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Year 1 common exception words

All 45 words the national curriculum in England lists for Year 1, in 5 sets of 9. Each set opens as a ready practice packet.

PDF makes a 12-page A4 packet in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.

Year 1 common exception words in 5 sets
SetWords, as the document writes themA4 pagesPacket
1the, a, do, to, today, of, said, says, are12 Edit set 1
2were, was, is, his, has, I, you, your, they12 Edit set 2
3be, he, me, she, we, no, go, so, by12 Edit set 3
4my, here, there, where, love, come, some, one, once12 Edit set 4
5ask, friend, school, put, push, pull, full, house, our12 Edit set 5

Source: English Appendix 1: Spelling, part of the national curriculum in England (Department for Education, 2013), read on 2026-11-10. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Spellwren is not affiliated with the Department for Education. The sets are our own split.

What each packet holds

A teacher page, a Monday to Thursday homework menu, trace and write, word shapes, ABC order, missing letters, word scramble, word search, look-cover-write-check, a test sheet and answer keys: 12 A4 pages for every set. Press Edit to change the words, the line size or the paper before you download.

Make a packet from your own listLook, cover, write, check only

Questions

Are the Year 1 common exception words a statutory list?

The requirement to teach common exception words is statutory; the words themselves are printed in the example words column and end with "and/or others, according to the programme used". The appendix says: "In this spelling appendix, the left-hand column is statutory; the middle and right-hand columns are non-statutory guidance."

What is a common exception word?

A word a child needs often in which a letter or group of letters stands for a sound in a way not yet taught, such as said or was. The appendix calls them exception words.

Can a one-letter word go in a packet?

Yes. The words a and I are printed as they are in the trace, test and look-cover-write-check pages; the scramble prints a one-letter word unchanged.

Is the split into sets official?

No. The document prints one run of 45 words. The 5 sets of 9 are ours, in the document's order, which keeps look-alike words such as he, me, she, we together.

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