton (Monday & Tuesday) and Mrs Turner (Wednesday, Thursday & Friday).
Our teaching assistants are Mrs Turner (Monday & Tuesday) and Miss Peynado.
Meet the Teachers!
Please find below the Year 1 Meet the Teacher presentation for the 2024-25 year. It outlines who is who in Year 1, an overview of our curriculum, reading expectations, communication and reporting and uniform expectations.
St Elizabeth’s Meet The Teacher Presentation Year 1 September 2024
If you are a parent of a child in Year 1, you can follow us on X (previously Twitter) (@StLizClass23) to see what we are getting up to in class each week and keep up-to-date with any class notices.
All of our class X pages at St. Elizabeth’s are private accounts, meaning only approved parents/guardians can access the site. Parents/guardians are asked to provide their X accounts for approval at the beginning of the account’s opening. Photos of your child will be only be put onto the X page, if prior consent from a parent or guardian has been given for this.
As a school, we have been thinking about our Franciscan heritage and have decided to introduce seven values – based on the Franciscan values – to underpin all that we do at St Elizabeth’s. The seven values are: Joy, Forgiveness, Faith, Respect, Service, Peace and Stewardship. We will all strive to live out these values on a daily basis but each class will pay close attention to their own value.
In Year 1, our value is forgiveness. The children are taught what forgiveness means and why it is important to forgive others.
Religious Education
Our first topic is Families.
During this topic the the children will be able to talk about their experiences and feelings about the love and care shown to them by their family. We will be asking what a family is and who loves us. We will explore the differences and similarities between families as well recognising how God loves everyone.
Questions you could ask your child at home for this topic are:
How was Jesus’ life compared to yours?
What is a family?
How does our your family show love and care for one another?
Blessed be God
God hears me when I pray for strength.
God is strong for me.
God takes care of me.
How good God is to me!
God helps me and I feel strong again.
Thank you, thank you God.
Psalm 28
Our second topic in Advent term is Belonging.
In this topic we think about all the different groups we belong to such as our family, our class, school, Rainbows, dancing, Beavers etc. We look at how we feel belonging to a group.
We then focus on Baptism; the first sacrament and joining God’s family. We remember all that we learnt about Baptism last year in Reception and go deeper, looking at what happens in a Baptism, who is involved and look at why water, Chrism, a baptismal candle and a white garment are important.
Our last topic in Advent Term is Waiting.
In this topic we first look at times when we have to wait for and how it feels to wait especially when you have an exciting event to look forward to. We then think about Advent as a time of waiting and getting ourselves ready to celebrate Jesus’ birthday. We remember the Christmas Story and also remember this story is in the New Testament. We look at an Advent Wreath and identify the significance of the different parts of the wreath. We also look at Christingle and how it helps us to understand why God sent Jesus to be the light of the world.
Advent
Our first R.E topic is ‘Myself’. During this topic the children will explore and develop an understanding of first and family names. We will be talking about how everyone has a name and that we are called by these names. We will focus on recognising our own names and making name cards to use within our classroom.
During our Reveal section we will be looking at how God knows and loves everyone of us and how God knows each persons name. The children will be able to talk about and experience how God knows each of them and how he loves them. They will be able to express who is precious to them and how God loves and protects those people too. We will look at how God loves and cares for everyone through prayers and quiet reflection.
The following R.E topic is ‘Welcome‘. During this topic the children will explore and talk about their experience of welcoming people and being welcomed in our homes and school community. We will make welcome displays to help people feel welcomed when they enter our class.
During our Reveal weeks we will look at how a new baby is welcomed in our church family and how we ourselves were welcomed, looking at pictures and discussing with our family and friends about our own Baptism. The children will have a chance to explore artefacts linked to Baptism, act out Baptisms with each other using class dolls and dressing up, learn new songs and talk about the love and joy a new baby brings to a family. By the end of the topic the children will recognise some religious signs and symbols used in baptism and some religious words and phrases from the rite
Spring
The first Spring RE topic is ‘Growing‘. During this topic the children will explore and talk about their own experience of ‘growing’ and how they feel about growing. During our Explore week they will have the opportunities to recognise growth in nature and discover ways in which things grow through a range of activities. We will be growing our own grass heads as well as conducting experiments on beans to see what plants need to help them grow. We will look at the lifecycles of animals and match animals to their young. We will visit the pond area to have a look at the frogspawn and frogs, doing this throughout the topic to see how they change and grow. We will also explore the school grounds to look for signs of new life in nature, completing our ‘growing’ booklet, showing what we have discovered throughout the week. They will recognise that Spring is a time when things begin grow. By doing this it will support them in thinking about the ways in which they can grow in love to be more like Jesus during our Reveal weeks.
Throughout our Reveal weeks, the children will learn about Lent and recognise it as a time to grow more like Jesus as well as learn about Good Friday and getting ready to celebrate Easter. They will look at ways in which they themselves and others can grow in goodness, kindness, helpfulness and love. Recognising how they grow ‘inside’ to become more like Jesus, working with the scripture John 13: 34-35 ‘I love you and want you to love one another’
The children will have opportunities to recognise the story of Good Friday and Easter Sunday, through role-play and interactive stories as well as watch our Yr 3 & 4 production E-A-S-T-E-R. We will create an Easter garden in small groups to show what happened on Easter Sunday. By the end of the topic the children will recognise that Christians try to ‘grow’ more like Jesus’ particularly during Lent.
Read, Write, Inc.
Read, Write, Inc (RWI) is a phonic based approach to teaching reading. It involves pupils learning to read sounds and how to blend them together to read words.
RWI is a successful reading programme that enables every child to become a confident and fluent reader. It aims to teach all pupils to read at a pace that they are comfortable with.
The pupils learn 44 sounds (called speed sounds). These are the letter sounds and not letter names.
The speed sounds are divided into small groups. Once they have learnt all of the sounds in one group, they can move on to sound blending the letters in that group to read words.
(Ruth Miskin Training)
- Book Bag books are changed every Monday and Thursday (Monday only once on Yellow).
- Core books are changed once finished reading in their phonic lessons. Keep until changed (3-4 days approx.).
- Library books (Book to Share) are changed every Wednesday.
Please ensure your child brings their book bag in every day so that their books are available to change on the correct days.
We use the Power Maths scheme of work, and each term has an associated textbook: Power Maths Year 1 – Textbook 1A (for autumn term), Textbook 1B (for spring term), Textbook 1C (for summer term).
Our writing lessons follow the Pie Corbett ‘Talk 4 Writing’ style of ‘Imitate – Innovate – Invent’; put simply ‘I do – We do – You do’. More information about this method of teaching can be found in the ‘Curriculum’ section of the website, under ‘English’. Our class will typically practise two genres each half term.
As part of our morning routine, children have a healthy snack (either fruit or vegetable), which is provided by the school.
Alternatively, the children can bring in their own healthy snacks from home. Again these must be either fruit or vegetable. Nuts or items containing nuts are not allowed.
Please click on the School Meals button on the right-hand side of the page to see our lunch menu.
We live in a digital age and children can gain a lot of knowledge and understanding from good quality educational games and websites.
We have made a list below of a few that we find useful in school, which may aid your child’s learning at home. Please let us know if you have any further suggestions and we will add them to the list.
- ICT games – literacy and numeracy
- BBC Schools – literacy, numeracy and science
- www.internetmatters.org – advice and guidance for parents for e-safety
- www.phonicsplay.co.uk(opens in new tab)
- www.topmarks.co.uk(opens in new tab)
- www.ictgames.com(opens in new tab)
- www.crickweb.co.uk(opens in new tab)
- www.bbc.co.uk(opens in new tab)
- www.cbeebies.co.uk(opens in new tab)
- www.mathszone.co.uk(opens in new tab)
- www.enrich.maths.org(opens in new tab)
- www.earlylearninghq.org.uk
Useful Apps for iPads/tablets
Puffin Academy
Maths Skill Builders Bundle (UK) - a collection of games for KS1 for numeracy
Maths Bingo
Crazy Cursive Letters – handwriting and letter formation practise
Read with Biff, Chip & Kipper: Library
The Beginners Bible – animated stories for children
Bee-Bot – listening to and following instructions
Book Creator
Scratch