Year 1 English articles

Would your child rather be kicking a ball than picking up a book? Get them excited about reading with fiction and non-fiction titles about the beautiful game, from World Cup histories and step-by-step technique manuals to brilliant football fiction for all ages.

Does your heart sink at the thought of another reading practice session after school? Don't lose heart, says primary school teacher, mum and Reading Chest founder Liz Walker. Today's reading scheme books offer exciting stories, non-fiction facts and loads more. Here's how to make the most of early readers, whether your child has just started to blend sounds or is ready to graduate to 'real' books.

Cécile Watson, from Bromley in Kent, describes her experience of the SEN and school system with her son Jean-Pierre, 11, who has dysgraphia, and shares her tips for other parents.

As your child learns to read you might hear them talk about the 'exception words' they are learning. We explain what exception words are, what role they play in phonics learning and how you can support your child's developing reading and spelling skills at home.

From adjectives to writing frames, TheSchoolRun's primary-school literacy glossary offers a complete guide to all the concepts children are taught in EYFS, KS1 and KS2 English. Brush up on your own literacy skills, clear up homework confusion and understand exactly what your child is learning at school by reading our basic definitions (with links to more detailed explanations, teachers' tips and examples).

Struggling to help your child 'blend' sounds when they're reading aloud? Primary teacher Phoebe Doyle offers tips to help you support their phonics learning and early reading at home.

Rhymes, acrostics and other mnemonics could all help your child to remember important facts, from tricky spellings to grammar rules. We asked the experts why they work so well – and for their top 10 memory aids.

These games and toys consolidate early reading skills, help with simple maths calculations, boost strategic thinking and even introduce your KS1 child to engineering and geology! For literacy and numeracy fun in toy form, these are the games to try.

Want to practise phonics at home? We’ve picked some of the best games, apps, tools and books to help you reinforce what your child is learning at home – the fun way!

Heard your child talk about their LO, or their WALT? Teachers use learning objectives to help children understand what is expected of them in the classroom. Find out what a learning objective (or WALT) is and how learning objectives are used in primary school.

Find out what a talk partner is and why having a talk partner will benefit your child's learning in the classroom.

Find out what interactive whiteboards are and how they enhance learning in the classroom.

Text-marking is a technique taught in schools to help children recognise the different features of a text. Find out how teachers explain the technique to children and how it can help with their comprehension of different types of texts.

We explain what vowels and consonants are and how primary-school children are taught to identify CVC, CCVC and CVCC words, vowel digraphs and consonant digraphs.

We explain what a pronoun is and how primary-school children are taught to use pronouns to avoid repetition in their written work.

Modelled writing is a technique teachers use to model for children how they could carry out the thinking process when writing a story. See an example of how this process could work.

Learning certain letter strings will help your child with their reading and spelling. Find out about different letter strings and tips to help your child remember them.

Find out how your child's teacher will explain the concept of time connectives and ways in which your child will be encouraged to use them to improve their writing.

A non-chronological report is a piece of text that isn't written in time order. Find out how your child is taught to read and write non-chronological reports in primary school.