United Kingdom · National Curriculum Attainment Targets
Year 1 English
A comprehensive literacy curriculum designed to transition students from phonological awareness to expressive storytelling and analytical reading. Students explore various text types while developing the mechanical skills necessary for independent writing and fluent reading.
01The Magic of Phonics and Word Building
Students master the relationship between sounds and letters to decode unfamiliar words and build a strong foundation for reading fluency.
Students will identify and match initial sounds to their corresponding letters, focusing on single letter GPCs.
Students will practice blending three individual sounds (consonant-vowel-consonant) to read simple words.
Students will be introduced to common digraphs (e.g., 'sh', 'ch', 'th') and trigraphs (e.g., 'igh', 'air') and practice blending them.
Students will identify and read high-frequency words that do not follow standard phonetic rules, focusing on early exception words.
Students will practice correct letter formation for lower-case and capital letters, focusing on legibility.
Students will practice breaking down CVC words into individual sounds to spell them accurately.
Students will use their phonics knowledge to decode and read new, unfamiliar words in simple sentences.
Students will practice segmenting and spelling words that include common digraphs and trigraphs.
02Storytellers and Dreamers
An introduction to narrative structures through traditional tales and contemporary picture books.
Students will explore how authors use words and illustrations to show what a character is like, focusing on simple traits.
Students will identify and discuss character emotions and predict how characters might react to different events.
Students will identify where and when stories take place and use descriptive language to talk about settings.
Students will explore how different settings can influence a character's actions or feelings.
Students will sequence the beginning, middle, and end of familiar stories to build comprehension.
Students will practice retelling stories orally, including key characters, settings, and events in order.
Students will identify the main problem a character faces and how it is resolved in simple narratives.
Students will read and discuss common traditional tales, identifying recurring themes and characters.
03Fact Finders and Information Seekers
Exploring non-fiction texts to understand how information is organized and presented.
Students will identify labels, captions, headings, and diagrams in information books and explain their purpose.
Students will learn to use a contents page to find specific sections and understand the basic function of an index.
Students will practice writing concise labels to describe real-world objects and events.
Students will write short sentences as captions to provide more detail about images.
Students will practice asking clear questions to seek specific information from texts or peers.
Students will use texts to find specific information and answer questions, practicing scanning skills.
Students will interpret information presented in simple diagrams and illustrations within non-fiction texts.
Students will practice writing short, factual sentences about a given topic.
04Rhythm, Rhyme, and Word Play
Engaging with poetry and performance to develop an ear for language and oral expression.
Students will identify rhyming words in simple poems and nursery rhymes.
Students will identify alliteration and repetition in poems and discuss their effect.
Students will practice using different tones of voice, volume, and pace to recite poems and stories.
Students will explore how body language and gestures can enhance a spoken performance.
Students will collaborate to create simple rhyming couplets based on familiar themes.
Students will create their own alliterative phrases and short sentences.
Students will identify and use words that imitate sounds (onomatopoeia) in poems and creative writing.
Students will practice reading various poems aloud, focusing on conveying mood and meaning through their voice.
05Sentences with Style
Developing the grammatical awareness to construct meaningful and punctuated sentences.
Students will learn to use capital letters consistently at the beginning of sentences and for proper nouns.
Students will practice using full stops to end statements and question marks for questions.
Students will use the conjunction 'and' to join two words in a list or two simple ideas.
Students will use 'and' to join two simple clauses to form a longer sentence.
Students will identify nouns as words for people, places, animals, or things.
Students will expand vocabulary by using descriptive adjectives for people, places, and things.
Students will identify verbs as 'doing' words and use them to describe actions.
Students will learn to use exclamation marks to convey strong emotions or surprise in writing.
Students will learn to use commas to separate items in a simple list.
Students will identify pronouns (e.g., he, she, it, they) as words that replace nouns.
06Becoming an Author
Synthesizing skills to plan, write, and edit a short independent narrative.
Students will generate ideas for characters, settings, and simple plots for their own stories.
Students will use story maps or visual organizers to plan the beginning, middle, and end of their narrative.
Students will orally rehearse sentences and short passages before writing them down.
Students will draft the opening of their story, focusing on introducing characters and setting.
Students will write the middle section of their story, focusing on developing the plot and introducing a problem.