Alban City School

Our Teachers are Mrs Jennings, Mrs O’Sullivan and Miss Reynolds. Our Teaching Assistants are Mrs Scott, Mrs Kohli and Mrs Middleton

18th September 2026

Hi everyone,

The children continue to enjoy their time in Year 1 and are getting used to the new routines and expectations.

In Phonics, lessons this week we are reviewing Phase 2 and 3 sounds that were covered in Reception. We have been practising our phonics skills for reading and writing including using our robot arms and sound buttons ready to start with new sounds next week.

In Maths, the children have been practising their subitising number skills, identifying the number using the pattern representation rather than counting. They have used maths materials to make a given number on a tens frame and written a number sentence underneath. Once able to create a number using maths materials the children explored adding one more and writing a number sentence to show their understanding.

In Drawing Club, we have looked at the book 'Superworm'. The children wrote a simple sentence to describe the main story character Superworm using capital letters, finger spaces and full stops in their writing. On the second day, they continued to practise these skills, this time creating a trap to catch the monster in the story.

In our Topic lessons, we have started to look at the months within the four seasons and what the weather is like and key events that occur. The children enjoyed using the sense of touch to identify autumn objects hidden in a bag. The children wrote a simple sentence about what they felt. They have been using the different areas in Continuous Provision to explore the topic further and show their understanding. You can help your child at home become more familiar with the months of the year by talking about when family members birthdays.

In PE the children continue to work on their fundamental skills and yoga practice.

Key Points

Please keep PE kit in school all of the time.
Please remove jewellery on PE days
All reading records and books need to be in school every day. Please place these in the correct colour group drawers. We will change the reading books on a Monday and Thursday after it has been read 4 times.
On Thursday morning Mrs F and Mr Allen will cover both classes whilst the class teachers are at PPA
Please ensure all uniform is labelled.

Have a lovely weekend!

12th September 2026

What a fantastic start to the new school year! The children have settled fantastically and we are so proud of them.

In Phonics lessons this week we have spent time reviewing Phase 2 and 3 sounds that were covered in Reception. We have been practising our phonics skills for reading and writing including using our robot arms and sound buttons.

In Maths the children have enjoyed learning and demonstrating how to use positional language using objects. We then looked at ordinal numbers and again used practised saying these aloud and ordering the numbers and adding the appropriate ending e.g. 1st, 2nd, 3rd. When the children come into the classroom during soft start they will use the self-register to practise this. Please encourage your children to read and say aloud what position they are. We have told them this is not a race!

In Drawing Club we have looked at the book 'The Diddles that Dummed'. The children wrote a simple sentence to describe the main story character and on the second day created their own adventure. We were impressed with their ideas and writing, particularly when the Diddles had to hide!

During continuous provision the children have been learning about the new areas and using them to show their understanding of our new topic, seasons and weather.

Within our topic lessons we have started to look at the four seasons, when these happen and the changes that occur. We have also looked at the different types of weather and how we can use a weather forecast. Thank you to the children that have started to bring in Autumn objects and books to link to our topic.

In PE the children were introduced to Yoga and fundamental skills such as jumping, throwing and catching.

Year 1 - Aqua and Sky

18th September 2026

12th September 2026

Ambition Education Trust