Year 1 2025

Welcome to the 2025 school year!  We hope you had an enjoyable break! Please take the time to read the IMPORTANT information below to support your Year 1 child’s learning.

We also ask that you keep informed and action requests as they are posted to the Compass News Feed throughout the year.

SMART Spelling

To support our whole-school SMART Spelling (Michelle Hutchison) approach, your child will bring home a spelling sheet each Friday in readiness for the week ahead, that they can stick into their Home Spelling Book. Children can work through the recommended activities at their own pace. This book is to remain at home, there is no need to bring this book to school each week. 

Nessy

This year we will be using the online Nessy Reading and Spelling platform. Nessy Reading and Spelling is an effective resource that covers 5 school years of literacy development, from Year 1. 

The program begins with systematic synthetic phonics which has been proven to be the best way to instruct early readers. 

As literacy skills develop, students advance to instruction in spelling, morphology, vocabulary and comprehension. The students will be accessing this platform at school. Each student learns independently and at their own pace, gradually building confidence. 

The program starts with an assessment that identifies exactly where the student needs help, then guides them through an individualised learning plan. 

Home Reading

Commencing during term 1, your child will bring home several books in their green reading/multipurpose bag with their reading diary on a Friday. This is where you will record the books your child will be reading at home. 

We would like the journal to stay in your child’s green reading bag with their take home books and be brought to school each Friday. Your child will bring home several books at a time and will be given the opportunity to change their books weekly. We are aware that some books will take longer to complete and may be read over several nights. 

It is expected that your child reads as often as possible both orally to an adult and to themselves if possible. Please record the title of the book and a small comment on their reading in their reading diary to assist us in monitoring your child’s reading frequency. 

A teacher will listen to your child read throughout the term and keep their own record of their progress. 

It is important that your child reads their take home books frequently to consolidate expression, fluency, pausing, self-correction and their comprehension. Your child should experience success reading these books and not find them challenging. We want your child’s home reading to be a positive and enjoyable experience. 

Remember to ask your child questions about the story and ask them to retell the story in his/her own words to enhance comprehension. Encourage fluency and expression when reading and point out punctuation ensuring they are pausing and taking a breath at the end of a sentence. 

It is important to read to your child regularly to model good reading and promote enjoyment.

Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Year 1

As part of our reading program and our commitment to systematic synthetic phonics, we will using the Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Curriculum during our dedicated Literacy blocks. Systematic synthetic phonics is a structured approach that explicitly teaches the relationship between sounds and letters to read words.

The Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Curriculum is a systematic program of daily lesson plans that provide a high level of explicit modelling and student engagement. 

Each level of the Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Curriculum focuses on six to eight phonemic awareness skills, along with additional activities to develop letter and sound recognition, introduce the phoneme-grapheme connection and extended language awareness.

The Heggerty Curriculum includes explicit instruction in the following phonological and phonemic awareness skills:

• Rhyming
• Initial Phoneme Isolation
• Blending
• Isolating final and medial phonemes (sounds)
• Segmenting
• Adding Phonemes
• Deleting Phonemes
• Substituting Phonemes

Special Dates

Term 1

‘Meet & Greet’ opportunity - February (times to be advised)

School Photos - Monday 3 March

Colour Run - Tuesday 25 March

Term 2

Parent Teacher Interviews - TBC

Semester Report - June

Term 3

Student Led Conferences - TBC

Term 4

Year 1 Swimming - Monday 20 - Thursday 30 October

Semester Report – December

Compass

Ongoing feedback will also be provided throughout the year via Compass Learning Tasks.

Contacting your Teachers

Notes may be passed directly to your classroom teacher via the Reading/ Multi purpose bag or you can send an email (marked to the attention of your child’s teacher) to:

beaumaris.north.ps@education.vic.gov.au 

Informal discussions may be arranged upon request at any time throughout the year to discuss specific issues however please be assured that we will contact you should we have any concerns.

Finally...

Don’t forget to check out our A-Z Parent Guide - this (along with loads of other information!) can be accessed on our comprehensive website.

We encourage you to get involved by discussing your child’s school day and attending our school events - it’s going to be a great year!

Kind regards

The Year One Team

Jenna Horler and Kristy Smith

Beaumaris North Primary School is an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School authorised to teach the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) and provides the framework for implementing the requirements of the Victorian Curriculum. 

The IB Primary Years Programme is an innovative international programme of teaching and learning that focuses on the development of the whole child and fosters a positive attitude to learning. The PYP strives towards developing internationally minded students who demonstrate the attributes of the IB Learner Profile. Accordingly, at BNPS we aim to educate inquiring, knowledgeable, and caring students, who are encouraged to ask challenging questions, critically reflect, and take responsible action.