Work for Year 1

Revision of reception work

Statutory requirements

The boundary between revision of work covered in Reception and the introduction of new work may vary according to the programme used, but basic revision should include:

  • all letters of the alphabet and the sounds which they most commonly represent
  • consonant digraphs which have been taught and the sounds which they represent
  • vowel digraphs which have been taught and the sounds which they represent
  • the process of segmenting spoken words into sounds before choosing graphemes to represent the sounds
  • words with adjacent consonants
  • guidance and rules which have been taught

Statutory requirements

Non‑statutory information and Spellzone resources

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.


Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list - ff
Spellzone course word list - ss
Spellzone course word list - ll
Spellzone course word list - ck

The /ŋ/ sound spelt n before k.

Curriculum word list

Division of words into syllables.

Each syllable is like a ‘beat’ in the spoken word. Words of more than one syllable often have an unstressed syllable in which the vowel sound is unclear.

Curriculum word list

-tch.

The /tʃ/ sound is usually spelt as tch if it comes straight after a single vowel letter. Exceptions: rich, which, much, such.

catch, fetch, kitchen, notch, hutch
Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list

The /v/ sound at the end of words.

English words hardly ever end with the letter v, so if a word ends with a /v/ sound, the letter e usually needs to be added after the ‘v’.

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list

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.

Curriculum word list

Adding the endings –ing, –ed and –er to verbs where no change is needed to the root word.

–ing and –er always add an extra syllable to the word and –ed sometimes does.
The past tense of some verbs may sound as if it ends in /ɪd/ (extra syllable), /d/ or /t/ (no extra syllable), but all these endings are spelt –ed.
If the verb ends in two consonant letters (the same or different), the ending is simply added on.

Curriculum word list

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.

Curriculum word list



Vowel digraphs and trigraphs

Some may already be known, depending on the programmes used in Reception, but some will be new.

Vowel digraphs and trigraphs

Non‑statutory information and Spellzone resources

ai, oi

The digraphs ai and oi are virtually never used at the end of English words.

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list
Spellzone poster (pdf)

ay, oy

ay and oy are used for those sounds at the end of words and at the end of syllables.

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list
Spellzone poster (pdf)

a–e

Curriculum word list

e–e

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list

i–e

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list - i-e 1
Spellzone course word list - i-e 2

o–e

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list

u–e

Both the /u:/ and /ju:/ (‘oo’ and ‘yoo’) sounds can be spelt as u–e.

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list

ar

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list - ar 1
Spellzone course word list- ar 2

ee

Curriculum word list

ea (/i:/)

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list

ea (/ɛ/)

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list

er (/ɜ:/)

Curriculum word list (stressed sound)
Spellzone course word list

er (/ə/)

Curriculum word list (unstressed schwa sound)

ir

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list

ur

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list

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.

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list

oo (/ʊ/)

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list

oa

The digraph oa is very rare at the end of an English word.

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list

oe

Curriculum word list

ou

The only common English word ending in ou is you.

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list

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.

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list

ie (/aɪ/)

Curriculum word list

ie (/i:/)

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list

Igh

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list

or

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list

ore

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list

aw

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list

au

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list

air

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list

ear

Curriculum word list
Spellzone word list

ear (/ɛə/)

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list

are (/ɛə/)

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list

Words ending –y (/i:/ or /ɪ/).

Curriculum word list

New consonant spellings ph and wh.

The /f/ sound is not usually spelt as ph in short everyday words (e.g. fat, fill, fun).

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list - ph 1
Spellzone course word list - ph 2

Using k for the /k/ sound.

The /k/ sound is spelt as k rather than as c before e, i and y.

Curriculum word list
Spellzone course word list
Spellzone poster (pdf)

Adding the prefix –un.

The prefix un– is added to the beginning of a word without any change to the spelling of the root word.

Curriculum word list

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.

Curriculum word list

Common exception words.

Pupils’ attention should be drawn to the grapheme-phoneme correspondences that do and do not fit in with what has been taught so far.

Curriculum word list - 1
Curriculum word list - 2
Curriculum word list - 3

See the Spellzone course units for content mapped to the curriculum including homophones (H) units.

Search word lists


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