Reading:

At Primrose Hill we believe that a quality English curriculum should develop children’s love of reading, writing and oracy. A key priority is teaching children to read, enabling them to both read for pleasure but also learn, understand and unlock the world around them through comprehension.  We recognise the importance of nurturing a culture where children are engaged and take pride in their writing, can write clearly and accurately and use vocabulary and ideas from reading to enhance their writing. We recognise the valuable contribution parents make to their child’s reading development. Children at Primrose Hill will bring home individual phonics reading books to support reading practice at home.  Books will be changed in a regular age appropriate way as well as a read aloud at home text. The read aloud at home texts are intended to be shared with your child (either read to your child or with them) to develop their love of reading.

Children in Year 1 use the books from the Floppy's Phonics systematic, synthetic phonics programme we follow across school . Books within this scheme are pitched at the child's level based on their sounds they have learnt. The vocabulary within these books support the children to explore new words and encourage them to use this new vocabulary within their writing. The schemes are systematic and children will move through the schemes. We highly encourage children to practice reading their book more than once before moving on to another book. This allows for new vocabulary to be absorbed and fluency of reading to improve. Teachers are continually assessing children within reading to determine when they should move on.

Children in Y1F have allocated times for reading with the teacher, in addition to the daily reading which takes place during lessons.  Experienced staff support your child with the development of their reading knowledge and skills. Children will have 1 reading book per week as a minimum expectation and we advise that the book is read at least 3 times as this supports their fluency and confidence with the sounds they are practicing and understanding of the text. We kindly ask that children do have their reading book and diary in school with them every day. This will allow for any extra reading to happen and to support children in routine and independence. If you have any questions or comments about your child's reading, or their reading book, you can jot these in the accompanying home-school reading diary and one of the teachers will respond as soon as possible.

We will also be sending home a 'Read Aloud at Home' book each half term. This will be a longer novel type book for you to read with your child. This will usually be pitched above their reading level but is there to expand their knowledge of stories and more advanced texts. This books is a really useful resource to get the whole family reading. Our children really love reading these books at home and then talking about the story in class. We hope you enjoy this resource. 

Homework

All teachers at Primrose Hill highly value the positive contribution that parents make and the support they provide for their child’s education. We are keen to ensure that weekly homework is focused on developing key skills, knowledge and understanding in Reading, Writing and Maths. School has invested heavily in many online learning platforms which you will be familiar with and we are keen to utilise these to support children in their development of key skills. We also acknowledge the importance of children being able to complete their homework independently and recognise that time limitations are a factor for many of our families when completing homework. Children will be set age appropriate online learning tasks weekly by their teacher.  There will be three tasks set on Mathletics. If at any point you misplace your login cards please email the class teacher. If children are unable to complete these at home, provision will be made for them to be completed in school. A half termly Learning Log task will be sent home at the end of each half term which provides the opportunity for children to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of their topic in a creative way 

PE 

Y1F have PE this half term on a - Tuesday and Friday.

PE kit - Children should leave their PE kit in school with them. they will bring it home at the end of each term to be washed. Children should wear appropriate shorts and t-shirt for PE. In the colder weather children should wear tracksuit bottoms and a jumper/hoodie as lessons can take place outside weather permitting. Appropriate footwear should be worn at all times; pumps for indoor PE and trainers for outdoor PE.

Some of our PE sessions are taught by Leeds Rhino representatives and Aces. These are professional companies who support teachers and children in learning and developing specific skills.