What is year 1 like?

[BKCRMP]

DD has SEN and is starting year 1 in September.

School have sent him social stories for her about year 1 but I'm wondering as a mum what the set up may be? How much time is expected to be sat at desks etc?

Quite a lot of time at a desk. DC got told they were a big child now, and don’t need to play. 💔

I think considering the Covid situation it will be almost entirely desk-sitting. Even before that, there was a lot of desk work but they were able to move around and use breakout space etc. But next year I’m not sure this will be possible.

Our Y1 set up is still quite relaxed: role play toys in the corner, free choice of books in the reading corner, desks groups together, time sitting on the carpet, lots of arts and music.

They introduced independence through weekly missions which where themed around a topic but quite broad so the children could make their own choice and complete it in their own free learning time throughout the week.

From the pictures they definitely still have toys in their room and a cosy corner with bean bags and books. Just hoping it's not long periods of sitting and following adult led tasks in blocks

The year 1 at my school (and other that I worked at) have two “golden time” sessions a week (I.e free play) - I think one was the whole afternoon and one was about 40 minutes. Obviously this can vary by school.

I think the big difference is the amount of time working.
In reception, for example in my class, once the children have completed the work, they have the freedom to play. Or they will be playing and called over on groups to work. Or sometimes, all the lesson will be on the carpet, so maths may purely be practical work on the carpet as a class or literacy is just on the carpet too writing on whiteboards for example. We do a gradual build up (normally) in the summer term - so start to give extra challenges and extensions when they’ve finished their work instead of going to play, sending them to their table to do the practical work and going around the desks to monitor etc. This year that plan hasn’t been able to happen much.

The big jump will be the reduced free play and more independent working. Your DC will have to sit at his table (normally these are still bundled into group tables) - and her place may be assigned instead of choosing each time (depending on how school does it). Year 1 will be expected to start working individually, not when the teacher/TA is at their table. They won’t just be able to finish and go and play all the time. It’s more formal - but not entirely.

Like an above poster said, year one still have role play corners, comfy book corners, toys. Lots of PE and music and Art and technology. Often very cross curricular at this age. He won’t be glued to his chair the whole time but he will be sat down more than last year. Special jobs often start in Y1 - the privilege of running something to the school office, Playground buddy jobs, our school does school council from Y1 up - the feeling of power!
The school should, particularly in light of the lost time this year, ease them into changes gradually, and take into account her SEN.

Don’t worry though, year 1 are still little - even I forget sometimes they’re only 5 and 6! They won’t be expected to be fully independent sat still all day Year one is a bit of a jump but I’m sure your DD will be ok - I emphasised to my reception class the sense of “being bigger” in terms such as “look how amazing you can be by helping the new reception class who don’t know what to do”.
Best of luck to her - enjoy the summer break!

With DD2, it started at 90percent play based (similar to Reception) and gradually the balance changed through the year.

Our school have advised that in light of covid, they will make it a much slower transition this year, and will start with lots of play xx

If your child has a good understanding teacher and teaching assistant they will help them with the transition to year 1.
My eldest has just finished year 1 and he said they sit at a desk most of the time and he’s always a bit wired when he comes out. Weather depending I try to take them to the park after to be free and run.
I feel much more is expected of them in year 1 and there is an obvious difference between reception and year 1.
Reception teachers generally seem a bit more gentler and tactile and I found the year 1 teacher to still be approachable but more distant and professional.
I hope they settle ok and please inform the teacher of any worries or concerns you may have.

Thank you. She already receives a high level of TA support and we are in the middle of her EHCP assessments and making decisions about schools or what support she needs. School have kept very quiet about what the day is set up like and I feel a bit like I'm making decisions based on a lot of unknowns including exactly what they are expecting of her come September. Obviously can't speak to them about it until then but it's interesting to know how schools in general do it.

OP I called your DD a he in my post - I do apologise.

I just wanted to add that our school does transition gradually - certainly that first half term in Autumn is more play based than normal but slightly less so than reception. Also still do plenty of Christmas / Easter activities for example.

I imagine the school are a bit quiet about the routine because things could still be a bit up in the air this September? And they’re caught between carrying on as normal and making up for the time lost and the fact that some children won’t have been to school for 6 months. Really hard one.

But there’s no harm and nothing wrong with you approaching your DD’s teacher and asking about the daily routine and things, especially with her SEN

OP it really is different in every school. I’m a year one teacher and at my current school year one is very much like reception, although of course we follow the national curriculum rather than early learning goals. There is still a lot of play and the children probably sit at desks for about one and a half hours a day in total and often much less. In previous schools though the children sat at tables most of the day. Do you know anyone with older children at the school who you could ask?

Every school takes a different approach to the transition from EYFS curriculum to National Curriculum under normal circumstances anyway, but this year could be very different to previous years due to the gov guidance on school opening iro CV19 so will be near impossible to compare!

I'm a Y1 teacher and my school are having all chn sat at forward facing desks, including Y1, with no free-flow or self-initiated exploring and learning 😭. This makes me so sad but it's what my Head wants! My Y1 teacher colleagues in other schools are all offering different set ups - some half a day sat at desks half a day free flow (so class split in 2 halves and all equipment cleaned at lunch break swap for the afternoon); another with chn sat in horseshoe arrangements not quite forward facing, another school taking the 'it is only guidance' approach and carrying on as they normally would with free-flow (like Reception).

You'll be best off speaking to your school and asking what their provision for Y1 will look like for your specific school, but bearing in mind new CV19 guidance for schools is due in August....

I echo that it is different from school to school. My dc's school have zero toys/role play or anything from year 1. Very formal and academic. I was really sad when they showed us the classroom. My summer born really struggled with it and they did support her well, allowed her to move around more than the others and allowed the odd afternoon in recepetion as a 'helper' when she was struggling to focus (or more likely distracting others).

My DS's school have just spent £2000 on new toys for year one because they said too many children have missed out on all the play-based learning in Reception (only about half of the kids came back for the last term) and in order to catch them up they needed to be doing much more play in year one than is normal.
So you may (fingers crossed!) find that this year one is much more relaxed than usual. Lots of children will have missed six months of school and a lot of the syllabus they'll need to catch up with will be play-based.

Sorry, been off school for six months. Obviously some of that would have been holidays.

Its very school specific and covid might change how a school would tackle it. Where i work they carry on with the early years curriculumn until the fist half term and do it all through the same set up as reception. Then the mornings are more formal, then by the end of year 1 they are more like year 2. This year they are planning to deliver more of the curriculumn for year 2 outside too.