Expectations
National Curriculum Expectations for Year 1
Provided below, are the end of year National Curriculum requirements that your child must meet in order to achieve age related expectations for Reading, Writing and Mathematics. For more information about the expectations in other curriculum areas, please visit the relevant pages in the Curriculum section of our website.
All the objectives will be worked on throughout the year and will be the focus of direct teaching. Any extra support you can provide in helping your children to achieve these is greatly valued.
Reading
At Weston, we expect the children to read regularly each week in order to develop their reading and comprehension. Ideally, the children should be be reading every day. Reading with an adult is massively important, especially at an early age. It is an expectation that parents should aim to listen to or read with their child at least 3 times per week. Children in Year 1 also give their reading skills a boost through the regular use of 'Reading Eggs', which is a fun and interactive way to support and extend their own phonic knowledge and understanding.
Phonics Screening Check
All Year 1 pupils across the country will undertake a Phonic Screening Check in June. This check consists of 40 real words and alien/nonsense words that the children will read one-to-one with a teacher. The children will need to read these with the correct sounds to show that they understand the phonics rules behind them.
The 40 words and nonsense words are divided into two sections – one with simple word structures of three or four letters, and one with more complex word structures of five or six letters. The teacher administering the check with your child will give them a few practice words to read first – including some non-words – so they understand more about what they have to do. Each of the nonsense words is presented with a picture of a monster / alien, as if the word were their name (and so your child doesn't think the word is a mistake because it doesn't make sense!).
The children in Year 1 practice phonics on a daily basis and extra homework is sometimes given to help close gaps and reinforce sounds that are tricky. For extra information about how we teach phonics at Weston, please click on the link here.
Writing 
You will find in Year 1 that written tasks will significantly increase compared to the previous year in Reception. The children will be taught new writing techniques, punctuation and sentence types, as well as reinforcing skills such as letter formation, capital letters, finger spaces and full stops.
Here are some Year 1 sentence types that can be practiced at home.
2A Sentences
2A sentences means two adjectives within the sentence. Eg. green soft
The two adjectives need a comma inbetween them. Eg. green , soft
The sentence needs to end with the name of what is being written about (noun) green , soft hat.
My elf has a green , soft hat.
My tree has beautiful , colourful lights all over it.
A 2A sentence does not have an 'and' in it and it does not include 1 or 3 adjectives... just 2 adjectives.
LIST Sentence
A LIST Sentence means that the children use 3 adjectives within the one sentence. E.g. cold dark stormy
A comma and the word 'and' are then used. E.g. cold , dark and stormy
The sentence needs to end with the name of what is being written about (noun) cold , dark and stormy night.
It was a cold , dark and stormy night.
The Lion has long , sharp and dangerous teeth.
Homework
The children will be given homework every Friday and this will be due in the following Wednesday (unless stated otherwise). Typically, children will receive Maths and Reading homework each week, with added Phonics practice. Spelling words, which consist of high frequency words and taught phonic sounds (taught that week) will also be sent home to practice for a short spelling test on Wednesday morning. At times, written tasks and longer creative projects are set for homework, which are linked to our topic. It is a school expectation that all children complete their homework and hand it in on the due date.
Punctuality & Attendance 
At Weston, it is a school expectation that all children are in school by 8:50am each day for registration. The majority of classes use registration time to consolidate previous learning and to practice key skills. Therefore, it is vital that your child is on time for school so they don't miss this important learning opportunity.
Becoming Independant
In Year 1 we also encourage the children to think, live and work with greater independence. Each child will be encouraged to take care of their own personal belongings which include coats, hats, scarfs, gloves, jumpers, school bags, PE kits and snack money.
Please support this at home by encouraging them to dress themselves, tidy up, empty and fill their book bag independently and remind them in the morning if there is something that needs handing in such as homework or reply slips.
