Croeso i Dosbarth Un - Welcome to Year One

Our P.E days are Monday and Tuesday.

Forest school will be fortnightly on a Wednesday afternoon.

6th March 2026

Croeso pawb! What a start to this half term, I am sure the children are tired out for how busy we have been.  

We were incredibly proud of our pupils during our celebrations for Eisteddfod this week. The children worked very hard to create beautiful pictures full of colour and creativity, showing fantastic imagination. We were also delighted to see handwriting that was incredibly neat, with pupils taking great care and pride in their work. Another highlight was the wonderful story retelling of The Red and White Dragon, where the children shared the famous Welsh legend with confidence and enthusiasm. Da iawn to everyone for their effort and creativity – it was lovely to see so many pupils embracing Welsh culture and celebrating their talents. 

In Maths, we have been exploring number, focusing on partitioning numbers to 20 and practising our number bonds to ten, helping the children build strong foundations in their understanding of numbers.  

In Literacy, we have been working hard on non-chronological report writing and discovering that this style of writing is very different from story writing. The children have been learning how to organise information, use headings and share facts clearly. Da iawn to everyone for their fantastic effort and enthusiasm in their learning! 

What a lovely and busy couple of weeks! Thank you for your continued support. As always, it is truly appreciated.

 

30th January 2026

I honestly think the weeks are just flying by! I cannot believe it is time again for the Newsletter. We have had such a lovely couple of weeks in Dosbarth Un that have really kept the children busy! 

In our Literacy, we have started to create our own Bog Baby and describing them and such a range have been drawn from small and cute to huge and quite scary! It has been amazing to see the children’s imagination to truly go wild and for their descriptive writing to be showcased. In addition to this, we have also created the setting for the story ready for us to write our own version! This is something the children and I are very excited about. 

In our Maths, we have been using all the fabulous data we collected from taking part in the Big Bird Watch and turning it into bar charts and graphs and then interpreting the data to see the most and least common. They have truly been fascinated by this study, and we have even been continuing the study verbally whilst on the Daily Mile.  

In RVE, we have started to look into the Islamic religion in preparation for our look into the period of Ramadan which is coming up very soon. The children really found it interesting to have a look at the different religions from around the world and talking about what others believe in. The level of respect and kindness shown in these conversations has been so heartwarming. 

Lego Spike has also commenced within the classroom and the children have made me so shocked and impressed by their understanding of it and how fab they are at coding! I am so proud of all of the groups who have explored and created with Spike so far and I hope we can develop this into making some fantastic products in the future. 

As always, thank you for your continued support and understanding, 

 

13th January 2026

Wow, it is safe to say this academic year is flying by! Though the weather has been grey, the learning and imagination of Dosbarth Un hasn't been. 

In our Literacy, I have massively challenged the children to create a story map for their own version of the Bog Baby story using the Bog Baby that they had created. The children all worked so hard on this story map, planning their opening and meeting the characters and creating their problems – and best believe the drama is there with dragons and wizards – and even coming up with clever and unique ways to solve this problem. They really threw themselves into this activity and now are having to utilise those skills to WRITE their story! This is a bit more challenging for them but they are really using all those skills we have been developing to make their sentences better! 

In Cymraeg, we have been looking into Dydd Crempog and learnt all of the most popular pancake toppings in Welsh! We then had to get our interviewing hats on to go around and ask all of the staff what their favourites were in Welsh. We then turned all of this fabulous data into a block chart – the winner.... lemwn a sigwr! 

Aside from our lovely bar chart creations, in Maths we have been looking at both capacity and weight and how to measure them both. The children have really embraced these concepts and have shown such determinations to get their estimates as accurate as possible. 

Of course, the Eisteddfod is around the corner, so some beautiful singing of our song ‘Sosban Fach’ has echoed through the halls of the school and the way the children have taken to this song has truly shocked me. They don't even need me to help anymore and often, it is sung around the classroom whilst they are completing their activities! 

Bendegedig pawb, and please remember our lovely Eisteddfod activities over the half-term!  

I hope the half term is restful for you all and we have the chance to see some sunshine, whatever that may be? 

 

30th January 2026

I honestly think the weeks are just flying by! I cannot believe it is time again for the Newsletter. We have had such a lovely couple of weeks in Dosbarth Un that have really kept the children busy! 

In our Literacy, we have started to create our own Bog Baby and describing them and such a range have been drawn from small and cute to huge and quite scary! It has been amazing to see the children’s imagination to truly go wild and for their descriptive writing to be showcased. In addition to this, we have also created the setting for the story ready for us to write our own version! This is something the children and I are very excited about. 

In our Maths, we have been using all the fabulous data we collected from taking part in the Big Bird Watch and turning it into bar charts and graphs and then interpretating the data to see the most and least common. They have truly been fascinated by this study, and we have even been continuing the study verbally whilst on the Daily Mile.  

In RVE, we have started to look into the Islamic religion in preparation for our look into the period of Ramadan which is coming up very soon. The children have really found it interesting to have a look at the different religions from around the world and talking about what others believe in. The level of respect and kindness shown in these conversations has been so heartwarming. 

Lego Spike has also commenced within the classroom and the children have made me so shocked and impressed by their understanding of it and how fab they are at coding! I am so proud of all of the groups who have explored and created with Spike so far and I hope we can develop this into making some fantastic products in the future. 

As always, thank you for your continued support and understanding, 

Miss Smith 

 

16th January 2026

Wow! What a busy few weeks it has been in Dosbarth Un. With the launch of Seesaw in our class, it has been truly lovely for us to share and show you all what we get up to in class.  

Literacy has seen to us starting a brand new book ‘The Bog Baby’ where the children have been looking into the character and using similes to describe the Bog Baby. We have also looked at describing the setting using the senses, which the children have truly loved! It has been lovely to see how much their writing has developed! 

In Maths, we have been looking into odd and even numbers and how to decipher if a number is odd or even. This has allowed for the children to work more hands on with the resources and the resilience that they have shown has been amazing. They have really got stuck in with this and listening to their reasoning as to why they believe they are correct has been truly eye opening to see just how much they have retained.  

We have also been fortunate enough to have Newport County’s ‘County in the Community’ taking Dosbarth Un on a Monday Afternoon for their outdoor PE lesson. They have worked super hard at these games and the collaboration that I have witnessed has been so wonderful to watch. 

In addition to this, we have started our new topic for the term ‘Roots, Shoots and Muddy Boots’. This has opened up some wonderful conversations all about habitats and different areas of the world. Coupled with us reading the Lorax before lunch, we have truly had some mature and interesting conversations surrounding the environment.  

Thank you for your continued support and I look forward to seeing where these topics will take us. 

 

19th December 2025

Nadolig Llawen a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I simply cannot believe how fast this term has flown by! We have had such an amazing term filled with lots of new skills and learning experiences and, of course, lots of fun. 

In the last fortnight, as well as our wonderful Nativity performance, we have been looking further into the story through ordering and retelling it. I can proudly say, I think we are now masters of this story as they know it so well! We have also written our letters to Santa which have been posted! It was so lovely to work with the children and hear all about what they wanted for Christmas and for them to truly spread Christmas cheer. 

We have been being very creative these past couple of weeks in preparation for our Christmas Fayre. The time and effort that the children put into their enterprise wrapping paper and decorative candleholders were amazing, and they enjoyed it so much! I would also like to thank all of you for supporting our class and buying these products. Having been my first Christmas Fayre at Trellech, I am truly blown away by how supportive everyone is! 

In addition to the creativity shown in creating the enterprise, we have also been very busy making our calendars, Christmas cards and Christmas Wreaths. We are truly loving these seasonal artistic experiences! 

As I am sure you are all aware, for this final week of the term in mathemateg, we have become detectives! We have been recapping all the wonderful Maths topics such as fact families, addition and subtraction to 20 and money in our Maths Mayhem Mystery – The Disappearance of the Christmas Star! It has truly been lovely to have all the children working together at the same time to complete and reflect on all they have learnt in Maths this term.  

Thank you for all your support this year and see you in the New Year!

 

 

5th December 2025

t truly is the most wonderful time of the year – as well as the busiest! Dosbarth Un have truly embraced everything Christmassy that I have put in their path.  

Not only have they been absolute superstars at their Nativity practise but also have been working hard like Santa’s elves in order to decorate the classroom as the Christmas Fairy could only carry our tree! 

In Literacy, we have been continuing our learning in letter writing and have even written our own letters to the Jolly Postman all about our favourite family traditions at Christmas. It was so insightful to see and hear the conversations surrounding their traditions and they were so interested in what other people do to celebrate. This has also then prepared us ready to write our own letters to Santa Claus. 

In Maths, we have continued with our learning surrounding Money and have even now introduced pound coins with some of the children. This has been really interesting to not only work closely with the children through role playing in the cafe, but to also then watch them complete the task again and again within our cafe provision. This has allowed me to see how they are helping each other and collaborating in identifying the coins and making sure they are giving the right amount. This has also then linked to our Enterprise and working out how much we should sell our items for and linking it with the coins. 

Diolch for all your support! 

 

21st November 2025

Iawn all, I sincerely hope that everyone is safe and doing okay after the dreadful weather that occurred over the weekend across Monmouthshire. Thankfully though it has been cold, we have been able to work both inside and outside with some lovely autumnal pieces of work.  

I have been challenging the children with us completing Fact Families in our maths. This has really pushed the children to be thinking of alternative ways to create number sentences and testing their addition and subtraction.  

In ICT, we have looked at the importance of being media balanced and how important it is to ourselves and to those around us to have a positive balance with technology. I have been really impressed and intrigued by the children’s thoughts and the conversations we have had surrounding this.  

In addition to this, we have also started looking into letter writing – it is of course the perfect time to start perfecting this in preparation for Christmas. We have started writing our own letters as if we are Stickman who is writing back to the family tree. The children have really gotten into this as it is a much-loved book that they all know really well! They have considered how all of the characters feel and what it must have been like for Stickman to be so far away from his Stick Lady Love and the Family Tree.  

As well as all of this lovely work that we have been completing, we also completed the Pudsey Run which was postponed. I am so proud of all of the children running so many laps of the daily mile that together as a class,  we all ran a total of 20K! 

This also coincides with our Nativity practise where the children are really shining bright! The confidence and their resilience is honestly amazing to see!  

I also want to say a huge diolch yn fawr to all of you for all of the effort and time that you are all putting into practising the children’s lines for the Nativity play. It really is showing and helps us out a lot when it comes to rehearsals! 

 

7th November 2025

Croeso yn ôl! It is so lovely to be back in the classroom, although we have seen a definite change in the weather with it being super chilly.  

Before half-term, we had a lovely eventful last week when we celebrated the Hindu festival of Diwali! We created our own Rangoli patterns and Diva lamps using torn paper and even explored the story of Rama and Sita through dance which the children loved! 

On our final day, as I’m sure you are aware, each child made an Apple Crumble to fully test out our measuring skills. I have to say, the children and I had an absolute blast making them, and it was a truly lovely way to spend the last day of half term. I do hope they tasted good! 

Now that we have come back, we are getting back into the swing of things by writing our own acrostic poems all about fireworks. The children have really been digging deep to think of different ways that we can describe how they look and sound and being creative with our way of wording to get them to fit. It has really tested our spellings! 

In Maths, we have gone back to basics by rediscovering our adding and taking away using numbers to 20 in preparation for next week’s maths. The children have been exploring the different resources we have around the classroom and finding out which one suits them best, which has been really eye-opening.  

Finally, a big part of this week is beginning to learn our Nativity songs and, my oh my, have they really loved this! In two days, they have managed to learn one song so confidently, I can hear them sing it around the classroom on their own accord!

Here’s to this imaginative and creative learning continuing! 

 

17th October 2025

Haven’t these weeks flown by! We have been very busy in Dosbarth Un with them being so creative and really trying their best at everything I put in their path.  

In Literacy, we really have got into the swing of the Three Little Pigs/Tri Mochen Bach with the children ordering the story and retelling the story through the use of our lovely theatre! It has been truly amazing to see the children problem solve and create such beautiful retellings before our writing with them using different tones and really thinking of how the characters would feel.  

In Mathemateg, we have been looking at adding and subtracting using different resources in the classroom, even ourselves! We have used Numicon and number lines where the children jump along it to really have a feel for the different symbols that we use within maths. Da iawn to those as well who have already been introduced to their ten times tables! I am so impressed! 

Dosbarth Un have truly been intrigued by our work focusing on Black History Month and the prominent figures surrounding that. We have looked at Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks and the children have made me feel so proud of them for how empathetic and considerate they were when we listened to their stories and heard about how we can make a change. From this we created our own ‘I have a dream’ sentences where the children wrote about what they dream the world will be when they grow up – I am not ashamed to say, some of them brought a couple of tears... they were so open and thoughtful! 

In R.V.E, we are looking at the Hindu festival of Diwali where we have learnt the story through interpretive dance and have made some decorations throughout the week to have a celebration of our own.  

Da iawn pawb, dw ‘i more falch! 

 

3rd October 2025

Shwmae!  

Dosbarth 1 have really settled in now and we are fully getting stuck into this new term with lots of exciting activities taking place. 

In Literacy, we have really delved deep into the story of ‘The Three Little Pigs/Tri Mochen Bach’ by looking at how we can describe both the characters and the setting. Some of the sentences the children have created have been so beautifully descriptive with the children really thinking about how the characters look and even how they might feel.  

The children have really grasped the concept of estimating in Maths with us using a variety of mediums – the children’s favourites being jellybeans! Da iawn pawb for the brilliant work. 

Following on the brilliant result of the Women’s Rugby World Cup, we have been learning the basics of Rugby in our outdoor PE sessions with the children really giving it a go at how to throw and catch the rugby ball. Maybe we have some future players in our midst? 

Due to our Forest School being cancelled this week, we had a lovely time listening to the first WWF ‘Happy by Nature’ talk where Steve Backshall was telling us all about Forests! We took part in quizzes and had lots of lovely and interesting talks about the different kinds of forests around the world and the different creatures that live in them. It was wonderful to see the children so engaged with the lesson and with some of them even beginning to understand content more suited for the Juniors! 

Da iawn pawb!  

 

19th September 2025

It has been such a busy couple of weeks in Dosbarth Un after our big win at Usk Show! The cheer from them all when I let them know about how well our beautiful mobile did was incredible and I am so proud of the effort that they put in!                                       

In Literacy we have just finished off our work looking at Goldilocks and the Three Bears, where we have looked at sequencing and creating a story map and acting or writing out the story in our own words. We have now just started learning the story of Tri Mochen Bach and ordering the sequence of this fairy tale. These are tying in beautifully with our class story of ‘The Magic Faraway Tree’ as we have met Goldilocks once again in this story and are now just meeting the funny old Saucepan Man!  

In Maths, we are once again revisiting our numbers to 20 and have been forming our numbers using natural materials in our outdoor area. The children have loved the challenge of this and being creative during our maths. 

In our topic ‘My School, My World’, the children have been looking closer into our school and who helps support them. In doing this, the children had the task to walk around our school and take photos of all of our staff and the people who help us. Then each of them had the task to draw a member of staff as accurately as possible! 

A very artsy but busy couple of weeks in Dosbarth Un – da iawn pawb! 

 

5th September 2025

What an exciting week we have had in Year 1! It has been so lovely to once again meet the students in Blwyddyn 1 and to have had such a warm welcome by all into this lovely school. It has been so warming to watch all the children explore their brand-new environment and their new resources.  

Across these weeks, it has been a delight to begin to get to know the children and for them to learn all about myself and our new class routines - including meeting our class mascot, Kenny the Goat!  

Our topic work for this term is ‘My School, My World’ and this has allowed for the children to discover facts about their classmates and about Trellech School itself. They have created bunting with facts all about themselves as well as bus tickets from their village to Trellech and placing this on our big class map of Monmouthshire. Coming up will be learning all about the teachers of Trellech Primary and some interviews of the students! 

This week we have been focusing on our phonic sounds and using them to help in our topic and literacy work. In addition to this, we have also been focusing on our numbers 1-20 and completing some work on adding! 

Here are some of the dates that maybe useful: 

PE will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays. 

Forest school will commence on Wednesdays with our first date being 17th September. 

Diolch yn fawr and I look forward to having such a warm and fun year in Blwyddyn 1,