Year 1

January 2026 Round-up

Happy New Year!

Year 1 have returned to school with a fantastic “can-do” attitude and have settled straight back into their learning with great enthusiasm.

In English, we have been reading No-Bot, the story of Bernard the robot who lost his bottom while playing on the swings at the park. We spent time familiarising ourselves with the storyline and all of the children were able to confidently retell the story in the correct order. As part of this unit, we introduced exclamation marks and question marks and the children successfully identified these punctuation marks within our class text. The children are now becoming increasingly independent writers and are writing their own stories based on No-Bot. We are very excited to share our amazing writing by reading our stories to the Reception class over the next few days!

In Maths, the children have enjoyed learning about time, including the days of the week and the months of the year. We had lots of fun, practical lessons where the children used stopwatches to time themselves completing set tasks. These hands-on activities really brought our Maths learning to life.

Art has been a highlight this month. The children have been learning about 3D paper play, exploring how to create three-dimensional artwork using only paper. This is always a popular unit, especially as many of the finished pieces can be taken home to share with grown-ups. I have been extremely impressed with the creativity and effort shown so far and am looking forward to continuing this work over the half term.

In PE, we have been focusing on a robot-themed dance. The children have been developing their individual dance skills while also working in groups and as a whole class. They have shown excellent teamwork and cooperation and I can’t wait to see the final performance come together.

Our Geography topic has been all about explorers. The children have been developing their map-reading skills and learning about famous explorers, including Christopher Columbus. They were very engaged and enjoyed sharing new facts about his discoveries with one another.

As always, the children love spending time outdoors with Mrs Mylecraine on Mondays. There have been plenty of muddy kits but even more happy faces as the children explore and learn outside.

Finally, we have had a strong focus on presentation and handwriting in Year 1. In every lesson, we encourage the children to form their letters correctly and to think carefully about letter size. The progress they are making is clear to see and the quality and quantity of writing produced each day continues to improve. Some weeks, it is very difficult to choose who to celebrate on our ‘Shout Outs’ board in assembly as they have all worked so incredibly hard with their presentation.

 

The children continue to adapt brilliantly to life in Year 1 and I am so proud of everything they have achieved so far. I can’t wait to see them continue to develop and grow throughout the year.

December 2025 Round-up

Well, we have made it to December! It is very nearly Christmas and we have a very excited class of Year 1 children who have worked exceptionally hard in their first term of Year 1.

In English, we have been focusing on sentence structure and becoming experts at making sure our sentences are punctuated correctly and make sense. The children absolutely blew me away with our final piece of writing and we can't wait to share these with you during Homework Celebration. The whole class are focusing on the presentation of their work and lots of children have loved going to show their wonderful work to Mr Lees!

It has been a busy half term for Maths as the children have been introduced to fractions! We have completed lots of practical activities to show how we can cut objects in half and into quarters and the children are becoming more confident finding a half and a quarter of amounts of objects!

Our map skills have increased tremendously in Geography. After looking at Google Earth and lots of different countries, we focused in on Thornton and our school. The children looked at our school and playground on a map and created a map with a key of the school grounds in Forest School. We then looked at our Key Stage 1 playground and had a big discussion on what we liked about it, what we didn't particularly like and what we would change if we had lots of money. This then developed into a questionnaire where the children buddied up with Year 2 to find out what they thought about the playground - an excellent research lesson with some fantastic ideas of what we could do with 1 million pounds! We had ideas of a swimming pool, zip wire, monkey bars and all sorts!! I wonder if Mr Lees would be up for any of those ideas?

We enjoyed a whole day of football - some children had been counting down the hours until this day!! Coach Nick from Fleetwood Town came for the day and delivered a selection of sessions which taught children lots of important skills within a football game. Even the rain didn't stop us having lots of fun!

This half term is definitely the most magical half term to be in a school. The children were just beyond amazing in the Nativity. I was so proud of every single one of them - pushing themselves out of their comfort zones singing and remembering all of the actions and doing all of that with such big smiles on their faces! Three performances and a dress -rehearsal was a lot and they took it in their stride so well. Learning sign language for a whole song at such a young age was a huge achievement and I can imagine there were a lot of tears in the audience watching your superstars on stage!

We have also enjoyed a yummy Christmas dinner with crackers and lots of fun and a whole-school pantomime trip to watch Beauty and the Beast. The children loved sitting at the top of the bus going to Blackpool - what a treat! Not to mention a fantastic Elf Day where we even got to meet the big man himself! The children loved making Christmas crafts and enjoyed an afternoon with hot chocolate and marshmallows!

Overall, this term has been wonderful. It feels like the children have been in Year 1 for much longer than they have and I am really proud of everything they have achieved. We are all ready for a lovely Christmas break to recharge our batteries and be ready for another jam-packed term ahead of us.

Thank you for all of your continued support - we really appreciate it!

November 2025 Round-up

November has flown by and somehow Christmas is already just around the corner!

Year 1 have had a wonderfully busy and exciting month and the children have worked incredibly hard in everything they’ve taken on.

In English, we’ve been focusing on building strong sentences and we’re now a class full of subject, verb and noun experts! The children have also continued working hard on their pre-cursive handwriting and we’re really looking forward to sharing some of our fantastic work next week during our homework celebration afternoon.

In Phonics, we are well into our Phase 5 sounds. This half term the children have been introduced to split digraphs and our collection of alternative sounds on the phonics board just keeps growing! It’s lovely to see everyone so engaged in their learning - Phonics Aerobics has become a class favourite and is a fun activity to try at home with the whole family!!

This month, Year 1 also began their new Geography topic. We kicked things off with the always-exciting Google Earth, choosing countries to “visit” and deciding whether we’d like to go there in real life. Australia was a clear favourite and we loved exploring the streets of New York together! We then zoomed in a little closer to home, looking at maps of Thornton-Cleveleys and Baines. The children particularly enjoyed spotting their homes and talking about their routes to school. We’ll be continuing our map work over the next few weeks.

In Science, the children have been identifying different materials both inside and outside the classroom. Mrs Mylecraine took the class on a ‘material hunt’ during Forest School to see what we could find around our school grounds. The children always enjoy being outdoors - especially when muddy puddles are involved! We imagine a few puddle suits have needed some extra washing this month but it’s all part of the fun at Baines.

We also celebrated ‘Great Britain Day’, where our theme was The Great Fire of London. The children loved acting out scenes from the event and even had a go at making bread. We were also lucky enough to have a visit from firefighter Mr Clueit, who talked to us about how things have changed since 1666 and what the fire service would do today in a similar situation.

And of course, we are now in full Nativity mode! The children have been working so hard to learn all the songs and actions for our performance.

A huge well done to all of Year 1 - you have been amazing this month and we are so proud of each and every one of you!

October 2025 Round-up

What another fun-filled month October has been in Year 1!

The most exciting part of our month was receiving a whole new set of beautiful classroom furniture. We now have amazing tables that can be arranged in lots of different shapes and formats to help us learn even better. A huge thank you to Mr Lees for organising this for us - we are so grateful and promise to take great care of everything!

We were absolutely blown away by the children’s performance of 'The Boneyard Rap' during our performance poetry this month. Every single child learned their lines so well and performed with such confidence - we were all incredibly proud!

In English, we have been busy writing our own innovated versions of Harry the Happy Mouse. The children used such fantastic vocabulary to create their own stories, and their handwriting is improving beautifully too. The children enjoyed changing the characters in their stories - some had some very interesting ideas!

In Maths, we’ve been working hard on addition and subtraction, using classroom resources to help us explore numbers in lots of fun ways. One of our favourite topics was measuring where the children loved using to rulers, blocks, cubes and bears to measure things around the classroom!

In PE, we’ve become real ball-rolling experts! We’ve focused on rolling, throwing, catching and bouncing a range of different balls, and our coordination is improving every week. The children also enjoyed when the climbing frame has been out in PE - they explored lots of ways to travel around the frame and really focused on how to stay safe when on the equipment.

We were also introduced to the new orienteering set-up on our school grounds. It was a bit tricky at first but once we got the hang of it, we loved it! We even buddied up with our lovely Reception class to show them how it’s done. Year 1 did a fantastic job of setting a brilliant example for the younger children.

Our Phonics learning continues to go from strength to strength and we’re becoming Phase 5 experts! It’s wonderful to see the children confidently using their new sounds in their own writing.

Our month ended with lots of Halloween fun and we took part in an assembly with PC Nutter where she shared how to keep safe during Halloween and Bonfire Night!

What a busy and exciting month it has been! We can’t wait to see what November brings for Year 1.

September 2025 Round-up

What an amazing first month we've had in Year 1! Transitioning from EYFS to Year 1 is a big step, but our class have handled it brilliantly. The children have settled into new routines and expectations with enthusiasm and resilience and we’re so excited for the year ahead!

In English, we’ve been enjoying the story Harry the Happy Mouse. The children have loved getting to know Harry - he even has a special spot above our board, keeping an eye on our hard work! We've not only enjoyed reading the book but have also written some fantastic pieces inspired by the story and the characters. The progress in handwriting already has been impressive - our children are working hard on forming their pre-cursive letters, and the improvement in presentation is clear to see every day.

Our History topic this half term is ‘How Have Schools Changed?’ We started by exploring the purpose of school today and learning about different rooms and resources that help keep us safe and happy. A highlight so far has been a visit from some of our wonderful Year 6 pupils, who shared how Baines has changed over the past two years. It was a fantastic opportunity to learn from their experiences and we’re looking forward to continuing this topic by welcoming visitors to share their memories of school life at Baines many years ago.

Our new Phonics scheme is in full swing and proving to be a hit! Learning through games and exciting activities keeps us all engaged - though we do have to watch out for a cheeky crocodile who loves to catch children crossing the river! There’s never a dull moment in Year 1!

In PE, we’ve been developing our fundamental movement skills including rolling, throwing, catching, bouncing, running and jumping. Most importantly, we’ve been learning how to work as part of a team. It’s been wonderful to see the children supporting each other and earning lots of house points during our lessons.

We’ve also been spending plenty of time outdoors in both Science and Forest School. The children have enjoyed exploring signs of Autumn, collecting natural materials and creating their own seasonal collages. Whether jumping in muddy puddles or searching for colourful treasures around the field and playground, there's been no shortage of excitement and discovery with Mrs Mylecraine in Forest School lessons!

It’s been a truly fantastic start to Year 1 and we can’t wait to see what the rest of the term brings.

June 2025 Round-up

What another wonderful month we have had in Year 1!

Our English unit has been all about 'Robots' where the children fully immersed themselves into the class story 'No-Bot' by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet. They have innovated the story and created their own version within our English lessons. I have been really proud of the effort the children have been making with their handwriting. We spent time writing up our stories in our neatest writing and lots of children went to show Mr Lees their amazing presentation - what an achievement!

In Science, the children have been taking a lot of their learning outside where they have been measuring tree trunks, designing and making animal homes and looking at plants within our school grounds. The animal homes were amazing - the children had to think of an animal they would like to make a home for, find natural materials from the field and think of the most suitable location to set up the home! We left lots of cosy homes for squirrels, hedgehogs, birds, worms and even foxes in our outdoor area! The class also helped Mrs Mylecraine plant fruit and vegetables in their Forest School afternoons - this was a great help towards our Wyre in Bloom visit the other week.

We celebrated an amazing Health Week where the Red Willow team won Sports Day for both key stages! The children were brilliant in all of the events during Sports Day but also really enjoyed the other visitors we had during the week. One of our personal favourites was Yoga! We came out feeling extremely calm - maybe we should do more of this in our classroom! The children loved UV dodgeball, ultimate frisbee and a Taekwondo taster session - I was really proud of them all giving everything their best go!

We also said a big goodbye to Miss Heathcote who has been working in our classroom for the last term! The children loved working with her and we will all miss her in Year 1 - we wish her lots of luck in her new job in September!

May 2025 Round-up

Year 1 have been really busy this month learning all about 'The Great Outdoors'!

Our favourite part has to be our 'Year 1 Campsite' where we planned a super afternoon on the school field with our grown ups! We had tents, games and even a campfire where we toasted marshmallows and made delicious smores. After experiencing the camping afternoon, we became expert campers and in English we were able to write brilliant information leaflets all about camping!

Year 1 enjoy taking lots of their learning outside - we have been learning all about plants in Science, Explorers in History and improving our throwing and catching skills during PE with Tom from Blackpool Community Trust!

Penelope, Isla-Grace, Margot and Poppy all took part in Baines' Got Talent this month. All of the girls performed in front of a huge audience at Millfield High School and were all so confident with their acts! The girls represented Year 1 so well and we were all really proud of them!