Reception to yr 1

[mummynumnum]

just thinking about dd nearly finishing yr r and wondered what the key differences between yr r and yr 1 are? If any?

A lot less learning through play apparently, so much more sitting still and whole-class sessions, less free choice which some struggle with

much less play-based, more proper work
ds1 found it really difficult going into a more structured classroom environment

When my DD went into Yr1 it was the start of having work to do at home, writing practice and reading.

the change should be brought in gently though, I know at our school for the first couple of weeks it was very like reception and then as the year has gone on they have done more and more sit down work although there is still allot of freedom of movement.
Our Y1 class room is small (only 23 children though) and they started the year with only a couple of sit down to work tables and over the year move of the free play choices have gone and tables added but even now in the final Y1 term there is not enough tables for everyone to sit and work at once, dd tells me they do a kind of group rotation thing with one group having free play while the others do a more guided activities.
We got the first homework other then reading starting after the first half term, a very small amount of hand writing practice that also reinforced phonics and then after Christmas we changed to spellings, a list of 4 to learn in a week.
Now we are getting to the end of Y1 I am starting to worry a bit about the shock to the system Y2 may be but knowing the school the change will be fairly gradual.
I know not all school are like this but I think many do phase in the more work based and timetabled nature of Y1.

there is a lot more structure to the lessons iyswim and DS has "proper" lessons ie history, geography, RE (religious school), art etc as well as handwriting, reading, maths, spellings etc....

Once all the kids have been assessed at the beginning of the year they are put onto tables with similar abled children iyswim which I don't remember happening in R. (Each subject ie maths, spelling, reading etc is assessed seperately so they will move from table to table for that subject within the same class room - well, they do in DS's school )

He did moan at the beginning (he is in yr1 now) about there being less playtime

They are also linked more with yr2 ie doing Xmas plays etc whereas in R he was linked with the nursery etc...

But he is soooo excited as he has his first school trip on thursday (to Hampton Court) by coach

They have Golden Time (on friday) which is fun games etc which if the weather is nice they do outside

Ooo! So this is where the setting starts???

sort of, but there is lots of movement in it iyswim.

DS started the yr back in sept on the 3rd table & went to 2nd table in reading then I asked if he could get some harder books as his reading books were too easy and he was then moved to top table, but on the whole they are very relaxed about it and it just means they are with kids of similar ability iyswim.

Ds's class is quite small (23 kids) so some of the tables only have 4 kids on them.

But most of their work is still done as a whole, I think they are split for reading, handwriting, maths & spellings. Everything else history, RE, art etc is done together

And they still have carpet time etc....They are encouraged not to use loo during carpet time too (which they did not mind in R, but its only for 15-20mins or so)

It depends on the school, our school doesn't do sets at all!

My Y1 class mirrors that of reception during the Autumn Term. However, we don't have as much free access to outdoor play as we have no classroom doors (yet!)

During the Spring Term, the children have 'formal' Literacy and Numeracy lessons with everyone assigned tasks - individual, paired, group, adult-led or independent. Afternoons are for 'Areas of Provision' with small adult-led group work.

Now in the Summer Term, their mornings are structured and they have an hour to an hour and a half structured lessons in the afternoon and then about the last hour 'free play'.

My children have coped brilliantly.

Reception into Y1 was a massive jump at our school. One of my twins was ready for it the other was really upset at the lack of free play and outdoor play. It took her a long time to settle and even now she complains about not being able to play!

In Year 1 the children are set by ability from what I can see. They get weekly numeracy homework and spellings to learn for a weekly test along with 2 reading books a week. Our school moved from individual reading to guided reading which I'm not happy about.

I would have loved a more Reception based Autumn Term like some schools appear to do to ease the children in gently.

Think it depends on the school and the class. For dd it was hard. She was in a year 1/year 2 class. |Think the transition for year 1 class was gentler. Only homework difference was spelling.

Our Y1 class is in a smaller room than reception but otherwise very little difference