Key Stage One – Laying the Foundation of Phonics and Early Math

Key Stage One might be the first part of your child’s school education – but it’s also one of the most crucial to their future enjoyment of learning!

While it’s easy to assume that a few months of lost learning won’t have a significant impact at a young age, the opposite is true. Last summer, the ETS team received an unprecedented volume of calls from Year One parents, hugely concerned with the weeks of missed school.

Many families have faced challenges in helping primary students catch up. They have bypassed essential reading, spelling, and maths elements yet progressed into a new year group without pause.

Engaging a private tutor can, and does, provide a substantial benefit for Key Stage One learners and it can support young children in feeling more confident, engaged, and ready to learn when they step into the classroom.

The Impact of Lost Learning in Key Stage One Students

 

Let’s begin by recapping the hurdles our smallest learners are dealing with:

• Topics such as math’s and phonics are fundamental building blocks, which their ongoing attainment is reliant on.
  
   
• Many schools have struggled to adapt their curriculum plans to bridge varying gaps and don’t have the capacity to adjust lessons to better help students who are beginning to feel left behind.
  
   
• Frustration builds quickly, where pupils lack essential skills they should have been taught, leading to profound anxiety, particularly with math’s.
  
   

While much focus has been on GCSE and A-Level students, early years’ education paves the way for every pupil’s experience throughout primary school and onto secondary. Year One is perhaps the most vital in embedding reading and mathematical concepts.

Any primary child finding school a challenge, or experiencing learning-associated stress, will benefit from private tuition throughout the eleven years of education ahead.

Expectations for Learning Levels at The End of Year One

If you’re concerned that your child has suffered from a lack of understanding due to lost classroom time, let’s summaries the core expectations for Year One students:

• Knowledge of all 44 phonemes for reading.
  
   
• The ability to count, read and write numbers up to 100.
  
   
• Accurate reading using sound blending.
  
   
• Skills in multiplying in twos, fives, and tens.
  
   
• Reading words with plurals and endings such as -ing, -ed, and -est.
  
   
• Understand general numerical vocabulary such as equal, difference, fractions etc
  
   

While children are often resilient and can make up for lost time, this isn’t a general expectation parents can rely on. Many will miss some, or all, of the markers listed above this year. Parents, guardians and carers can find more information online through the Letters and Sounds website, with daily lessons to show the skills Year One children are expected to work on.

Schools tend to follow a structured phonics programme. However, the task of assisting every student in classes of up to 30 learners is an enormous one. To add to the issue, the government cancelled phonics assessments at the end of Year One last year due to school closures. Therefore, many schools have no way of identifying students with considerable learning gaps.

Taking action now is a proactive opportunity to support pupils who are struggling.  It will ensure they can hit every benchmark with the assurance that their tutor will help them gain a thorough grasp of any learning areas they haven’t yet understood.

How to Support KS1 children with Catch-Up Learning 

 

Elite Tutors Sussex offers a private, tailored service to appoint an exceptional tutor to support your primary student in recovering lost learning.

Every qualified tutor we recommend has real-life classroom experience and provides bespoke tuition based on your child’s preferences, personality, and topics where they need the most support. We only offer qualified teachers to primary aged children as we know how important learning to read, write and to be numerical is.

We know that the better the quality of early years provision, the greater a student’s long-term outcomes. Therefore, our dedicated tutors focus on fundamental principles to make learning fun, dynamic, and ultimately something children will enjoy while improving their life chances.

A qualified primary teacher, working as a tutor to deliver tasks and assessments in conjunction with school learning, including evaluations to pinpoint those crucial lost learning areas in topics such as:

• Reading 
  
   
• Writing
  
   
• Maths
  
   
• Science
  
   
• Speaking and listening
  
   

Within those, phonics and early maths are the vital topics most essential to successful learning across the other elements of the UK National Curriculum.

Parents who have invested in additional support through using a private tutor find that the learner not only bolsters their understanding but gains confidence, encouragement and interest in exploring topics that matter so greatly to their ongoing education.

Choosing a Key Stage One Phonics and Early Math Tutor

 

The best math tutors Brighton for your child will depend on a range of factors, with a bespoke matching service to ensure the tuition is highly tailored to the most beneficial learning style.

That includes:

• Helping academically advanced children who require a greater intellectual challenge to ensure they have the opportunity to reach their potential.
  
   
• Assisting children who find school daunting or feel that they aren’t progressing at the same rate as their peers.
  
   
• Crafting lessons to the child and delivering materials in ways they can absorb and understand, where mainstream learning techniques do not meet their needs.
  
   
• Ensuring pupils with learning differences have accessible teaching styles and one-to-one support to further their understanding of baseline subjects.
  
   

Key Stage One and indeed the breadth of primary years learning is a tender stage, perhaps the most vulnerable to disruption. The adverse impacts of the pandemic and lost education will rebound across the years to come.

Helping your child overcome fears and frustrations at the primary level, and at this pivotal moment in time, is an excellent way to cement the core phonics and maths knowledge they need to succeed. Engaging the services of a private tutor is the most effective way of reinforcing those skills and enhances the aptitude required to progress onto a new phase of school life with confidence.

For more information about Key Stage One tutors and how it may help your child in every aspect of their learning, please contact the education professionals at Elite Tutors Sussex for personal, tailored recommendations.

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