Class 4

Year 1

Year 1 is a fabulous year – the progress children make both academically and socially is amazing. They really start to flourish as they build on their wonderful experiences in Early Years.

In Year 1 we enjoy exploring the world around us through our History, Geography and Science topics including learning about our village and surrounding areas, the weather, materials, animals and plants. We enjoy many opportunities to help our curriculum come to life including walks in the wood, first hand experiences, role play and drama. We begin to really foster lifelong learning skills such as being resilient, persevering, working together and problem solving.

We work hard and always try our best in a kind nurturing environment. We support and help each other and work together. We also work hard on our relationships and our main aim is to be kind and caring towards our peers, adults and classroom environment. We promote kind mouths, kind hands and kind feet.

Phonics and reading is a real driver in Year 1 and opens up a whole curriculum of opportunities and learning. Our decoding skills really accelerate over the course of the year through our daily “Little Wandle” discrete phonics sessions, and reading for pleasure and enjoyment is a huge focus with daily story times, exchanging sharing books in our class library area, and children bringing in their favourite stories from home to read and share together. Stories also form a stimulus for our topic work such as “Seasons come, Seasons go…Tree” which supports our topic about plants and trees, and the “Princess and the Pea” for our work about Queen Victoria and Castle Hill.

We are lucky to have our lovely Forest School area and Mrs Livesey will be taking children for their Forest School sessions this year, helping to develop confidence, independence, resilience and team work.

What are we learning?

Explore what ideas, topics and vocabulary our class will be exploring each half term.

Curriculum overview Autumn 1

Meet our teachers

Hi, my name is Mrs Lodge and I teach in class 4 on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

I am so proud to be a teacher at Netherton I and N School, I have taught here for 26 years !!! I also came here as a child. It’s a very special place and a privilege to work with fantastic children, families, staff and governors.

I have taught in every year group over the years and have recently become the school’s SENCO supporting children with additional needs and their families. I also support Mrs Barker as part of the school’s senior leadership team.

I am married and have 2 teenagers who keep me busy. Outside school, I love spending time with family and friends, attending pilates and dance classes, going to the theatre, gardening, and have recently started to brush up on my piano playing.

I am Mrs Henriques and I teach class 3 on a Thursday and a Friday. Prior to coming to Netherton, I have taught mainly in key stage 2. And also maths in a high school (this is my favourite subject). I have been lucky enough to have taught across all the year groups at Netherton Infant and Nursery school over the last 3 years and have found key stage 1 is by far my favourite. I love to see the children learn and grow over the year and build up their resilience and love of learning.

At school I am the RE coordinator and love developing children’s understanding of the wider world and of different cultures and beliefs. I feel with understanding comes more kindness and acceptance of everyone’s unique differences. I spend Wednesdays across the rest of school teaching RE.

My teacher super power has to be my ability to develop lasting meaningful relationships with my pupils. When I have a class I see them all as my school babies. And love to get to know each and everyone of them.

Outside of school I live with my twins Tahlia and Ezra who are 10, as well as 3 cats and 6 chickens. I love animals, my favourite is the giraffe, if I wasn’t so busy being a teacher, I would be a giraffe keeper!

Our Big Six - books we return to over and over

Oi Dog

CLAIRE & KES GRAY, AND JIM FIELD
An absurdly funny book about a very bossy frog. This rhyming book full of silly animals is a joy to read and always makes us laugh
Stuck

OLIVER JEFFERS
Floyd’s kite gets stuck in a tree and he tries ever more crazy and hilarious ways to get it down. A great story about perseverance and determination.
The Proudest Blue

IBTIHAJ MUHAMMAD
It’s Faizah’s first day of school, and her older sister Asiya’s first day of hijab – made of a beautiful blue fabric. But not everyone sees hijab as beautiful. In the face of hurtful, confusing words, will Faizah find new ways to be strong?
The Wizard of Oz

L. FRANK BAUM
When Dorothy is whizzed to Oz in a tornado, she lands in a place where nothing is quite as it seems. Can she find the Wizard, defeat the Wicked Witch of the West, and be granted her wish to return to Kansas?
The Rhythm of the Rain

GRAHAME BAKER-SMITH
From the tiniest raindrop to the largest ocean, this awe-inspiring book tells the story of the water cycle. With beautiful pictures, this book is full of power, magic and nature.
Izzy Gizmo

PIP JONES
Izzy Gizmo, a girl who LOVED to invent, carried her tool bag wherever she went in case she discovered a thing to be mended, or a gadget to tweak to make to make it more splendid.