Common Exception Words Year 1
Here are the common exception words for Year 1:
the, a, do, to, today, of, said, says, are, were, was, is, his, has, I, you, your, they, be, he, me, she, we, no, go, so, by, my, here, there, where, love, come, some, one, once, ask, friend, school, put, push, pull, full, house, our
Common Exception Words Year 2
Here are the common exception words for Year 2:
door, floor, poor, because, find, kind, mind, behind, child, children*, wild, climb, most, only, both, old, cold, gold, hold, told, every, everybody, even, great, break, steak, pretty, beautiful, after, fast, last, past, father, class, grass, pass, plant, path, bath, hour, move, prove, improve, sure, sugar, eye, could, should, would, who, whole, any, many, clothes, busy, people, water, again, half, money, Mr, Mrs, parents, Christmas
Note: ‘children’ is not an exception to what has been taught so far but is included because of its relationship with ‘child’.
Common Exception Words Year 3 and Year 4
By the time children get to KS2, there is a longer list of common exception words that should be taught across the phase group (Year 3 and Year 4) instead of per year.
Here are the common exception words for Year 3 and Year 4:
accident(ally), actual(ly), address, answer, appear, arrive, believe, bicycle, breath, breathe, build, busy/business, calendar, caught, centre, century, certain, circle, complete, consider, continue, decide, describe, different, difficult, disappear, early, earth, eight/eighth, enough, exercise, experience, experiment, extreme, famous, favourite, February, forward(s), fruit, grammar, group, guard, guide, heard heart, height, history, imagine, increase, important, interest, island, knowledge, learn, length, library, material, medicine, mention, minute, natural, naughty, notice, occasion(ally), often, opposite, ordinary, particular, peculiar, perhaps, popular, position, possess(ion), possible, potatoes, pressure, probably, promise, purpose, quarter, question, recent, regular, reign, remember, sentence, separate, special, straight, strange, strength, suppose, surprise, therefore, though/although, thought, through, various, weight, woman/women
Common Exception Words Year 5 and Year 6
Here are the common exception words for Year 5 and Year 6:
accommodate, accompany, according, achieve, aggressive, amateur, ancient, apparent, appreciate, attached, available, average, awkward, bargain, bruise, category, cemetery, committee, communicate, community, competition, conscience*, conscious*, controversy, convenience, correspond, criticise (critic + ise), curiosity, definite, desperate, determined, develop, dictionary, disastrous, embarrass, environment, equip (–ped, –ment), especially, exaggerate, excellent, existence, explanation, familiar, foreign, forty, frequently, government, guarantee, harass, hindrance, identity, immediate(ly), individual, interfere, interrupt, language, leisure, lightning, marvellous, mischievous, muscle, necessary, neighbour, nuisance, occupy, occur, opportunity, parliament, persuade, physical, prejudice, privilege, profession, programme, pronunciation, queue, recognise, recommend, relevant, restaurant, rhyme, rhythm, sacrifice, secretary, shoulder, signature, sincere(ly), soldier, stomach, sufficient, suggest, symbol, system, temperature, thorough, twelfth, variety, vegetable, vehicle, yacht
