Year 1 English · Key Stage 1 · Spelling – English Appendix 1

Year 1 spelling: using phonics to spell words

Year 1 spelling starts by revisiting what children learned in Reception: the alphabet, the most common sounds the letters make, and the groups of letters called digraphs. Children then use that knowledge in the opposite direction from reading. They say a word, break it into its separate sounds, and choose letters to match each one. Words with two consonants side by side, and the first spelling rules, are added on top.

Spelling with phonics, explained

Reading and spelling are mirror images. When children read with phonics, they look at the letters and blend the sounds together to make a word. When they spell, they start with the spoken word, split it into sounds (this is called segmenting) and decide which letters to write for each sound. Spelling is the harder direction because the same sound can often be written in several ways, and the child has to choose. That is why Year 1 spends so long on it.

The teaching routine is usually the same for every new word. The child says the word slowly, holds up one finger for each sound, and then writes a letter or letters for each finger. The finger count matters: the word “ship” has three sounds but four letters, because sh is two letters standing for one sound. Children use all 26 letters and the sound each most commonly makes, then the consonant digraphs they have been taught (such as sh, ch, th and ng) and the vowel digraphs (such as ai, ee, oa and ow).

Many Year 1 words have two or more consonants side by side, such as stop, frog, sleep, crisp and milk. These are called adjacent consonants, and each sound is still heard and still needs its own letter. It is very common for a child to drop one and write “sop” for stop. Saying the word slowly and counting the sounds on fingers is the main way to catch it.

Where exactly the line falls between revision of Reception work and new Year 1 work depends on the phonics programme a school uses, so the order your child meets things in may differ from a friend’s at another school. Alongside the sounds, children are also taught the first spelling rules and patterns, such as which letters double at the end of short words. The phonics screening check in June of Year 1 is a reading check, not a spelling test, but it draws on the same knowledge of letters and sounds.

Teachers also accept sensible attempts. If a child writes “sleap” for sleep or “rane” for rain, every sound is represented by a letter pattern that really exists in English, and that shows good understanding. The teacher’s job is then to show the conventional spelling. A child who can attempt an unfamiliar word logically, rather than freezing, is building the confidence that spelling needs.

Words your child will hear

Phoneme: A single sound in a spoken word. The word “cat” has three phonemes: c, a, t.
Grapheme: The letter or letters used to write a sound. The sound in “ship” that starts the word is written with the grapheme sh.
Digraph: Two letters that together make one sound, such as sh, ch, ai or oa.
Segment: To split a spoken word into its separate sounds so that each can be written, as in s-l-ee-p.
Blend: To push sounds together to read a word. This is the reverse of segmenting.
Adjacent consonants: Two or more consonants next to each other where each sound is still heard, such as st in stop or cr in crisp.
Vowel: The letters a, e, i, o and u (and sometimes y) stand for vowel sounds, the open sounds that every syllable needs. A digraph such as ai or ee can also stand for a vowel sound.

What the National Curriculum says

In Year 1, pupils should be taught to:

Spell words using all letters of the alphabet and the sounds which they most commonly represent (revision of Reception work)
Spell words using the consonant digraphs which have been taught and the sounds which they represent
Spell words using the vowel digraphs which have been taught and the sounds which they represent
Use the process of segmenting spoken words into sounds before choosing graphemes to represent the sounds
Spell words with adjacent consonants
Apply the spelling guidance and rules which have been taught

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: spelling “sleep”

Your child hears the word “sleep” and has to write it. How do they work out the spelling?

Say the word slowly and hold up a finger for each sound: s, l, ee, p. That is four fingers, so four sounds, even though the word will turn out to have five letters.
Notice the two consonants at the start: s and l are side by side, and both sounds must be written. It is easy to hear “seep” if the l is skipped, so say the sounds slowly one at a time.
Choose a grapheme for each sound. The first, second and last are simple: s, l and p. The middle sound is the long e, which could be written ee or ea. Your child picks one they know, say ee.
Write it and read it back, pointing to each grapheme in turn: s, l, ee, p. If your child wrote “sleap”, that is a sensible try. You can say, “That is a real way to spell that sound, but in this word we use ee,” and help them remember it.

sleep (s-l-ee-p: four sounds written with five letters)

Common mistakes and how to help

Writing one letter for every sound, such as “sep” for sheep or “bak” for back

Early on, children match letters to sounds one to one, so a digraph such as sh or ee, which is two letters for one sound, feels like extra letters.

What helps: Count sounds on fingers, then put a small dot or line under each sound in the written word so the digraph shows up as a single unit. Practise a few digraphs at a time until they become automatic.

Leaving out one of two consonants, writing “sop” for stop or “fog” for frog

When consonants are squashed together, the sounds blur and the second one is hard to hear.

What helps: Say the word slowly, stretching the sounds (sss-t-o-p) and tap each one. Writing the word in two goes, first the cluster and then the rest, can also help.

Spelling the start of tr and dr words as “chr” and “jr”, such as “chrain” for train

These sounds are really said in a way that sits close to ch and j, so a child writes exactly what they hear.

What helps: Show the correct spelling and say the word with an exaggerated t and d. Reassure your child that this is a common, sensible slip, and collect a few tr and dr words, such as tree, train, drum and dress, to read and write together.

Picking a spelling that sounds right but isn’t the usual one, such as “rane” for rain

English has several ways of writing most vowel sounds, and a child can’t know which one a particular word uses without having seen it.

What helps: Praise the sound-by-sound thinking first, then show the usual spelling. Collect words with the same sound and the same spelling, such as rain, train and pain, so the pattern gets repeated.

How to help at home

Sound fingers. Say a word such as “frog” and ask your child to hold up a finger for each sound as they say it slowly. Then write it together. Ask how many fingers and how many letters, and talk about any difference.
Robot talk. Say a word in a robot voice, one sound at a time (“f-r-o-g”), and have your child blend it into the word. Then swap: they speak like a robot and you guess, or you say the word and they say its sounds. It turns segmenting into a game.
Build words with letters. Use fridge magnets, or letters you cut from a cereal box. Build a short word, then change one sound to make another, from “trip” to “trap”, then add an m to make “tramp”. Changing letters shows children that every sound counts.
Label the house. Write labels for things around the home, such as door, chair or fridge. Accept sensible attempts, then show the right spelling and stick the labels up. Reading them every day keeps the words in view.
Celebrate good guesses. When your child spells a word in a way that is logical but not standard, say what they got right first. This keeps them willing to have a go, which is what builds spelling over time.

Leads on to

Year 2: Soft c, soft g, kn, gn and wr
Year 2: Endings -le, -el, -al, -il and -y
Year 2: Changing y, dropping e, doubling
Year 2: a before l, o, -ey and s spellings
Year 2: Spellings after w and qu
Year 2: Suffixes -ment, -ness, -ful, -less, -ly
Year 2: Contractions and apostrophes
Year 2: Homophones and tricky words