What Your Child Will Learn in Year 1: A Term-by-Term Overview
Year 1 is a big shift. Your child moves from the play-based Early Years Foundation Stage into the more structured national curriculum. There's more sitting, more formal learning, and more expectation. But it's also a year of incredible growth.
Here's what your child will actually be learning — broken down by subject and term — so you know what's coming and how to support them at home.
The big picture
Year 1 is the first year of Key Stage 1 (KS1). The national curriculum sets out what schools must teach, but individual schools have some flexibility in when they teach each topic and how they approach it. This overview follows the most common pattern, but your child's school may do things in a slightly different order.
The core subjects are English (reading, writing, spelling, grammar), maths, and science. Foundation subjects include history, geography, art, design and technology, music, PE, computing, and PSHE (personal, social, health and economic education).
English
Reading
Reading is the centrepiece of Year 1. Your child will:
Autumn term: Continue systematic phonics, learning Phase 5 sounds (alternative pronunciations and spellings). Start reading simple sentences and short books independently. Practise blending sounds to read unfamiliar words.
Spring term: Build reading fluency and expression. Start to recognise common exception words (words that don't follow phonics rules, like "said," "the," "was"). Read longer texts and start to answer simple comprehension questions.
Summer term: Read with increasing independence and confidence. Discuss stories, predict what might happen, and retell narratives. The Year 1 phonics screening check happens in June — a simple, one-to-one assessment of 40 words.
Writing
Autumn term: Form lower-case letters correctly, sitting on the line. Write simple sentences with capital letters, full stops, and finger spaces. Spell words using phonics knowledge.
Spring term: Write sequences of sentences to form short narratives. Use "and" to join ideas. Begin to use question marks and exclamation marks. Spell common exception words correctly.
Summer term: Write for different purposes — stories, instructions, descriptions. Re-read their own writing to check it makes sense. Spell words with common patterns (e.g., adding -s, -es, -ing, -ed).
Spelling and grammar
Year 1 introduces basic grammar terminology. Your child will learn about nouns, verbs, adjectives, and the prefix "un-." They'll learn to use capital letters for names and "I," and begin to punctuate sentences consistently.
Maths
Maths in Year 1 covers six main areas.
Number and place value
Autumn term: Count to and across 100 from any starting number. Read and write numbers to 20. Understand "one more" and "one less." Begin to understand tens and ones (place value to 20).
Spring term: Extend place value understanding. Compare numbers using greater than, less than, and equals. Count in twos, fives, and tens.
Summer term: Order numbers to 50 and beyond. Identify patterns in number sequences.
Addition and subtraction
Autumn term: Add and subtract within 10 using objects, number lines, and mental methods. Learn number bonds to 10 (pairs that make 10, like 3+7).
Spring term: Add and subtract within 20. Solve one-step word problems. Begin to record number sentences (3 + 4 = 7).
Summer term: Develop fluency with addition and subtraction facts. Solve missing number problems (7 = ? - 2).
Multiplication and division
Spring/Summer terms: Solve problems involving groups and sharing. Count in twos, fives, and tens. Understand doubling and halving with small numbers. No formal multiplication tables yet — this is about building conceptual understanding.
Fractions
Summer term: Recognise and find halves and quarters of objects, shapes, and small quantities. Understand that a half is one of two equal parts.
Measurement
Throughout the year: Compare and measure lengths, weights, and capacities. Recognise coins and notes. Tell the time to the hour and half past. Know the days of the week and months of the year.
Geometry
Throughout the year: Recognise and name common 2D shapes (circles, triangles, squares, rectangles) and 3D shapes (cubes, cuboids, spheres, cylinders, pyramids). Describe position and direction (left, right, above, below, half turn, quarter turn).
If you'd like to support your child's maths at home, Spark Learn covers all 23 Year 1 maths topics with worksheets that match the national curriculum — handy for a bit of extra practice without having to figure out what they should be working on.
Science
Year 1 science is taught through four main topics.
Plants (Spring/Summer)
Identify common wild and garden plants. Name the basic parts of a plant (roots, stem, leaves, flowers). Observe how plants grow over time.
Animals including humans (Autumn/Spring)
Identify common animals (mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians). Name body parts. Describe what animals (including humans) need to survive. Classify animals by what they eat (herbivore, carnivore, omnivore).
Everyday materials (Autumn)
Identify everyday materials (wood, plastic, glass, metal, water, rock). Describe their properties (hard, soft, stretchy, rough). Compare and group materials.
Seasonal changes (Throughout the year)
Observe changes across the four seasons. Describe weather patterns. Notice how day length changes throughout the year.
Foundation subjects
History
Events beyond living memory (e.g., the Great Fire of London, the first aeroplane flight). Changes within living memory. Significant individuals (e.g., Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole).
Geography
Name and locate the four countries and capital cities of the UK. Understand geographical vocabulary: hill, mountain, river, sea, beach. Use simple maps and give directional instructions.
Art and design
Use drawing, painting, and sculpture. Learn about the work of famous artists. Develop techniques with colour, pattern, and texture.
Design and technology
Design and make simple products. Learn about mechanisms (sliders, levers, wheels). Prepare simple dishes (cutting, peeling, grating) with a focus on healthy eating.
Music
Sing songs and chants. Play tuned and untuned instruments. Listen to and discuss different types of music.
Computing
Understand what algorithms are (sequences of instructions). Create simple programs. Use technology safely and respectfully.
PE
Master basic movements (running, jumping, throwing, catching). Team games. Gymnastics and dance.
PSHE
Relationships, health and wellbeing, and living in the wider world. This includes feelings, friendships, keeping safe, and healthy lifestyles.
How to support learning at home
You don't need to replicate school at home. The most impactful things are often the simplest:
Read together every day. This is the single most valuable thing you can do. Even five minutes makes a difference. Let your child read to you, and read to them too — hearing fluent reading builds vocabulary and comprehension.
Talk about maths in daily life. Counting, measuring, sharing equally, telling the time, handling money. Real-world maths is powerful.
Be curious together. When your child asks "why?" — explore the answer together. That curiosity is the engine of all learning.
Keep it short and positive. If you're practising reading or maths at home, ten minutes of enthusiastic practice beats thirty minutes of reluctant slog. Spark Learn is designed with this in mind — short, focused practice sessions that fit into busy family life.
Don't panic about the phonics check. The Year 1 phonics screening is low-key. It's a one-to-one assessment where your child reads 40 words aloud. There's no pass or fail — it simply identifies children who need extra support. If your child is reading regularly and learning phonics at school, they'll most likely be fine.
The year ahead
Year 1 asks a lot of young children. The transition from play-based learning to a more formal curriculum is significant, and some children take longer to adjust than others.
But by the end of the year, most children will be reading simple books independently, writing several sentences, adding and subtracting confidently, and knowing an impressive amount about the world around them.
It's a big year. And it's a brilliant one.