Withyham - St Michael's Primary School

Elm Class is our Key Stage One class, which is home to children in year 1 and 2.  The class is taught by Mrs Duncanson on Mondays and Tuesdays and then Wednesday and Thursday mornings, Mrs Morris Wednesday afternoons, Mrs Rowland-Smith Thursday afternoons and Mrs Price is in class on Fridays. As of January 2026 Mrs Duncanson will be in class Mondays and Tuesdays and Miss Staples will be teaching Wednesday, Thursday and Fridays. There is also a range of amazing support staff including Lesley, Amy, Sam and Anna. The class is a safe, warm, welcoming learning environment for all children to develop their acedemic, social and emotional skills.  Teaching mixes the demands of the National Curriculum with meaningful learning through practical activities. All adults work hard to create engaging learning opportunities that are both practical and create recorded learning. 

In terms 1 and 2, continuous provision in the afternoons supported our Year 1 children with their transition from the Early Years curriculum, from Reception to Year 1. This enabled the children to learn through a range of curriculum based activities promoting pupil choice and agency. Then, as the terms progress, Year 1 and Year 2 join together as a whole class for their wider curriculum learning. There are still plenty of opportunities for children to direct their own learning as well as more formal adult led teaching.

The class use a range of  high quality texts which are linked to the wider curriculum. These texts are used to shape the writing and expose the children to a wide variety of rich language. Recent texts have included 'Dinosaurs and All the Rubbish' by Michael Foremand linked to a geography focus on the British Isles and 'Pumpkin Soup' by  Helen Cooper which went alongside topic work on the Gunpowder Plot.

Where possible art and Design & Technology are also linked to the history and geography ensuring the children are being fully immersed into  learning. Recent examples have included creating puppets of Guy Fawkes to support the learning on the Gunpowder Plot. We also provide curriculum workshop enrichment opportunities which have included history, art, PE, geography as well as providing a wide variety of sport enrichment: stall ball, golf, cricket, some examples are below. 

Throughout the year, but with a specific focus in term 1, the Year 1 children learn Place Value within 10. This includes using Reckenreks and 10s frames to support the learning of number bonds to support visual recall of the bonds. In Year 2, children learn number bonds within 20 and partitioning numbers within 100. The children are taught to use different models and resources to support their mathematical development this includes part whole modes, tens frames, Reckenreks, cubes and more. We use the White Rose Maths Scheme which teaches children to move through stages of maths concepts and skills:  Fluency-Practical application 'make it' using maths manipulatives; 'draw it' drawing manipulatives to show their understanding; 'Explain it'- mathematical reasoning and explaining their understanding; mastery challenge where they are demonstrating a greater understanding of the mathematical concept. For the year 1 and 2, maths coverage see below.  

What are KIRFs?

As part of the daily maths, lesson children practise Key Instant Recall Facts (KIRFs):  To develop your child’s fluency and mental maths skills, we teach KIRFs (Key Instant Recall Facts) throughout school. KIRFS are a way of helping your child to learn by heart, key facts and information which they need to have instant recall of to support their mathematical devlopment. 

KIRFs are designed to support the development of mental maths skills that underpin much of the maths work in our school. They are particularly useful when calculating, adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing. They contain number facts such as number bonds and times tables that need constant practise and rehearsal, so children can recall them quickly and accurately.