Year 1 / 2

 Welcome to Key Stage One!

The Key Stage One corridor is an exciting, buzzy and friendly place. We work together with our peers in Years 1 and 2, developing friendships and supporting each other. We are split into three classes – Avon, Dart and Eden – each with a mix of Year 1 and Year 2 children. 

Across our key stage, we learn through a mix of whole class teaching, group work and free learning sessions, during which we manage our own learning through play and set tasks. We learn in a nurturing environment where exploration and investigation are key: mistakes are valued and rewarded as much as our successes. Whilst we work together as a unit, we also enjoy time separately in our year groups, building friendships which will last through our journey at St. Teresa’s, at break and lunchtimes, during PE, Maths and some foundation subject lessons.

Each term, our learning is led by a central topic. This means that in all lessons, we are able to make learning links to all other areas to the curriculum. We learn different skills and develop our knowledge in subject blocks. This helps us to remember key facts and not confuse different subject areas. We work together in our Key Stage 1 corridor with Year 2 and throughout the year we have joint celebrations, trips and performances! 

Year 1

This year, we become more independent in our learning and continue to build on our basic skills, social and academic, from Foundation Stage.

The teaching of reading is an essential building block in Year 1. We have daily Phonics sessions following the Bug Club scheme and regularly assess progress; providing additional support where needed. By the end of Year 1, we will have been introduced to all graphemes and phonemes as well as being taught alternative spellings and pronunciations. This culminates in the National Phonics screening in the Summer Term which involves reading and decoding real and alien words.

Year 2

In Year 2, we are the oldest children in the infants. This means we work hard to be role models for the younger children in Foundation and Year 1. The teaching of reading and phonics continues to be a focus. We revise and develop our phonic knowledge, focusing on alternate sounds and continue to learn to read by using this knowledge to segment and decode words. 

As well as further developing our word reading and recognising common exception words, we look at the wider grammar and punctuation rules and develop our reading comprehension skills. During Guided Reading sessions, we experience a variety of challenging texts crossing different genres. 

In the Summer term, we are assessed on our Maths, Writing and Reading skills through SATS and teacher assessment.

 Life in Key Stage 1

Throughout our time in Key Stage 1, we build resilience, perseverance and independence! Everything we do is purposeful and enjoyable: we are happy, safe and successful learners.