At Knowle CE Primary Academy, we feel that it’s imperative for children to be provided with a smooth transition from Reception, replicating the provision and structure that the Foundation Stage brings. To facilitate this important step, Year One emulates the ethos of the Foundation Stage during the Autumn Term, planning thoughtful and precise activities in a free flow setting. After half term, children are slowly introduced to more formal lessons, where children complete work in a small supported group or as a whole class.

Our thematic curriculum aims to provide lessons that are engaging, meaningful and fun. In order to achieve this, we carefully plan a progressive curriculum, guided by the children’s interests’ and questions to ensure all pupils succeed. We endeavour to provide many hands on experiences and with the right balance of challenge and support, children are actively involved in a range of memorable learning experiences which promote creativity, independence and enjoyment.

In Year One we work especially hard on developing the children’s phonological knowledge in preparation for the phonics screening check. The phonics screening check is a short assessment of phonic decoding that is designed to confirm whether children have learnt phonic decoding to an appropriate standard. It will identify those who need extra help to improve their decoding skills. The check consists of 20 real words and 20 pseudo-words (alien words) that a child reads aloud to the teacher. School will report the children’s score on their end of year school report.

As a Church of England school, Knowle has forged excellent links with the local parish church and Year One are in the privileged position of being responsible for creating and performing the Nativity service in church for parents and members of the wider community.

As a school we celebrate perseverance, resilience and risk taking, ensuring children welcome challenge and are not afraid to make mistakes but most importantly we recognise the importance of parents/carers in their child’s progress and endorse an open door policy, so please feel free to ask us any questions.