Year 1 teachers, how do you organise your timetables and rooms?

[ThisIsNotARealAvo]

I am a year 1 teacher, and I am quite experienced (teaching for 12 years, in Y1 for at least 7 of those). The last few years we have worked really hard to get Y1 working in much the same way as Reception - free flow around the classrooms, lots of activities out, teachers and TAs working in small focus groups with children every day, so each child has a piece of maths, a piece of writing and piece of topic (Science, History etc) every day. Last year we improved our Phonics scored by 15% and also added value to childrens' outcomes, i.e. getting children from Expected to Greater depth etc. Bear with me, this might actually get quite long.

I was even asked to speak at some training for the LA about how well year 1 was going. Not a stealth boast, just trying to let you know that it was going quite well. School is RI atm but improving. As a result of the RI-ness, we have an excellent advisor who has been very helpful, has worked with teachers and leaders and really knows her stuff. However, she is now saying that the activities in Y1 are not challenging enough and we should be working as a whole class. SLT are now paincking and I am going to talk about it on Monday with them.

People who are year 1 teachers, how do you keep the activities challenging while providing a successful transition? Last year we did free flow until Christmas, but I think we are going to be under pressure to move to whole class sooner, which I don't want to do.

Any ideas very welcome. Thanks for reading until the end if you did!

You can still provide challenge in continuous provision, at our school there are some tasks each week which are levelled with green being easiest, orange ok and red tricky, children are encouraged to challenge themselves and rewarded by praise if they have a go at things that initially didn't think they would manage. Also, take a look at the "Continuing provision into KS1" Facebook page for some ideas. The book Year One in Action by Anna Ephgrave may be useful as well, the reception one has some good ideas of how to justify how you're working to SLT who can't see the benefit.

Thank you so much !

Following with interest. Xxx

I would point them back to your excellent data.
We have used a bronze, silver, gold system for our independent challenges to ensure children aren't picking the easiest option.
You could ask your HA children to respond to their work and your marking if appropriate.
But definitely get them to see the data, sounds like it's working very well already.