The Year 1 phonics check: what happens, and what the letter means

The short version

It happens in June, in Year 1, and it is 40 words.
Some of the words are made-up on purpose. That is not a trick.
If your child does not meet the standard, they take it again in Year 2. Nobody is held back.

🔒 There is almost nothing to buy on this page, and that is deliberate. A page about a child finding reading hard is the wrong place for a shop.

What is the phonics screening check?

It is a short reading check that every Year 1 child in England takes.

Your child sits with a teacher and reads 40 words out loud. The words are in two sets of 20. That is the whole thing.

It is not an exam. There is no paper to fill in, no time limit you need to worry about, and no result that follows your child around.

The government's own description of why it exists: to confirm that all children have learned phonic decoding to an age appropriate standard. In plainer words — can your child work out a word from its letters?

When does it happen?

June, in Year 1.

Almost every child who has turned 6 by the end of the school year takes it. For most children that is Year 1. Your school will tell you the exact week.

Why are some of the words made up?

This is the part that confuses parents most, so here it is properly.

The check is a mix of real words and pseudo-words — words that are not real, but that follow the normal rules of English spelling.

They are there on purpose. If your child has simply memorised a lot of words by their shape, a made-up word will catch that out. The only way to read vone is to work it out from the letters.

Your child will not be tricked by them. Every made-up word in the check has a picture of an imaginary creature next to it. Children are taught what that means: a creature means this is a made-up word, so do not try to think what it means. Schools practise this beforehand.

What should I do to get my child ready?

Nothing special.

The government's advice is that phonics works best when children get plenty of encouragement and learn to enjoy reading and books, and that parents play a very important part in that.

So carry on doing what you were doing:

read with them
when they get stuck, help them sound the word out rather than guess it
read to them as well, at bedtime, with no pressure at all

Do not start drilling made-up words at home. It is not necessary, and it turns something your child barely notices into something they can feel anxious about. Their school will show them how the creature words work.

When will I find out how they did?

Your child's teacher will share the score with you in the second half of the summer term — so before the end of Year 1.

The Department for Education does not publish these results school by school. Schools can see national and regional figures so they can compare, but your child's score is between you, them and the school.

What if my child does not meet the standard?

They take the check again in Year 2. That is the whole consequence.

Nobody repeats a year. Your child does not even need to be told there was a standard to meet, unless you decide to tell them.

The school keeps the result, and it will be passed on the way any other school record is. What does not happen is publication: the Department for Education does not publish these results school by school, and your child's score is not published anywhere.

What should happen next is this: the school should tell you what support they have put in place. That is in the government guidance, and it is a reasonable thing to expect. If they have not said, ask.

A good question to ask at that meeting is: "What can I do at home that would actually help?" Ask it plainly. Teachers usually have a specific answer, and it is usually more useful than anything you would find by searching.

Should I be worried?

Probably not, and here is why.

The check tells the school something they mostly already know. Teachers hear children read every week. A child who cannot decode in June was not a mystery in May.

What the check does is make sure nobody slips through. That is genuinely useful. A child who cannot work out words is going to find every other subject harder, and the earlier that is spotted, the easier it is to fix.

So a "not met" letter is not bad news arriving. It is a system doing its job.

The one thing worth watching for

Keep an eye on how your child feels about reading, not just how well they read.

Children who find reading hard often start avoiding it. They wriggle, they change the subject, they say they are tired. That is not laziness. It is what anyone does about something they keep failing at.

If that starts happening, the fix is usually to take the pressure off for a while. Read to them more. Let them choose books far below their reading level and enjoy them. Let them look at comics. The skill will come back faster from a child who does not dread it.

Is there anything worth buying?

Honestly, not much, and we would rather say so.

If you want something, the most useful thing is a set of decodable readers that match your school's phonics scheme — ask the school which one they use first. Those are covered in our phonics guide.

Practice books aimed at the check itself exist. They are not necessary, and a child who is finding reading hard usually needs more reading and less testing.

Where this comes from

Phonics screening check: information for parents, Standards and Testing Agency, Crown copyright
Everything on this page — the 40 words in two sets of 20, the made-up words and their imaginary creatures, the June timing, the summer-term feedback and the Year 2 re-take — comes from that leaflet.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.