Year 1 English Progress checks

Phonemes (and graphemes), rhyme, basic punctuation and handwriting will all be part of your child's Y1 English learning journey. Use our Progress checks to see how they're getting on, help them prepare for the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check and find out if there are any areas they're finding tricky so you can support them at home.

Written by a KS1 teacher to help you identify any areas of Y1 literacy your child needs extra practice in, the Y1 English Progress checks will suggest phonics and writing skills to focus on at home.

Each term’s English test consists of 20 questions and a total of 20 marks. Allow your child around 20 minutes to complete the test.

The Progress checks are designed to follow TheSchoolRun's Learning Journey for that particular term. Please note: they cannot and will not necessarily follow what your child’s teacher is doing at school this week / term, as teachers tend to choose to cover objectives in an order that they feel suits their class. Therefore, don’t worry if your child cannot complete certain questions; the point of the Progress checks is to help parents identify where children might need extra help and practice.

Y1 English objectives explained

By the end of the school year children should be confident with the following:

Y1 reading

• distinguishing individual phonemes in words
• blending CVVC (consonant vowel vowel consonant), CCVC (consonant consonant vowel consonant) and CVCC (consonant vowel consonant consonant) words to read
• understanding that some phonemes can have different spelling patterns (graphemes)
• learning different spelling patterns for word beginnings/endings
• continuing to learn high frequency words
• recognising the main elements that shape stories and texts
• understanding characters and events in a story

Y1 writing

• understanding that some phonemes can have different spelling patterns (graphemes)
• learning different spelling patterns for word beginnings/endings
• writing chronological and non-chronological texts and extending rhyming patterns in poetry and to begin to create poems
• joining clauses in a sentence using the word 'and'
• punctuating sentences using capitals, full stops, question marks and exclamation marks
• sequencing stories to form short narratives

For more information about what your child learns in Year 1 English read our parents' guide; you can also browse all our Y1 English worksheets or follow our Learning Journey for Y2 English.