Year 1

[Blondmuminlondon]

Hi,

My boy starts year 1 and I wanted to prepare him for this. Can anyone tell me what kind of things they do, do they start doing spelling tests etc?

Thanks.

Very much depends on the school but usually it's more formal than reception and can be a bigger shock than starting school as reception is similar to nursery.

There will be a lot more sitting and listening which your son will need to concentrate for.

Spellings etc again depends on the school but I would expect some phonics homework at the very least.

I'd also make sure he is able to get changed for P.E, etc as a lot less time is allocated in year 1 than reception.

Agree it is in some ways a bigger step than nursery to reception. They have to sit down more and listen for longer. His reception teacher will have been preparing the class for the increased expectations. Spelling tests etc will depend on the school. They continue to work on phonics.

More sitting down.
More separation of day into distinct 'lessons'/ structured timetable

Basically - reception was all about free play and learning-through-play (at my DC's school) and it definitely felt that things got more 'serious' in Y1. That being said, DC enjoyed Y1 a lot! Although perhaps got a bit bored with the repetitious style of learning for some areas (e.g. literacy).

Y1 is not always a harsh jump. It really depends on the school. Ours sent some children to Reception in the afternoons to play/rest, until they were ready for a whole day of learning.

Thanks for your response. My boys school is very academic so I'm sure they will be very formal and have spellings. Do they get 10 a week? I can't imagine at 5 and 6 they could retain the information to get them all right within the week 😬

Ours got a different number of spellings depending on the ability group they were in. 6 in the lower ability group & 7-10 in the main group

Depends on the school - but it’s the holidays. Unless there’s any serious concerns about his behaviour or progress from last year, the school will manage just fine with him and he with them - I don’t think you need to do anything other than the usual stuff e.g. read stories with him, counting things you see when out and about etc.