Word Reading

EYFS

At the end of EYFS children will be able to:

• Enjoy rhyming and rhythmic activities.
• Show an awareness of rhyme and alliteration.
• Recognise rhythms in spoken words.
• Continue a rhyming string.
• Hear and say the initial sound in words.
• Segment the sounds in simple words and blend them together and know which letter represents some of them.
• Link sounds to letters, naming and sounding the letters of the alphabet.
• Use phonic knowledge to decode regular words and read them accurately.
• Read some common irregular words.
• Recognise familiar words and signs, such as their own name and logos.
• Read words and simple sentences.
• Break the flow of speech into words.

Year 1

At the end of Year 1 children will be able to:

• Apply phonic knowledge and skills as the route to decode words.
• Respond speedily with the correct sound to graphemes for all 40+ phonemes, including, where applicable, alternative sounds for graphemes.
• Read accurately by blending sounds in unfamiliar words containing GPCs that have been taught.
• Read common exception words, noting unusual correspondences between spelling and sound and where these occur in the word.
• Read words containing taught GPCs and -s, -es, -ing, -ed, -er and -est endings.
• Read other words of more than one syllable that contain taught GPCs.
• Read words with contractions e.g. I’m, can’t, we’ll.
• Understand that an apostrophe in a contractions represents omitted letters.
• Read aloud accurately books that are consistent with their developing phonic knowledge and that do not require them to use other strategies to work out words.
• Re-read familiar books to build up their fluency and confidence in word reading.

Year 2

At the end of Year 2 children will be able to:

• Apply phonic knowledge and skills as the route to decode words until automatic decoding has become embedded and reading is fluent.
• Read accurately by blending the sounds in words that contain the graphemes taught so far, especially recognizing alternative sounds for graphemes.
• Read accurately words of two or more syllables that contain the same graphemes as above.
• Read words containing common suffixes.
• Read further common exception words, noting unusual correspondences between spelling and sound and where these occur in the word.
• Read most words quickly and accurately, without overt sounding and blending, when these have been frequently encountered.
• Read aloud books closely matched to their improving phonic knowledge, sounding out unfamiliar words accurately, automatically and without undue hesitation.
• Re-read familiar books to build up their fluency and confidence in word reading.

Year 3

At the end of Year 3 children will be able to:

• Skills in LKS2 will be introduced in Year 3 and revisited in Year 4 to provide children with the opportunity to master the skills taught before transitioning to UKS2.
• Apply their growing knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes (etymology and morphology) as listed in the National Curriculum English Appendix 1, both to read aloud and to understand the meaning of new words they meet.
• Read further exception words, noting the unusual correspondences between spelling and sound, and where these occur in the word

Year 4

At the end of Year 4 children will be able to:

• In Year 4 children will revisit the skills introduced in Year 3 to build confidence, independence and mastery.
• Apply their growing knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes (etymology and morphology) as listed in the National Curriculum English Appendix 1, both to read aloud and to understand the meaning of new words they meet.
• Children should read further exception words, noting the unusual correspondences between spelling and sound, and where these occur in the word.

Year 5

At the end of Year 5 children will be able to:

• Skills in UKS2 will be introduced in Year 5 and revisited in Year 6 to provide children with the opportunity to master the skills taught before transitioning to UKS2.
• Apply their growing knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes (morphology and etymology) as listed in the National Curriculum English Appendix 1, both to read aloud and to understand the meaning of new words that they meet.

Year 6

At the end of Year 6 children will be able to:

• In Year 6 children will revisit the skills introduced in Year 5 to build confidence, independence and mastery to ensure they are fully prepared for transition to secondary school.
• Children should be able to apply their growing knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes (morphology and etymology) as listed in the National Curriculum English Appendix 1, both to read aloud and to understand the meaning of new words that they meet.