The phonics screening check is a national assessment given to all Year 1 children (age 5–6) in England every June. A child reads 40 words aloud to their teacher, who records each one as correct or not. Schools use the results to identify children needing extra phonics support, not to rank pupils.
What is the phonics screening check?
The check is a one-to-one assessment between a child and their class teacher or teaching assistant, lasting approximately four to five minutes. It is not a formal written exam — the child simply reads 40 words printed on a card, one at a time, while the assessor records whether each word is read correctly.
The 40 words are split evenly:
- 20 real words (common English words such as "train", "chest", "sprint")
- 20 pseudo-words or nonsense words (made-up combinations that follow phonics rules, such as "vap", "skoob", "terg")
Pseudo-words are illustrated with alien characters to signal to the child that the word is invented. This is deliberate: real words can be recognised by sight memory without phonics decoding, but nonsense words can only be read by applying phonics rules. The pseudo-words therefore test pure decoding rather than vocabulary recall.
Why are pseudo-words (alien words) included?
A child who has a large sight vocabulary can appear fluent at reading without actually being able to decode unfamiliar words. This matters because later reading — in Years 2 and beyond — involves increasingly unfamiliar vocabulary. If a child cannot decode phonics patterns, they will struggle as texts become more complex.
Including nonsense words forces the check to test the underlying skill: can this child look at a sequence of letters and reliably sound it out? A child who reads "skoob" correctly is applying the same skill they need to decode "scope" or "scuba" when they encounter those words for the first time.
Research by the Education Endowment Foundation consistently shows that systematic phonics instruction — and early identification of children who have not yet secured it — significantly improves reading outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged pupils.
What is the pass threshold?
The Department for Education sets a pass threshold each year based on national results. In recent years the threshold has been set at 32 out of 40. A child who scores 32 or above is recorded as meeting the expected standard for phonics.
| Score | Outcome |
|---|---|
| 32–40 | Meets the expected standard |
| Below 32 | Does not yet meet the expected standard — additional support recommended |
The threshold is not fixed permanently — the government reviews it each year and publishes it alongside national results in the autumn term. Scores below 32 do not carry a formal grade or label; the result simply triggers additional phonics support during Year 1 and a retake in Year 2.
What happens if a child does not meet the threshold?
A child who scores below 32 in Year 1 does not fail a year, receive a grade, or face any formal consequence. The result indicates that the child has not yet fully secured phonics decoding and would benefit from additional support. Schools use this information to:
- Continue systematic phonics teaching in Year 2
- Provide targeted small-group or one-to-one phonics intervention
- Monitor progress through the year
The child then retakes the phonics screening check in the summer of Year 2. Schools report both the Year 1 score (if any) and the Year 2 score to parents in the annual report.
How can parents support phonics at home?
The most valuable support parents can give is regular, short reading sessions at home using the phonics scheme their school uses. Key habits include:
- Sounding out new words rather than guessing from pictures or context: when your child hesitates, prompt them to say each sound and blend them together
- Reading decodable books matched to your child's current phonics phase — books selected by the school, or available through many school reading schemes
- Praising the process, not the result: "I love how you sounded that out" builds the habit of decoding
- Avoiding over-reliance on sight words at the expense of phonics: sight memory is useful but should work alongside decoding, not instead of it
Sessions of 10–15 minutes, four or five times a week, have more impact than occasional long sessions.
Frequently asked questions
When exactly does the phonics screening check take place?
The check is administered during a designated week in June, typically the third or fourth week. The exact dates are published by the government each academic year. Schools are allowed to administer the check to individual children at any point during the designated week; the child does not need to attend on a specific day.
Will parents see the actual check paper?
No. The specific words used in each year's check are confidential until after the national administration window closes, to ensure they are not practised in advance. After the window closes, the materials are released publicly. Parents receive their child's result (the score and whether they met the threshold) in the Year 1 school report issued before the end of term.
Is the phonics screening check used in Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland?
No. The phonics screening check is specific to England. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have their own literacy assessments at different stages of primary school. The check applies to children in maintained state schools in England; independent schools are not required to use it, though many choose to.
What is the difference between phonics and phonemic awareness?
Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words — for example, knowing that "cat" has three sounds: /k/, /æ/, /t/. Phonics builds on this by linking those sounds to printed letters and letter combinations (graphemes). The phonics screening check assesses phonics — the letter-to-sound relationship — rather than the spoken-language phonemic awareness that precedes it. Both skills are taught systematically from Reception onwards.
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