Year 1: age, curriculum and assessments
Year 1 is the first year of Key Stage 1, and the first year of the national curriculum.
The answer
Children in Year 1 are 5 or 6 years old. Year 1 is in Key Stage 1, and every child turns 6 during the year.
Year 1 at a glance
Year 1 is the first year of Key Stage 1. Key Stage 1 is Years 1 and 2, ages 5 to 7. Year 1 is a step up from Reception: more time at a table, daily phonics and maths lessons, and the first national check, on phonics, in June.
- Age
- 5 to 6
- Key stage
- Key Stage 1
- Where
- Primary school
- National assessments
- Phonics screening check
What children learn in Year 1
Taken from the national curriculum in England (2014), Year 1 programmes of study for mathematics and English.
Maths in Year 1
- Count to and across 100, forwards and backwards, and count in 2s, 5s and 10s.
- Read and write numbers from 1 to 20 in numerals and in words, and find 1 more and 1 less than a number.
- Know number bonds within 20 and the subtraction facts that go with them, including missing number problems.
- Add and subtract one-digit and two-digit numbers to 20, including 0.
- Solve simple multiplication and division problems using objects, pictures and arrays, with the teacher’s help.
- Find a half and a quarter of a shape, an object or a quantity.
- Tell the time to the hour and half past, and use the days of the week, months and years.
- Recognise coins and notes, and name common 2-D and 3-D shapes.
English in Year 1
- Use phonics to read: a sound for each of the 40+ phonemes, and blending sounds to read unfamiliar words.
- Read common exception words, such as said, was and friend, which do not follow the usual patterns.
- Read books that match the sounds they know, and reread them to build fluency.
- Name the letters of the alphabet in order, and spell the days of the week and words using the sounds taught.
- Form lower-case letters correctly, as well as capital letters and the digits 0 to 9.
- Write sentences with spaces between words, joined with and, starting with a capital letter and ending with a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark.
Tests and assessments in Year 1
- Phonics screening check
- In June
- Your child reads 40 words aloud, one to one, to a teacher they know. Some are real words and some are made-up words, so children have to decode rather than remember. The school tells you whether your child met the expected standard. Children who did not take it again in Year 2.
Book bands by school year
Most Year 1 readers move through the blue, green and orange bands. See what each band means, and the reading age most often printed against it.
An interactive example loads here in your browser.
Is your child in Year 1?
Enter a date of birth to see the year group today, and the dates that matter from Reception to Year 7.
A school year finder loads here in your browser: enter a date of birth to see the year group.
How to help at home in Year 1
- Practise sounding out and blending with the sounds your child is learning, said the same way as at school.
- Read made-up words for fun, such as zort or blim: decoding a word you have never seen is exactly what the phonics check asks.
- Count everyday things in 2s, 5s and 10s: socks, fingers, coins.
- Read the time together at o’clock and half past, and talk about the days of the week and the months.
Other year groups
Questions parents ask
What age is Year 1?
Children in Year 1 are 5 or 6 years old. Children in the same year group are born between 1 September in one year and 31 August the next, so each child turns 6 at some point during Year 1.
What key stage is Year 1?
Year 1 is the first year of Key Stage 1. Key Stage 1 is Years 1 and 2, ages 5 to 7.
What is the Year 1 phonics check?
A short check in June where your child reads 40 words aloud to a teacher. Half are real words and half are made-up words, to see whether they can decode using phonics.
What happens if my child does not meet the phonics standard?
Nothing is lost. The school gives extra phonics support, and your child takes the check again in June of Year 2.
Building the basics for later years
The early years are about sounds, stories and number sense, not tests. When your child reaches Years 4 to 6, our free diagnostic checks maths, English and both kinds of reasoning and shows what to practise next. No card is required.