Year 1
Outcomes
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Reading
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Word Reading
Pupils should revise and consolidate the GPCs and the common exception words taught in Reception. As soon as they can read words comprising the year 1 GPCs accurately and speedily, they should move on to the year 2 programme of study for word reading. The number, order and choice of exception words taught will vary according to the phonics programme being used. Ensuring that pupils are aware of the GPCs they contain, however unusual these are, supports spelling later. Young readers encounter words that they have not seen before much more frequently than experienced readers do, and they may not know the meaning of some of these. Practice at reading such words by sounding and blending can provide opportunities not only for pupils to develop confidence in their decoding skills, but also for teachers to explain the meaning and thus develop pupils' vocabulary. Pupils should be taught how to read words with suffixes by being helped to build on the root words that they can read already. Pupils' reading and re-reading of books that are closely matched to their developing phonic knowledge and knowledge of common exception words supports their fluency, as well as increasing their confidence in their reading skills. Fluent word reading greatly assists comprehension, especially when pupils come to read longer books.
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Comprehension
Pupils should have extensive experience of listening to, sharing and discussing a wide range of high-quality books with the teacher, other adults and each other to engender a love of reading at the same time as they are reading independently. Pupils' vocabulary should be developed when they listen to books read aloud and when they discuss what they have heard. Such vocabulary can also feed into their writing. Knowing the meaning of more words increases pupils' chances of understanding when they read by themselves. The meaning of some new words should be introduced to pupils before they start to read on their own, so that these unknown words do not hold up their comprehension. However, once pupils have already decoded words successfully, the meaning of those that are new to them can be discussed with them, so contributing to developing their early skills of inference. By listening frequently to stories, poems and non-fiction that they cannot yet read for themselves, pupils begin to understand how written language can be structured in order, for example, to build surprise in narratives or to present facts in non-fiction. Listening to and discussing information books and other non-fiction establishes the foundations for their learning in other subjects. Pupils should be shown some of the processes for finding out information. Through listening, pupils also start to learn how language sounds and increase their vocabulary and awareness of grammatical structures. In due course, they will be able to draw on such grammar in their own writing. Rules for effective discussions should be agreed with and demonstrated for pupils. They should help to develop and evaluate them, with the expectation that everyone takes part. Pupils should be helped to consider the opinions of others. Role-play can help pupils to identify with and explore characters and to try out the language they have listened to.
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Word Reading
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Writing
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Transcription
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Spelling
Reading should be taught alongside spelling, so that pupils understand that they can read back words they have spelt. Pupils should be shown how to segment spoken words into individual phonemes and then how to represent the phonemes by the appropriate grapheme(s). It is important to recognise that phoneme-grapheme correspondences (which underpin spelling) are more variable than grapheme-phoneme correspondences (which underpin reading). For this reason, pupils need to do much more word-specific rehearsal for spelling than for reading. At this stage pupils will be spelling some words in a phonically plausible way, even if sometimes incorrectly. Misspellings of words that pupils have been taught to spell should be corrected; other misspelt words should be used to teach pupils about alternative ways of representing those sounds. Writing simple dictated sentences that include words taught so far gives pupils opportunities to apply and practise their spelling
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Spelling
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Vocabulary, Grammar & Punctuation
Pupils should be taught to recognise sentence boundaries in spoken sentences and to use the vocabulary listed in English Appendix 2 ('Terminology for pupils') when their writing is discussed. Pupils should begin to use some of the distinctive features of Standard English in their writing. 'Standard English' is defined in the Glossary.
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Transcription
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Spelling
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Revision of Reception Work
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All letters of the alphabet and the sounds which they most commonly represent
Play Activities 151Examples
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Consonant digraphs which have been taught and the sounds which they represent
Examples
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The process of segmenting spoken words into sounds before choosing graphemes to represent the sounds
Examples
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The sounds /f/, /l/, /s/, /z/ and /k/ spelt ff, ll, ss, zz and ck
The /f/, /l/, /s/, /z/ and /k/ sounds are usually spelt as ff, ll, ss, zz and ck if they come straight after a single vowel letter in short words. Exceptions: if, pal, us, bus, yes. Example words: off, well, miss, buzz, backExamples
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Adding s and es to words (plural of nouns and the third person singular of verbs)
If the ending sounds like /s/ or /z/, it is spelt as -s. If the ending sounds like /ɪz/ and forms an extra syllable or 'beat' in the word, it is spelt as -es. Example words: cats, dogs, spends, rocks, thanks, catchesExamples
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Adding -er and -est to adjectives where no change is needed to the root word
As with verbs (see above), if the adjective ends in two consonant letters (the same or different), the ending is simply added on. Example words: grander, grandest, fresher, freshest, quicker, quickestExamples
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All letters of the alphabet and the sounds which they most commonly represent
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Vowel Digraphs & Trigraphs
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Ai, oi
The digraphs ai and oi are virtually never used at the end of English words. Example words: rain, wait, train, paid, afraid, oil, join, coin, point, soilExamples
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Ay, oy
Ay and oy are used for those sounds at the end of words and at the end of syllables. Example words: day, play, say, way, stay, boy, toy, enjoy, annoyExamples
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A-e
Example words: made, came, same, take, safeExamples
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I-e
Example words: five, ride, like, time, sideExamples
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O-e
Example words: home, those, woke, hope, holeExamples
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Ee
Example words: see, tree, green, meet, weekExamples
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Ea (/i:/)
Example words: sea, dream, meat, each, read (present tense)Examples
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Er (/ə/)
Example words: (unstressed schwa sound): better, under, summer, winter, sisterExamples
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Oo (/u:/)
Very few words end with the letters oo, although the few that do are often words that primary children in year 1 will encounter, for example, zoo. Example words: food, pool, moon, zoo, soonExamples
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Oo (/ʊ/)
Example words: book, took, foot, wood, goodExamples
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Oa
The digraph oa is very rare at the end of an English word. Example words: boat, coat, road, coach, goalExamples
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Ou
The only common English word ending in ou is you. Example words: out, about, mouth, around, soundExamples
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Ow (/aʊ/), ow (/əʊ/), ue, ew
Both the /u:/ and /ju:/ ('oo' and 'yoo') sounds can be spelt as u-e, ue and ew. If words end in the /oo/ sound, ue and ew are more common spellings than oo. Example words: now, how, brown, down, town, own, blow, snow, grow, show, blue, clue, true, rescue, Tuesday, new, few, grew, flew, drew, threwExamples
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Air
Example words: air, fair, pair, hair, chairExamples
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Ear
Example words: dear, hear, beard, near, yearExamples
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Words ending -y (/i:/ or /ɪ/)
Example words: very, happy, funny, party, familyExamples
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New consonant spellings ph and wh
The /f/ sound is not usually spelt as ph in short everyday words (e.g. fat, fill, fun). Example words: dolphin, alphabet, phonics, elephant, when, where, which, wheel, whileExamples
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Compound words
Compound words are two words joined together. Each part of the longer word is spelt as it would be if it were on its own. Example words: football, playground, farmyard, bedroom, blackberryExamples
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Ai, oi
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Revision of Reception Work
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Vocabulary, Grammar & Punctuation
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Sentence
How words can combine to make sentences Joining words and joining clauses using andPlay Activities 186Examples
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Sentence