English

First Level literacy takes children from decoding into reading for meaning. Phonics is consolidated and extended to longer words and common spelling patterns, and the focus shifts to fluency, expression and understanding — answering questions about a text, finding evidence and summarising what happened.

Writing becomes structured: children plan before they write, organise ideas into sentences and paragraphs, and write for different purposes — stories, recounts, instructions and simple reports. Punctuation moves beyond capitals and full stops into question marks, exclamation marks and commas in lists.

Listening and talking remain assessed in their own right, so presenting an idea to a group and responding to what others say are taught skills, not extras.