Year 1 and 2

Welcome to our Year 1 and 2 page!

We are so glad that you are joining us in our learning adventure this year.

On this page you will find everything you need to know about what we have done and achieved, what we are currently doing and where our journey is taking us next.

We have three classes in Year 1 and 2 (also known as KS1).

Our classes are

Doves (Y1) whose class teacher is Mrs Pollard

Eagles (Y1&Y2) whose class teacher is Miss Kealey

Falcons (Y2) whose class teacher is Miss Duggan

During the mornings, we have an extra teacher (Mrs Filder) in the phase to provide single year group teaching for  Phonics/Spelling. Learning is also supported by Teaching Assistants.

Key Information

Homework

Homework will normally be set on a Monday and will need to be completed by the next week, including spellings. Spellings will then be tested on the following Monday.

Reading

All pupils will bring a reading book home and will be listened to by staff in school. Any opportunity to read to an adult at home will be valued and talking about the book will truly help engagement and key comprehension skills.

Labels

Labels are very important in every piece of clothing to enable us to distinguish any lost or found clothing. Please could you help us to help the pupils to keep all that belongs to them in this way.

PE

PLEASE NOTE CHANGES OF DAY FOR PE IN SPRING

Doves - Tuesday and Wednesday

Eagles - Monday and Friday  

Falcons - Monday and Tuesday

Dates for your diary

We have many exciting events taking place this year:

Year Group Trips

We have planned great experiences for our year group that we are sure they will gain much from.

Summer 

This summer term KS1 will be adventuring around Blackpool Zoo and hopefully watching a sea lion show. Date to be confirmed.

Year 1 and 2 Class Timetables

Timetables are created for each half term and ensure that we provide the coverage and time allocation for each subject.

We adhere to these timetables unless there is an exciting reason not to such as a trip or visitor.

Year 1 & 2 Curriculum Overview

Curriculum Overviews are written as a whole school to ensure that all pupils gain the breadth and depth of knowldgew which the National Curriculum requires.

Homework for the Week

Summer 1 Week 5

What have we been doing in class this week?

 Summer 1

Friday 16th May 2025

 This week, we completed our reading of 'The Last Wolf' and thought about the instructions needed to plat some new trees. We then looked at a letter and identified all the suffixes used in it. In RE we considered how the disciples would have felt when the Holy Spirit arrived and drew our own representation of it. In History, we discovered facts about Tim Peake and compared his space journey to the other individuals studied this half term. Our Art lessons were great fun this week as we used pencils to shade different shapes using different tones.

It has been another busy week and we are so proud of everyone's effort.

Friday 9th May 2025

Key Stage 1 have had another very busy week. In English, we used role-play to think about how characters from 'The Last Wolf' may have been feeling and we wrote a diary entry about one of our own memories. In Art, en enjoyed mixing our own colours to create a plate design based on the work of Clarice Cliff. We persevered when creating silhouette of a tree by blowing paint using a straw, it was a little bit tricky! In PE we developed our throwing skills and threw been bags using an overarm throw. In RE this week we thought about what it would have been like when the Holy Spirit arrived during Pentecost.

Well done for another super week everyone!

Friday 2nd May 2025

Key Stage 1 enjoyed taking part in the mini-Marathon this week. We all ran laps around the MUGA to help St Leonard's run 26 miles in 1 week!

In English we started to add suffixes to create new adjectives to describe what Little Red might see in the woods. We also created our own short poem based on 'Into the Woods'. In History, we continued to discover facts about significant individuals as we explored the life of Mae Jemison. We thought carefully about the skills  needed to be a successful astronaut. In Art, we continued to develop our skills as we used paper to weave a pattern. It was very tricky, but we persevered and the completed pieces were impressive. In PE, we enjoyed running in relay races and developed our skills when passing the baton to members of our team.

What a busy week we have enjoyed again. Well done everyone.

Friday 25th April

 KS1 returned to school refreshed and ready for some new and exciting learning this week. It was lovely to welcome them back.

We started to explore 'The Last Wolf' in our English lessons and thought carefully about animals that are extinct before writing some sentences about them. We then thought about items that would be needed to help Little Red catch a wolf. We used these to help us to write a guide to help her. In RE, we started to think about ways in which we say goodbye and applied this to the Ascension story. We talked about what happened and why the story is important. History was lots of fun this week as we started to learn about more significant individuals. This week we discovered that Neil Armstrong was an American astronaut who was the first man to walk on the moon. We enjoyed collecting facts about him and watching him walk on the moon before thinking about questions we would like to ask him about space. We also enjoyed eating some delicious cakes as we helped to raise money for the East Lancashire  Hospice as part of our Easter Bake-Off.

Well done to all the children for returning to school ready to explore our new units!

Spring 2

Friday 4th April 2025

 Key Stage 1 have enjoyed their final week of the Spring term and are ready for a rest during the Easter break.

In English, we created exciting vocabulary as we explored poems about sounds we hear at night. We used these new words to create our own poems and performed them in class. In DT, we completed our fairground wheels by creating a stable base to hold the wheel in place. It was not an easy task, but everyone showed resilience and teamwork to complete the project successfully. Year 1 were very excited to visit the children in Robins and Swifts on Thursday to enjoy looking at the pop-up book they had created in DT. It was lovely to share the stories and talk about how the Year 5 children had created the different elements of the book.

Our week ended with Spirituality day where we explored the idea of Praise, Preparation and Power within the Easter story. We made beautiful Easter wreaths and decorated crosses before thinking about how we try to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.

It has been a wonderful term for the Key Stage 1 children and we all wish them a safe and happy Easter break.

Mrs Pollard, Miss Kealey and Miss Duggan

Friday 28th March 2025

The children in Key Stage 1 have continued with all their hard work this week.

We completed a diary entry as part of our final piece of writing based on 'Major Glad, Major Dizzy'. We remembered to use the past tense and some wonderful description before carefully checking our sentences and editing them when changes were needed. In DT, we continued to build our fairground wheels. Despite this being tricky, we worked with our friends to help each other and it was exciting to see how the wheels looked at the end of the lesson. In Geography, we compared the cities of London and Nairobi by considering the human and physical features found there. We thought carefully about which city we would like to visit and gave reasons for our answers. In RE, we thought about the Easter story being a new beginning and completed a small piece of artwork to show this. 

It has been a super week with some fabulous learning for everyone, well done!

Friday 21st March 2025

 Key Stage 1 have had another lovely week of learning.

In English, we discussed the impact of air raids on people living in cities as we completed our reading of Major Glad, Major Dizzy. We then used this to plan and write a descriptive diary entry. In Geography, we discovered facts about Nairobi and looked at what schools are like there. We were also interested to learn about all the different housing that is in and around the city. It was exciting to start building our fairground wheels in DT and it was lovely to see some great collaborative learning as we helped each other to connect materials together securely. In Computing, we explored attributes and used these to decide on different ways to sort objects in order to collect data. It was great to be able to have another outdoor PE session this week and we enjoyed developing our throwing skills by learning how to accurately use a chest pass,

Well done Key Stage 1 for all your hard work this week.

Friday 14th March 2025

What a busy week the children in Key Stage 1 have had!

We have continued to plan our Fairground wheels as part of our DT project and explored which materials we would like to use in our practical lessons. We are all excited to start building them next week. In Computing, we collected data about minibeast populations and used this to create our own tally chart. We then used our information to create a class pictogram that we used to answer data related questions. In PE we began developing our overarm throwing skills, checking that our throwing area was safe and we were focusing on accurate throwing to a target. In English, we created a new friend for Major Glad and Major Dizzy and wrote a set of instructions using imperative verbs and time words.

It has been a fabulous week for all our children, well done everyone.

Friday 7th March 2025

Key Stage 1 have enjoyed another fun-filled week and it was love to share favourite books with each other as part of World Book Day.

Our Geography lesson this week involved searching for different countries in Africa with a focus on those that surround Kenya. In Computing, we started to change tally charts into pictograms and answered data related questions based on our results. In English, we were adding different suffixes to root words to help us write sentences in the past tense. Then we described the action in different scenes from our class book, 'Major Glad. Major Dizzy'. Our week ended with discussions about inspirational women as part of International Women's Day and we all took part in some football based activities whilst wearing our sports clothes.

What a super week! 

Friday 28th February 2025

It was lovely to welcome all the children back to school this week. They have all made a great start to the new term.

In English this week we started exploring some toys from the past before making predictions based on the front cover of our new story, 'Major Glad, Major Dizzy'. We then wrote simple descriptions of our own favourite toy. In PE, we started to develop our sending and receiving skills using different equipment and we took care to use an accurate aim and the correct amount of power when throwing to a partner. In RE, we enjoyed searching for signs of Spring around school and started to think about this 'new life' as we look forward to enjoying the Easter story. Our Geography lessons this week involved understanding where London is in the world and exploring some of the landmarks that can be visited in our capital city.

Well done everyone for a super first week back.

Spring 1

Friday 14th February 2025

What a fabulous end to the half term Key Stage 1 have had! It was lovely to share the progress of the children with their adults during parents' evening.

Our English learning involved exploring the vocabulary used in two poems before we created descriptive sentences to create our own version. In Art. we continued to work on our multimedia artwork by adding tone and shadows using pastels and charcoal. The completed pieces are a wonderful addition to the Key Stage 1 classrooms. We enjoyed a range of games in PE, using some of our own dance moves and incorporating different strategies to follow the rules of the game. Our Computing learning this week involved discussing online safety and we talked about the meaning of the word 'scam' and what this might look like. We discussed ways in which we use the internet and also who we can go to if anything online worries us.

It has been a lovely half term and we are all so proud of the children's hard work. Have a restful break with your families.

Friday 7th February 2025

It has been another incredibly busy week for the children in Key Stage 1. 

In English, we completed our work based on the book 'The Dragon Machine' by creating our own version of the text using our own magical character, working hard to remember to use capital letters, full stops and some lovely description. In Art, we added a colour wash to our Superhero artwork using acrylic paint. We also practised our colour mixing skills before adding a dot matrix to some areas of our work. We spent time comparing the lives and work of Mary Anning and David Attenborough during our History lessons, paying particular attention to how and why their lives were different. In PE, we started to think about how we could create dance moves to represent the different animals found in a jungle.

What a super week everyone! Keep up the hard work.

Friday 31st January 2025

We have had an amazing week of learning in Key Stage 1 this week.

In History we continued to explore the work of David Attenborough and thought carefully about why he shares his discoveries with everyone and how this can bring about change. Our Computing lesson involved programming the Beebots with accurate algorithms to move around a mat. We then added obstacles that we needed to move around. In English we started to plan our own version of 'The Dragon Machine' by introducing our own magical creature to the plot of the story. We all thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Imagine That on Thursday and loved exploring all the different areas. It was lots of fun to make our own fridge magnets, sticky slime and never-melting snow!

Well done to all the children for having another super week!

Friday 24th January 2025

Key Stage 1 have enjoyed another fun-filled week and everyone has been working very hard.

In English, we collected new vocabulary relating to our senses. Then we used these to write a description of the view from a dragon machine. We enjoyed watching a clip from 'How to Train Your Dragon' to help us with our ideas. We all enjoyed our group art session this week as we began creating some huge pieces of art based on the work of Roy Lichenstein. We worked as a team to create different textures using collage and paint. In History, we began learning about another significant individual who also collected fossils as a child. We enjoyed collecting facts about David Attenborough and hearing about his many different jobs!

What an amazing week of learning!

Friday 17th January 2025

 This week we continued to explore our new book, 'The Dragon Machine'. We discovered all the mischievous activities that dragons enjoy and we wrote a list of rules to help people look after a pet dragon. In Computing we used simple commands to predict the outcome of a Beebot's journey. We discovered that sometimes our algorithm needed to be changed in order for the Beebot to reach its destination. In History we learned more about Mary Anning and discussed how her work helped to influence artists who produced realistic artwork based on her scientific discoveries. Art this week was also lots of fun as we explored how to make a variety of emoji faces by just drawing the eyes, eyebrows and mouth in different ways. 

It has been another busy week for Key Stage 1. Well done everyone!

Happy New Year

Friday 10th January 2025

It was lovely to welcome the children back this week and we enjoyed listening to all their news from the holidays.

Our new term had a very exciting start as our classrooms were visited by a flying dragon! There were footsteps to follow and a nest of eggs to explore as we made predictions about what had happened. In History we started to learn about a significant individual called Mary Anning who discovered fossils in the rock near Lyme Regis. We collected facts about her life and thought carefully about what inspired her work. In art we started to think about superhero art and had a lot of fun drawing and designing our own superhero, thinking carefully about our choice of colours and the different poses our character could use. In Computing, we discovered the importance of getting instructions correct as we tried to guide our partners around the room successfully. We are looking forward to programming Beebots next week!

Well done on a wonderful start to the New Year everyone.

Autumn 2

Friday 20th December 2024

This week has been lots of fun for our Key Stage 1 children.

It was so exciting to perform our Nativity for our families and friends and the staff are proud of how well everyone sang on the day. Well done!

We enjoyed a delicious Christmas dinner on Wednesday, listening to festive tunes as we ate. We designed our own deer as part of Mrs Lindley's design competition and thoroughly enjoyed making our own Christingle and singing songs by candlelight in church.

It has been a very busy term and we all hope you have a well deserved rest and a lovely Christmas with your families.

Merry Christmas everyone

Mrs Pollard, Miss Kealey and Miss Duggan

Friday 13th December 2024

In English this week, Key stage 1 started to learn a new poem as we began to explore the language used in Edward Lear's, "The Owl and the Pussy Cat". We discovered nonsense words and enjoyed trying to add our own when creating our own version. In RE we completed our work learning about the good news spread when Jesus was born and we thought carefully about what angels looked like and how God uses them in the Bible to give messages. PE was very exciting this week as we completed our gymnastics unit. We were able to use all our skills to move and balance using the large equipment in the hall, including the climbing frame and ropes! Our week ended with a dress rehearsal for our Nativity performance and we are all excited to share it with our families next week.

 Well done Key Stage 1, you have had another busy week and have all continued to be the best you can be.

 Friday 6th December 2024

What an amazing week in Key Stage 1! We have continued to rehearse for our Nativity performance and are looking forward to a dress rehearsal next week!

In English we have worked hard to create our own non chronological reports about owls. We used description in our sentences and joined our ideas in a variety of ways. In PE, we used the equipment as we started to develop our gymnastic sequences. We took care when balancing and jumping from the equipment and practiced moving around the room safely. DT was lots of fun this week. We explored the strength of different paper shapes by measuring how many books they could hold. We were then given the task of designing a new chair for Baby Bear using the strongest shape. It was an exciting end to our week as we celebrated 150 years of St Leonard's with a Victorian Day. We had traditional lessons without using any technology and wrote on chalkboards. Boys and girls sat separately and our teachers made sure our hands were always clean! We also enjoyed creating Victorian Christmas crafts and visited the Christmas fair.

Well done for another amazing week Key Stage 1!

Friday 29th November 2024

This week has been so busy, it has flown by and it has been lovely to see the children so immersed in their learning. 

In English, we began to collect information about Owls to help us create our own non-chronological reports. We had to arrange the facts into groups so that the text made sense. In Computing we continued to use the Paintz app to create digital artwork. This week we were inspired by the work of Henri Matisse and we used shapes to create our own designs, taking care to save our work carefully. On Tuesday we all enjoyed our visit to watch Jack and the Beanstalk in Blackburn...'oh yes we did!'. All the staff were very proud of the wonderful behaviour and manners shown by the children during the visit.

Well done Key Stage 1 - keep up all your hard work!

Friday 22nd November 2024

It has been another busy week for the children in Year 1. In English we continued to develop our vocabulary as we collected exciting verbs and nouns to write descriptions of the night sky. Our geography learning this week involved looking at aerial photographs of the local area to identify different types of road. We also discovered that there are lots of different types of houses! In RE we continued to explore how God used angels to spread good news and thought carefully about the conversation Mary may have had with Gabriel. We have continued to enjoy learning our Nativity songs and Year 2 have started to rehearse their script.

Well done everyone for working so hard!

Friday 15th November 2024

Key Stage 1 have embraced our new text in English this week and enjoyed collecting exciting vocabulary to describe owls based on "The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark". It was amazing to read some super sentences describing the main character in the book. In RE, we started to think about how God uses angels in the Bible to help spread good news. We explored the story of Zechariah and drew images to help retell the story. In Geography, we remembered our compass points and identified physical features in images. We also discussed why fields are not physical geographical features.

It has been another super week, well done everyone.

Friday 8th November 2024

Everyone in Key Stage 1 has continued to work hard this week and it was lovely to share their progress on parents' evening.

Our English lessons have involved creating our own poetry based on '10 Things Found in a Shipwrecked Sailor's Pocket'. We then created lists of items we may find in our own pocket. Some of our ideas were very imaginative! In RE we explored the concept of 'Good News' and how God shares this in the Bible. We thought carefully about any news we have ever wanted to share with people. In Geography we started to learn about the four points of the compass and identified how we can use maps and aerial photographs to recognise geographical features. We enjoyed using the Chromebooks in Computing to create artwork, using a variety of  icons that complete different functions.

It has been another fabulous week, well done everyone!

Friday 1st November 2024

It was lovely to welcome the children back to school this week.

We enjoyed exploring the poem 'Zebra Question' in our English lessons. We identified opposites and used them to create interesting questions before solving riddles about members of staff in school. In Geography we began our new unit by looking at aerial photographs and landmarks before labelling human and physical features that we recognised. In PE we started to develop our balancing skills using different parts of our bodies in preparation for our gymnastics lessons. We were also excited to start learning songs for the KS1 Nativity performance - we cannot wait to sing them for our families!

Well done for making a super start to the new term Key Stage 1!

Friday 18th October 2024

What a super end to the half term we have had in Key Stage 1!

In English we have enjoyed writing our own version of "Troll Swap" using our neatest handwriting, with finger spaces and capital letters in the correct places. In our Computing lesson this week we thought about how we can have a healthy online diet by using IT in different ways - including physically, creatively and socially. In Art we started to explore tone and shading as we used different pencils to sketch 3D images of curled ribbon inspired by the work of Ed Rouchan. We continued to use teamwork in PE as we worked together to use our awareness of others to score points in simple team games, adding extra challenges along the way.

It has been a fabulous half term and we are all so proud of how hard everyone has worked.

We hope you have a wonderful break, ready for another super half term.

Friday 11th October 2024

The children in Key Stage 1 have continued to work hard this week and have been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to share their work during our learning engagement sessions.

Our RE learning this week explored Harvest festivals and why they are so important. This linked with our school collection for the Nightsafe charity. We thought carefully about foods that can be harvested and created wreaths using lots of Autumn colours. In History, we listened to Josie talk to us about shops in the 1950s and found out that sometimes meat was wrapped in paper and shops did not give you a carrier bag! In Art we continued to learn new skills as we used our rubbings from last week to create new designs using a method called 'frottage'. We used Max Ernst's work as inspiration as we ripped pieces and glued them together to form a new image. As part of Mental Health Awareness Day we explored emotions and enjoyed coming to school in clothes that make us feel happy.

It has been a busy week and we are all proud of your super effort. Well done Key Stage 1.

Friday 4th October 2024

It has been another super week in Key Stage 1 and it has been wonderful to see the children embracing their learning.

This week, we were excited to investigate a new visitor to our classrooms as we explored our new text, "Troll Swap". Timothy Limpet wrote us a letter and we enjoyed thinking of new vocabulary we could use to write a description of a troll. In History, we started to compare past and present shops by investigating what shops were like in the 1950s. We thought about how people paid for their shopping and considered how shopping habits have changed over time. Our computing this week also followed a shopping theme as we explored IT used in shops. We looked at bar codes on different products and then used role play to investigate how scanners use these codes to find a price. In PE, we continued to use awareness to compete in team games safely. We explored how we can use our senses to dodge and move around the room in a variety of ways without touching anyone else. 

Well done Key Stage 1, you have continued to work hard all week.

Friday 27th September 2024

We have continued working hard to be the best we can in Key Stage 1 this week, and have had lots of fun as we learn together.

In RE this week, we discovered how Jewish people celebrate harvest by building a special shelter called a sukkah and we thought carefully about ways in which we like to celebrate with our families. In English we continued to read "The Pirates Next Door" and we have used this to write letters, diary entries and recounts. To do this we have been trying hard to remember our letter formation and neatest handwriting. In History we investigated different shops in our local community and thought about which ones are most important to us. We then started to think about how shops have changed over time. In the woods this week, some of us collected natural objects and created woodland artwork and some of us searched for signs of Autumn.

It has been another busy week for Key Stage 1, well done everyone!

Friday 20th September 2024

What a busy week Key Stage 1 have enjoyed again! Lots of exciting learning has taken place this week.

In our English lessons we started to explore the book, 'The Pirates Next Door' by Jonny Duddle. It was lots of fun exploring the classroom looking for pirate clues as we listened to some swashbuckling music! Then we collected lots of exciting nouns and verbs to help us create sentences and write our own character description. On our visit to the woods this week, we discovered how to safely climb a tree and built our own shelters. Some of us also chose to create beautiful willow crowns and story sticks. Our History learning this week explored our local area as we started to think about the community in which we live. In PSHE this week we focused on the importance of friendship, and with some inspiration from 'Toy Story', we talked about the qualities that a good friend needs to have.

Well done everyone for another super week of learning!

Friday 13th September 2024

We have enjoyed another fun-filled week of learning in Key Stage 1 and all the children are starting to remember our new routines.

We have continued to explore different groups of words in our English lessons and are getting more confident when identifying common and proper nouns. We have also started to learn about verbs and how to use them in a sentence. In RE we looked at different artwork and photographs to explore how people harvest food in a variety of ways and we thought carefully about why machinery is used today. Our History lesson this week involved thinking about our own timeline and how we have changed since we were born, including looking at how our toys have changed. We all enjoyed our first visit to the woods with Miss Cross, some of us helped create a shelter and lots of us enjoyed exploring the stream!

It has been another busy week, well done Key Stage 1!

Friday 6th September 2024

It has been wonderful to welcome the children back to school this week and everyone has  looked so smart in their uniforms! We have focused on learning our new class routines and getting used to our new timetables.

It has been a busy week of learning in Key Stage 1. Our English lessons this week have focused on learning the names of Common Nouns and sorting them into places, people and things. We enjoyed labelling different objects in our classrooms. In PE we enjoyed our lesson with our Key PE coach and explored lots of different ways that we can use our bodies to move safely around the room. In RE we began our topic on Harvest and started to think about where our food comes from. We tasted different apples from around the world to see if they were all the same. They were delicious! In History, we explored chronology and used timelines to put images of life cycles in time order.

Well done everyone, you have settled into your new class and worked hard this week!