Year 1 English: what your child learns
Year 1 is when children learn to read and spell using phonics. Your child practises every sound, from single letters to Phase 5 spellings, with audio so they hear the sound, then see and choose it. They practise ‘real or alien’ words just like the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check in June, plus the tricky words that can’t be sounded out. Short daily practice means sounds become automatic, so reading becomes easier and more enjoyable.
How it helps
- ✓ Hear the sound, see it, choose it, then repeat — the same sequence every time, so it becomes automatic
- ✓ Instant feedback on every answer, so mistakes are corrected straight away, not days later
- ✓ Parents see exactly which sounds need more work
- ✓ Tutors step in when your child gets stuck
What Your Child Will Learn in Year 1 English
Phonics
Over 650 phonics questions covering Letter sounds, Phase 3 vowel sounds, Phase 4 blending, Phase 5 new spellings and split digraphs, CVC (three-letter) words, and Real-or-alien word judgement — the same real/made-up word format used in the national check. Tricky (common exception) words are practised separately.
This is exactly the skill tested in the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check, taken by almost all children at the end of Year 1.
Writing sentences
Practice capitalising the first word of a sentence and the word ‘I’, using full stops and other end punctuation correctly, and joining two short ideas with ‘and’.
The national curriculum expects children to use capital letters and full stops correctly by the end of Year 1.
Spelling
Word endings (−s/−es, −ing, −ed, −er, −est, un−), joining two small words into one (compound words), and dictation practice for letter names and days of the week.
Adding simple suffixes and recognising compound words are both Year 1 national curriculum spelling requirements.
Reading & comprehension
Short passages with simple retrieval questions — reading a few lines and answering questions about what happened.
Reading for understanding, not just decoding, is introduced from Year 1 onwards.
How You Can Help at Home
Say the sounds out loud together
Sound out words letter by letter with your child before blending — c-a-t, cat. Hearing the sounds spoken clearly helps blending click.
Read a little, every day
Even five minutes of reading aloud together each day builds the phonics confidence the screening check relies on.
Point out capital letters and full stops
When reading together, ask ‘why does that word have a big letter?’ — it reinforces the rule without a worksheet.
Year 1 & the Phonics Screening Check
Most children in England sit the Phonics Screening Check at the end of Year 1. It asks children to read 40 real and made-up words aloud by sounding them out — exactly the skill practised in our Real-or-alien and phonics blending questions.
Example Homework Questions
Question
Is this a real word or a made-up word?
“sun”
Expected Answer
Real word
Skill Tested
Real-or-alien word reading (Phonics Screening Check format)
Question
Add the missing letter: c _ t
Expected Answer
a
Skill Tested
Phase 2/3 letter-sound blending
Question
Which sentence is correct?
“the cat sat.” or “The cat sat.”
Expected Answer
The cat sat.
Skill Tested
Capital letters at the start of a sentence
See Exactly How Your Child’s Phonics Is Progressing
Out of School shows parents which phonics phases your child has mastered and which sounds still need practice — well before the Phonics Screening Check in June.