Willow Class - Years 1 & 2

Welcome

Welcome to Willow Class!

Meet the Willow Team

Mrs Rance

Miss Morrell

This week in Willow Class...

Welcome back to school!

We have had a wonderful start in Willow Class. The children have loved being together again and sharing what they've been up to over the summer holidays.

We have been doing some writing and self-portraits based on the book 'Can I Build Another Me?' by Shinsuke Yoshitake. Children have written about their likes and dislikes and have been talking about all the things that make them special and unique.

In Maths, children have been counting and exploring number within 20 - practising number bonds and partitioning numbers into tens and ones. We have begun learning about the UK countries and flags and have taken part in a hilarious music lesson about dynamics, featuring children's impressions of several safari animals.

Willow Class Weekly Timetable

Click here to find an example of a typical weekly timetable for children in Willow Class. Children will partake in a daily phonics or spelling lesson and will have three sessions of guided reading a week. English and Mathematics will be taught using a mixture of whole-class taught inputs and small-group work, allowing us to hone in on the needs and next steps of individual children. Children will have further opportunities for Maths, writing and topic learning through the use of provision and challenges during independent learning time.

Homework

Each week, your child will come home with a new reading book on a Thursday. They will read their book in Guided Reading sessions in class three times per week, before being sent home to you. Please listen to your child read this book at home, and record any home reads in their reading diary. We would like children to read at least another three times per week at home. Children will be rewarded in school when they reach their milestones of 25, 50, 75 and 100 reads.

Children will also bring home either a phonics or spelling sheet each Thursday, aimed at reinforcing the sounds and words they have been learning in class. There will be a few short tasks on their sheet that shouldn't take more than a few minutes a night to complete.

Alongside their phonics and reading, children will come home with a Maths activity or game to play at home each week, again to support the objectives they have been working on in school.

Finally, there is a multiple choice grid that will be sent home with children at the start of each term. The grid contains a choice of nine activities, all linked to our termly curriculum topics. We would like for children to choose one activity per week to complete. Homework can be handed in to Mrs Rance directly, or if you take photos or videos, these can be emailed in to the school office. Homework will be shared and celebrated every Thursday, with marble rewards given and regular opportunities to share homework in assemblies provided.

You can find the homework grid for Autumn Term 1 here.

Phonics

Here are some documents which can support you with the different sounds your child has learnt in Reception and Year 1.

Phase 2 sounds Phase 3 sounds Phase 5 sounds

Our Class Novel

Every day in Willow Class, children will have the opportunity to vote to hear a new picture book before we go to lunch. Along with our daily shared stories, we will have a class novel each term to introduce children to the joy of longer stories and chapter books.

We will be sharing some of Roald Dahl's shorter stories this term and discussing his books in English lessons. We will be writing instructions based on 'George's Marvellous Medicine' and writing character descriptions based on 'The Twits'. We will also be creating our own tricks and writing about them!

Books we have read so far this year:

100 books to read in KS1

For the list of 100 Books to Read in KS1 click here.

End of Year Expectations

The documents below offer an outline of what we expect children to be able to achieve at the end of each year group in KS1. They can offer a good source of information if you would like to support your child at home.

End of year expectations - Year 1End of year expectations - Year 2

Knowledge Organisers

Below are the knowledge organisers for Willow Class. They outline the key 'sticky' knowledge that we would like children to be able to recall at the end of each topic we study. These will be sent home at the end of each half-term with your child and we hope that you will support them by quizzing them and asking them to tell you what they know!

The current academic year (2026/2027) is Year B of our two-year cycle.

Geography - Where are we on the map? (Cycle A, Autumn 1)

Science - Wild and Wonderful Creatures (Cycle A, Autumn 1)

History - The Gunpowder Plot & The Monarchy (Cycle A, Autumn 2)

Science - Wild and Wonderful Creatures (Cycle A, Autumn 2)

Geography - London: The Place To Be! (Cycle A, Spring 1)

Science - Everyday Materials (Cycle A, Spring 1)

History - The Great Fire of London (Cycle A, Spring 2)

Science - Plants (Cycle A, Spring 2)

History - Nurses (Cycle A, Summer 1)

Science - Habitats (Cycle A, Summer 1)

Geography - Central England (Cycle A, Summer 2)

Science - Animals and Their Young (Cycle A, Summer 2)

Geography - UK and Seas (Cycle B, Autumn 1)

Science - Materials (Cycle B, Autumn 1)

History - Women Who Changed The World (Cycle B, Autumn 2)

Science - Seasonal Changes (Cycle B, Autumn 2)

History - Amelia Earhart and Canal Mania! (Cycle B, Spring 1)

Science - Living Things and their Habitats (Cycle B, Spring 1)

Geography - Continents, Oceans and Biomes (Cycle B, Spring 2)

Science - Plants (Cycle B, Spring 2)

Geography - Rainforests (Cycle B, Summer 1)

Science - How do I stay healthy? (Cycle B, Summer 1)

Geography - South America (Cycle B, Summer 2)

Science - How can materials change? (Cycle B, Summer 2)

Cumulative Quizzes

Here you can find the quizzes for each of our curriculum topics. Each quiz is broken up into six blocks which correlate directly to the objectives taught in each lesson. We will be using these quizzes in school to check that children have retained the key knowledge from each lesson.

The following mat can support you with asking your child to recall the key facts they have been learning in school this term.

Quizzing Mat