This Term
Below you will find information about what the classes in KS1 are learning about this term.
Autumn 2025
English
English lessons will follow the Talk 4 Writing approach. At the start of the term the children will be consolidating learning from last year. Year 1 children will focus on writing labels and captions to help them understand the difference between a word and a sentence. Year 2 children will consolidate the sentence writing skills they learned last year, using capital letters, full stops and simple conjunctions. All the children will listen to, learn and do work on a story with a repetitive structure (A Dark, Dark, Tale), a list poem about senses, a traditional tale (Rumpelstiltskin) and also letter structures, writing a letter to Santa. The children will continue with daily phonics sessions and spelling skills. Children in Year 1 will consolidate the vowel and consonant digraphs that they learned in Reception and then move onto reading and writing larger words that uses these letters and sounds, including words with adjacent consonants. Year 2 will also be consolidating their learning from the end of Year 1 to ensure they have remembered all the different vowel digraphs and the alternative sounds that different letters can make.
Maths
The children will learn more about number concepts including counting in different steps, ordering numbers, writing calculations using the correct symbols and recalling simple number facts. Year 1 children will learn to count to 100 and read and write numbers accurately from 1 to 20. Year 2 children will learn more about the place value of numbers in 2 digit numbers and then add and subtract 2 digit numbers from single digit numbers and multiples of tens. Year 2 will recognise odd and even numbers and begin to understand multiplication as repeated addition. All children will work on simple fractions, Year 1 will recognise half of shapes and small amounts of objects whereas Year 2 will recognise the written form of some simple fractions as well as begin to recognise the fraction of a given number or amount. All children will also work on comparing and measuring length, with Year 2 children working using centimetres and metres. The children will also work using the vocabulary of telling the time and learn more about 2D shapes.
Science
In the first half term children will learn about the human body and the senses. They will draw and label human body parts. They will identify the body parts associated with each sense. When working scientifically they will compare and group body parts, begin to recognise patterns in data and use these to answer questions, record data in a table and measure using non-standard units. In the second half term the children will learn about everyday materials. They will name objects and identify the materials they are made from. They will recognise that objects are made from materials that suit their purpose and recall that a property is how a material can be described. They will sort and group objects based on the materials they are made from and their properties. They will make predictions and recognise whether they were accurate and use their observations to answer questions. They will begin to recognise if a test is fair.
Geography
The children will study Geography in the first half term and work will focus around the question ‘What is the weather like in the UK?’ The children will name the countries of the UK, including their capital cities. They will identify the four seasons of the UK and describe the weather in each season. They will look at what a weather forecast is and know that weather conditions can be measured and recorded. They will describe the daily weather patterns in their locality.
History
In History the children will look at the lives of significant people and events of national importance. This unit will focus on the question ‘Who was Florence Nightingale?’ The children will begin by learning about the significance of Remembrance and why this is important to our country. They will then go on to learn about Florence Nightingale. They will learn key facts about Florence's early life as well the significance of the work she did which went on to shape the future of nursing in the United Kingdom.
DT
After half term the children will look at moving mechanisms and investigate how these have been used in books. They will learn how to make a slider and lever mechanism. They will plan a moving page from a book and decide which mechanisms to use. They will measure and cut materials safely to create their moving picture and evaluate their work.
Art
In the first half term children will look at the artists Kandinsky and Mondrian. They will name the primary colours, mix secondary colours and name them. They will make a range of lighter and darker tones by adding white and black. The children will experiment with different thickness of paint on different surfaces.
Computing
At the start of the term computing lessons will focus on improving the children’s mouse skills and ensure children have the grasp of basic skills for logging onto the school computers, finding and opening programs as well as by inputting and saving simple text.
Later in the term the children will have lessons on how to use control devices such as simple floor robots. They will understand the basic functions of a Bee-Bot and know that algorithms move a bee-bot accurately to a chosen destination. They will learn about loops in programming where instructions are to be repeated multiple times and know that abstraction is the removing of unnecessary detail to help solve a problem.
The children will also spend some time learning about online safety.
PE
During the first half term the children will be working on key physical skills, co-ordination using floor movements (moving in different ways such as side step and hop scotch) and static balance on one leg. PE is taught using the ‘Real PE’ approach where the children use story and song to help them acquire and master the key physical skills through a range of games, challenges and activities. After half term the children will work on the key physical keys of dynamic balance (moving smoothly in different ways) and static balance on a small base (toes and balls of the feet).
Music
Children will learn that music has a pulse, a steady beat. Music is also made up of long and short and high and low sounds, called ‘rhythm’ and ‘pitch’. The children will explore how these elements combine when we sing and play and how they work together. Singing and listening are at the heart of each lesson. They will play, improvise and compose using a selection of musical notes. Later in the term the children will learn songs, actions and dances to perform as part of our Christmas Performance. The children will also have a weekly singing assembly.
RE
Children will learn about what it means to belong to a community, including a religious community. They will learn what they might see in a religious building, and what people do when they go there. They will begin to understand that there are similarities and differences between places of worship, within and between faith communities. They will learn that places of worship are sacred places for the people who go there.
Later in the term children will explore how people always face moral choices. They will look at what we should do to make our classroom a happy classroom, and why rules are important. Pupils then study moral codes from Christianity and Islam including the Ten Commandments and the Five Pillars. They also look at non-religious stories and how these exemplify some guidelines for life.
Life Curriculum
The children spend several sessions during their first week learning about new rules and routines for their new classroom. During the first half term the children will learn more about what it means to be a good friend. They will learn how to make new friends and discuss how to resolve fall outs with their friends. Later in the term the children will learn about what bullying is and how words and actions can affect how people feel. They will learn how to report bullying or other hurtful behaviour, including online, to a trusted adult and the importance of doing so.