Language
Language for interacting with others
Explore how language is used differently at home, in school and in communities depending on the relationships between people
WAPELAI1
For example:
- interacting with adults and peers in a range of situations, such as play, role-play and partner, group and whole class activities to experiment with language
- using the home languages of the diverse cultures represented to explore how languages build social and personal connection, such as greetings and songs
Explore different ways of using language to express opinions, likes and dislikes
WAPELAI2
For example:
- participating in informal discussions during the day about their interests and curiosities
- using connecting words, such as when and but, when exploring the language of opinion
- experimenting with comparative language, such as good, better, best
Text structure, organisation and features
Understand that texts can take many forms, such as signs, books and digital texts
WAPELAT1
For example:
- exploring different text forms and engaging with their features, such as commenting on the purpose of a sign or discussing a photograph in an informative book
- exploring how different texts affect an audience, and can prompt emotional reactions, such as picture books can be shared for enjoyment
Recognise that some language in written texts is unlike everyday spoken language
WAPELAT2
For example:
- knowing words and phrases like Once upon a time, said the boy and the end that are commonly used in stories but are not typically used in everyday language
- identifying some subject‑specific language in informative texts
- exploring repetition and rhyme in texts
Explore conventions of print and screen, including how books and simple digital texts are usually organised
WAPELAT3
For example:
- identifying English text direction of left to right and top to bottom
- developing print awareness by exploring the ways words and images are placed in texts
- using navigation features to read a digital text, such as using the scroll bar to continue viewing a text on a website
Language for expressing and developing ideas
Recognise that sentences are key units for expressing ideas
WAPELALA1
For example:
- exploring how oral sentences express meaning, such as in questions or statements
- exploring how sentences in written texts contain a full idea and make sense
- responding to who, when, what and where questions to add information to sentences when needed
Recognise that sentences are made up of groups of words that work together in particular ways to make meaning
WAPELALA2
For example:
- communicating the ideas represented in sentences, such as identifying that the sentence The cat ate its dinner is about a cat that ate
Explore the contribution of images and words to meaning in stories and informative texts
WAPELALA3
For example:
- interacting with images in picture books, short films and other multimodal texts and discussing what they are communicating to the reader or why they were included
Recognise and develop awareness of vocabulary used in familiar contexts related to everyday experiences, personal interests and topics taught at school
WAPELALA4
Identify punctuation as a feature of written text different from letters; recognise that capital letters are used for names, and that capital letters also signal the beginning of sentences while punctuation marks signal the end
WAPELALA5
For example:
- sorting letters into upper- and lower-case
- identifying full stops, question marks and exclamation marks in texts and experimenting with their use when writing
Phonic and word knowledge
Recognise and generate rhyming words, alliteration patterns, syllables and sounds (phonemes) in spoken words (phonological awareness)
WAPELAP1
For example:
- listening for, identifying and generating rhyming pairs, such as funny/money
- using alliteration, such as happy Harry, to explore phonemes
Segment sentences into individual words and orally blend and segment single-syllable spoken words; isolate, blend and manipulate phonemes in single-syllable words (phonological awareness)
WAPELAP2
For example:
- clapping and counting the words in sentences
- segmenting and blending words orally, such as mat, ship, with, truck
- identifying, deleting or substituting beginning, medial and final sounds in single-syllable words, such as hot – pot, hot – hit, hot – hop
Recognise and name all upper- and lower‑case letters (graphs) and know the most common sound that each letter represents
WAPELAP3
For example:
- exploring phoneme–grapheme correspondences discovered in meaningful contexts, such as shared reading or in environmental print
- identifying and recalling phoneme–grapheme correspondences, such as
- common initial sounds (phonemes)
- common consonant digraphs, such as <sh>, <ch>, <th> (voiced/unvoiced)
- common phoneme–grapheme correspondences, such as when <s> makes the [z] sound in the final position in words such as is, was, his
- short vowel sounds
[a] hat,
[e] pet,
[i] tip,
[o] hot,
[u] tub
presented early in the sequence to combine with consonants
Write consonant–vowel–consonant (CVC) words by representing sounds with the appropriate letters, and blend sounds associated with letters when reading CVC words
WAPELAP4
Use knowledge of letters and sounds to spell words
WAPELAP5
For example:
- using knowledge of letter names when spelling words, such as mi (my) and hape (happy)
- using knowledge of sounds to spell words, such as yung (young) and workt (walked)
Read and write some high‑frequency words and other familiar words
WAPELAP6
For example:
- reading and writing familiar words, such as names or environmental words
- reading and writing frequently occurring words, such as a, and, for, he, in, is, it, of, that, the, to, was, you
Explore how words are units of meaning and can be made of more than one meaningful part
WAPELAP7
For example:
- recognising when an <s> is added to a base word, such as ball, it makes a plural
- exploring how <ed> indicates past tense when added to a word, such as talk, talked
- recognising that an antonym of a word can be made by adding a prefix, such as <un> unhappy