Through lots of fun, hands-on activities, the children have been discovering how their bodies help them understand the world around them. We have investigated different textures using our sense of touch, listened carefully to a variety of sounds, explored exciting smells, and even talked about our favourite (and least favourite!) tastes. The classroom has been full of curiosity, discussion and lots of “ooh!” and “wow!” moments.

Alongside our science learning, we have been linking our ideas to our Literacy work based on the story The Smartest Giant in Town. The children have loved following George’s journey and thinking about how the characters might feel and what they experience using their senses.

We have been working hard on writing simple, clear sentences inspired by the story.

We are so proud of the children’s enthusiasm and effort—they are truly becoming thoughtful learners and creative writers!

Thank you for your continued support 😊

Miss Binmore and Miss Shaha

The children have thoroughly enjoyed our English lessons. They have been generating interesting vocabulary to use in their writing, writing their own endings of the story ‘The way back home’ and finding out about Neil Armstrong to create a fact file.  

For DT, the children have been exploring joining materials and designing their own alien puppet. Many of them had interesting features.

Thank you for your continued support at home — it does make a difference. Please keep reading regularly, practising phonics, letter formation and talking to your child about what they are learning in school, particularly related to our new topic. 

We are looking forward to the next half-term. Have a wonderful half-term holiday. 🌈

Miss Shaha & Miss Binmore

With the cold, frosty, wet start to the year, the children in Year 1 have come back with warm dazzling smiles and an eagerness to learn which has brightened up our days.

We were blown away, with the effort that was put into the children's home learning about 'Space' over the Christmas break. Our story 'The way back home' has sparked off the children's imagination to life on the moon and out in space.

In Maths, the children have continued with 'Subtraction', they are able to use the 'crossing out method and have persevered with using a number line to count back. 

In History, we have moved from childhood to toys from the past and present. We will also be looking at the moon landing and finding out 'Neil Armstrong' 

Finally, we are looking forward to a wonderful year of learning together — here’s to a happy and successful 2026 in Year 1!

Miss Shaha & Miss Binmore

We are looking forward to seeing you at our fantastic finish on Wednesday 17^th November at 2pm, which will be held in the hall.  In Literacy, the children have amazed us, they are trying their best to write independently ensuring they are using full stops, capital letters and finger spaces. 

In Maths, the children have continued to use  'a Whole-part model' and use the method counting on to help them solve and understand addition. Counting on has been tricky for the children, but many are persevering to use this method. In History, we have discussed childhood from the past and comparing it to their childhood in the present. Finally, staff and children had great fun watching a panto yesterday. Please remember to take the time to go onto 'X' where we will post learning on a daily/weekly basis. We continue to look forward to sharing our fun-filled learning with you regularly.

Miss Shaha & Miss Binmore

It has been a wonderful couple of weeks of learning. All the children have enjoyed learning the songs for our Christmas concert.  We look forward to seeing you and your family at the performances - Monday 1^st & Tuesday 2^nd December at 2pm. 

In Literacy, the children have amazed us by using unique and exciting vocabulary to write about our focus story 'Superworm'.

In Maths, the children have continued to use 'a whole-part model' to help them solve and understand addition. We will continue to solve addition calculations using other methods such as counting on. In PE, we are fortunate to have a cricket coach teach the children pre-cricket skills.

Please remember to take the time to go onto 'X' where we will post learning on a daily/weekly basis. We continue to look forward to sharing our fun-filled learning with you regularly.

Miss Shaha & Miss Binmore

As part of our topic 'Everyday Heroes', we began the term focussing on 'Remembrance Day' through our History and Literacy lessons. The children have been fascinated by the two world wars and how the armed forces keep our world safe today. This was also enhanced by our visiting author, Martin Impey' who talked about 'Flo' a remarkable dog.  

In Maths, the children were introduced to 'a whole-part model' to help them solve and understand number bonds. We will continue to use this model and other resources to solve addition calculations.

In Science, we are using our investigative skills to test a range of materials, which focusses on finding out about their properties ie waterproof, magnetic etc.

Please remember to take the time to go onto 'X' where we will post learning on a daily/weekly basis. We continue to look forward to sharing our fun-filled learning with you regularly.

Miss Shaha & Miss Binmore

This half term has been a thrilling roller coaster ride of learning for both staff and children........

This week, in Literacy we have introduced 'The write stuff' challenging the children to write sentences with adjectives and the connective 'and' based around a focus story 'The train ride'. In Maths, the children have continued to focus on numbers to 10, looking at comparing amounts/numbers and using the correct vocabulary - more   less    greater    fewer   etc

In Science, we became weather reporters informing the class of different types of weather from different seasons.

Thank you for all our lovely autumn treasures. We will be using them next week to complete this science topic - Sensing Seasons.

In Geography, the children were excited to help an alien out of our playground by drawing a map and then they were delighted to design their dream playground!!!

Please remember to take the time to go onto 'X' where we will post learning on a daily/weekly basis. We continue to look forward to sharing our fun filled learning with you.

Miss Shaha & Miss Binmore

In Geography, the children have been fascinated by 'Google Earth' looking at the world, countries & United Kingdom. Using an ariel map of Stevenage, the children located a park, the town centre and of course Roebuck Academy. Please take the time to go onto 'X' where we will post learning on a daily/weekly basis. We continue to look forward to sharing our fun-filled learning with you.

Miss Shaha & Miss Binmore

All the children have settled into the new routines of Year 1 really well. We are impressed with the children's eagerness to learn.

We are continuing with drawing club, Monster phonics and Mastery Maths. We have now introduced Maths no problem work books,  Numberbots and teaching foundation subjects in isolation such RE and Computing. Before the children are able to use the computer suite, they will need to practice keyboard and mouse skills. 

We are looking forward to introducing more subjects around our topic 'Camping out' Watch this space ..........

In art we have been looking into the tree of life and created our very own using paper craft. We folded, ripped, curled and creased the paper to create our wonderful trees.

We were also very lucky to have visiting artist Amanda Jewitt visit us, and she showed us how to sew fabrics together to make gem shaped pieces of felt. Our work was then placed onto a gold thread - we can't wait for you to see our final piece at our art exhibition soon.

Sports day was also a huge success, with everyone in year 1 taking part and enjoying themselves.

We have also enjoyed learning about different artists and sculptors in our art lessons this week as we prepare for our visiting artist, Amanda, in a few weeks time.

Finally, we made smoothies and learnt about how fruit and vegetables grow. We had to taste test different ingredients and design our own smoothies.

In year 1, we are designers, athletes and artists!

In maths, we have been using part-part-whole models to help us solve tricky worded problems. We always use manipulatives to help us with our problem-solving. We have been learning about Christopher Columbus in history and comparing his life to Grace O'Malley.... The big question is... We're they both pirates? In year 1, we ask questions!

We have kicked off the term by learning all about Pirate Blackbeard in Literacy. We will be writing a non-fiction information book all about the Pirate Blackbeard. We even got to eat, drink and play like a pirate! 

In maths, we have been focussing on numbers to 40! Thinking about how many tens and ones there are to make any given number. To help develop our understanding of numbers, we have been using dienes and ones. We have been enjoying counting up in 10s and 2s using an interactive number grid and noticing the patterns!

In science, we have been thinking all things plants. We went for a walk around the school searching for wild plants and identifying where they were growing.

In History, our focus was Grace 0'Malley- who she was, and what she did? We had fun ordering her life to make our very own timelines! In year one we are adventurous!

We loved pyjama day last Friday, this marked the end of National Story Telling Week and the end of our work around the story "Journey" by Aaron Becker. Elm and Maple loved sharing their work with other classes from around the school. We enjoyed writing about the girl with the crayon and following her magical journey through forests, castles, and fighting armies of knights!
One of our favourite lessons this week has been thinking about the moon landing and what the astronauts did on the Moon. We made our very own footprint on the moon complete with American flag and moon rocks. We have also been celebrating writing in year one with some of our children getting Head Teacher awards for their amazing sentences. 

In phonics, we have been allowed to write on the tables! This made our learning even more fun. We can't wait to see everybody after half term for more fun at Roebuck!

In maths, we have been learning about numbers to 20, and have used tens frames to make our numbers.

We have been drawing space kittens, we started our daily sentence and have been sure to remember capital letters and full stops too. In maths, we have been thinking about positions and using the correct maths language of 1st, 2nd, 3^rd and 4th.

We started our planning stage for our space alien puppets and thought about how to join two pieces of fabric together. We will be sure to use these skills during our fantastic finish at the end of the half-term. We have the space dome visiting next week, so look out on X for photos and videos of our morning.

In Literacy, we have been learning about Florence Joyner. She was a famous Olympic medalist. We searched around the room to find facts about her and then next week we will be making some non fiction posters filled with facts! 

We have had a busy week and are now ready for some Christmas fun next week! 

We have also been busy in phonics and have completed lots of exciting games to support us with learning new sounds.  

The art continued with hand prints to make Poppies for Remembrance day, which will be displayed around the school. 

Maths has been very successful in Maple and Elm too. We have been making number sentences, by building our numbers using multi link and using the correct maths symbols.

We can't wait to be back after half term for more amazing learning in Key Stage One 

We really enjoyed World Mental Health day and looked fabulous in our yellow clothes … we even met a footballer in a whole school live lesson.

In year one we are eager!

In maths, we have been using lots of different resources to help us with counting. We completed a scavenger hunt in science, spotting all the different signs of Autumn. We then put on our wellies for our walk to celebrate ‘Camping Out’. We collected lots of leaves and sticks which we used to make leaf and bark rubbings. We then had some yummy marshmallows around the (pretend) fire and sang some campfire songs! 

At Roebuck we are explorers!

In phonics, we have been recapping our phonics monsters, including Yellow I and Miss Oh No! We enjoyed our whole school text of "Bottled" and we created our own bottles full of feelings, using pictures from familiar story books.

We started reading "We're going on a bear hunt" and have loved joining in with Michael Rosen to read along with the story. We are also maths wizards and have been ordering numbers to 10! What a busy start to the term.

In Year one we are going on a Bear Hunt!

In Literacy, we have been reading Grandad's Island by Benji Davies. We enjoyed writing a letter using lots of exciting sentences! 

In History, we have been learning about a Pirate named Grace O'Malley and an explorer named Christopher Columbus. We created a timeline of events and put these in chronological order. What a fun week it has been! Happy half-term everyone 🙂

It was great fun testing out of the boats on the seven seas!  

In Literacy, we have been writing a non-chronological report all about Pirates. We used role play to act out many different jobs aboard the ship and decided which ones we would and would NOT enjoy! We also learned about different foods and drinks that Pirates may have had. We even tried our very own Ginger Beer. 

Yo-ho-ho! We've had a blast! 

Continuing with the science... the whole school completed a Science day all about BUBBLES! Our question was 'What is the best way to make bubbles?'. We tested using whisks, hands and straws. It was absobubbly brilliant! 

Also, a huge thank you to all the parents that attended our KS1 reading morning and afternoons. We LOVE sharing books with you.

At Roebuck we are Artists AND scientists! 

In science, we asked ourselves the question, Why do fish not have fingers? We held and looked at the fish under the magnifying glass to see all of the parts. We discussed how fish live and breathe underwater and compared them to other animals. We discovered that not many children in year 1 have held or been this close to a fish before. We really enjoyed being scientists. 

In Year One, we are explorers!

As part of our Superhero topic, last week we were visited by the fire brigade and some police officers. We learned all about how they keep people safe and we asked them lots of interesting questions! We also celebrated our superhero topic with a dress up day and have been writing some fantastic sentences based on the story 'Superworm' by Julia Donaldson. 

In Year 1 we are... SUPER! 

In Literacy, we have wrapped up our writing about Florence Joyner, by thinking about our own dreams and goals.  We thought about what we wanted to do or be when we are grown-ups.  We had some very inspirational answers from firemen, to being a mummy, to owning our own houses and cars.  Someone even said they wanted to be a vet.

In art we have tried to create our own continuous line drawings of objects and of people.  We were very successful and felt very proud of our work.

Our phonics evening was a huge success, and we hope it was a helpful workshop for you all.

In maths, we have continued our learning about numbers to 20 and we have been spotting patterns in numbers.

In Year One, we are inspirational!

Our art work this week was inspired by Claude DeBussy's "la mer".  We listened to the piece and created water themed art work in groups.  We are so proud of our creations!

Books and blankets was a huge success and we loved having parents and families joining us to read our favourite stories and fact books. We have received some fantastic home learning tasks in too, with the children creating super shields, splendid stories and perfect pictures based around our Superhero topic - a child in Maple Class has also been awarded a Blue Peter badge too, which is a fantastic achievement!

In PSHE we have been thinking about including everyone and making sure nobody feels left out.  We played a game called huggy bears to help us to remember to make sure everyone in our class is welcome in our games and learning.

In Maple Class we are Superheroes

Our art work this week was inspired by Claude DeBussy's "la mer".  We listened to the piece and created water themed art work in groups.  We are so proud of our creations!

Books and blankets was a huge success and we loved having parents and families joining us to read our favourite stories and fact books. We have received some fantastic home learning tasks in too, with the children creating super shields, splendid stories and perfect picture based around our Superhero topic - a child in Maple Class has also been awarded a Blue Peter badge too, which is a fantastic achievement!

In PSHE we have been thinking about including everyone and making sure nobody feels left out.  We played a game called huggy bears to help us to remember to make sure everyone in our class is welcome in our games and learning.

In Maple Class we are Superheroes!

This week Year 1 went for a 'Walk to the Woods' as part of our Literacy unit. We had such an exciting morning! We searched for different types of minibeasts and tried to describe how they look and how they move. Then we went on a colour hunt and tried to find as many different items as we could. We found brown soil, black birds, orange leaves and many more! To finish off our fun morning, we enjoyed some scrumptious marshmallows by the fire! 
At Roebuck.. Year 1 are explorers! 

In literacy we have begun our non-fiction report on Pirates and spent a morning experiencing life on a ship. The children scrubbed the decks, tied up the ropes and kept watch with their telescopes for ships to raid. Even though it was tough, they all worked hard as no one wanted to walk the plank! At Roebuck we are Pirates! ARRRRR!

We have created alien puppets by designing, making templates and using different joining methods. We decided that our success criteria would be to make it strong, the correct size, safe for children and to make it look like an alien. 

We have also discussed how to be safe using computers and devices as part of ESafety day. 

We are preparing for our scrap book day and have looked at a number of wonderful texts- we have identified favourites! 

We have also started to create skeleton pictures ready for our new topic after half term. 

In maths we are exploring addition and subtraction facts in numbers up to 20 and have started to learn about regrouping.