Reading, phonics and early number for Year 1, the year decoding has to become automatic and place value begins, with a free Skills Check first and a tutor who hears your child read every session.
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If you are looking for a Year 1 tutor, this page explains what Year 1 actually involves in Victorian schools, where students most often get stuck, what we teach, how sessions run for children aged 6 and 7, what it costs and how to start. RHZ Tutoring is a small local centre at 17/47 Apex Drive, Truganina VIC 3029, rated 5.0 on Google, tutoring in person and online across Melbourne's west and Australia-wide.
Year 1 is the year reading either clicks or starts to lag. The Victorian Curriculum expects a Year 1 child to decode words with digraphs and consonant blends, to read simple texts with growing fluency, to spell common words and plausible attempts at others, and to write short sentences with capital letters and full stops. In maths the year moves from counting to place value: numbers to at least 100 as tens and ones, counting forwards and backwards by ones, twos, fives and tens, addition and subtraction with strategies such as counting on and doubles, halves of shapes and collections, time to the half hour, and simple data and chance language.
Two things make Year 1 a pressure point. The first is the Year 1 Phonics Check, which Victorian government schools now run in Term 3: forty words, real and made-up, read aloud to the teacher, which tells you plainly whether decoding is secure. The second is that Year 1 is when a class spreads out. Some children are reading chapter books by Term 3 while others are still sounding out three-letter words, and a big class cannot give the second group the daily one-to-one reading they need. That is exactly what a Year 1 tutor is for.
Start the free Year 1 Skills Check → Book a free consultation Call 03 9509 3293
Year 1 maths turns counting into number sense. A child needs to see 47 as four tens and seven ones, to count on from a number rather than from one, to know doubles to ten and the pairs that make ten, and to use those facts to add and subtract without counting every object. We use tens frames, bundles of sticks and number lines, and we make the strategies explicit so a child can explain how they got an answer, not just that they got it.
More on the Year 1 maths tutoring page.
Year 1 English is the year decoding has to become automatic so that comprehension can start. The curriculum expects a Year 1 child to know digraphs (sh, ch, th, ee, oa and the rest), to blend longer words, to read decodable and then simple levelled texts with fluency, to spell high-frequency words and to write recounts and simple narratives. Our Year 1 tutors hear the child read every session, teach the next sounds in sequence, and correct spelling at the point of writing.
More on the Year 1 English tutoring page.
Year 1 science covers light and sound, the features and habitats of living things, everyday materials and changes in the sky and landscape over a day and a year. We do not run stand-alone Year 1 science sessions; where a family asks, the tutor uses a short science-style observation as the reading or writing text for the week, which builds vocabulary and the habit of describing and explaining.
These are the topics our Year 1 tutors cover, by year level, drawn from the curriculum-aligned question banks that power the free Skills Check.
Year 1 sessions are an hour, one-to-one, and always start with the child reading aloud for five to ten minutes while the tutor listens and notes errors. Then a phonics teaching point and practice, ten minutes of writing, and the second half on number: a quick facts game, then the week's concept with materials, then a few written problems. The tutor keeps a running record of sounds and number facts that are secure and sends you a note after each session with one thing to practise.
One-to-one, in person, is our recommendation for Year 1, for the same reason as Prep: the child needs to read aloud to an adult who is listening. Online works for some Year 1 children with a parent alongside, particularly for maths, and we will tell you after the Skills Check whether we think it will suit your child. Small groups are better left until Year 3.
For Year 1 we recommend one-to-one at $35 an hour; small groups (from $25 an hour) are available from Year 3. Across all year levels, small groups are from $25 an hour and one-to-one is $35 to $45 an hour, with VCE at the top of the range. Plans are monthly, you choose how many sessions a week, and you can cancel any time. The Skills Check and the consultation are free. Online and in-person sessions cost the same.
Here is a typical week for a Year 1 student doing two subjects with us. Most families run one session a week per subject; two a week is worth it in the term before NAPLAN, a scholarship or selective test, or the VCE exams.
Before or alongside tutoring, your child can try our free online practice quizzes for Year 1, built from the same curriculum-aligned question banks as the Skills Check. They are short, marked instantly, and a good way to see which topics need work.
Usually yes, provided the tutor teaches phonics systematically and hears the child read every session. Most Year 1 reading gaps are decoding gaps, and they close in a term or two with daily short practice. The free Skills Check will show whether the gap is decoding, sight words or comprehension.
It is a short check run in Term 3 in Victorian government schools: the child reads forty words, some real and some made-up, to the teacher. You do not need to prepare for it as a test; you need to make sure the child knows the sounds. That is what our Year 1 English tutoring does.
Some do. A child who is still counting from one for every sum, or who cannot say what 34 is made of, will struggle with Year 2 regrouping. Fixing number facts and place value in Year 1 takes a few weeks; fixing them in Year 4 takes a term.
For some children, yes, with a parent beside them and the tutor able to see the page. We are honest about this after the Skills Check; for most Year 1 readers we recommend in person.
Ten minutes a night: read the book aloud, then a couple of minutes on the sound cards or number facts. Consistency matters more than length.
One-to-one is $35 an hour. The Skills Check and consultation are free. Plans are monthly with no lock-in, and you can pause over the holidays.
Start the free Year 1 Skills Check → Book a free consultation Call 03 9509 3293
Year 1 by subject: Year 1 Maths tutoring · Year 1 English tutoring
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