Help me! Y1! I am clueless and they are a 'tricky bunch'

[TakeTheWheel]

I've previously had Y2, Y,4 and I'm coming from Y3, so I'm far more used to desks and chairs!

They have had a NQT who resigned, lockdown and supply teachers, and it shows

I was given a bit of time out last week to observe them and the current Y1, but the two classes are chalk and cheese.

My initial thoughts when I saw them was that they needed more routine and more structure. They were all a bit aimless and pretty much ignored their rainbow challenges.

Year 1 is quite a tricky year in my opinion as they move from the free flow of EYFS to more formal teaching. Some schools continue with free flow and some move straight to whole class teaching. The kids won’t be used to this though and it takes time to teach them expectations etc. You’ll need a big focus on phonics and your school should be using one of the DfE approved schemes so make sure you’re familiar with that. If you do continue with free flow, then the independent activities have to be carefully planned so children are learning. It can’t just be free playing. There is an art to it which may take a bit of time to get used to but Year 1 is a great age group to teach. Enjoy!

I've had grade 1 this year (moved abroad from teaching year 6 in the UK) and my class were completely new to the school. They hadn't been in any school setting before. Our preschool settings here are quite informal and kids basically just play and do whatever they like most of the time.
A few things I've learnt this year:

• Get them into a routine early on...then practise, practise, practise.
• Get the parents on your side early on.
• Yes, they are little. No, they aren't incapable and usually learn quickly. Having high expectations of them is really important because they usually love to make you proud.
• They are really slow to begin with, so things such as getting ready for break, getting changed for PE, etc. all take ages
• Know your phonics (we use RWI and while I had been a little worried about it to begin with, it's been fine)
• Your TA will be invaluable (both my TA and I had been new to the year group, with her having moved from secondary, so it was a bit of a culture shock for both of us)
• Keep asking people questions if you are unsure about anything.
• Think about how you are happy to teach and don't be afraid to do what is needed for your class. I'm not used to free-flow environments and lack of structure makes me nervous and unhappy. It wasn't really an option with Covid this year anyway. I didn't treat my first graders very differently to my Year 6s. I do teach in a school that's happy for formal teaching from grade 1 onwards and we've got workbooks for core subjects. However, it was a great chance for me to try different things. I'm planning on using more "centres" with my class next year. I can't have done such a bad job since they've kept me in grade 1.
• They are a lovely age group. They are very forgiving when you get something muddled, they are happy to praise even the worst picture drawn by their teacher (thanks RWI...I'm really not artistic in the slightest), they love to have fun and you get them roped in, enthusiastic and excited with even the slightest bit of silliness. They pick up a lot from the adults around them, so if you are enthusiastic and you care about what they achieve, it tends to be easily contagious for your entire class.

I was worried about taking on first grade in the summer and felt completely out of my comfort zone. Even our admissions team were a bit "ahem...yeah, they might be rather tricky...sorry about that" Add into that the issues of the past year. But my class have exceeded expectations across the board - both socially and academically. Their new grade 2 teacher met them the other day and can't quite believe what a lovely and smart bunch of kids they are.
Good luck. Have faith in them and in yourself.

Try a roundabout of activities eg groups of 6 working with you on writing, maths with TA and 3 independent activities which are meaningful and curriculum based. In a day you will get through all groups.

Train children to leave you alone when you are working with a group. Praise them afterwards for being independent.

Routine. Have the same early morning activity every day eg my class work on tricky words. Take the register then share with them what the timetable will be that day (visual timetable). If they fuss, what are we doing next etc, just point to the timetable.

Have fun with them! Y1 is a great year group

Thank you. I especially like the tip to really get to know the phonics scheme. Their numeracy is better, overall.

Routines are going to be really important with this class, especially as I won't have a TA all the time.

I really haven't decided what I'm going to do with free flow or formal teaching. I haven't a clue.

Re free flow vs formal, their needs and capabilities change so much during y1 that you will probably find you need to develop this through the year. Don’t feel you need to fix on one thing now & that’s it forever.

Y1 is the BEST year to teach because they make such amazing progress through the year. It’s tough at the start though because they’re just not developmentally capable of a lot of the y1 expectations, esp. writing - but trust it will come!

Having a strong timetable & established routines is really important, but this doesn’t need to be formal teaching. So eg we have a morning job for the children to do as they arrive - developing basic / key skills like tricky words, counting, writing letters & numbers etc. Time every morning to talk through timetable & key info / points. A reading / writing routine straight after lunch that develops through the year to be more sophisticated but starts with fine motor activities, drawing etc. Phonics every day.

At the start of the year we do some short formal inputs with either whole or half class at a time, setting up independent jobs, and a lot of play. Play is SO important and so much learning happens during it. Then during continuous provision sessions we take individuals / small groups to work on their independent / written jobs. Through the year this evolves into a more traditional lesson format.

Remember these children have missed most if their pre-school year & a big chunk of reception too. No wonder they are tricky!

Alistair Bryce-Clegg’s Effective transition into year 1 book is well worth a read.

Remember these children have missed most if their pre-school year & a big chunk of reception too. No wonder they are tricky!

I know. They could arguably also be seen as very good considering all of that!

we have a morning job for the children to do as they arrive
How do you organise this for them? Is it free choice or differentiated?

The current Y1s/ going into Yr2s are very settled and calm and their play was wonderful. Lots of clearly happy, engaged children and so much obvious learning.

My class, not so much I have a pile of books to read, I'm sure there's a few by Alistair Bryce Clegg in there. I really need a lot of guidance myself.

What I'm currently thinking-

9-9.20: soft start. Ideally I would be hearing reading at that time, but for the first few weeks, I will be circulating and making sure they are on task (like the idea of a morning task here).

9.30- 10: register, calendar, Phonics input (will need to be whole class, unfortunately). Also keen to do music with them and thought that would work in nicely with phonics. Think their phonological awareness is v poor.

10-10.30: Could go continuous provision or more formal. I won't have a TA. May have to do a carousel, although I'm not terribly keen on that.

10.45- 11: Numeracy input, again whole class.

11: Continuous provision or back to the carousel... Again, no TA.

Morning job - the same for majority of the class but specific for individuals eg we had a few chn who couldn’t write their name yet so they did that every morning until they could.

At start of year didn’t have tables for all to allow more flexible cp (do now) so used clipboards on carpet for some. Our chn have individual pencil pots so placed those out before they arrived to show where to go / allocate jobs. Quiet reading once job finished.

It just all takes a lot of training & reminders but once you’ve done that it pays off massively.

Re hearing readers, we do a separate afternoon slot for this - I wouldn’t do first thing in morning because settling the children, welcoming them & checking in with them is a really important start to the day.

So we have 4 groups, 4 jobs, 3 of which are independent & the 4th is reading with an adult. Leaving the fifth day to mop up anyone who hasn’t read & also pick up those who need more. I also hear daily readers during CP.

Ouch to no TA, that is going to be really hard as very difficult to have really effective CP without adults supporting it. Again you will have to train massively & model how each activity should be used quite heavily to make it meaningful & purposeful.

Your timetable sounds good, I would just say especially at the beginning they are unlikely to sit & focus for 30 mins even if different activities in your 9-9:30 slot so think about how to break that up (daily run a couple of times round playground is quite a good one here).

You might find you have to do the register and lunch numbers first as at many schools there's a requirement to get numbers to the office by a certain time each day so they can chase up 'missing' kids. Whilst this is going on you need some activities that they can get on with- a year1/2 class I had used to love things like spot the difference pictures, naming as many animals as you can beginning with a certain letter, colour by numbers etc for that first 20 mins

Oh and I agree that a visual timetable stuck up on the board is a must-laminate pictures for all the activities across the week and even the ones who can't read will soon be able to recognise that its say phonics then snack time then break.

I will have a TA in the afternoons, which is a godsend. I will do CP in the afternoon with her, but I was thinking that initially, both of us will be needed to get in and do all of that really good modelling and talking. I don't particularly want to be hearing reading at that time, at least until they can play productively.

Good point re. lunch numbers.

I am going to have them in a rock solid routine, so definitely a visual timetable.

4 groups, 4 jobs, 3 of which are independent & the 4th is reading with an adult

This is what I want to set up, but haven't a clue how to do it without another adult scaffolding the play. I think it's going to end up being more formally arranged.

I would say if the current Y1s are are settled and calm, as their current teacher how that has been achieved!

I work in a school office - registers first are the most important thing to do, crucial to ensure the 'Vulnerable's' are all accounted for and then lunch orders also needed for the kitchen.
May have to factor in starting times- from September we are not doing staggered starts and finishes and some of our families are in for a big shock!