We are very much looking forward to your child joining Year 1. This booklet is intended to provide parents with information about the year ahead. If you have any further questions once term starts, please contact your child’s class teacher in the first instance.
Year 1 Class Teachers
Year 1 Teaching Assistants
Miss Debbie Clements
Please refer to the Uniform Policy, linked here, for detailed information, including images on your child’s uniform and equipment. Below is a condensed list of what your child will require, in addition to the main uniform. Items marked with an asterisk must be bought from our uniform supplier’s online shop: www.schoolblazer.com
Sports Kit
*White PE top, crested
*Mid layer (quarter zip), crested
*PE shorts or training pant, crested
Trainers in any colour
Kit bag (no drawstring bags)
Black swimming costume or trunks
Goggles, towel, *branded swimming cap
*Soft shell active jacket, crested (optional)
*Green sweatshirt, crested
*White polo top, long or short sleeve, crested
Waterproof coat and trousers
*Green jogging bottoms, crested (Optional)
*Green shorts, crested (Optional)
Daily Items
Water bottle and breaktime snack
All items, including shoes, must be clearly labelled with your child’s full name.
The School will provide a newly branded Clifton High School backpack to all new starting pupils in September to carry their belongings into and out of School.
Parents will be given a timetable at the beginning of term that will confirm which days your child will be having Swimming, PE and Tennis lessons. On the days where your child has PE or Adventure, they can wear their PE kit into and out of School. There will be no swimming or sport on the first day of term.
On days when your child has a Tennis or Swimming lesson, they should come to School dressed in their uniform.
Children will be assigned a peg in the cloakroom where they can keep their belongings. We encourage families to go swimming for fun during the summer holidays to help them feel confident in the water. Useful tip: to prevent the swimming hat sticking together, put a little talcum powder inside it.
Year 1 attend weekly Adventure sessions. Children should wear their Adventure or PE kit into School on these days, ensuring they have long trousers. They should also bring in waterproof trousers and coat, wellies, hat and gloves for cold conditions, and sun cream and hats for when it is warm. They will carry out a range of outdoor activities such as Forest School, Beach School, farm visits, adventure and nature trips.
Further details about the activities taking place can be found on the Adventure pages in the Infant School section of the website.
In Year 1, we aim to hear each child read at least three times a week, sometimes the class teacher will listen to your child read, and at other times a teaching assistant will read with your child. The teachers will adopt a flexible approach to the frequency of reading activities, depending on the needs of the individual. Children are encouraged to read throughout the day across all subjects, providing ample opportunities for informal teacher assessment.
We select a child’s reading level carefully, based on a range of criteria. Your child will choose a book, under their teacher’s supervision, to take home each evening. Each class will visit the library once per week, and on this day your child will bring home their own choice of library book which they may keep for up to a week.
Over the year, books will become much longer and the text more challenging. If the class teacher feels it is appropriate, your child may be given reading books during the holidays. However, holiday time is an opportunity for your child to read other material too and the local libraries have a good range for children of this age.
Spellings will be sent home once a week and there will also be a weekly spelling quiz. These will usually consist of a mixture of words containing phonetic patterns, ‘tricky words’, as well as topic-related words. The ‘tricky words’ are generally irregular words, which it may not be possible to sound out, but which will enable your child to write fluently once learned.
The ‘Look, Cover, Write, Check’ system works well for many:
• LOOK at the word.
• COVER it up.
• WRITE it from memory in the ‘first try’ box.
• CHECK to see if you got it right!
However, do use any other methods that help your child, such as mnemonics (usually weekly), but we may need to revisit words or sounds that the children have not yet begun to use consistently in their own writing.
Children will have a range of academic lessons each week that include Mathematics, English and Phonics, Reading, RS, Science, STEM. PSHE and Theme. They also participate in lessons beyond the classroom that help them achieve and develop confidence through creative, holistic and sporting experiences. These feature games lessons that incorporate swimming, tennis, yoga and dance; all taught by the School’s specialist coaches and teachers.
A variety of visits and visitors will be arranged throughout the year to support the Year 1 curriculum.
In Year 1 you will receive the following communications:
• Monday 20th and Tuesday 21stOctober 2025 Infant and Junior Parents Evening
• December 2025 School Report published on the Parent Portal
• Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th March 2026 Infant and Junior Parents Evening
• July 2026 School Report published on the Parent Portal
Throughout the year, parents also have the opportunity to attend parent assemblies as well as ‘book looks’. Further details of these events will follow in due course.
The ‘Year Ahead’ evening will take place on Wednesday 3rd September 2025 and is an opportunity for parents to meet your child’s class teacher, who will deliver a presentation of what to expect during their time in Year 1.
There are a number of means by which communications may be shared between the School and parents. Whilst we aim to streamline this process, a comprehensive guide to communications at Clifton High School can be found here. In summary, below are a few of the ways in which the School will update Year 1 parents:
• Formal letters, invitations and class/year group wide information will be sent via email to parents.
• A weekly Parent Bulletin will be sent every Friday at 5.00pm to the whole School, containing the latest useful information about the forthcoming week.
• The School calendar, term dates, policies and much more is available on our website.
• Information on your individual child’s timetable and activities can be found directly on the INSIGHT parent portal, or through the link on our website. Please note, parents cannot access INSIGHT until after their child’s official start date.
• If the School requires parental permission, for instance, for an upcoming trip, electronic consent forms will be sent to parents.
If parents need to contact their child’s class teacher, they can email them directly (contact details are on page 1) or a member of the School Office will be able to assist in more general enquiries: 0117 973 0201, schooloffice@cliftonhigh.co.uk.
Details of pupil absences or other queries should be emailed to: absence@cliftonhigh.co.uk or notified by phone to 0117 973 0201.
If your child is starting at Clifton High School in September 2025, please continue to direct any enquiries to the Admissions Department until they officially join the School.
We encourage all communications to be sent directly to the School. However, parent-led WhatsApp group chats are often created for each year group. If you would like to join these groups, please email our Admissions Team: admissions@cliftonhigh.co.uk or call 0117 933 9087. Each class will also have a parent representative who has regular contact with the School.
The Medical Team are based in the Health and Wellbeing Hub (in the basement of Woods House) each day from 8.30am-5.00pm.
All medicines, together with an accompanying letter giving permission for a School nurse to administer the medicine to your child, should be brought into School and given to your child’ s Class Teacher. They, in turn, will, pass them to the School Nurse in the Health and Wellbeing Hub for safekeeping. They should be clearly labelled with your child’s name and instructions for administering.
The School Nurses can be contacted directly via email: medical@cliftonhigh.co.uk
The School day begins officially at 8.45am but children are encouraged to arrive in their classroom from 8.30am when staff will be there to greet them. Please bring your child to the Infant School Playground where they will be met by a member of the Infant School staff, who will walk them into the School building.
Children who arrive before 8.30am and wish to attend our Early Birds provision, should be escorted by a parent to the Rose Theatre entry via The Hive Pre-School gate on Clifton Park where they will be registered by a member of staff. They will be supervised from 8.00am, but prior to that time there is no supervision available and children should not be on the School site. Please email your child’s class teacher each week to let them know if your child will be attending Late Room, The Hub or going home with someone else.
Late Room runs from 3.35-4.00pm. The children are registered, escorted to Late Room by a teacher and are supervised throughout, having the opportunity to play with peers. Parents must inform the class teacher by email if they wish their child to attend Late Room as a register is kept. Please ensure that your child is collected promptly at 4.00pm from the Infant Playground. Children must either be collected at 3.30pm or 4.00pm and cannot be collected mid-way through the session.
The Hub runs from 3.35-6.00pm Monday to Friday by Clifton High School staff and operates in the Woods House building. Please find linked here a copy of The Hub leaflet for full details. Children attending The Hub are collected from The Hive Pre-School entrance on Clifton Park.
Available as a half or full session, a variety of indoor and outdoor activities are offered, tailored to meet the children’s needs, and each child is provided with a healthy snack. Places are available to book via SOCS, our online portal, in line with the required adult : child ratio.
At break time children can bring in their own healthy snack, which we ask does not contain nuts. Children are expected to bring in water in a suitable and named plastic bottle, to have available in the classroom and during breaktime.
Our catering staff make every effort to provide a healthy and varied menu. Menus are displayed in the entrance to the Dining Room and the current week’s menu is sent home via the weekly Parent Bulletin. Should your child have any special dietary requirements please advise us and an appointment can be arranged with our Executive Chef.
Some children enjoy attending clubs after School. At the start of each term parents will receive a communication offering your child the opportunity to join a variety of co-curricular clubs. These
Please note these dates may be subject to change at this stage and dates will be added. For a comprehensive and up-to-date calendar, please visit our website.
Wednesday 3rd September
Friday 5th September
Tuesday 7th October
Friday 17th October
Monday 20th October
Tuesday 21st October
Saturday 29th November
Friday 5th December
Monday 8th December
Tuesday 24th February
Wednesday 4th March
Thursday 5th March
Friday 6th March
Thursday 5th March
Friday 13th March
Monday 16th March
Tuesday 17th March
Thursday 19th March
Friday 24th April
Saturday 20th June
Thursday 25th June
July
Reception Year 6 Year Ahead Evening
Term starts, individual School photographs
Grandparents’ Tea Party
Parents’ Quiz and Curry Night
Infant & Junior School Parents’ Evening
Infant & Junior School Parents’ Evening
Christmas Fair
Infant Nativity
Carol Service
Year 1 Parent Assembly
Senior School Production
Senior School Production
Senior School Production
World Book Day
Foundation Day
Infant and Junior Parents’ Evening
Infant and Junior Parents’ Evening
Infant & Junior Discos
Year 1 Parent Assembly
Rose Day
Infant Rosette Day
Infant and Junior Sports Day
July Move On Up Day
