Reception and Year 1

Welcome to Butterfly Class

A special place to learn and grow

Reception and Year 1

We provide a stimulating and nurturing environment where children learn through both play and structured opportunities, ensuring a smooth and supportive start to their school journey. All children have access to continuous provision indoors and outdoors, with carefully planned activities that are both play-based and curriculum-led – because we know that all play is learning.

Our large outdoor area, with covered spaces for all-weather use, offers a wealth of opportunities to explore and grow. From the mud kitchen and construction blocks to the stage, musical instruments, trikes, and climb-in sandpit, children are encouraged to develop creativity, problem-solving, physical skills, and confidence. Indoors and outdoors, learning tuff trays are set up regularly to inspire collaboration and exploration across the curriculum, supporting skills in maths, English, art, science, and physical development.

Continuous provision is carefully tailored so that children in both Reception and Year 1 are challenged appropriately, with activities matched to their developmental stage and curriculum goals. This ensures every child is engaged, motivated, and supported to achieve their very best.

How will Reception and Year 1 learn and grow together?

At St Michael’s, our mixed Reception and Year 1 class follows a carefully planned timetable that balances whole-class, small group, and individual learning. Some learning inputs and activities are shared across the two year groups, while others are taught separately to ensure children’s needs are fully met. The teacher weaves through all groups, providing the right level of support and challenge for every child. This approach allows all learners to make progress at their own stage while still benefiting from working and playing together as part of one class community.

Our Reception/Year 1 Team:

• Judith Moore – Class Teacher – Monday to Thursday
• Cat Langthorne – Class Teacher – Friday
• Jane Stewart – Teaching Assistant

The Foundation Stage Curriculum

In Reception, children follow the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum, which provides the building blocks for all future learning. It is made up of three prime areas – Communication and Language, Physical Development, and Personal, Social and Emotional Development – and four specific areas – Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World, and Expressive Arts and Design. These areas are woven into our daily practice, with children learning through purposeful play, hands-on activities, and guided experiences that help them grow in confidence, independence, and curiosity.

Our Reception children learn through engaging themes, such as All About Me and Let it Grow. These topics link across all areas of the curriculum and may sometimes have a stronger focus on particular subjects, such as science, geography, or history. As a small infant school, our Reception children also benefit from joining in with whole-school themes, workshops, and event days alongside Key Stage 1. This provides rich and varied learning experiences and helps prepare them for the next phase of their education.

Being part of a mixed Reception and Year 1 class means our youngest children have the valuable opportunity to learn from and collaborate with older peers. This helps them develop communication, resilience, and problem-solving skills while ensuring their learning is always matched to their own developmental stage. Together, this creates a vibrant and supportive environment where children are encouraged to explore, imagine, and discover every day.

Reading

At St Michael’s, we teach phonics using the Read Write Inc. programme. This systematic approach helps children build strong foundations in reading and gives them the skills to become confident, fluent readers.

Reading Scheme Books

When children first begin, they bring home wordless books. These allow them to tell the story by looking at the pictures, helping them to develop story language and narrative skills. Once children can recognise some graphemes (sounds) and begin blending, they are given phonetically decodable books with simple sentences. These books are carefully matched to the sounds your child has learned in class. The number of books sent home each week will depend on the length of the text and your child’s fluency, with re-reading encouraged to build confidence and speed.

High-Quality Story Books

Alongside their reading scheme book, each child also takes home a high-quality storybook once a week for parents to read aloud to them. These books are chosen to enrich children’s vocabulary, deepen their comprehension, and nurture a lifelong love of reading. At St Michael’s, we want every child to experience the daily joy of being immersed in a story – discovering how tales begin and end, following how a plot unfolds and resolves, and realising that books can transport them anywhere.

Year 1 Curriculum

For children moving up from Reception, the Year 1 curriculum builds directly on the strong foundations of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). This ensures continuity and progression, supporting children as they transition from a mainly play-based approach to more formal learning. Although expectations increase, learning in Year 1 is still practical, engaging, and rooted in creativity and discovery.

Core Subjects

• English – Children develop their reading, writing, spelling, and grammar skills through phonics, guided reading, shared texts, and purposeful writing opportunities. They begin to write with greater independence, using a wider vocabulary and an increasing awareness of sentence structure.
• Mathematics – Children build fluency with numbers to 100, exploring addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division in simple contexts. They also learn about shapes, measures, money, and time, with plenty of opportunities for problem-solving and practical maths activities.

Phonics and the Year 1 Screening Check

In Year 1, all children across the country take part in the Phonics Screening Check. This is a short assessment where children are asked to read a series of real and “nonsense” words to show how well they can apply their phonics knowledge. It helps us ensure every child is on track with their early reading.

At St Michael’s, we are proud to say we have been using Read Write Inc. (RWI) phonics for many years. This is a validated scheme that provides a consistent, effective approach to teaching phonics. Our experienced teachers and support staff run daily phonics groups that are based on children’s ability, not their year group. This ensures every child is learning at the right level for them.

We believe in “keep up, not catch up”. That’s why we run regular, timely and pacey interventions for any child who needs a little extra support. This ensures gaps are addressed quickly and children remain confident and successful in their reading journey.

How you can help at home

Parents play a vital role in supporting phonics. Here are some simple ways you can help:

• Read little and often – short daily practice makes a big difference.
• Encourage sounding out and blending – let your child use their “Fred Talk” to build words.
• Celebrate effort as well as accuracy – praise builds confidence.
• Use the phonics guidance provided – we share resources (such as how to pronounce sounds correctly) so you can support with confidence.

With strong teaching in school and support at home, our children make excellent progress in phonics — giving them the best foundation for a lifelong love of reading.

Wider Curriculum

Through topics and themes, Year 1 children explore subjects such as science, history, geography, art, design and technology, music, computing, and physical education. These subjects are brought to life through hands-on experiences, investigations, and creative projects that help children make meaningful links in their learning.

Learning Through Themes

At St Michael’s, we teach much of the Year 1 curriculum through engaging themes that often connect across different subjects. This means children may study a topic that draws on science, history, and geography all at once, giving them a rich and connected understanding of the world. Our Reception and Year 1 children often learn together, and being part of a small infant school also means Year 1 children join in with whole-school themes, workshops, and event days.

Building Independence

Year 1 is an important step as children transition from the play-based Early Years curriculum towards more formal learning. We support them in developing greater independence, resilience, and responsibility for their learning, while still ensuring that activities are stimulating, practical, and matched to their stage of development.

What the Year 1 Curriculum Means for Your Child

• English – Your child will continue to strengthen their phonics knowledge, read a wider range of books, and begin to write with more independence. They’ll start using capital letters, full stops, and even exclamation marks, and enjoy creating their own sentences and short stories.
• Maths – Your child will become more confident with numbers up to 100. They’ll practise adding and subtracting, learn to count in 2s, 5s, and 10s, and begin to explore multiplication and division in simple ways. They’ll also work with shapes, measures, time, and money in practical, real-life contexts.
• Science – Your child will explore the world around them by investigating plants, animals, materials, and seasonal changes. They’ll ask questions, make observations, and learn to think like a young scientist.
• History and Geography – Through engaging themes, your child will begin to explore the past, learn about significant people and events, and find out more about the local area and the wider world.
• Art and Design & Technology – Your child will express themselves creatively through drawing, painting, modelling, and making, while also learning to plan, design, and build their own creations.
• Music – Your child will sing, use instruments, listen to different styles of music, and begin to compose their own sounds and rhythms.
• Computing – Your child will start to learn how to use technology safely and effectively, exploring basic programming and digital skills.
• Physical Education (PE) – Your child will take part in a wide range of physical activities to build strength, coordination, teamwork, and a love of being active.
• Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE) – Your child will continue to develop their confidence, friendships, resilience, and understanding of how to keep themselves healthy and safe.

How We Use Cognitive Science (Learning that Sticks)

We explicitly teach with memory in mind so knowledge is learned, revisited and used:

• Sticky Knowledge & Vocabulary
  Each subject has a short, child-friendly Key Facts & Vocabulary presentation (our subject-specific PPTs). These highlight the must-know ideas and key vocabulary for the unit.
• Retrieval Practice
  We use quick-fire check-ins, mini quizzes and talk prompts to strengthen recall. You’ll hear children respond to:
  • “Can I still…?” – to revisit learning from previous terms or year groups.
  • “Show me what you know…” – to retrieve and explain current unit learning.
• Spaced Learning
  Retrieval doesn’t just happen in the unit itself. We bring back prior content outside the original term so knowledge is refreshed over time (spaced retrieval), not crammed and forgotten.
• Thinking Tools
  We model simple graphic organisers (parts-whole, compare/contrast, sequence) so children can organise ideas and make connections.

This approach builds long-term memory, boosts confidence and helps children apply knowledge flexibly in new situations.

Communication

We value open and regular communication with our families. If you ever have any queries or concerns, please don’t hesitate to come and speak to us or give us a call. Throughout the year we also offer opportunities for parents to be involved in school life, including curriculum meetings, parents’ evenings, and “Open the Book” visits, where you can share in your child’s learning journey.

How You Can Support Your Child

• At St Michael’s, we know that children make the best progress when home and school work closely together. We ask that children read at home at least four times a week and take part in the weekly home learning tasks. Establishing this routine early helps children to build good learning habits and confidence.
• Home learning tasks are designed to reinforce what your child has been taught in school, such as practising new phonemes (sounds) introduced during phonics lessons. This gives you the chance to support their reading, writing, and understanding at home. Many parents also find our school Bee Rules helpful for encouraging positive behaviour at home as well as at school.
• You may also find the following links and downloads useful to support your child’s learning.

• Starting School
• Read write inc phonic sound mat set 1 – –
• Read write inc phonic sound mat set 2 and 3
• Number formation rhymes mat
• Starfall is a fun website to help children learn their letter phonemes and read simple words
• Top Marks provides links to many educational games across the curriculum
• Oak Academy
• Oak Academy Subjects