We would like to welcome our new Primary 1 pupils to St Teresa’s Primary School, and hope they have a very successful and rewarding year. In Primary 1, we aim to plan challenging, interactive and enjoyable activities for all our children whilst developing the skills required to be confident and independent learners. We lay the foundations for learning by encouraging children to use their own curiosity, work creatively, developing their relationships with children and adults and always ‘Having a Go!’ We would like to thank parents for their ongoing support even in these early days of P1. Parent partnership is a vital aspect of your child's education and is greatly valued.

A Typical School Day in P1

9.10am School Starts – Prayers & Registration

9.30am Learning through Play (Indoor or Outdoor)

10.30am Snack (Children bring in a healthy snack)

10.45am Break

11.00am Literacy

11.50 Lunch Time

12.30pm Circle Time/PDMU/WAU/Grow in Love

1.15pm Numeracy

2.00pm Home-time  

Useful Information

• Wednesday – Musical Pathways with Gerarda
• Friday - PE Coaching with Ryan
• Outdoor Play - Please provide your child with wellingtons as the outdoor play area can be muddy. 
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Homework:

In P1 we have homework due for completion between Monday - Thursday

• 1 LiteracyActivity per week (recommended to be completed on Monday
• 1 NumeracyActivity per week (recommended to be completed on Tuesday
• Practise Reading, Sounds and Words every night 
• Return all homework on 
• All homework is intended to reinforce class based learning. There will be many opportunities to talk to your child about his or her learning.

 Literacy
We take part in fun activities which improve our understanding of rhyme, syllables and alliteration, helping us get us get ready to learn sounds. We develop a love for books through daily story time and big book activities. We enjoy discussing the illustrations in picture books and develop our concepts of print. We learn to read and write through the “Sounds~Write” reading programme. We introduce the children to the sounds and as we develop our sound knowledge, we begin to blend the sounds together to help the children “read” words. Through modelled and shared writing we experiment with different genres of writing. We write creative poems about the seasons, recipes for soup and porridge and reports about animals and people who help us.

Numeracy
We learn Maths skills through play and practical activities. The areas covered are Number, Measures, Data Handling and Shape and Space. Throughout our Maths activities we are encouraged to think and talk about what we are doing and get lots of opportunities to explain our work to others. We love to use lots of Maths resources to help us learn. We work hard to learn numbers from one to ten, counting forward and back, making sets for each number and how to write each number correctly. Later in the year we explore Number Stories and addition. We enjoy learning about 2D and 3D shapes by going on ‘shape hunts’ around our school and using play dough to make squares, circles, triangles and rectangles. Our junk art helps us learn about 3D shapes, we use lots of shapes to make amazing creations! Doing maths in our heads is great fun, we call this Mental Maths. Before every Maths lesson we ‘warm up’ by playing a fun, interactive game to help us develop our mental maths strategies. We really are whizzes at Maths!

World Around Us

We love to learn about the world we live in! For each topic our wonderful role play corner changes. We are budding scientists, as we love to carry out investigations and make sure it is always a fair test. We predict and discover if things float or sink, experiment with different materials to keep our teddy bears dry and make a rain cloud in a jar.

In P1 we have lots of fun learning through play and through many other different learning experiences. Each term we focus on different topics. Topics include-

• All about ME!- What is Special about ME?
• In the Woods and Autumn- What can be found in the Woods during Autumn?
• Post Office and Christmas- What happens at the Post Office during Christmas?
• Weather and Winter– What is the weather like in Winter?
• Spring and New Life– What changes do we see during Spring?
• People who help us- How do people around us help us in different ways? 
• Under the Sea- What lives Under the Sea?

Through these topics we address all the areas of learning as identified in the Foundation Stage Curriculum for Northern Ireland in a cross curricular approach. We complete lots of STEM experiments and investigations through these topics to test things out and discover new facts for ourselves. We can't wait to share our knowledge. 

Religion
In P1 we use the Grow In Love programme to further develop our awareness of God and we celebrate all the major church celebrations throughout the year including Christmas and Easter. We also learn to bless ourselves and recite our prayers including the morning & night prayer as well as our prayers before and after meals.

Personal Development and Mutual Understanding
This is a very important part of the curriculum in the Foundation Stage, as we are learning all about ourselves, and how to relate to and work with other people. During circle time, we explore many issues such as sharing, taking turns and looking after others. We follow the PDMU programme P1 “Living, Learning Together" and teach lessons weekly from the "PATHS" Programme. We love meeting Twiggle and his friends, selecting the Child of the Day and sharing our compliments with each other. 

The Arts 
In P1 we are exposed to lots of wonderful opportunities to express our individuality, imagination and creativity. During play we develop our creative development through art activities, in our role-play corner and small world area. We love to participate in our music sessions with Gerarda, where we explore stimulating activities, including rhymes, songs and games.   

I.C.T
We have so many opportunities to develop our I.C.T skills throughout the school day and across all subject areas! We have an Interactive Whiteboard in our classroom and we enjoy expressing our ideas by creating pictures and completing online activities. We love creating simple programs using the cute little honeybee robot called “Bee-Bot”. During Internet Safety Week we learn how about the benefits of the internet and how we can keep ourselves safe when online.

We are always very busy in P1, we have lots of fun and we learn lots of new things everyday!  You will find some of our fantastic work displayed in our classroom for everyone to see.