Welcome to Year 1!

Class Teachers: Miss Armitstead, Miss Featherstone and Miss Joss.

In Year 1, children begin their exciting journey into Key Stage 1, building on the strong foundations laid in Reception. Our classrooms are a vibrant, nurturing spaces where curiosity is encouraged and learning is brought to life through play, exploration and creativity.

We focus on developing core skills in reading, writing and maths, while also fostering independence, confidence and a love of learning. Through a rich and varied curriculum—including science, art, music and physical education—children are supported to grow socially and emotionally, as well as academically.

Our dedicated staff work closely with families to ensure every child feels safe, happy and ready to thrive. Year 1 is a time of big steps and joyful discoveries—and we’re here to make every moment count!

In Year 1, we place great importance on our core values of being Ready to Learn, Respectful to All and Responsible for Ourselves. We encourage children to come to school prepared to learn, with curious minds and positive attitudes.

• Being ready means following daily routines, starting learning when asked and knowing the importance of being ready to learn.
• We learn to be respectful by showing kindness to others, listening and following school rules and sharing to include everyone.
• We are responsible for ourselves by taking care of our belongs, knowing how we can make someone happy or sad and we start to manage our own feelings with the help from our adults.

Take a look at our topics for this coming year. We intend to teach the children a wide range of skills alongside an array of knowledge for each unit.  There may be slight changes throughout the year depending on weather, availability and other opportunities that arise.

At Southey Green, we promise to provide our children with 6 unique  experiences in each year group. We call these 'Southey Super Six'.   These tasks give our children something to look forward to each year and in places, provide an opportunity that the children may not have had previously.

Fruit Faces - Cooking and Nutrition

Year 1 had lots of fun creating colourful fruit faces! This activity helped us learn important skills such as cutting and peeling safely, while thinking carefully about how to use knives correctly when cutting fruits. We also focused on good hygiene, making sure our hands and workspaces were clean before preparing food. The children enjoyed exploring different fruits and designing their own creative faces – a tasty way to learn about healthy eating!

RE – What Do Christians Believe About God?

In our Jigsaw RE lessons, Year 1 explored the question: What do Christians believe about God? We thought about God as a creator and how Christians see the natural world as a gift from Him. To celebrate this idea, the children created beautiful leaf projects, using real leaves to design artwork that reminds us of nature’s beauty and creativity. This activity helped us reflect on how Christians believe God cares for the world and how we can look after it too.