English

The books that we are reading this half term are  'Where The Wild Things', written by Maurice Sendak and 'Manfred the Baddie'

     

 

English:

'Where The Wild Things Are' - Writing outcomes

• Annotated story maps – familiarising, sequencing and planning

• Character description  – describing and then comparing their own wild things (to entertain), vocabulary generation and use of comparative language (-er, -est suffixes)

• Missing poster – vocabulary generation and application of comparative language learned (to inform/explain

 • A letter to the Wild Things – persuasive writing

• Retelling the story with innovation – narrative writing (to entertain), an original version of the story, and creation of a class anthology of original work

'Manfred the Baddie' - Writing outcomes

• A ‘Get Well’ card/message – to empathise

• Instructions for making a sandwich  – to inform

• A character description in the form of a Wanted poster – to inform

• A comic strip story in the style of Manfred the Baddie  – to entertain

For more information about how we teach English at BJA, please visit our Writing page.

 

The pupils will be provided with 5 / 10 weekly spellings as part of their homework. The pupils will be tested on their spelling knowledge every Friday. The pupils can practice their spellings by clicking on the link below which will direct them to Spelling Shed.

 

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Phonics

At Brookfield Junior Academy we follow the Read Write Inc. phonics programme to promote fluent, confident readers who develop a love and enjoyment of reading. 

• We aim to ensure every child is able to read at age-related expectations, regardless of their background, needs or abilities.
• We aim to ensure all pupils, including the weakest readers, make sufficient progress to meet or exceed age-related expectations.
• We aim to ensure the teaching of reading develops pupils’ vocabulary, language comprehension and a love of reading.
• We aim to ensure pupils have the opportunity to enjoy a wide range of exciting stories, poems, rhymes and non-fiction.

The pupils are taught phonics daily, with extra tuition for target pupils and with extra practice sessions in the lead up to the phonics screening check. The pupils will complete a ‘Read and Repeat’ cycle. This means each week each child will take home:

• 1 taught ditty/Story book
• 1 book bag book
• 1 ‘reading for pleasure’ book for their parents/ carers to read to them to develop a love of reading  

It is expected that pupils will read their phonics books '4 or more times a week'. Please make sure you evidence this in your child's planner. For more information please visit our Phonics page.

Below is a link to access Ruth Miskin's RWI portal videos to help you support your child's reading at home:

RWI Parent Films

 

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At BJA, we follow the White Rose Maths scheme of learning which underpins the values behind the mastery approach to teaching mathematics.There are many elements to the teaching and learning of Maths: it is not only the ability to calculate (being mathematically fluent) but also the ability to apply these skills to real life scenarios (solve problems and investigate) and also to talk knowledgeably about mathematical working (reasoning).

Maths:

Number - Place value within 50

Measurement -  length and height

• Compare lengths and heights
• Measure lengths

Measurement - Weight and volume

. Introduce weight and mass

. Measure mass

. Compare Mass

. Introduce capacity and volume

. Measure capacity

. Compare capacity

Measurement - Money

. Recognising coins

. Coin counting

. Recognising notes

. Comparing amounts using coins and notes

Number - Multiplication and division (Within 50)

. Count in 2/5/and 10,s

.Make equal arrays

. Add equal groups

. Make arrays

. Make equal groups - grouping and sharing

 

 

Please click on the links below to view our Long Term Plan and Curriculum Intent. For more information on how we teach maths at BJA, please see our Mathematics page.

Year 1 Maths Long Term Plan

Maths Curriculum Intent

Below you will see a number of different websites to support your child with their mathematical learning. Please look on page 11 of your child's planner for their Numbot login.

 

 

 

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Science: Plants

🌻 What Are We Learning?

In this topic, your child will explore the history of plants and how they have been used by people throughout time. They will learn about:

• 🌿 Plants in the past: How early humans used plants for food, medicine, and shelter.

• 🌼 Farming and gardening: How growing plants changed human life, including the first farmers.

• 🌳 Famous gardens and plant explorers: Learning about historical gardens and explorers who introduced new plants to different parts of the world.

• 🌾 Plants in daily life: The role of plants in food, clothing, and art throughout history.

🌷 Key Historical Concepts

• Chronology: Understanding how people’s use of plants has changed over time.

• Sources of evidence: Using old paintings, farming tools, and ancient plant remains to learn about the past.

• Cause and effect: Exploring how farming transformed human settlements.

🌻 Activities to Try at Home

Here are some fun activities to extend your child’s learning:

• 🌿 Plant Timeline: Create a simple timeline showing how people used plants (e.g., for medicine, farming, or decoration) at different points in history.

• 🌷 Herbal History: Try making a simple lavender sachet or mint tea and talk about how people in the past used plants for their health.

• 🌳 Historical Gardens: Visit a local garden or park and talk about how people cared for plants in the past compared to today.

• 🍓 Grow Your Own History: Plant herbs or vegetables with your child and discuss how ancient people grew food without modern tools.

• 🌿 Questions to Ask Your Child

• Why did people start farming instead of hunting and gathering?

• How did people use plants as medicine in the past?

• Can you name a famous garden or plant explorer from history?

• How are plants used differently today compared to long ago?

Geography: 

🌍 Year 1 Geography: Local Area – UK Countries and Seas

🔎 What We’re Learning

In Year 1 Geography, your child is learning about:

• The four countries of the United Kingdom.

• The capital cities of each country.

• The surrounding seas of the UK.

• Basic map skills, including identifying the UK on a map.

🗺️ Key Knowledge

Here are some of the key facts your child will be covering:

✅ The Four Countries of the UK:

• England – Capital: London

• Scotland – Capital: Edinburgh

• Wales – Capital: Cardiff

• Northern Ireland – Capital: Belfast

✅ The Surrounding Seas:

• North Sea – to the east of the UK

• Irish Sea – between Great Britain and Ireland

• English Channel – to the south, separating the UK from France

• Atlantic Ocean – to the west of the UK

✅ Map Skills:

• Recognising the shape of the UK.

• Using a simple compass (north, south, east, and west).

• Locating countries, capitals, and seas on a basic map.

  🌟 How You Can Support at Home

  📚 Books and Stories:

• Read books that feature UK landmarks or cities.

• Look at atlases or children’s maps together.

• 🧭 Activities:

• Map Hunt: Find the UK on a globe, atlas, or online map.

• 🎵 Songs and Videos:

• Sing along to catchy songs about the UK countries and capitals (check YouTube for child-friendly videos).

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• Seaside Talk: Discuss any trips you’ve taken to the coast. Which sea was it?

• Flag Fun: Learn and colour the flags of the UK countries.

Songs and Videos:

• Sing along to catchy songs about the UK countries and capitals (check YouTube for child-friendly videos).

• Watch short educational videos showing the UK landscape.

🗣️ Questions to Ask Your Child:

• “Can you name the four countries of the UK?”

• “What is the capital city of Scotland?”

• “Which sea is to the east of England?”

🌿 Real-World Connections

If you’re out and about, you can:

• Spot UK flags and ask your child which country they represent.

• Notice road signs that mention cities or directions (north, south, etc.).

• Visit a local park, beach, or river to discuss geographical features.

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✅ Tip: If you’re unsure about any of the facts, check out BBC Bitesize or use an online map tool like Google Earth to explore with your child.

 

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Religious Education (RE): 

What can we learn from Sacred books?

📚 Topic Overview

In Year 1 Religious Education (RE), children are exploring the concept of sacred books and the important messages they contain. They will be introduced to stories, teachings, and values from significant religious texts. This helps them understand the role these books play in the lives of believers and how they can influence kindness, respect, and compassion.

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✨ What Are Sacred Books?

Sacred books are special texts that hold spiritual or religious significance. They contain teachings, stories, and guidelines that shape the beliefs and practices of different faiths. In Year 1, children will be introduced to:

• The Bible (Christianity) – containing stories about Jesus, creation, and messages of love and kindness.

• The Qur’an (Islam) – believed by Muslims to be the word of God revealed to Prophet Muhammad.

• The Torah (Judaism) – the central text of Jewish teachings, including stories of Moses and the Ten Commandments.

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🌿 Key Learning Objectives

By the end of this unit, children will:

• Understand that sacred books are respected and treated with care.

• Hear and discuss stories with moral or spiritual messages, such as:

  • The Good Samaritan (Bible) – teaching kindness to all.

  • The Prophet and the Ants (Qur’an) – highlighting compassion for all creatures.

  • Noah’s Ark (Bible and Torah) – emphasizing obedience, faith, and care for creation.

• Identify the values these stories promote, such as kindness, honesty, and helping others.

• Reflect on how they can apply these values in their own lives.

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🌼 Activities in the Classroom

To make learning meaningful and engaging, children will:

• Listen to and discuss sacred stories.

• Draw or act out parts of the stories to explore their messages.

• Reflect on how they can show kindness, fairness, and compassion in their own actions.

• Learn about how people of faith treat their sacred texts with respect (e.g., washing before handling the Qur’an or storing the Torah in a special place).

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🏡 How You Can Support at Home

Here are some simple ways to reinforce this learning at home:

• Read stories with a moral lesson – Books about kindness, sharing, and compassion help children connect to the values found in sacred texts.

• Talk about respect – Discuss how people treat their special books (e.g., handling books with care, not placing them on the floor) and relate this to how sacred texts are treated with reverence.

• Encourage kindness – Share real-life examples of kindness or fairness and ask your child how they can practice these values.

• Explore diversity – If appropriate, visit a place of worship or look at pictures online to show how sacred texts are used in different religions.

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✅ Key Takeaway: This unit encourages children to understand the special place sacred books hold in different religions and reflect on the positive values they promote.

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PSHE: 

PSHE Y1: What Makes a Good Friend?

💡 Topic Overview

In this lesson, children explore the qualities of a good friend and reflect on friendship boundaries. They consider how friends should treat one another and whether good friends should tell them what to do.

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👫 Key Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, children will:

• Identify positive qualities of friendship (kindness, sharing, listening, helping).

• Understand that good friends respect each other's feelings and choices.

• Recognize the difference between helpful suggestions and bossy or controlling behavior.

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💬 Discussion Points for Home

To help reinforce this topic, try these conversation starters at home:

• 🧸 "What makes someone a good friend?"
  → Encourage your child to describe traits like kindness, patience, and being a good listener.

• 🤔 "How do you feel when someone tells you what to do?"
  → Discuss how it’s okay to say no if a friend is being pushy or unfair.

• 💕 "Can a good friend disagree with you?"
  → Help your child understand that true friends can have different opinions and still be kind.

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🎯 Activities to Try at Home

1. Friendship Tree 🌳:

   • Draw a tree with your child.

   • On each branch, write or draw a quality that makes a good friend (e.g., sharing, kindness).

   • Add leaves for specific ways they can show friendship (e.g., helping a classmate, inviting someone to play).

2. Role-Playing 🎭:

   • Act out different friendship scenarios with your child.

   • Examples:

     • A friend shares their toy.

     • A friend tells you what game to play.

     • A friend asks for help when they are sad.

   • Ask your child how they would feel in each situation and discuss how a good friend would behave.

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✅ Key Takeaway for Parents

Friendships are important for young children’s emotional and social development. Helping them recognize healthy friendships and teaching them to assert their own boundaries will build their confidence and empathy.

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✅ Tip: Encourage your child to talk about their friends and how they treat each other. This creates a safe space for them to share any friendship worries they might have.

 

Year 1 Design Technology: Preparing Fruit and Vegetables – Parent Information Page

🌿 What are we learning?

In this unit, children will explore:

• The importance of healthy eating and why fruit and vegetables are essential for a balanced diet.

• Basic food preparation skills, including washing, peeling, cutting, and arranging fruit and vegetables.

• How to follow simple safety and hygiene rules when working with food.

• Creating a simple fruit or vegetable dish, such as a salad, smoothie, or kebab.

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🔪 Skills and Techniques

Throughout the unit, students will develop the following practical skills:

• Washing & Preparing: Cleaning fruit and vegetables properly.

• Peeling & Cutting: Using safe, child-friendly tools to peel and cut (e.g., plastic or serrated knives).

• Combining & Presenting: Arranging fruit and vegetables creatively, considering color and shape.

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🥕 Safety and Hygiene Tips

We will teach students about food safety, including:
✅ Washing hands before and after handling food.
✅ Tying back long hair and wearing aprons.
✅ Using knives safely with adult supervision.
✅ Keeping the work area clean and tidy.

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🍉 How you can support at home

You can encourage your child’s learning by:
🍓 Getting involved in food prep – Let them help wash, peel, and arrange fruit and vegetables during snack or meal prep.
🍎 Talking about healthy eating – Discuss why it’s important to eat a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables.
🥒 Making it fun – Try arranging fruit into fun shapes or creating a rainbow vegetable plate.
🍊 Exploring new flavors – Introduce new fruits or vegetables they may not have tried before.

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🥗 Example Activities

Here are some simple activities you can try at home:

• Fruit Faces: Use sliced fruits (bananas, grapes, strawberries) to create fun faces on a plate.

• Vegetable Sticks & Dip: Help your child cut cucumbers, peppers, and carrots into sticks to dip in hummus or yogurt.

• Smoothie Creations: Let them choose 2-3 fruits and blend them into a tasty smoothie.

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📸 Share Your Creations!

We would love to see your child’s fruit and vegetable creations! Feel free to send in photos or share them with the class. 🍓📷

📖

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🖥️ Year 1 Computing – Digital Writing: Parent Information Page

📚 What Is Digital Writing?

Digital writing introduces children to the use of technology for creating and editing text. In Year 1, students learn how to:

• Use a keyboard to type simple sentences.

• Understand the function of keys such as space bar, backspace, enter, and shift.

• Edit their writing by correcting mistakes and adding punctuation.

• Change the font style, size, and color to enhance their text.

These skills help children develop early typing proficiency and build confidence in using digital tools.

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💡 Why Is It Important?

Learning digital writing at an early age helps children:
✅ Improve their fine motor skills by using the keyboard and mouse.
✅ Build confidence with technology, preparing them for future learning.
✅ Understand the connection between digital and handwritten writing.
✅ Foster creativity through text formatting and presentation.

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🛠️ What Tools Are Used?

In school, students will use child-friendly software such as:

• Microsoft Word or Google Docs for basic word processing.

• Educational apps like J2e Write or Purple Mash for creative digital writing activities.

• Interactive whiteboards to model typing and editing.

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🏠 How Can You Support at Home?

👩‍🏫 Encourage Practice:

• Let your child type their name, simple sentences, or short stories.

• Ask them to experiment with changing the font size or color.

⌨️ Keyboard Familiarity:

• Show them where common keys (space, backspace, enter) are located.

• Play typing games to make practice fun.

📝 Combine Digital and Handwriting Skills:

• Ask your child to write a sentence by hand, then type it digitally.

• Let them compare the two to see how digital writing offers more formatting options.

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🌟 Key Vocabulary for Year 1

• Keyboard: The set of keys used for typing on a computer.

• Typing: Writing words using a keyboard.

• Backspace: A key used to delete the character before the cursor.

• Enter/Return: A key used to start a new line.

• Font: The style of the letters.

• Edit: Making changes to improve writing.

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💬 Questions or Suggestions?

If you have any questions or want to learn more about how we teach computing, feel free to contact your child’s teacher.

Physical Education (PE)

Athletics