English key stage 1

Teaching should ensure that work in 'speaking and listening', 'reading' and 'writing' is integrated.

Knowledge, skills and understanding

Speaking

1. To speak clearly, fluently and confidently to different people, pupils should be taught to:

1. speak with clear diction and appropriate intonation
2. choose words with precision
3. organise what they say
4. focus on the main point(s)
5. include relevant detail
6. take into account the needs of their listeners.

Listening

2. To listen, understand and respond to others, pupils should be taught to:

1. sustain concentration
2. remember specific points that interest them
3. make relevant comments
4. listen to others' reactions
5. ask questions to clarify their understanding
6. identify and respond to sound patterns in language [for example, alliteration, rhyme, word play].

Group discussion and interaction

3. To join in as members of a group, pupils should be taught to:

1. take turns in speaking
2. relate their contributions to what has gone on before
3. take different views into account
4. extend their ideas in the light of discussion
5. give reasons for opinions and actions.

Drama

4. To participate in a range of drama activities, pupils should be taught to:

1. use language and actions to explore and convey situations, characters and emotions
2. create and sustain roles individually and when working with others
3. comment constructively on drama they have watched or in which they have taken part.

Standard English

5. Pupils should be introduced to some of the main features of spoken standard English and be taught to use them.

Language variation

6. Pupils should be taught about how speech varies:

1. in different circumstances [for example, to reflect on how their speech changes in more formal situations]
2. to take account of different listeners [for example, adapting what they say when speaking to people they do not know].

Breadth of study

7. During the key stage, pupils should be taught the Knowledge, skills and understanding through the following range of activities, contexts and purposes.

Speaking

8. The range should include:

1. telling stories, real and imagined
2. reading aloud and reciting
3. describing events and experiences
4. speaking to different people, including friends, the class, teachers and other adults.

Listening

9. The range should include opportunities for pupils to listen to:

1. each other
2. adults giving detailed explanations and presentations [for example, describing how a model works, reading aloud]
3. recordings [for example, radio, television].

Group discussion and interaction

10. The range of purposes should include:

1. making plans and investigating
2. sharing ideas and experiences
3. commenting and reporting.

Drama activities

11. The range should include:

1. working in role
2. presenting drama and stories to others [for example, telling a story through tableaux or using a narrator]
3. responding to performances.

Teaching should ensure that work in 'speaking and listening', 'reading' and 'writing' is integrated.

Knowledge, skills and understanding

Reading strategies

1. Pupils should be taught to read with fluency, accuracy, understanding and enjoyment:

Word recognition and graphic knowledge

They should be taught phonemic awareness and phonic knowledge to decode and encode words, including to:

1. hear, identify, segment and blend phonemes in words in the order in which they occur
2. sound and name the letters of the alphabet
3. identify syllables in words
4. recognise that the same sounds may have different spellings and that the same spellings may relate to different sounds
5. read on sight high-frequency words and other familiar words
6. recognise words with common spelling patterns
7. recognise specific parts of words, including prefixes, suffixes, inflectional endings, plurals
8. link sound and letter patterns, exploring rhyme, alliteration and other sound patterns

Understanding text

They should be taught to use grammatical understanding and their knowledge of the content and context of texts to:

9. understand how word order affects meaning
10. decipher new words, and confirm or check meaning
11. work out the sense of a sentence by rereading or reading ahead
12. focus on meaning derived from the text as a whole
13. use their knowledge of book conventions, structure, sequence and presentational devices
14. draw on their background knowledge and understanding of the content.

Reading for information

2. Pupils should be taught to:

1. use the organisational features of non-fiction texts, including captions, illustrations, contents, index and chapters, to find information
2. understand that texts about the same topic may contain different information or present similar information in different ways
3. use reference materials for different purposes.

Literature

3. To develop their understanding of fiction, poetry and drama, pupils should be taught to:

1. identify and describe characters, events and settings in fiction
2. use their knowledge of sequence and story language when they are retelling stories and predicting events
3. express preferences, giving reasons
4. learn, recite and act out stories and poems
5. identify patterns of rhythm, rhyme and sounds in poems and their effects
6. respond imaginatively in different ways to what they read [for example, using the characters from a story in drama, writing poems based on ones they read, showing their understanding through art or music].

Language structure and variation

4. To read texts with greater accuracy and understanding, pupils should be taught about the characteristics of different types of text [for example, beginnings and endings in stories, use of captions].

Breadth of study

5. During the key stage, pupils should be taught the Knowledge, skills and understanding through the following ranges of literature and non-fiction and non-literary texts.

Literature

6. The range should include:

1. stories and poems with familiar settings and those based on imaginary or fantasy worlds
2. stories, plays and poems by significant children's authors
3. retellings of traditional folk and fairy stories
4. stories and poems from a range of cultures
5. stories, plays and poems with patterned and predictable language
6. stories and poems that are challenging in terms of length or vocabulary
7. texts where the use of language benefits from being read aloud and reread.

Non-fiction and non-literary texts

7. The range should include:

1. print and ICT-based information texts, including those with continuous text and relevant illustrations
2. dictionaries, encyclopedias and other reference materials.

Teaching should ensure that work in 'speaking and listening', 'reading' and 'writing' is integrated.

Knowledge, skills and understanding

Composition

1. Pupils should be taught to:

1. use adventurous and wide-ranging vocabulary
2. sequence events and recount them in appropriate detail
3. put their ideas into sentences
4. use a clear structure to organise their writing
5. vary their writing to suit the purpose and reader
6. use the texts they read as models for their own writing.

Planning and drafting

2. Working with the teacher and with others, in order to develop their writing, pupils should be taught to:

1. write familiar words and attempt unfamiliar ones
2. assemble and develop ideas on paper and on screen
3. plan and review their writing, discussing the quality of what is written
4. write extended texts, with support [for example, using the teacher as writer].

Punctuation

3. Pupils should be taught:

1. how punctuation helps a reader understand what is written
2. the connections between punctuation and sentence structure, intonation and emphasis
3. to use capital letters, full stops, question marks and to begin to use commas.

Spelling

4. Pupils should be taught to:

Spelling strategies

1. write each letter of the alphabet
2. use their knowledge of sound-symbol relationships and phonological patterns [for example, consonant clusters and vowel phonemes]
3. recognise and use simple spelling patterns
4. write common letter strings
5. spell common words
6. spell words with common prefixes and inflectional endings

Checking spelling

7. check the accuracy of their spelling, using word banks and dictionaries
8. use their knowledge of word families and other words
9. identify reasons for misspellings.

Handwriting and presentation

5. In order to develop a legible style, pupils should be taught:

Handwriting

1. how to hold a pencil/pen
2. to write from left to right and top to bottom of a page
3. to start and finish letters correctly
4. to form letters of regular size and shape
5. to put regular spaces between letters and words
6. how to form lower- and upper-case letters
7. how to join letters

Presentation

8. the importance of clear and neat presentation in order to communicate their meaning effectively.

Standard English

6. Pupils should be taught some of the grammatical features of written standard English.

Language structure

7. In composing their own texts, pupils should be taught to consider:

1. how word choice and order are crucial to meaning
2. the nature and use of nouns, verbs and pronouns
3. how ideas may be linked in sentences and how sequences of sentences fit together.

Breadth of study

8. During the key stage, pupils should be taught the Knowledge, skills and understanding through addressing the following ranges of purposes, readers and forms of writing.

9. The range of purposes for writing should include:

1. to communicate to others
2. to create imaginary worlds
3. to explore experience
4. to organise and explain information.

10. Pupils should be taught the value of writing for remembering and developing ideas.

11. The range of readers for writing should include teachers, other adults, children and the writers themselves.

12. The range of forms of writing should include narratives, poems, notes, lists, captions, records, messages, instructions.