Timetable/time Management For Yr1 With A Fs Ethos

[KST]

Hi all,

 

I am in my second year of teaching and love being a reception teacher. When I joined the school the foundation stage was very structured and I have worked hard to totally change this and firmly believe in child initiated play. I have for some time been questioning my schools approach in year 1 which is still very structured, and have been increasingly worried about my current class who are used to total free flow moving up to year1. I have finally convinced my school that they need to change! Woo! But as you can appreciate they are very nervous about change. I feel a huge responsibility to support and help them and really want to! Whilst feeling very confident with my practice in reception, i'm not sure exactly how to organise the day in year 1. Has anyone got a timetable I can have a peak at who has a FS ethos in year 1?

 

The way I organise my day is to have a literacy or a numeracy morning, where all children access the adult led task in a guided group during the morning whilst accessing child initated learning alongside. Would this be acceptible for year 1? Or do they need to be doing literacy and numeracy everyday? From searches on here i see that many people do challenges for children to do during the child intitated play which seems like a great idea and good step up from reception. But in reception children are exempt from playtimes and assembly's which I know year 1 won't be able to be. So I can only forsee that both adults will have to deliver the adult led tasks to get through all the children and this won't leave an adult free to make observations and model child intiated play etc, which is so important. Any advise would be greatly appreciated!

 

KST x

[Guest]

Hi there, I have been struggling with this all year! I started teaching a Rec/Y1 class in September, having only ever taught Reception before. My Head is really supportive and has been happy for me to extend the FS ethos into Y1. We have also has support from our EY advisors. I have attached a copy of our weekly timetable. I used to structure my day for YR very much like you do, but the advisors suggested Y1 need Literacy and Numeracy every day. During the week each group has 2 Lit/Num activities, 1 with me and 1 with my TA, and the Y1s may have 1 independent task now we are in the summer term. The rest of the time they are engaged in CI activities. I have challenges in certain areas (e.g. last week in the construction area, make something to carry an egg safely) and at the end of the session children who have completed a challenge can put it in the reviewing tray and we all look at and discuss their work. This does mean that during the mornings there is little time for playing and observing, but I tend to do this in the afternoons and my TA leads CD/PSED/KUW/PD activities. I hope this helps, let me know if its not clear!

Kathryn

Class_1_timetable_new_1.doc

[Guest]

Hi KST

I am just about to qualify as a teacher this year so I am not speaking from experience here but I am currently writing my dissertation on the transition children make from the Foundation Stage to Year 1. I have found loads of really interesting books and articles about making it work in Year 1 and thought these might be helpful. I have only ever posted once before on the sight and don't have a clue if this will work but here is a link to a nice little research project called Effective Transactions

 

http://www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/curriculum/asse...d54a33343010cc2

 

You may also wish to look at the DFES Smooth Transitions publication as this also has loads of good ideas. I have also bought two books: Smooth Transitions Ensuring continuity from the Foundation stage and Making it work in Year 1. Both these books are written by sally Featherstone and give practical ways of how to link the EYFS with the National Curriculum providing play based opportunities for Year 1.

 

It may also be worth a look at the Rose Review and the New Primary Curriculum. If this does go into force next year I think it will really close the gap between the EYFS and NC. I really like Jim Roses proposal as he suggests keeping six areas of learning throughout KS1 and keeping planning cross curricular achieving Literacy aims through History and Geography etc.

 

Hope this is helpful and the link works!

 

Good luck x

[HappyMaz]

Hope this is helpful and the link works!

It certainly does!

 

Welcome to the Forum, Sprogit if I haven't welcomed you before!

 

Maz

[KST]

Thank you for the link sprogit! Very useful reading! Good luck with your dissertation and the rest of your training.

Thank you also Kathrynnmc for your timetable. Just wondered one thing - where it says CLLD focussed activities every day, does this mean that not all children are doing it each day if they just do 2 a week? Really helpful to hear what others are doing!

 

Would be interested to hear what others are doing too!

[Guest]

I taught year one for a large number of years and what I used to do was this:

 

'Literacy' was a short carpet time followed by my TA and I working with a group whilst the others did CI, then switching over. Similarly for Numeracy. Afternoons was topic time where I did a short activity then the rest of the day was given over to CI, with me hearing individual readers (shocking I know ) or working with small groups.

 

As the year went on it became more and more formal to prepare the children for the transition to year 2. Always had to resist pressure from the top to be more formal...

[Guest]

hello I am moving out of the foundation stage and moving into year 1 next year, i am really thinking now about how to manage the classroom and how much should be formal work and practical CI activities. Any suggestions from other teachers would be a great help as i am unsure how to go about setting up my daily routine and any planning proformas would be very handy

Thank you

[Guest]

KST i think we were seperated at birth lol!

my fs coordinator is the year 1 teacher. She picks a topic the hidlren are interested in e.g. this tme the class are obsessed with dinosaurs. and everything else come from this lit, sci, d n t, art numeracy all the subjects basically. I am not sure on her time table i think she does num and lit on a morning and afternons topic but i will ask for you. She also makes sure they have child initiated time throughout the day and she sets up her areas like others have said.

I think if they have got you helping them then it will go great. sometimes people just need to support and freedom to feel confident that they are doing it right so having you there to boune ideas will get them started x x x

[KST]

Thanks Jennywreny! Love that someone is so like-minded!! Yes would be interested to hear what your year 1 teacher does.

Good luck for next year Gina05. I went on a course this week called taking the learning journey into year 1. They suggested that it would be useful to begin year 1 exactly as Reception, using their timetable and planning format and as others have said on here, gradually become more formal throughout the year.

 

From what I've heard from others, and what would seem like a good follow on from Reception is to do a literacy and numeracy carpet session daily but children don't need to do focussed lit and num activities every day. 2 a week for each seems fair to me, with extra challenges as the year progresses. And the rest of the subjects being taught through topic and plenty CI time. But organising it is hard, I guess you just have to go and try and then you'll find out what works for you! xxx

[Guest]

thank you for your advice, i think i'll just have to go with foundation stage way and see what happens, plus the class i'm getting is mainly boys and think they would benefit from a more active approach. I hate the whole sitting and writing in books business its soo boring and lacks any creativity but i think u need to get a good balance of both because the children have got to learn those basic skills i suppose. I think i need to be more confident to do what i think is best for the particular children Ive got. Thanks again!! Im feeling more confident all ready!

[Guest]

When an advisor came in to see how we were doing with moving year 1 to a foundation stage ethos she was very happy with us doing either literacy or numeracy everyday. They don't need to do both.

 

We did have a phonics session everyday though and after lunch there was a ten minute mental maths session everyday too so they were getting a little of both, just not a huge adult input and guided work on both everyday. This really freed up the time for play based activities, challenges and CI time.