WELCOME TO OUR YEAR 1 PAGE

 

ASPIRE - LEARN - FLOURISH 

The Aspire Learning Federation is made up of two schools - Elm Park Primary School and R J Mitchell Primary School in the London Borough of Havering.

Welcome to Year 1. This year is an exciting step as children move from the Early Years into more structured learning, while still enjoying plenty of opportunities to explore, discover, and be creative. Our focus will be on building confidence in reading, writing, and maths, while encouraging curiosity through science, history, geography, and the arts.

Equally important, we will continue to nurture children’s social and emotional skills—helping them to build positive relationships, develop resilience, and grow in confidence as independent learners.

We look forward to working closely with you to support your child’s learning journey and celebrate their achievements together. With your partnership, we know this year will be a happy, successful, and rewarding one for every child.

 

Key Information

Year 1 is made up of Birch and Chestnut Classes. Class teachers and the staff team work closely together to provide high quality teaching and learning across the year group.

 

Birch Class: 

 

Chestnut Class:

 

PE 

This year, Year 1 have PE lessons on Mondays & Wednesdays. PE lessons consist of structured teaching in a variety of indoor and outdoor activities. To ensure full access and high performance in PE, your children need to come to school wearing their PE kits on PE days.  Please ensure all clothing & shoes are labeled.

• Plain shorts / leggings / tracksuit bottoms (black)

• Purple Elm Park Primary PE polo. Additional school jumper or fleece (purple).

• They will also need plain black trainers (no other coloured soles, logos or laces).

 

Pupils can also bring a labelled water bottle daily.  Please label any tupperware and cutlery in packed lunch boxes. 

 

Forest School

Forest School will take place fortnightly on a Thursday afternoon. To allow children to participate fully, the correct clothing is essential for Forest School as they will be outside in all conditions. Please ensure all items of clothing and footwear are labelled. 

Pupils will need to wear:

• Their school PE kit

• Waterproofs (if possible as they will be out in all conditions)

• Wellies or old trainers

• During the summer, a sunhat and sunscreen are needed (supplied by school or supplied from home).

• During the colder months, extra layers such as a fleece, leggings, tights, hats and gloves are required

 

Our Curriculum & Homework

 

Curriculum Overview 

In Year 1, we follow the CUSP Curriculum (Curriculum by Unity Schools Partnership), a carefully sequenced and knowledge-rich programme designed to give pupils a strong foundation across key subjects. CUSP focuses on building deep understanding through high-quality teaching in English, History, Geography, Science, Art, DT and Music alongside our wider curriculum.

The curriculum is designed to revisit key knowledge regularly to help children remember and apply what they’ve learned over time. In English, there is a strong focus on vocabulary, grammar, and reading comprehension, helping to develop confident readers and writers. Across all subjects, CUSP promotes curiosity, critical thinking, and a love of learning, while supporting progress for all pupils.

 

 

 

 

 

Homework & Homework Expectations 

Continuous home learning of basic skills such as reading, spelling, and number work is very important because it helps children build strong foundations for future learning. 

 

We expect children to read at least three times a week at home to improve their fluency, comprehension and confidence.  Children who read at least three times per week, every week, will be invited to the exciting readers treat at the end of each term.   Reading books and diaries should be in school every day.  Book changes occur every Monday.   

 

Children should also practice basic number skills including number bonds, doubling/ halving and times tables (links to TTRS and Numbots can be found below).

 

 

Class News & Updates

When pupils collectively earn enough pebbles, they will enjoy their first ‘Jar of Good Choices’ reward. 

There are a number of Friends of EPPS (PTA) events so please check frequently for announcements!

 

Useful Resources (these will be buttons)

• TTRS

• Google Classroom

• Class Dojo

• Numbots 

• Hit the Button

 

Contact & Communication

For general queries, please contact the school office. You can contact your Class Teacher via email Birch Class Chestnut Class

• 📧 office.epps@theaspirelearningfederation.co.uk

• 📞 01708 451463

• 🏫 South End Road Hornchurch RM12 5UA