Christ the King RC Primary School, A Voluntary Academy

Year 1 Phonics and Spellings

Phonics

Year 1 phonics will begin by recapping phase 4 phonics.

Click here for an overview of phase 4 phonics.

The majority of phonics taught in Year 1 will be phase 5.

Click here for an overview of phase 5 phonics.

See the videos below for how the say the phonic sounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwJx1NSineE

The following documents are advice for helping your child to learn to read and write.

Learn to read through phonics

Reading with you child

How to help your child read using phonics

Beginning reading

How to help you child learn to read

Questions to ask when reading

To find out more information about blending and segmenting for reading and writing click here.

Phonics screening check

The phonics screening check assesses children on how well they can decode certain words. Decoding means sounding out an unfamiliar written word. To do this, children will need to be able to recognise letters and the sounds that they represent. This is an important part of achieving reading fluency! This check usually takes place in June of the Year 1 school year.

For more information about the phonics screening check click here.

Below are the some previous phonics screening tests.

Click here for the phonics screening test 2019

Click here for the phonics screening test 2018

Click here for the phonics screening test 2017

Click here for the phonics screening test 2016

Click here for the phonics screening test 2015

Spellings

Spelling folders will be sent home every Friday. The spellings should be learnt at home throughout the week for the test on the following Friday. Ideas for how to help learn spellings can be found below on this page.

Spelling folders will need to be handed back in every Friday. The spellings to learn for each week for Autumn 1 have been added below. Click on the links the see the spellings. (Hand in Friday – back out the same Friday).

Click on the following links to find ideas to help learn spellings.

Spelling information

Ideas for learning spellings

More ideas for learning spellings

Click on the following links to find the spellings to learn for that week.

Spellings for Summer 1 2024

With the phase 5 spellings I will also ask the children to spell 2 words that they have not been given to learn. These words will contain the spelling sounds for that week. The children will have to use and apply their phonics skills to spell these words independently.

Spellings given out on 19^th April – This week’s spellings are based on the sound igh and the alternative spellings ie, i-e, i and y - pie, cried, untie, shine, nine, five, find, kind, fly, dry

Spellings given out on 26^th April – This week’s spellings are based on the sound oa and the alternative spellings ow, oe, o-e and o - goat, float, Joe, toe, tadpole, stone, window, shadow, most, go

Spellings given out on 3^rd May – This week’s spellings are based on the sound ow and the alternative spellings ou, ough - clown, town, frown, cloud, louder, found, about, plough, bough, drought

Spellings given out on 10^th May – This week’s spellings are based on the sounds oi and oy -  spoil, moist, point, boiling boy, Roy, toy, enjoy

Spellings given out on 17^th May – This week’s spellings are based on the sound ar and the alternative spellings a and al - card, sharp, charming, palm, calm, balm, half, rather, can’t, father

Spellings given out on 24^th May – This week’s spellings are based on the sound u and the alternative spellings oo and ould -  unhappy, under, butter, shook, foot, blood, flood, could, should, would

Phase 3 spellings (Mrs. Sudall's group) Summer 1

Spellings given out on 19^th April – fern, her, herb, term, kerb

Spellings given out on 26^th April – chain, sheep, bath, night, coat

Spellings given out on 3^rd May – cool, car, corn, cow, coin

Spellings given out on 10^th May – cheep, sheet, thing, thorn, coach

Spellings given out on 17^th May – tooth, harsh, short, church, singer

Spellings given out on 24^th May – went, sent, hint, mint, pant

CVC spellings (Mrs. Sudall's group) Summer 1

Spellings given out on 19^th April – bag      men        pig      not      cut

Spellings given out on 26^th April – ham      den        rib       top     jug

Spellings given out on 3^rd May – sat   wet     fib       dot     fun

Spellings given out on 10^th May – van      yes    lid  God    bus

Spellings given out on 17^th May – hat    jet   dip     fog      gum

Spellings given out on 24^th May – tan   peg    nip    log      mum

Handwriting in Year 1

At Christ the King, we follow the Red Rose Letters and Sounds Programme, providing a synthetic approach to the teaching of phonics, from Foundation Stage, through KS1 and into KS2 if appropriate. 

As soon as our children enter our Foundation Stage (EYFS), provision is carefully planned to support our children to further develop and strengthen their fine motor skills required for writing. This includes lots of activities to get children using their pincer grip. This includes using tweezers, screws and bolts, malleable materials (playdough), threading, cutting and sticking tasks. 

As the children begin to form letters during the Foundation Stage, they are taught to form each letter (grapheme) using the letter formation from Red Rose Letters and Sounds. This is further developed in Year 1, where the children aim to form all letters in a print style.  

It is recommended that when teaching letter formation, a phrase is used in order to embed the directionality. Adults who teach letter formation are encouraged to use the same approach as children learn effectively through repetition. The letter formation used at Christ the King can be seen below.