Year 1 Weekly Blog - "When we live humbly, God takes our small efforts and creates great things." - Pope Francis

Happy Half Term!

What a fantastic start to the new school! The transition from Reception and play based learning, to the Year 1 curriculum is huge, but our children were so ready for this transition. We could not be more proud of them and how they thirst to learn and absolutely love each step! As we write this we think back to so many special moments: The Evil Pea’s Appearance, learning their own prayer and liturgies, seeing each child’s enthusiasm and excitement to write their spellings each week, creating artwork with nature from God’s beautiful world, filling someone's bucket with another droplet. They are such sponges with a real thirst for learning and care for each other, what lucky teachers we are!

We have been led once again, so beautifully during our child led prayer and liturgy, the children shared a special message about harvest and thanksgiving. Our children chose to sing “If I were a butterfly” which we loved singing along to! In this weeks Gospel we focused how to be humble and what the word meant. We listened to a piece of scripture about a humble tax collector and a proud Pharisee. God teaches us that we should live humbly like the tax collector. We discussed what the word humble meant, and we came to realise that it means to be humble we do not that we are better or more important than others, instead we are honest and say sorry to God if we do wrong.

Going deeper in my learning

As a family, name one of each other’s special God-given gifts, something that you admire in the other person. Then each of you name a gift that you are especially grateful for - it could be a quality, skill or attitude. Decide on a way that you will use that gift to help someone in this coming week.

On Thursday Morning we spent time together as a school community to celebrate our harvest mass. A huge thank you for all the very kind donations, what a difference it will make to those in our local area who need it!

The children have also been busy writing their own stories of Supertato and you will be so proud to see their writing, they have done such an amazing job.

A huge thank you to you all for meeting with us today to celebrate your child’s start in Year 1, there has been so much to celebrate!

We hope you all have a wonderful half term, time to recharge our batteries ready for the next half term as we journey towards Christmas (eeeek!)

Warmest wishes,

Miss Bassett and Mrs Hartley

Year 1 Weekly Blog Friday 17th October - "Prayer brings us not only nearer to God, but also nearer to one another" Pope Benedict XVI

Our children’s prayer and liturgy focused on Harvest, we gave thanks to God and prayed for a fairer world. The children were so thoughtful, it is such a blessing to see the children with such desire to lead in these worships, and doing so with great care and respect. We have also been listening to this weeks Gospel where Jesus told His disciples a story about a woman and an unjust judge. He taught His disciples and us that God is never like the judge, no matter how much we pray to God, he is always there for us.

In RE we have been learning about Laudato Si and how we can care for God’s world. The children were shocked to see some of the global issues our world faces and really want to know how they can help look after God’s world. After looking at the amount of trees that get cut down, we decided to help our wildlife and created bird feeders which we put in our forest school.

Going deeper in conversation

In our Gospel we have been thinking about prayer.

Question to ask: What does the word ‘prayer’ mean to you? What is your favourite prayer? Who could you pray for this week?

Magic moments

In search of the missing Evil Pea our wanted posters can be spotted all around our school! Hopefully we will soon track him down! We have been busy making predications what he might do next and have even began to create a story map to help us retell the Evil Pea story.

Book Look: I know the children loved spending time with you to share their learning so far. They have all had a fantastic start in Year 1 and it was a lovely time to celebrate their work ready for our parents meetings on Friday.

Let’s celebrate

A huge well done to Summer who was awarded our Star virtue this week. Summer you have had a brilliant start to Year 1 and all of the staff in Year 1 have noticed your learned and wise choices and your excitement for learning. You never give up and we are so proud of you!

Congratulations to Rosalie who is our enthusiastic Bobby Bee this week. Rosalie, your enthusiasm for learning has been so wonderful; to see you beam with pride at your accomplishments is a joy! You have been to enthusiastic and motivated with our story writing in English and we can’t wait to see you flourish throughout Year 1!

Reminders

Parents meetings - Thank you for making your appointments, please email with your preferred time if you have not made yours yet. You will shortly receive an email with an invitation for the teams meeting ready for Friday next week.

Coats - Please make sure you come to school with a coat everyday to put on should the weather take a turn during the school day.

Water bottles - Please ensure your child comes to school with a water bottle. These are taken straight out of bags in the morning and children are able to access them throughout the day to keep hydrated. We are often talking about how important it is to drink plenty of water and water bottles make it easier for them to do this independently. Polite reminder that the water bottles should contain water and not juice. Thank you for your support.

Harvest - This year we are collecting tins of soup for the foodbank. All donations welcome!

EVENT
Maths Workshop for Parents WEDNESDAY NOV 5th

Last year we successfully hosted - parents and child maths workshops. These were led by the KS1 teachers in the hall. Parents sat with their child and enjoyed playing maths games together. As your child moves through KS1 we would like you to help them become proficient at recalling number facts and loving numbers. We would like to invite you once again to school on Wednesday November 5th to take pasrt in the next phrases of their maths journey-

Year 1 workshop after drop off 9:00 - 9:15 am

Year 2 worskshop before pick up 2:10 -3:10pm

Following the workshop and for the next 5 weeks- you will receive maths games to play each week. These are sent home and linked to the class homework blog.

Please sign below - it is lovely for the child to have you at the session or if you are unable to attend a grandparent.

Thank you - Mrs Hotchkiss Miss Bassett and Mrs Hartley

Maths Workshop Year 1 and 2

Emails:

c.bassett@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

s.hartley@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

Have a lovely weekend!

Year 1 Homework to be handed in Monday 20th October

Thank you once again for the wonderful homework this week. We are so grateful to be working alongside such supportive parents! Don’t forget to send in any proud achievements via email, photos or medals etc. We love celebrating the children and putting these photos onto the schools ‘Proud Cloud’ display in the hall.

Optional extra homework

As we are praying the Rosary this month we would love some pieces of artwork of Our Mother Mary. You could take inspiration from a famous piece of artwork or a statue.

Maths: We had fun playing a counting forwards / counting backwards game earlier today. Could you replay this game at home. Pass a teddy around saying the next number as you go. On a signal (clap / timer / buzz) switch directions passing the teddy back saying the number before. Keep going until it feels time to stop. You could start easy, counting up to 5 or 10 and back. Then move onto larger numbers (we are currently working with numbers 0-20).

Year 1 Weekly Blog 10.10.25 - "Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”" Luke 17:19

This week we were led by three of our children who shared the most beautiful prayer and liturgy all about our mother Mary. The children passed around the Rosary beads as we prayed an Our Father, three Hail Mary’s and the Glory Be. In this weeks Gospel we heard about the time Jesus healed the Ten lepers, yet only one came back to praise and thank Jesus. This left us thinking… what are we thankful for and how can we show our thanks?

Last week we have a naughty visitor who trapped our fruits and vegetables and turned the classroom upside down… this week we have had conformation that it was, in fact, THE EVIL PEA! We have set to work writing sentences to describe the Evil Pea and these have been put up around the school. We are hopeful that someone will soon have some more information for us!

Going deeper in conversation

In our Gospel and in RE lessons we have been thinking deeply about giving thanks to God for all of our blessings and for the beautiful world He created for us.

Question to ask: What are you thankful for? How do you show that you are thankful? think about being a steward for God.

Magic moments

In RE we have been celebrating the beauty of creation. We went into the school garden and each picked a stick along with petals, grass, flowers and leaves. We brought these back into the classroom and made our own nature brush. We then used these brushes to paint beautiful pieces of art to celebrate the beauty of creation. Our following lesson then was to create a piece of poetry about creation. The children’s written work was incredible and they had the biggest, beaming smiles as they performed their poetry to each other using our instruments. It turns out we have a rather musical bunch!

Let’s celebrate

A huge well done to Archie who has been an inquisitive and curious Clara Clownfish this week. Archie, it has been wonderful to see just how much you are enjoying our topics in Year 1. You listen intently to discussions and ask the most inquisitive and thoughtful questions, demonstrating  your curiosity and wonder towards the world around you. Thank you for sharing this gift with us and for encouraging us all to think and challenge ourselves!

A special congratulations to Hugo who has been awarded with the Star this week for embodying our Learned and Wise virtue. Hugo, you have wonderful thoughts, ideas and reflections on our discussions and we have really enjoyed hearing you share these with your peers during our whole class learning. You have thought about what wise choices can be made and how these can benefit us in all of our learning opportunities.

Reminders

Parents meetings - Thank you to those who have already made their appointments. Please see the remaining available slots (red slots have been taken). If you could please email me with your preferred time slot and we will try and and as close to your preference as possible. Parents meetings will be taking place on Friday 24th October.

Book Look - It is Year 1’s book look next week on Thursday 16th October. This is in school at 9:00-9:45 and is a chance to see all the wonderful learning the children have already completed this year.

Coats - Please make sure you come to school with a coat to put on should the weather take a turn during the school day.

Water bottles - Please ensure your child comes to school with a water bottle. These are taken straight out of bags in the morning and children are able to access them throughout the day to keep hydrated. We are often talking about how important it is to drink plenty of water and water bottles make it easier for them to do this independently. Polite reminder that the water bottles should contain water and not juice. Thank you for your support.

Harvest - This year we are collecting tins of soup for the foodbank. All donations welcome!

Uniform check - Maggie is missing her cardigan, it has her name on. Please could you check if it’s accidently gone to the wrong home. Thank you!

EVENT
Maths Workshop for Parents WEDNESDAY NOV 5th

Last year we successfully hosted - parents and child maths workshops. These were led by the KS1 teachers in the hall. Parents sat with their child and enjoyed playing maths games together. As your child moves through KS1 we would like you to help them become proficient at recalling number facts and loving numbers. We would like to invite you once again to school on Wednesday November 5th to take pasrt in the next phrases of their maths journey-

Year 1 workshop after drop off 9:00 - 9:15 am

Year 2 worskshop before pick up 2:10 -3:10pm

Following the workshop and for the next 5 weeks- you will recieve maths games to play each week. These are sent home and linked to the class homework blog.

Please sign below - it is lovely for the child to have you at the session or if you are unable to attend a grandparent.

Thank you - Mrs Hotchkiss Miss Bassett and Mrs Hartley

Maths Workshop Year 1 and 2

Emails:

c.bassett@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

s.hartley@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

Have a lovely weekend!

Year 1 Parents meetings Friday 24 October

Dear parents,

Thank you for responding to to the request for face to face meetings or virtual. I have 10 responses for virtual meetings and 15 for face to face. As you can see from the form below I have blocked off the times- so face to face is in the morning then virtual all afternoon and then back to face to face in the evening.

Please decide which time is best for you and email me with that time and your child’name. I will book these on a first come first served basis. The form will also be available after school at pick up.

email: c.bassett@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

or press the CLASS CONTACT button on the Year 1 web page this comes directly to me.

Year 1 Homework to be handed in Tuesday 14th October

Thank you again for the super home learning. If your child has their own Rosary beads please bring these into school as we will be praying the Rosary throughout each week during the month of October.

Additional:

RE: We have been discussing the beauty in God’s creation. You could make your own paint brush out of a stick and leaves or petals for the brush and use this to create a piece of artwork celebrating one of God’s creations.

Maths: We have moved onto counting forwards and backwards to 20. Please practise this at home. Some ideas to focus on: Recognising each numeral; writing each numeral; saying what number comes next; ordering the numbers; counting amounts up to 20 accurately.

Thank you!

Year 1 Weekly Blog 3.10.25 - "A family full of faith is a family full of joy."

This week we listened to a piece of scripture all about faith… and how even in little faith, God can do great things… Year 1 have reflected on the word faith, understanding that it means believing in God. Our mission was to spread God’s love to everybody!

On Monday evening we turned our classroom around slightly… and the children’s reactions were just brilliant! As they stepped into the classroom on Tuesday morning they were so excited to see the changes, “I feel like Year 6!” all with huge beaming smiles. Every child has been given a table place and new carpet space as we now lean more towards whole class learning with provision challenges along the sides of the classroom. After observing our children we knew they were very much ready for this next step in their learning! We are so proud of each one of them and their thirst for learning. Year 1 you are just wonderful!

Going deeper in conversation

This week we had our final Kidsafe session and all children have been awarded a certificate for participating. We spent time evaluating our Kidsafe learning and the children all felt that it was very important! Some comments from the children were: “Every child should do Kidsafe because they feel it helps them know what to do.” “I know how to use my strong voice because sometimes when I’m worried a just have a quiet voice.” “I loved celebrating KS’s birthday it was lots of fun.” “We know what to do if we get yukky feelings.”

Question to ask: Who are your trusted adults?

Magic moments

In English we have been exploring the story of Supertato and there has been a lot of laughter this week as we stepped into the role of the characters Miss Carrot, Mr Broccoli and Mrs Cucumber. It was wonderful to see the children have so much fun acting out the various emotions and dilemmas that the characters have faced and to hear them using such descriptive language such as alarmed, startled, stunned and bamboozled!

Let’s celebrate

A huge well done to Ralph who has received our Star virtue award this week for all of his learned and wise actions. Ralph you have joined in with our discussions beautifully, sharing your wondering questions and wise reflections on our topics and focus words. Thank you for sharing these ideas so we can all grow together!

This week we also celebrate Lillie who has been an enthusiastic Bobby Bee this week. Lillie, you have shown a genuine excitement towards your learning and we have loved seeing how this passion has reflected in your work and the example you have set for others. Thank you for bringing a love of learning to our classroom!

Parents Meetings

Parents meetings will be taking place on Friday 24th October. This year, you have the opportunity to come into school for face to face parents meeting or alternatively you can book an appointment online. Please complete the form below indicating which option you would prefer. If you would prefer an online meeting please include your email address.

Parent Meeting Form

Reminders

Sunday Mass - This Sunday we celebrate and welcome our new Reception class. If you are able to make it, mass starts at 9:30, thank you!

Hello Yellow Day - On Friday next week (10th October) All children are invited to wear yellow on Friday in support of Youth mental health.

Homework and reading books - A huge thank you for the great success on Monday with the amount of homework books that were brought back with homework completed. We really appreciate your hard work, at home, as it really does have such a great impact. I look forward to spending time looking at all completed home learning next week (Monday) before sending them back home on Tuesday.

Forest school children - remember your change of clothes on Thursday. Spare trainers for climbing please! Not all children are attending forest school this half term. However every child will take part in a forest school take over day, this is where they will spend the entire day in forest school, how exciting! I will provide the date for this soon!

Coats - Please make sure you come to school with a coat to put on should the weather take a turn during the school day.

Emails:

c.bassett@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

s.hartley@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

Have a lovely weekend!

Year 1 Homework to be handed in Monday 6th October

Thank you again for all of the super homework completed this week! We are so proud of the children and their enthusiasm to learn! A big thank you for being so encouraging and supportive.

Extra challenge: Who was your favourite character in the book and why? You could draw your character in your homework book and write a sentence about them.

Extra challenge: Can you find any other words that have ‘ll’ in them? Share these with your class by writing them in your homework book.

Extra challenge: Could you write these letters correctly on the lined page in your homework book?

Year 1 Weekly Blog 26.9.25 - "God has chosen the poor to be rich in faith" - James 2:5

This week we have heard the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man saw the poor man, Lazarus, outside his house. Lazarus would hope for the scraps the rich man would leave… This left us thinking… how do we help others? Would we watch others hurt, or would we try and help? Our children are full of compassion and have their sights set on helping others. Before our prayer and liturgies we have spent time saying prayers for people who need our prayers.

Going deeper in conversation

This week we have continued our Kidsafe lessons and have spoken about keeping our bodies safe. We all understand the 3 steps to keeping ourselves safe: Say “No” (we have enjoyed finding our voices by using our tummy muscles to say NO confidently!) Walk away, and finally tell a trusted adult. Please read the letter below to further support you child.

Question to ask: What should we do if we have Yukky feelings?

Kidsafe Letter - Lesson 4

Magic moments

There are so many moments from the week! On Tuesday we watched our Year 6 friends share a special message all about being ‘bucket fillers’… following this, we have been busy filling each others buckets! So many moments are standing out when writing this, but I must say that a group of children came to ask if they could tidy our home corner, as is was rather messy. They took such care in putting our home corner right. This was absolute stewardship from our young children and their efforts did not go unseen. They were celebrated by us all as we thanked them for their efforts. Seeing their happiness, knowing that they had done a very good deed, was such a special moment. Thank you Year 1, you are just beautiful!

Let’s celebrate

A huge well done to Roxie who has been so caring and considered towards our classroom. Roxie you have have looked after God’s world each and everyday and we have been so full of happiness watching you be so responsible!

This week we also celebrate Eddie who has been a reflective learner. Eddie, you have taken the time to look closely at your work and think about how you could improve it. Your huge proud smile certainly showed why being a reflective learner is such an important skill. Well done!

Parents Meetings

Parents meetings will be taking place on Friday 24th October. This year, you have the opportunity to come into school for face to face parents meeting or alternatively you can book an appointment online. Please complete the form below indicating which option you would prefer. If you would prefer an online meeting please include your email address.

Parent Meeting Form

Medical Form

We just have a few medical forms outstanding, please click the link below to complete the form. Thank you very much for your support and understanding with this.

Medical Form

Reminders

Homework and reading books -A huge thank you for the great success on Monday with the amount of homework books that were brought back with homework completed. We really appreciate your hard work, at home, as it really does have such a great impact. I look forward to spending time looking at all completed home learning next week (Monday) before sending them back home on Tuesday.

Forest school children - remember your change of clothes on Thursday. Spare trainers for climbing please! Not all children are attending forest school this half term. However every child will take part in a forest school take over day, this is where they will spend the entire day in forest school, how exciting! I will provide the date for this soon!

Coats - Please make sure you come to school with a coat to put on should the weather take a turn during the school day.

Emails:

c.bassett@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

s.hartley@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

Have a lovely weekend!

Year 1 Homework to be handed in Monday 29th September

Thank you for the wonderful homework last week. It was lovely to look at all the different decorations/ photographs, it really made me smile!

This week you will find two sheets to complete: one spelling sheet and one handwriting sheet. Alongside this you have your reading books.

You will notice below that I have added some extra challenges relating to each task. This is by no means a MUST, it is simply there as an extra option.

Extra challenge: Could you write a sentence about your book?

Extra challenge: Could you put one of these words (or more!) into a sentence? Could you make these words out of playdough?

Extra challenge: How many swirls and circles can you put inside the sheep?

Year 1 Homework To be handed in Monday 22nd September

Welcome! Hopefully everyone has gone home today with their home reading packs. Inside you should find an exercise book (This is your homework book), two reading books and your reading record - please write a short note with how your child found / enjoyed these books. Please remember that the Read Write Inc book links to your child’s reading in school. The second book is one to enjoy - the children visited the school library and picked one that they were interested in reading at home.

  1. READING: Please enjoy your reading books this week!

  2. DECORATE TIME: Please decorate your homework book (A4 blue exercise book) Can you personalise it so that it shares a little bit about your character, interests or family?

  3. SPELLINGS: This week our two common exception words are:

    I the

    Our phonic sound is: ck

    Words to learn are: kick pick pack sock

    Our spelling game this week has been Countdown. We’ve had great time playing this game: Pop each spelling on a small piece of paper, play the countdown theme tune, when the music stops, say the word you’ve got. Play again until all words have been uncovered.

Don’t forget our emails should you have any questions:

c.bassett@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

s.hartley@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

Year 1 Weekly blog 12.9.25 - Let the beauty of nature remind you of the goodness of God.

"God saw all that He had made, and it was GOOD." Genesis 1:31

Our week began in such a special way, with a walk holding our Year 6 friends hands, ready to celebrate Our Lady’s birthday. The children shared such happy conversations with each other and our Year 6 friends really wanted to find out all about their Year 1 buddy, it was such a joy to listen to the caring conversations. In church all of our children sat so prayerfully, singing to hymns they remembered and joining their hands respectfully.

We welcomed a special visitor from CAFOD on Monday! She helped us become learned and wise towards our world and the greater needs of others! Our Year 1’s were incredibly knowledgeable and caring, and absolutely blew our special visitor away with the wisdom of their words.

Magic moments of learning

We have been so busy with learning! Within RE and our liturgy’s we have been focused on CREATION - the beautiful world that God has made. We have a class of caring children who want to look after God’s beautiful world. The children enjoyed heading outside to see, smell, hear and feel God’s creation as we went on a scavenger hunt in our school grounds.

Letter join lessons have started and have been a real hit! ON Tuesday afternoon the Children enjoyed their first history lesson from Mrs Marshall! The children loved seeing the timeline grow in the classroom!

Delving deeper with our learning…

What big animal movements can you remember to help your body get ready for writing? My brain is thinking back to the crab movement…

What is your favourite thing that God made and why?

KIDSAFE

This week, as part of our HRSE curriculum, we have continued onto our second session in KIDSAFE lessons. Please click on the link below to see a letter which provides more information regarding our KIDSAFE curriculum and the discussions from our second lesson

KIDSAFE Letter - Session 2

Let’s celebrate

This week our Virtue Star for being such a considered member of our classroom is Rupert! Our Star learner this week is a Focused learner which has been awarded to Lily for her continuous focus, concentration and how she always put her everything into learning.

Reminders

  • PE days are Monday (Outdoor) and Thursday (Indoor). No jewellery is to be worn on either of these days.

  • On Tuesday your child will come home with their homework book. Part of their homework will be to enjoy backing their book so that it is special to them, by sharing a little bit of their personality, what is special to them or what they like! Please remember that homework books must then be returned by the following Monday. Thank you!

We hope you have a wonderful weekend.!

God Bless

Miss Bassett, Mrs Hartley and Mrs Hennessey

Welcome to Year 1 2025!

We are so excited to welcome you to Year 1!

We hope that you have all had a wonderful summer, we have definitely done well with the weather - perfect for lots of nice walks and days out! This week we have been busy making the classroom ready to welcome the children back in on Tuesday morning. We have a lovely home corner, a learning pod for our guided work, fine motor area, maths and English areas, a topic investigation zone, book corner, and IPad station, all of which will have a linked activity for our current learning.

Below we hope to answer all of the questions that might be popping into your minds as you start to get ready for Tuesday…

In Year 1 you do NOT need to bring in a pencil case, we will have all the stationary that your child may need in class for them - one less thing to think about!

You will need a water bottle - if possible labelled to help with making sure they go home with the right child.

Similarly to Reception, there will be a healthy snack provided (this will be a piece of fruit or vegetable such as carrots) however if you would like your child to bring in their own snack you are most welcome. They will be able to get these out before our morning snack time. Please make sure these are a healthy snack and remember that we are a nut free school.

Outside PE lessons are on Mondays, so you need to come in wearing your PE tracksuit.

Inside PE lessons are on Thursdays, again you can come into school wearing PE tracksuits (if warm then no need for tracksuit bottoms - just PE shorts). As the weather gets colder please make sure that PE shorts are either worn under tracksuit bottoms, or left in school or in your child’s school bag - ready to change into before the lesson

We ask for no earrings / jewellery to be worn on PE days. Unfortunately, we are unable to help take earrings out or put them back in so this must be done before school at home.

Art is on a Tuesday afternoon with Mrs Mather. Please bring an art shirt/t-shirt to keep in your trays, to cover your uniform in messy lessons.

Homework will be sent home on a Friday and should be brought back into school by the following Wednesday.

As we settle into Year 1 each child will have a reading book and reading record. We will give you more information about this shortly.

At home times, children will be collected from the Year 1 outside area next to the classroom. Morning drop off is as usual.

Please remember to label all of your uniform.

We can’t wait to see you all next week!

Should you need or want to get in contact with us, below are our email addresses:

c.bassett@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

s.hartley@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

Miss Bassett, Mrs Hartley and Mrs Hennessy