Wagtail - YR/1

Welcome to Wagtail Class!

We are class of children from FS2 (Reception) and Year 1 (Key Stage One). You will find us in the room known as the Nest. 

Our teachers are Mrs Wilson and Mrs Busson and our teaching assistants are Mrs Fielding and Miss Anderson. We may also work with Miss Howlin, the Robin class teacher as we share our outdoor learning area with Swift class. Teachers planning time is on Thursday afternoons and the children have PE or Forest Schools.  

If you have any queries you can email the teachers on

FPSwagtail@palladianacademytrust.com  

Mrs Laura Wilson, Assistant Head & Wagtail Teacher

Mrs Karen Busson, SENCo & Wagtail Teacher

Mrs Julie Fielding, Teaching Assistant

General Class Information

In Foundation we are taught through whole class sessions, such as Little Wandle Phonics and Numbersense Maths, and then practise, develop and extend our learning through high quality play experiences. Please come to our Fitz Playdates to learn more about your child's education in the Foundation Stage and discover how you can support your child's learning. Please see the link to the workshop presentations below for more details.

This page will continue to be updated throughout the course of the year. 

In Year One we have seperate lessons for each subject. We follow Little wandle for phonics, Numbersense and NCETM for maths. 

Our core aim as educators is to get your children reading and become confident writers and mathematicians. Please read to your children and with your children as often as possible. Regular practise with their phonic reading book is a key expectation of learning at home but it is also really important for you to read to your children - that bedtime story is growing their vocabulary and understanding!  Regular counting will support their maths and opportunities to write at home are always beneficial. However remember they have had busy days at school - so if you can only fit on one thing before they are too tired, please read!

Reading books

We change reading books every Tuesday and Friday, this gives you opportunity to read and re-read your book three times. We also send home Reading for Pleasure texts; we ask that these are returned every Thursday please.

Rewards 

We reward your children using positive praise, marbles and tokens home. The marbles the children earn feed into a jar and when this is full we have a whole class treat- this is often things like extra playtime, extra time on the pirate ship play equipment or a dance session. 

Term 3

Looking ahead to this coming term we will be engrossed in the story 'Zog' by Julia Donaldson. Year One children will be learning about how schools were different in the past and reception children will be learning to show resilience and perseverance in the face of challenge! We will all learn to recognise similarities and differences between life in this country and in different countries through exploring celebrations such as The Lunar New Year. We will continue on our Phonics and Reading journey's and starting the new year with a love for all things related to reading. We won't ruin the surprise by sharing our wow starter with you but be sure to ask the children about it in the New Year!

Term 2

It has been an extremely busy term in Wagtails.  The Year 1 children have written their own short stories in the style of ‘The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig.’  They chose their own characters and a whole range of weird and wonderful materials for the houses to be built out of including feathers, flowers, ice-cubes and more. In Maths the children have created patterns and pictures using shapes The Christmas play ‘Fleece Force’ was a roaring success with Wagtail providing some wonderful singing to proceedings. 

The reception children have continued to increase their phonics knowledge and have begun to write simple words and captions for pictures.  They all worked vey hard on their Nativity plan ‘A Little Bird Told Me’ learning their lines and singing their songs. In our Number Sense sessions, we have learnt about the numbers 4 and 5 and begun to use five and tens frames.  During our last week of term we have done our first science experiment using candy canes, predicting an outcome, observing over time and using the scientific words melt and dissolve.

Welcome to Term 1 2024! 

Welcome to our new families and welcome back to our Year One parents and careers. We hope you had a lovely summer. Below is some information that will be useful. We have attached our 'meet the teacher' presentation that we ran for year 1 parents. 

Reading Books

FS2 - Your children will start to bring home reading books. All children will have wordless books to practice developing expressive language and storytelling skills. Please refer to the reading workshop powerpoint for ways to support your child at home.

Y1- Your children will continue to bring home their individaul reading books. Please continue to read each book three times.

We change books on Tuesdays and Fridays, but we only change books that have been read three times and the link book has been filled in to show this. On a Friday children will also bring home a picture book, this book is intended for you to read TO your child to encourage a love of reading. Please bring them back by the following Thursday. 

Phonics home learning 

FS2- On Fridays your child will bring home a red book. It will tell you the sounds that your child has learnt that week. Please practise saying the sound that each letter makes, and we have included sheets so that you can practice writing the letter too. Please bring them back in on the following Wednesday so we can stick the next letters in for you.

Fitz Playdates dates and timings. 

In term 1, We have run sessions on play, the joy of reading, and phonics. 

In Term 2 We ran sessions on our reading scheme and maths in the Foundation Stage.

Y1- Your children will bring home a sheet each week covering our learning. Please practice these at home.