In June of Year 1, children in England take the phonics screening check. It has a formal-sounding name, but it looks at just one skill: how well your child can use phonics to read words. This guide explains what the check is, why some of the words are made up, how it is run, what the result means, and how to practise at home without any pressure.
What the check is
Phonics is the way children are taught to read by linking letters to sounds. Your child learns that the letter s makes a “sss” sound, for example, and that some sounds are written with more than one letter. A digraph is two letters that make one sound, like sh in ship.
The check looks at decoding. Decoding means working out a word from its letters: saying the sound for each letter or group of letters, then blending them. Blending means pushing the sounds together to hear the whole word, so “sh-i-p” becomes “ship”.
The main facts:
- The check is statutory in Year 1, which means it is required, not optional.
- It takes place in June.
- Your child reads 40 words aloud to a teacher.
Real words and alien words
About half of the 40 words are pseudo-words. These are made-up words, often called “alien words”. They do not mean anything, so your child cannot know them from memory.