We are a mixed year class of 28 children. Our class teacher is Miss Watson and our teaching assistants are Mrs Kellett (STA), Miss Hall and Miss Cannon.

On Wednesdays, Miss Heaton teaches our class. 

We learn through a creative curriculum and we have lots of exciting, purposeful learning opportunities that allow us to develop and grow through memorable, fun activities. 

If you have any further questions or queries, please contact Miss Watson on our Class DOJO page or via. email on fayewatson@distington-comm.cumbria.sch.uk

Key Information

• Our PE days are Monday (cricket coach) and Wednesday (sports coach). 
• Children are expected to read at least 5 times per week to achieve Strive 4 Five! Children receive a raffle ticket each time they read at home which they sign and enter into our weekly reading raffle! 

Please see attached our class newsletters.

Our Curriculum 

Please have a look through our curriculum map (below). This outlines our core topics for the year. 

We will keep you updated with your child's learning throughout the year via. Earwig, Class DOJO and parents meetings. 

NB: Curriculum maps are subject to change. 

Phonics (Year 1)

In Year 1, reading and phonics play a vital part in our learning. We take part in daily, adapted, Read Write Inc. sessions which allow us to become confident and competent readers and writers. 

We will be sitting the national phonics screening check in the Summer term 2025. 

Find more useful information about the phonics screening check here - Phonics Screening Test | How to Pass it & Free Downloads

Some of our Year 2 children will continue to receive phonics intervention/input to further support them on their early reading journey. 

Strive 4 Five!

In Year 1 and 2, we are all 'Reading Rockstars'. We aim to read at least 5 times per week and are rewarded for our efforts with raffle tickets. These are entered into a weekly draw and children can win some brilliant prizes! 

Most of our children will bring home 2 reading books. One book will directly match their current phonics ability, mirroring the sound in which they're focussing on in school, and the other an Accelerated Reading book. Accelerated Reading books are used to help develop your child's comprehension skills and your child will sit regular (informal) online 'quizzes' to assess their understanding of the story. 

Earwig and Class DOJO.

Please access your child's Earwig and class DOJO page regularly for updates on, and photos capturing, their 

Key Stage 1 learning journey. 

If you have difficulty in accessing either of these, please let Miss Watson or the school office know and we will help you with this. 

Empowering Learning

This half term we are learning to be Team Workers. We are aiming to develop our ability to work well in a group, sharing and taking turns, ensuring everyone has ample opportunities to speak. This will allow for stronger relationships to be made with our peers, ensuring we can support one another within the classroom, making us more prepared and able to learn through a shared understanding of how to work together / a better understanding of how we learn best.

We had a very special visit from Harriette, our local Phunky Foods ambassador, who spent the afternoon baking bread with us! 

We were able to experience what life would have been like for Thomas Farrnier, the baker who owned the bakery on Pudding Lane where The Great Fire of London started! We drew similarities and differences between the ovens we have available to us now and the open fires which were used back then. 

We transferred some of our art skills, developed in our art week (clay focus), as we were rolling and shaping our bread as required. 

Harriette discussed the different food groups with us and the role each ingredient played in the bread making process. We then followed instructions well, discussing what we were doing throughout, to ensure our bread was a success and as delicious as could be! 

We have lots of fun and really enjoyed sampling our breads at home with our grown ups! 

We love taking part in 'Funky Finger' activities in Years 1 and 2!

They target our fine motor skills, building up finger strength and coordination! 

We also take part in regular 'smart moves' sessions, developing our gross motor skills through fun group games and activities! 

In Art Week, we have been exploring all things clay! 

We started out by using our hands as tools to shape clay, exploring how we can roll, pinch and coil clay to make different shapes. We then used a range of random objects and resources, found within and around the classroom, to make patterns in clay by pressing them in. We discussed and explored what happened if we pressed down lightly or with more force. We then learnt the 'score and slip' technique when joining two pieces of clay together and applied all of these skills to make our own pinch pots, which we took home to share with our grown ups! 

We then linked our art work to our history topic, 'The Great Fire of London', and designed a clay tile which reflected the Tudor Houses found in 1666. 

We pulled all of our new knowledge and skills together at the end of the week to bring our clay tile designs to life, using objects to print patterns where needed as well as successfully attaching different pieces of clay to create different features on our houses, using our 'score and slip' technique to ensure they were attached securely. 

To celebrate Christmas and our amazing Autumn term of learning in Years 1 and 2, we visited 'Planet Play'! 

Whilst we were busy on the soft play, we heard magical bells ringing... it was Santa Claus! We all got the chance to meet and speak to Santa Claus who then gave us all a very special present! 

This was a fun-packed morning which allowed us to strengthen our friendships and socialising skills. 

Reverend Dom and some other volunteers from Distington's Church of The Holy Spirit visited us to make some Christingles. 

We discussed and explored what each aspect of the Christingle represents and linked this back to our current RE enquiry question 'Why do Christians believe God gave Jesus to the world?' and our Nativity Performance that we're preparing and practising. 

These Christingles will be used during the Christingle service held at our local Church on 3/12/24. 

We have had an amazing visit from The Konflux Theatre Group who ran their 'Play in a Day' workshop with us, focussing on our topic of The Great Fire of London. 

This Play in a Day workshop not only allowed us to retell the story of The Great Fire of London but also examined it's legacy and allowed for comparisons to be made between the 1666 and the modern day. 

We performed our play in front of our parents / grown ups in the afternoon. They were really impressed!

It was a fantastic day full of history, drama, oracy and fun!

Video snippets of our performance can be found on our class DOJO page! 

Useful Links

• PhonicsPlay - Phonics Games 
• Nursery Rhymes and Songs - BBC Teach - Speech and Language 
• Keyboard Climber | TVOKids.com - Computing Skills
• Chrome Music Lab (chromeexperiments.com) - Creating Media (Computing)
• JIT5 (j2e.com) - Computing Skills
• KS1 English - England - BBC Bitesize - Literacy Games and Ideas
• Free eBook library | Oxford Owl from Oxford University Press - Reading Library 
• Teach Your Monster: Free Phonics, Reading and Mathematics Games - Reading/Phonics
• Maths Zone Cool Learning Games – Maths Games and Learning Activties for Fun - Maths Games
• Home | CoolMath4Kids - Maths Games