The National Literacy Strategy (NLS) "Framework for Teaching" identifies an essential set of words that your child needs to learn “even to tackle very simple texts”. It also gives teachers guidance on how to teach your child to read.

According to the NLS; “these words play an important part in holding together the general coherence of texts and teachers are encouraged to get their pupils to recognise them as soon as possible so they can get pace and accuracy into their reading at an early stage. Some of these words have irregular or difficult spellings and, because they often play an important grammatical part, they are hard to predict from the surrounding text.”

Below are listed the 45 high frequency words that your child will be expected to read on sight, in and out of context, by the end of their first year in school.

All love2read reading books are based on these high frequency words so your child will have a head start!

Reception year

Source: NLS Framework for Teaching

To download some colourful free pictures for your child's bedroom walls which highlight these key words  please  click here

They're an excellent reminder of the crucial first key words and can also be used to play games.You can pick one or two words, for example; 'I' and 'see', then hide copies of them around the house or garden and see if they can find them!

Between ages 4 and 7, children are also expected to learn the following (“Key Stage One”) words:

• days of the week
• months of the year
• numbers to twenty
• common colour words
• pupil's name and address
• name and address of school