Carlton Hill Primary School

In Year 1 children continue to enjoy a wide variety of quality texts, sharing a wealth of both fiction and non-fiction texts. We love to share exciting new books together (for example, Beegu by Alexis Deacon) enjoying the themes, language and art opportunities provided by the richness of the text.

Just like in Reception, all children take part in a daily phonics session. Children still consolidating phonics learning for Reception (Bug Club units 1-11) continue to have 1:1 reading with an adult using fully decodable phonics books. Group guided reading will begin for children on set 12 and above using Bug Club phonics packs (fully decodable). Group guided reading activities include reading with an adult, rereading books and comprehension or word level work based on the book.

How do we teach reading in Year 1?

• Children are frequently read to by the class teacher (class books include ‘Hairy Maclary’ by Lynley Dodd and ‘The Claude Series’ by Alex T. Smith).
• There are structured daily phonics lessons using Bug Club resources.
• Most children start to take part in a teacher-led guided reading session, using packs of fully decodable books, once a week.

• Some children continue to build confidence in phonics units 1 to 11 reading fully decodable books 1:1 with an adult.
• Some children will also take part in 1:1 Reading Recovery with our reading specialist teacher, using a mixture of phonic, patterned text and key words books.  
• Children visit the school library regularly and can take a library book home.
• We display A5 phase 2, 3 and 5 (as appropriate) picture sound cards and use sound mats.

What can I do to help my child at home?

• Come along to the reading and phonics meetings for Year 1 in the Autumn term.
• Every day, listen to your child read their fully decodable Bug Club phonics books and other decodable books which are matched to the correct phonic stage.
• In addition, please share the rich books from class library or school library that your child has borrowed.
• Access the online Bug Club books and resources at home – your child has their own account.
• Please comment in your child’s reading dairy and praise all attempts made at reading and give support in a positive way.
• Read the books your child loves over and over again.
• Use different voices for characters and ask your child lots of questions about the book - ideas for these are in the front of their reading diary.
• Listen to audiobooks whilst following the story in the book and visit the library regularly.