Free reference

School year & grade equivalents by country

Most reading advice online is written in US grades. If your child is in Reception, Prep, Primary 2 or Junior Infants, here is exactly what that means in the other systems — lined up by your child's age at the start of the school year.

Grade and year equivalents, age by age

Ages are the child's age at the start of the school year. Cut-off dates differ from country to country — and from state to state in Australia — so a child with a birthday near the cut-off can sit a year either side of the row that matches their age.

Age	US	England & Wales	Scotland	Australia	New Zealand	Ireland	Canada (Ontario)
4–5	Pre-K / TK	Reception	Primary 1	Prep / Foundation / Kindergarten (NSW) / Reception (SA) / Pre-primary (WA)	Year 1 (children start on their 5th birthday)	Junior Infants	Junior Kindergarten (JK)
5–6	Kindergarten	Year 1	Primary 2	Year 1	Year 2	Senior Infants	Senior Kindergarten (SK)
6–7	1st Grade	Year 2	Primary 3	Year 2	Year 3	1st Class	Grade 1
7–8	2nd Grade	Year 3	Primary 4	Year 3	Year 4	2nd Class	Grade 2
8–9	3rd Grade	Year 4	Primary 5	Year 4	Year 5	3rd Class	Grade 3
9–10	4th Grade	Year 5	Primary 6	Year 5	Year 6	4th Class	Grade 4

A few things worth knowing. Australia names its first year differently in every state, and New South Wales confusingly calls it Kindergarten — a full year earlier than the American one. New Zealand children traditionally start school on their fifth birthday rather than in a single yearly intake, so Year 1 is often a part-year. Canada has no national system; the column here is Ontario, the largest province. And the Southern Hemisphere school year starts in late January or early February, so an Australian Year 2 and a US 1st grade are only in step for part of the calendar year.

Where phonics is formally checked

The bigger difference between these systems is not what the year is called — it is whether anyone checks that your child can actually decode, and when.

England

Phonics Screening Check at the end of Year 1 (age 5–6)

Every child in a state school sits it in June of Year 1. A teacher asks the child to read 40 words aloud one-to-one: 20 real words and 20 pseudo-words (made-up words like 'blan' and 'strom', shown next to a little alien so children know they are not real). The pseudo-words are the point — they cannot be memorised or guessed from a picture, so they test decoding rather than sight vocabulary. The expected standard is 32 out of 40. A child who does not meet it gets extra phonics support and retakes the check in Year 2.

Australia

Year 1 Phonics Check — mandatory in South Australia and NSW

Adapted from the English check and run the same way: 40 words, half of them pseudo-words, one-to-one with a teacher. South Australia made it mandatory in government schools in 2018 and New South Wales in 2021; other states and territories have since adopted it or run it as a trial, so whether your child sits it depends on where you live.

United States

No national check — state screeners instead

There is no equivalent federal check. Instead, most states require early literacy screening two or three times a year using tools such as DIBELS or Acadience, which measure letter-sound fluency, nonsense-word reading and oral reading fluency. Around 40 states have passed 'Science of Reading' laws since 2013 covering screening, instruction and teacher training, so the details vary a great deal by state.

New Zealand

Phonics checks at 20 and 40 weeks of school (from 2025)

As part of its structured-literacy rollout, New Zealand introduced short phonics checks after a child's first 20 weeks and 40 weeks at school, starting in 2025. Like the English check they use real and made-up words read one-to-one with the teacher, and the results go to parents so support can start early.

Ireland and Canada

No mandatory phonics check

Neither system runs a compulsory national phonics screening check. Schools use their own assessments, so a decoding problem can go unnoticed for longer. That makes it worth checking at home: ask your child to read a few made-up words like 'zim', 'blan' and 'strom' and see whether they can sound them out.

Reading milestones by age, not grade

Once you have translated the year group, stop using it. Reading skill tracks age and practice far more closely than it tracks the label on your child's classroom door, and the label moves depending on which side of a cut-off date their birthday falls.

What is worth watching is the sequence: hearing rhymes and single sounds first, then blending letters into words, then sounding out a word they have never seen before, then reading smoothly enough that they can think about the meaning. A child who can only read words they have memorised is the most commonly missed warning sign in every one of these systems.

Our reading by age and grade hub sets out what to expect and what to watch for at each age, in plain language rather than curriculum jargon. If you want to know how much practice that actually takes at home, the reading time calculator gives you a daily target by age — and it takes an age, so it works whatever your country calls the year.

Not sure where your child should be?

We'll send you the age-by-age reading milestones and a simple, parent-led phonics routine — written for the sounds, not for any one country's curriculum.

No spam. Unsubscribe any time.

Frequently asked questions

What is kindergarten called in the UK?

In England and Wales, the year that matches US kindergarten is Year 1 — children turn 6 during it. The year before that, Reception, matches US Pre-K or transitional kindergarten and is when most English children turn 5. In Scotland the equivalent of US kindergarten is Primary 2. 'Kindergarten' is not a stage of school in the UK at all; the closest thing in everyday use is nursery, which is pre-school and typically for 3- and 4-year-olds.

What grade is Year 1 in the US?

English and Welsh Year 1 lines up with US kindergarten, not 1st grade. The offset catches almost every parent out, because the numbers look like they should match: Year 2 is US 1st grade, Year 3 is 2nd grade, and so on — English year groups run one number ahead of US grades from age 5 upward. So if a reading list says 'suitable for Year 2', an American parent should read that as 1st grade.

Is Prep the same as kindergarten?

It is the same stage of school, but not the same age as US kindergarten. Prep — called Foundation in the national curriculum, Kindergarten in New South Wales, Reception in South Australia and Pre-primary in Western Australia — is the first year of school in Australia, for children who are mostly 5 during the year. That makes it a match for US Pre-K or transitional kindergarten, with Australian Year 1 matching US kindergarten. The confusing part is that New South Wales uses the word 'Kindergarten' for that first year, a full year earlier than the American one.

Keep reading

Wondering whether your child is behind for their age? Take the 2-minute reading check, or browse our reading guides by topic.