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What are the phonics phases?

There are six different phases when it comes to teaching phonics. Each stage is progressive and works on top of the previous phase to gradually introduce new sounds and patterns to children who are learning.
Phase 1 starts to be taught in pre-school, continuing through the phases until phase 6, which usually ends in Year 2. Throughout this learning period, children will gradually build up their awareness of different phonemes and graphemes, building them up to become independent readers by the last phase.

Phase 1: Listen and learn different sounds.

Phase 2: Match letters with their sounds and read simple words.

Phase 3: Learn special letter pairs that make one sound.

Phase 4: Practise reading words with two or three sounds together.

Phase 5: Explore different ways to spell the same sound.

Phase 6: Become a better reader and speller with advanced skills.

Parents can help their child learn phonics at home by following the schools six phases. In the beginning, listen to different sounds together. Then, learn letters and their sounds. Explore special letter pairs and read stories with tricky words. As you go on, practise reading longer words. Have fun finding words that sound out the same but look different. Finally, talk about even fancier words with your child. Your support and excitement will make learning phonics together a lot of fun!

Home learning task

A task that can be done at home to influence your child’s learning is a ‘sound scavenger hunt’. First, create a list of sounds that relate to objects either in the house or outside of the house that all start with different letter sounds. For example, “s” for “sock”. Give the child a bag/basket and ask them to pick up the items that match the sounds on the list. Once they have finished, go through the items together, asking them to say the word aloud. Make sure to emphasise the starting sound and that they do this too. Celebrate their success to encourage their learning and to make the process rewarding and fun.

Sounds covered

– /a/

– /b/

– /c/

– /d/

– /e/

– /f/

– /g/

– /h/

– /i/

– /j/

– /k/

– /l/

– /m/

– /n/

– /o/

– /p/

– /q/

– /r/

– /s/

– /t/

– /u/

– /v/

– /w/

– /x/

– /y/

– /z/

Sounds covered

– /s/

– /a/

– /t/

– /p/

– /i/

– /n/

– /m/

– /d/

– /g/

– /o/

– /c/

– /k/

– /ck/

– /e/

– /u/

– /r/

– /h/

– /b/

– /f/

– /ff/

– /l/

– /ll/

– /ss/

Sounds covered

– /ai/

– /air/

– /ar/

– /ch/

– /ear/

– /ee/

– /er/

– /igh/

– /j/

– /ng/

– /oa/

– /oi/

– /oo/ as in ‘book’

– /oo/ as in ‘boot’

– /or/

– /ow/

– /qu/

– /sh/

– /th/

– /ur/

– /ure/

– /v/

– /w/

– /x/

– /y/

– /z/

– /zz/

Sounds covered

– /st/

– /nd/

– /mp/

– /nt/

– /nk/

– /ft/

– /sk/

– /lt/

– /lp/

– /lf/

– /lk/

– /pt/

– /xt/

– /tr/

– /dr/

– /gr/

– /cr/

– /br/

– /fr/

– /bl/

– /fl/

– /gl/

– /pl/

– /cl/

– /sl/

– /sp/

– /tw/

– /sm/

– /pr/

– /sc/

– /sk/

– /sn/

– /nch/

– /scr/

– /shr/

– /thr/

– /str/