This is the Grade 1 English Home Language (HL) revised Annual Teaching Plan, with one file per term. It plans listening and speaking, phonics and reading week by week, starting with a three-week readiness programme and building towards reading phonic words and simple texts by the end of the year.
Each term is set out over 10 weeks with minimum and maximum times per skill area, for example Listening and Speaking 3 to 4 x 15 minutes a week and Phonics 5 x 15 minutes a week, with 1 to 2 new letters taught each week in Terms 1 and 2. Reading follows the daily Reading and Writing Focus Time of shared reading, shared writing, phonics and group guided reading.
Download the ATP
- Download Term 1 (PDF, 513 KB)
- Download Term 2 (PDF, 379 KB)
- Download Term 3 (PDF, 554 KB)
- Download Term 4 (PDF, 555 KB)
What the English HL Grade 1 ATP covers
Term 1
- Three-week readiness programme
- Listening to instructions and stories
- Songs, rhymes and poems with actions
- Describing objects by colour, size and shape
- Syllables, rhyming words and initial sounds
- Letter sounds: 2 vowels, 6 consonants
- Blending short words (at, c-at, m-at)
- Emergent reading and concepts of print
Formal assessment: Readiness and baseline assessment in weeks 2 and 3, informal and mostly by observation and oral work.
Term 2
- Taking turns in class discussions
- Telling news in the correct sequence
- Passing on messages and answering questions
- Beginning and end sounds of words
- Blending and segmenting (h-o-p)
- Word families (hot, hop, hob)
- Onset and rime, reading phonic words
Term 3
- Listening to instructions and announcements
- Drawing a picture and writing a caption
- Role play and subject vocabulary
- Building 3-letter words
- Consonant blends (bl, fl, sl)
- Digraphs sh, ch, th
- Shared reading: sequence, setting, cause and effect
- Self-monitoring and the Five Finger Strategy
Term 4
- Asking questions for clarification
- Telling a story with beginning, middle and end
- Riddles, jokes and word puzzles
- Digraphs at the start and end of words
- Consonant blends (sp, fr, dr, st)
- Plurals with s and es
- Spelling ten words a week
- Shared reading: predicting and story problems
Source: Department of Basic Education, 2023/24 Annual Teaching Plans. DBE Circular S19 of 2025 keeps the 2023/24 ATPs in use, with some exclusions, so check with your school or district for any changes.