Year One Team News

Hello Year One families,

Welcome back to Term 1 of Year One 2026! The Year One teachers this year are Emma in 1C and Steph in 1K. We have been so pleased by the enthusiasm and eagerness to learn that our Grade 1 students have shown over the first few days. We have begun setting up our classroom expectations and our students are displaying wonderful responsibility in their new Year One environment. 

Curriculum Focus: Weeks 3 - 4

Reading: We are continuing the Little Learners Love Literacy program that students commenced last year in Prep. During this term we will be revising stage 7.1 of the program which focuses on vowel graphemes. Our focus for week 3 will be the graphemes/phoneme ‘ai’ and ‘ay’, and our focus for week 4 will be the graphemes/phoneme ‘ee’ and ‘ea’.

Writing: We will be learning how to write sentences focusing on remembering our capital letters and full stops. We will be having a go at our spelling by using the great strategies that we learned in Prep.

Numeracy: We will be exploring data and the concept of place value. Students will work through hands-on activities, challenges and games to reinforce the idea that numbers contain digits and these digits have different values.  

Inquiry: We are discussing what good learners do, and setting up the routines in our classroom so that everyone feels safe and supported.  

Willy Kids/Respectful Relationships: Our Willy Kid focus for the next fortnight is… and we will be exploring … in Respectful Relationships.

Important Dates Coming Up: 

• Meet the Teacher Wednesday 11th of February (students dismissed at 12.30pm) - please note that we will be using the Redbrick Hall, where there will be seating available and you can have a look at what the Year 1s have been working on.
• School Photos: Tuesday 17th of February 

Blue Book Bags

Blue Book Bags need to be brought to school each morning and will be sent home in the afternoon each day. In your child’s Book Bag you will find a yellow Home Reading Record and a homework book. In these Book Bags you will also find their readers, as well as any books that students borrow from the library (up to two at a time). The students will take home two books each week. This range of books provides a great opportunity for students to practise reading aloud to others and also with family members. Their Little Learners books will be familiar to them and easier to read. Rereading familiar books is an important strategy to help with reading fluency and comprehension, so students may go home with books they’ve seen before. Listening to reading and talking about books is crucial for vocabulary and linguistic comprehension. We encourage students to read at home every weekday to support learning in the classroom. 

Parents should regularly check your child’s Blue Book Bag for notes and school communication. If you are returning any notes to the school you can also place them in their Blue Book Bag. If you have placed a note in there, please remind your child to take it out and give it to their classroom teacher in the morning.

Homework

In Year 1, students are expected to undertake 15 minutes of daily reading with a parent/carer/sibling.

Homework books will go home next week. The work we send home based around concepts we are learning at school. There will be 7 speed words which are based on the weekly sound focus and 3 heart (common) words that students can practise reading and spelling. A family maths game, challenge or activity will help to increase number sense and will also be based around the concept we are learning at school. 

The purpose of reading at home and simple homework activities is to create a link between learning at school and at home and to reinforce weekly concepts. Homework in Year One is not designed to create stress. Please do what is right for your child and for your family. 

Specialists

This term, all Grade 1 students will attend Specialist classes. These include Visual Art, Music, French and Physical Education. Each class will also attend the library each week. Please see below for the specific days for each class.

Sun Safety

It has been excellent to see that our Grade 1’s are bringing their hats to school and are wearing them during play times. Please ensure that your child’s hat is clearly labelled with their name so that it can be easily returned to them if it is misplaced. 

Lunches

As a school we are making an effort to reduce the amount of waste that we produce. In doing so, we hope to maintain our clean and safe indoor and outdoor environments. To support this goal, we encourage our students to bring a ‘nude food’ lunchbox. This means that there is no rubbish or wrappers.Examples of items to include in a nude food lunchbox are:

• Snacks in reusable containers
• Drinks in reusable bottles
• Reusable utensils when needed
• A reusable lunchbox or backpack

If this isn’t possible we kindly ask that all food scraps and rubbish are taken home to dispose of. 

Fruit/Veg Snack

To support learning in the classroom, we like to take time to have a brain food break at 10am every morning. This is fruit or vegetables in a small container to eat at this time. It is helpful if this container is separate from the lunch box so that the children can pop it on their desk when they enter the classrooms at 8:50 or easily collect it from their bag. This limits the disruption of going to the school bag and getting out the entire lunchbox. Thank you for your support with this.

Warm regards,

The Grade One Team –  Steph Keswick (1K) & Emma Chang-Kum (1C)