About KS1
Years 1 and 2
Ages 5 to 7
The early years in primary school are the foundation of your child’s education.
When your child enters Year 1, at about five years old, your child will come into contact with the National Curriculum for the first time. From then, until the age of seven, they will follow Key Stage 1 of the National Curriculum. If your child is not ready for the National Curriculum they will be given more time to work within the EYFS curriculum.
In year 2, your child will also take National Curriculum tests and tasks in reading, writing and maths.
Useful Resources:
For more information about your child's first few years in school, please visit the EarlyYearsMatters.co.uk website.
There is also the What Your Child is Learning at School document, full of useful information about children aged between 5 and 7 years old in school.
Phonics and Reading in KS1
Key Stage 1 follow the DFE Letters and Sounds Phonics program.
Letters and Sounds is a phonics resource published by the Department for Education and Skills in 2007. It aims to build children’s speaking and listening skills in their own right as well as to prepare children for learning to read by developing their phonic knowledge and skills. It sets out a detailed and systematic programme for teaching phonic skills for children starting by the age of five, with the aim of them becoming fluent readers by age seven.
Key Stage 1 classes also follow amongst others the Oxford Reading Tree reading scheme.
Oxford Reading Tree is a well established and popular reading scheme which is highly successful at teaching children to read. The stories are carefully written using simple natural sounding language that the children can understand. Key words are repeated throughout the storybooks so that children gradually increase the number of words they can recognise and read.
Useful Resources:
Take a look at the governments Letters and Sounds document from the www.Gov.uk website.
You can visit the Letters-and-Sounds.com website.
Our reading scheme books can also be found on the Oxford University Press website.
Maths and Science in KS1
Key Stage 1 classes follow the Abacus Primary Maths Scheme. We have a hands on learning approach and try to make maths lessons as practical as possible.
We use Rising Stars materials to enhance our teaching and learning in science linking our science work to our topics where possible. Again Science lessons are hands on and practical.
Useful Resources:
Please visit the PearsonSchoolsandFEColleges.co.uk website for information on both the Maths and Science curriculum.
You can also try out the ActiveLearnPrimary.co.uk website which is also brought to you by Pearson Education, here your child can log on and take part in activities related to the Key Stage 1 class curriculum.