Twitter

12/12/23

First day of the nativity complete! The children, staff and parents have all worked together to make this magic happen! From singing practice and line rehearsals to set design and costume creating - thank you and well done to everyone who helped make our nativity so special! pic.twitter.com/2WqUUh8cfR

05/12/23

Pupil Parliament were hard at work creating heartfelt Christmas cards in support of the Bromley Loneliness Campaign. All cards for the campaign will be sent off on the 7th - please drop creations into school! The more the merrier ! 🎄✨♥️ pic.twitter.com/k5rqltC75f

04/12/23

This is looking closer to the £7500 mark now! WOW. Huge thank you to our PTA, parents and staff that actively worked so hard together to achieve this from our Christmas Fair. What a community! pic.twitter.com/sIwbXA8lq1

11/10/23

Today some pupils took part in some cooking! We were inspired by Omari McQueen - a 14 year old vegan chef / entrepreneur! We made tropical rocky roads and I think from the chocolatey smiles it’s safe to say we had a fabulous morning! pic.twitter.com/dDYS5Ffumj

09/10/23

Today was full of fun, laughter and history! We hosted some special guests who engaged the whole school in celebrating black history through exploration of music, dance and African stories! Assemblies, workshops and playground music made today busy and brilliant! pic.twitter.com/X5LPH3cKJR

05/10/23

Year 5 had the best day today at the - their science this half term has been based on Space and today’s trip help bring their learning to life beyond the classroom! They were fascinated by the size of the rockets they saw! pic.twitter.com/veMaq1q1Nn

03/10/23

We are so proud to celebrate black history through our curriculum all year round, but we also know how important it is to inspire pupils further at this important time in our calendars. We know the children are going to have immersive, authentic learning experiences! pic.twitter.com/1FXSON6Yab

30/09/23

We are genuinely the luckiest school to have such an incredible team of teaching assistants and 1:1 support assistants! These guys work relentlessly to support our students and give the highest level of pastoral care! we showered them in love at a special breakfast in the library pic.twitter.com/HfHvrWIJZM

27/09/23

Harvest is here! For those that can, we are kindly asking for donations this week to support others in our local community. We want to work together to send off a range of food and non- food items to the Bromley Living Well Food Bank. pic.twitter.com/f2oi38cMzI

27/09/23

Year 3 got further immersed in the learning about the Stone Age with their wow day workshop! They will write a recount about their learning and experiences from our special visitors! pic.twitter.com/nffD0xQ3xK

22/09/23

Today we were busy evaluating our Year 6 leadership applications and holding interviews for Heads of School! We have been blown away by the quality of applications this year - written with passion, enthusiasm and a clear sense of pride for being a member of our school community! pic.twitter.com/O0mhfcZgyn

22/09/23

Tonight our teachers met up with colleagues from and to talk all things writing! Across the 3 schools there is a wealth of knowledge, experience and passion for teaching and learning. pic.twitter.com/J7tSodtteV

21/09/23

Tonight our teachers met up with colleagues from and to talk all things writing! Across the 3 schools there is a wealth of knowledge, experience and passion for teaching and learning. pic.twitter.com/APXeC47Y5l

19/09/23

Over the weekend two of our little learners and their family set up a lemonade stall to raise some money for the new Pupil Parliament! We are so proud and grateful for their initiative, kindness and hard work out in the community pic.twitter.com/HOJdz3fkIk

19/09/23

Thumbs up for the end of a super maths lesson! Miss Nixon was lucky enough to teach Robins this morning and was blown away by their learning behaviours and mathematical ability! Well done Robins! pic.twitter.com/AmSWkPKT8b

13/09/23

Here they are! Pupil Parliament 23-24. What a fantastic bunch - we cannot wait to get started with planning the year ahead. We are incredibly proud of every single student that ran for Pupil Parliament this year. It was close for many of the voting results. Well done all. pic.twitter.com/g6VrIcGws2

12/09/23

What a brilliant ‘Election Day’ we had at Harris Primary Academy Beckenham! We set up our ‘Polling Station’ to give the children a real life experience of what voting will be like in later life. We cannot wait to announce the results tomorrow. Good Luck! pic.twitter.com/0L9OUWIXbU

11/09/23

PE in the sunshine! The teamwork and support the children show one another across the curriculum really impresses the staff here at HPABe! pic.twitter.com/yZOsPuhwiS

08/09/23

What a week! Welcome back everyone! We have had such a wonderful first week back here at Harris Primary Academy Beckenham. The children’s confidence and readiness to learn has been event across the school; we are so proud of each and every one of them! pic.twitter.com/hO3spy5nmQ

08/09/23

Our wonderful new reception Children have settled beautifully into academy life and taken everything in their stride. We are so pleased that they begin their learning journey with us and cannot wait to see them shine. Superstars ⭐️ pic.twitter.com/H2Q9BRPaI2

Harris Academies
All Academies in our Federation aim to transform the lives of the students they serve by bringing about rapid improvement in examination results, personal development and aspiration.

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Willesden

Year 1

Welcome to Year 1.

We hope you find the information below useful. This information will help you support your child at home with the organisation of their week and their learning at home. 

The class teacher in Hedgehogs Class is Miss Baxter and
Miss O'Grady is teaching in Otters Class. 

Key Times 

Homework 

We expect children to be reading for approximately 20 min daily and practice their timetables on TTRS, as this will benefit them greatly with all their learning in school.   

PE  

Mondays

Please ensure that your child has their full, named PE kit on these days. Please ensure you REMOVE all earrings before PE days 

Trips 

Every term we have 2 Wow days.  These are an opportunity to further enrich the children's learning by taking part in workshops or going off site to visit places linked to their curriculum topics.

Key Times 

For Year 1, the school day will begin at 8.40 am, and end at 3.30 pm. Please be punctual. 


What are we learning? 

Please see the curriculum map / looking forward letter at the bottom of the page for further details.

How can I help at home? 

One of the key ways every parent can help is to ensure that the children are at school every day and on time. Other than this, the primary way you can help is by ensuring that your child reads every day for at least 30 minutes – this can be with you or on their own, but it is the most effective way of ensuring that your child progresses and learns outside of school.  

Children have logins for Purple Mash and Timetables Rockstar– please encourage them to use this frequently, as it will help them quickly recall mathematical facts. 

If you have any questions, please talk to Miss Nicols or Miss Clinton, or you can arrange a phone call by emailing the office. 

Attendance

Good attendance and punctuality allow your child to fully access the curriculum and build on prior knowledge. Please ensure that your child arrives on time every day.

 

Year 1 Curriculum

Our children are taught in line with the expectations that are set out in the National Curriculum.  Subjects are taught with a clear progression and links are made with prior learning. 

The  Curriculum has been designed to ensure rigorous learning of knowledge but also to help teachers make all learning exciting, active and meaningful for children.Our curriculum engages children with their learning and gets them interested in the world around them. Our Curriculum takes a global approach by helping children to connect their learning to where they are living now as well as looking at the learning from the perspective of other people in other countries. The curriculum also emphasises the history and culture of Britain and promotes fundamental British values.

PE is taught by a specialist sports coach and Science is taught by a specialist Science teachers.

Mathematics

We use an innovative, focused programme of work, which teaches children mathematical concepts practically first, before moving on to pictorial representations and finally the abstract recording. This is based on the Singapore Maths approach to teaching and aligns well with the focus in the National Curriculum on ‘mastery’.

The key features of Singapore Maths are:

  • Emphasis on problem solving and comprehension, allowing pupils to relate what they learn and to connect knowledge.
  • Careful scaffolding of core concepts through:
    • visualisation, as a platform for comprehension;
    • mental strategies, to develop decision making abilities;
    • pattern recognition, to support the ability to make connections and generalise.
  • Emphasis on the foundations for learning and not on the content itself so pupils learn to think mathematically as opposed to merely reciting formulas or procedures.

English

Lessons and activities for all areas of English are planned carefully to help children continually develop and improve their skills in speaking and listening,  reading, and  writing. We use the Year 1 Programmes of Study based on the National Curriculum to ensure all children gain the knowledge and skills they need. 

Reading
In Year One, we believe that reading is the gateway to learning but should always be pleasurable and fun. We aim to give children a concrete set of skills to decode and understand text but also enable them to develop a lifelong love of books. As children progress through year one they continue to read regularly with adults in guided reading sessions and other classroom activities. Our well stocked fiction and non-fiction class library areas aim to offer children a wide range of personal choice alongside the books selected by adults for learning activities.

It is essential that you read with your child at home every day. This will help them to progress not only in their reading ability but in all areas of their learning. Your child will be given a levelled reading book by the teacher and a free choice book each week. We will check the children’s reading records every Friday but they should make sure that they bring their reading books and records to school every day. For an even wider variety of books to choose from, you could visit the fantastic library in Beckenham.

Handwriting
Year one are taught to use a pre-cursive script. We believe that this promotes flow and speed, and supports spelling as the children develop as writers. All teachers in Year One model the pre-cursive script when working with children or marking books.

Writing
In Year One, writing is taught through two separate but intrinsically linked lessons. Firstly all children, participate in regular ‘writing skills’ sessions where the focus is on learning and developing the ‘tools’ or ‘skills’ of writing such as grammar, punctuation, spelling, drafting and improving in an age appropriate manner. Compositional and creative writing is taught in the main through our thematic topic work which allows the teachers to select writing tasks that match well with other learning in the topic, we believe that this helps them to feel that their writing is meaningful and has a purpose.

Phonics
Children in Year One follow our Read Write Inc programme and take part in a daily phonics session. The focus is on children learning different combinations of letters that can make the same sound (e.g. /ay/ /ai/ /a_e/ in play, rain, game) or how the same spelling can be for different sounds (e.g. /oo/ in book and moon). This enables them to read more complicated vocabulary and also to spell words accurately.

Phonics Screening Check

The Phonics Screening Check takes place at the end of the year (usually in June). This is a short assessment to check how well the children are able to read words using their phonic knowledge. This involves children coming out with their teacher to read 20 real words and 20 alien words which contain the Phase 3 and Phase 5 sounds that the children learn in school.