This week, we have been enjoying the beautiful sights, sounds and textures of Autumn while developing our poetry skills!

We began our learning by taking a journey through the forest and creating our very own journey sticks. As we explored, we collected a variety of natural treasures, including colourful leaves, conkers, chestnuts and pinecones. We carefully attached our findings to our journey sticks and used them to help us remember all the wonderful things we discovered.

Our journey sticks also gave us the opportunity to link our English learning with our Science topic on the senses. We talked about how the different Autumn objects felt when we touched them. We used descriptive words such as bumpy, smooth, rough, soft, prickly and spiky to describe their different textures.

We then used our observations and sensory vocabulary to inspire our very own Autumn poems! We thought carefully about the words we could use to describe different Autumn items and enjoyed creating imaginative and descriptive poetry. 🍁

🏡 How can you help at home?

1. Go on an Autumn treasure hunt
Take a walk together and collect safe natural objects such as leaves, pinecones and conkers. Talk about their colours, shapes, sizes and textures.

2. Use your senses
Encourage your child to describe what they can see, hear, smell and feel. Ask questions such as, “How does the leaf feel?” or “What does the pinecone remind you of?”

3. Create an Autumn poem together
Choose one Autumn object and make a simple poem using descriptive words. Encourage your child to think of interesting adjectives such as crunchy, golden, prickly, smooth, chilly or rustling.

We have loved exploring Autumn through our senses and can’t wait to share more of our wonderful poetry! 🍂🍁

Over the last few weeks, we have been busy exploring the wonderful world of colour! We have been learning all about primary colours — red, yellow and blue — and discovering what happens when we mix them together.

We became little colour scientists and experimented with mixing our primary colours to create secondary colours. We discovered that:

🔴 Red + 🟡 Yellow = 🟠 Orange
🟡 Yellow + 🔵 Blue = 🟢 Green
🔵 Blue + 🔴 Red = 🟣 Purple

We had lots of fun getting messy and using our hands to mix the colours! Once we had explored the colours with our fingers, we picked up our paintbrushes and used them to create our own colourful artwork. It was wonderful to see how many different shades and colours we could make.

🖼️ Meet Piet Mondrian

We have also been learning about the life and artwork of the famous artist Piet Mondrian. We looked closely at his colourful artwork and talked about the shapes, lines and colours he used.

One of our favourite pieces is Broadway Boogie Woogie. We discovered that Mondrian loved music and dancing, which inspired some of his artwork. We especially enjoyed looking at all the colourful squares and lines and thinking about how they remind us of movement and music.

Perhaps we could even imagine the colours dancing across the canvas! 💃🎶

🏠 Three Things to Try at Home

Why not continue our colour exploration at home?

1. 🌈 Become a Colour Mixer

Use a little red, yellow and blue paint and see how many new colours you can create. Can you make orange, green and purple? What happens if you add a little more of one colour?

2. 🎨 Create Your Own Mondrian

Use paper, crayons or paint to make your own artwork inspired by Mondrian. Try using lines, squares, rectangles and bright colours. Can you make your picture look as though the colours are dancing?

3. 🔎 Go on a Colour Hunt

Choose one colour and see how many things you can find around your home that match it. Can you find five red things? What about five different shades of blue?

 Year 1: Our First Full Week Back!

What a fantastic first full week back at school we have had in Year 1! The children have settled into their routines brilliantly and have been busy learning, exploring and reminding ourselves how to be Ready, Respectful and Safe in different areas of our school.

🔬 Science – Exploring Our Bodies

In Science, we have been learning about our bodies and body parts. We worked together with a friend to draw around their body and then carefully labelled different parts, including our heads, arms, legs, hands and feet. The children enjoyed working collaboratively and thinking carefully about where each body part belongs.

🗺️ Geography – Exploring Maps

Our Geography learning has taken us on a journey through lots of different types of maps! We explored zoo maps, train maps and world atlas maps and talked about how maps can be used for different purposes.

We noticed that a zoo map can help us find our favourite animals, while a train map can help us work out where a train can take us. We also enjoyed looking at world maps and atlases to find different countries and places around the world.

🔤 Phonics – Recapping Our Phase 3 Sounds

In Phonics, we have been recapping the Phase 3 sounds we learnt in Reception. We have been practising recognising the sounds, reading them in words and reminding ourselves of the correct pronunciation. It has been wonderful to see the children building their confidence and remembering their Reception learning!

🔢 Maths – Positional Language

In Maths, we have been learning about positional language and turns. We had lots of fun completing an activity where we had to make a full turn and a half turn.

We then moved on to learning about our left and right. The children have been practising following instructions carefully and thinking about which direction they need to move in. We are becoming experts at giving and following directions!

💛 Ready, Respectful and Safe

We have also been thinking carefully about what it means to be Ready, Respectful and Safe in different areas of our school.

We discussed how the rules can be different depending on where we are. For example, running in the playground can be great fun and is appropriate when we have space to do so, but running inside the classroom is dangerous. We thought about why different rules are needed in different places and how following them helps to keep everyone safe.

It has been a brilliant first full week back, and we are so proud of how well the children have settled into Year 1. We are looking forward to another exciting week of learning!

🏠 3 Things to Try at Home

Here are three simple activities

• Draw and label the parts of your face.
• Explore a local map and follow a trail.
• Think of as many words with the trigraph ‘igh’  in and make a list.

Oh what a year it’s been in our bright Year One,
A chapter of memories, laughter and fun.
From first nervous hellos on that September morn,
To waving goodbye now — how much you have grown!

We’ve tiptoed through time to the Victorian day,
At Reveley Lodge we learned work and play.
In pinafores, caps, we wrote on our slate,
Pretending to curtsy or line up straight.
We saw how they lived in old Bushey town,
With tea cups, saucers and the school inspector’s frown!

In Design Technology, with our small proud hands,
We threaded our needles and followed our plans.
Stitch by small stitch, our puppets took their shapes,
Animals from wild bears, orange foxes and even some apes!
We cheered at our triumphs, so proud of our art,
Brave with our scissors, so clever and smart.

On Purple Mash screens, we’d excitedly steer,
Sending bees to find flowers, or astronauts near.
We mapped out the mazes with giggles and squeals,
Learning directions with spins and with wheels.
Our minds full of missions, exploring new lands,
Coding adventures with curious hands.

In geography, we’ve wandered the UK’s green shore,
Named England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland galore.
Learned of London’s bright lights, Cardiff’s watery bays,
Edinburgh’s castles and Belfast’s fair ways.
And seas all around us, so deep and so blue,
On aerial maps we saw the colours of Britain- grey, green and blue.

Through history we met Queen Victoria- grand!
And wondered at dresses and life in her land.

We pictured grand banquets, long train rides so slow,
And thought of how Bushey was ages ago…

Down cobbled streets in Victorian days,
Children skipped by in bonnets and braids.
They’d call at the shop where the keeper would smile,
And weigh out goods on scales with style.

Meat hung in windows by the baker’s wide door,
While bright bolts of fabric lined the haberdashery floor.
At the greengrocer’s stall, fresh apples to choose,
Bouquets from the florist with delicate hues.

Off to the fishmonger, baskets in hand,
Gathering all needed across this fine land.
Life bustled brightly in streets long ago,
In the heart of  Bushey village, candles aglow.

On the carpet in Mastering Number, our brains did ignite,
We counted and reasoned from morning till night.
With counters and games, our maths grew so strong,
We’re maths masters now, we can’t go wrong!

🌷 A Special Thank You 🌷

To all of our parents and carers, you’ve stood by our side,
Cheering us on with such love and such pride.
Your support in this journey has meant so much more,
Than we could ever express from our classroom floor.

And to the FOMH, our wonderful crew,
Who sprinkle such magic in all that you do.
From planning fun fairs, raising money for new screens, 
To the rainbow slide best thing ever seen!
We zipped down the slide, sponsored smiles all around,
Thanks to your kindness, joy truly abounds.

Together we’ve built a year shining and bright,
With teamwork and friendship our daily delight.
So here’s to you children, so curious and sweet,
To your giggles and questions and skipping feet.

As we close this chapter and look to new skies,
Know how you’ve all sparkled in our caring eyes.
We’ll treasure these moments, keep them so near,
Thank you all for a truly spectacular year.

💖 With all our best wishes from the Year One team 💖

How to help at home over the holidays:

• ✏️ Read little and often: Share stories daily, explore picture books, comics or information books. Let your child read to you too!

• 🔤 Practise phonics & tricky words: Play simple games like spotting sounds on signs, or writing words in chalk outside.

• ✍️ Keep writing fun: Try postcards, diaries, shopping lists, or even writing a recipe together.

• ➕ Play with numbers: Count out snacks, spot house numbers, do simple addition or subtraction in everyday life.

• 🎲 Board games & card games: Great for turn-taking, counting, strategy and number bonds

• 🌞 Talk about Year Two positively: Chat about the new adventures and things to look forward to

  

  

  

  

  
  

  

  

  

  

  
  

  

  

  

  

  
  

  

  

  

  

  
  

  

  

  

  

  
  

  

  

  

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Year 1 have been continuing their exciting Food Technology topic by creating their very own delicious fruit kebabs!

Before designing our kebabs, we became fruit tasters. We sampled a variety of different fruits and thought carefully about which ones we enjoyed the most. We used a smiley face rating scale to show how much we liked each fruit before choosing our three favourites.

Next, we used what we had discovered to design our own fruit kebabs. We thought carefully about how to make our kebabs look attractive as well as tasty. Some children decided to arrange their fruit in colourful repeating patterns, while others chose a different order to create an eye-catching design. We also wrote a list of the ingredients and equipment we would need to make our fruit kebabs.

Finally, it was time to become chefs! We carefully peeled and sliced our chosen fruits using the correct equipment safely before threading the fruit pieces onto skewers. Everyone worked with great care and concentration, showing excellent cutting and food preparation skills.

The finished fruit kebabs looked fantastic, with lots of bright colours and creative patterns. Of course, the best part of all was tasting our finished creations—and they were absolutely delicious!

We are so proud of the fantastic teamwork, careful food preparation and creative designs that Year 1 demonstrated throughout this project.

How to help at home

Why not have a go at making your own fruit kebabs together at home? Encourage your child to:

• Taste a range of different fruits and talk about their favourites.
• Create repeating colour or fruit patterns on their kebab.
• Help wash, peel and prepare fruit safely with adult supervision.
• Discuss why eating a variety of fruit is important for staying healthy.

Making healthy snacks together is a brilliant way to build confidence in the kitchen while practising important design and food preparation skills.

Year 1 had a fantastic day exploring Hertfordshire Zoo, packed with exciting learning opportunities and unforgettable experiences!

Our day began with an engaging Fur, Feathers and Scales workshop. The children impressed the workshop leaders by recalling their knowledge of the five main animal groups: mammals, fish, amphibians, birds and reptiles. They enjoyed discussing the characteristics of each group and thinking about where different animals belong.

One of the highlights of the workshop was getting up close to real animal artefacts. The children were fascinated to compare the feathers of a hornbill and an owl, noticing how different they felt. They were also amazed to see a real porcupine quill from one of the zoo’s porcupines and had the opportunity to see the shed skin of one of the zoo’s snakes. Everyone was surprised by how dry it was—it even rustled like paper!

Next, we explored the exciting dinosaur trail. The children loved discovering the different dinosaurs and were especially keen to learn just how much each one weighed! As they walked around, they recapped their understanding of herbivores, carnivores and omnivores, using their knowledge to work out what each dinosaur would have eaten.

After a busy morning, it was time to enjoy a well-earned lunch. Everyone tucked into their packed lunches before having a chance to relax and recharge for the afternoon.

Following lunch, we set off to visit the zoo animals. We were lucky enough to watch the tigers enjoying their lunch, which was a real highlight of the day. We also spotted some wonderful animals, including a red panda, wallabies, penguins, lions, jaguars and alpacas. The children were full of curiosity, asking thoughtful questions and making links to what they had learned during the workshop.

Before it was time to head back to school, the children enjoyed some well-deserved fun in the playground. There were lots of smiles, laughter and happy memories as everyone made the most of the final part of our visit.

It was a fantastic day filled with hands-on learning, exploration and excitement. The children represented the school brilliantly with their excellent behaviour, enthusiasm and curiosity throughout the trip. Well done, Year 1!

How to Help at Home

You can continue your child’s learning by:

• Talking about the different animal groups (mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles) and asking your child to sort animals into the correct group.
• Visiting your local library to borrow books about animals or dinosaurs.
• Discussing whether different animals are herbivores, carnivores or omnivores and what they eat.
• Looking out for birds and other wildlife on family walks and talking about the features that help them survive.
• Encouraging your child to share their favourite part of the trip and explain something new they learned at the zoo.

This half term, Year 1 have been busy developing their historical knowledge by learning about the history of our local area, with a particular focus on Bushey High Street. The children have thoroughly enjoyed discovering how shopping and daily life have changed over time.

As part of our learning, we explored what Bushey High Street might have looked like in the past and compared it to the high street we know today. We learnt that shops used to be much smaller and often specialised in selling just one or two types of product. The children discovered a range of traditional shops, including fishmongers, bakers, cobblers and haberdasheries, and enjoyed finding out about the important roles these shops played within the community.

We also discussed how shopping habits have changed over the years. In the past, people tended to shop little and often rather than completing one large weekly shop. This was partly because cars had not yet become common, meaning that many people travelled on foot or by horse and cart. As a result, they could only carry a small amount of shopping at a time.

The children were fascinated to learn about inventions that helped change the way people shopped. We explored how the development of refrigerators and freezers allowed families to keep food fresh for longer. This meant people no longer needed to visit shops every day and could begin to buy larger quantities of food less frequently. At the same time, shops started to stock a wider range of products, making shopping even more convenient.

Throughout the topic, the children have developed their historical enquiry skills by using a variety of sources to learn about the past. They have examined old photographs of Bushey High Street, watched videos, discussed similarities and differences between past and present, and asked thoughtful questions about how life has changed over time.

We have been incredibly impressed by the children’s curiosity, enthusiasm and ability to think like historians. They have enjoyed comparing the past with the present and understanding how inventions, transport and local businesses have shaped the way we live today.

How to Help at Home

You can support your child’s learning by:

• Taking a walk along Bushey High Street and discussing the different types of shops you can see.
• Looking at old family photographs and talking about how shopping and daily life may have changed since they were taken.
• Asking older family members about the shops they remember visiting when they were children.
• Discussing how your family shops today and comparing this with how people shopped in the past.
• Encouraging your child to spot examples of specialist shops, such as bakeries, and compare them with larger supermarkets.
• Looking for old photographs of Bushey online or in local history books and discussing what has changed and what has stayed the same.

This week in maths we have been learning about money.

We begun the topic by identifying the different coins that we use in England and learning about the value of each coin.

Then we worked hard to find different ways to make amounts up to 10p. We had to remember to only use the available coins.

Once we were confident with making amounts up to 10p we extended our learning to make amounts up to 20p.

We have also been learning to count up in steps of 2, 5 and 10. We will link this to our knowledge of money by using what we have learnt to count 2p, 5p and 10p coins.

How to help at home

• Have a look at some real coins -can you order the coins from the smallest value to the largest?  How much do you have altogether? What could you buy at the shop with your coins?
• Go to the shop and buy something using coins e.g. a loaf of bread.
• Make equivalent amounts e.g. show £1 as 100p

This half term, Year 1 have been continuing our unit based on ‘Little Red and the Very Hungry Lion’ – but now we are authors of our own stories!

We began by re-reading the text together and reminding ourselves of the important features that we have been learning about, such as the conjunction ‘and’, the word ending ‘-est’ and using an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence.

We then started to think about titles  for our own stories. Miss Honnor and Mrs Gavriel helped us by planning a story called ‘Little Red and the Very Hungry Kangaroo’! We came up with some great titles for our stories:  Little Red and the Very Hungry Caterpillar; Little Red and the Very Hungry Cow; Little Hungry and the Very Hungry Cat…

Our teachers showed us how to draw a story map and we then had a go with our own ideas.

Then it was time to start writing! Each lesson, we have been focusing on writing one or two pages of our story. Before we write a sentence, we have learned that it is really important to say it 2 or 3 times so that we are really clear about what the sentence will say. Once we have written the sentence, we need to read it to make sure we have remembered a capital letter, finger spaces, correct spelling of the year one words and a full stop – or even an exclamation mark!

How to help at home:

• Encourage your child to read a range of stories and talk about the characters and settings
• Ask your child to write their own version of one of their favourite stories
• Encourage your child to practise reading and spelling the year 1 harder to read and spell words

We’ve had an exciting and hands-on start to the week in Year 1 as we’ve launched our brand-new Design and Technology (DT) unit – fruit kebabs! The children in Moorhen Class and Kingfisher Class have been busy learning the skills they’ll need to safely prepare food and will be working towards making their very own delicious and healthy fruit kebabs for their final product.

🍓 Safe Cutting Skills 🍌
This week, we began learning how to cut safely using real kitchen tools. We introduced our ‘Word of the Day’ – slice – and explored what it means and how to do it safely. The children were full of brilliant ideas and showed great enthusiasm and maturity when learning about knife safety.

Here are the three golden rules they came up with:

1. Bridge Hold – Use a bridge hold with the knife blade pointing down (never up!) to cut between your fingers safely.

2. Claw Grip – Tuck your fingers under in a claw shape to keep them safe while slicing.

3. Tidy Workspace – Always keep your chopping area clear and clean so there’s nothing to trip over or get distracted by when holding a knife.

It’s been wonderful to see the children so engaged in practising these skills with care and confidence!

We can’t wait to see the children’s final fruit kebab creations and celebrate all the practical and tasty learning along the way!

How to help at home

• Use real kitchen vocabulary like “slice,” “chop,” “careful,” and “sharp” to build understanding and confidence.
• Let your child help prepare a snack using a child-safe knife (supervised) – try cutting bananas, strawberries, or cucumber.
• Talk through knife safety as they cut – encourage the bridge hold and claw grip techniques they’ve learned.
• Create a fruit face or pattern together using different sliced fruits – this helps with both creativity and fine motor skills.
• Write a simple recipe list for a snack they have made (or helped to make)
• Practise slicing fruits or vegetables into halves and quarters. “If we cut 1 apple in half, how many pieces do we have?”

This half term, Year 1 have thoroughly enjoyed reading the wonderful story Little Red and the Very Hungry Lion. The children quickly noticed that the story had many similarities to the traditional tale of Little Red Riding Hood, while also spotting some exciting differences. We had lots of thoughtful discussions comparing the characters, settings and events in both stories.

The children explored the characters carefully and worked hard to think of interesting adjectives to describe them. They used fantastic vocabulary to explain their ideas and shared their thoughts confidently with their partners and the class.

The children have learnt how the -ed suffix is often used to show that something has already happened in the past. They practised using verbs ending in -ed in their speaking and writing. We also explored the -est suffix to describe when someone or something is “the most” of something, such as meanest, kindest or silliest. The children loved thinking of their own examples!

Working collaboratively, the children created story mountains in pairs to help them retell the story. They thought carefully about the beginning, build-up, problem, resolution and ending of the tale. This helped them to organise their ideas and prepare for their own writing.

At the end of the week, the children became proud authors and worked incredibly hard to write their very own Little Red and the Very Hungry Lion books. We have been so impressed with their creativity, presentation and determination. On Friday, the children are very excited to share and read their stories to the children in Reception.

After half term, the children will continue developing their storytelling skills by changing parts of the story to create their own unique versions. We cannot wait to see the imaginative ideas they come up with!

How to Help at Home

• Read traditional tales together and talk about similarities and differences between stories.
• Encourage your child to describe characters using interesting adjectives.
• Practise adding the -ed suffix to verbs to talk about things that have already happened.
• Explore words ending in -est, such as fastest, smallest and funniest.
• Ask your child to retell the story using the story mountain structure: beginning, middle, problem and ending.
• Encourage your child to write short stories or draw pictures to match their ideas.

Thank you for your continued support. We are so proud of all the hard work Year 1 have shown this half term!