Phonics, in the order we teach it
Nine phases, each adding a handful of sounds to the ones before. Here is the whole order, and what a book does with it.
The order
A phase is a set of letter sounds and a few words that cannot be sounded out and simply have to be known. Children move through them at very different speeds, and the speed is not the interesting part. What matters is that a book does not ask for a sound nobody has taught yet.
Phase 1
First sounds
Sounds: s · a · t · p · i · n
Words to know by sight: I · a · the · to
Phase 2
More single letters
Sounds: m · d · g · o · c · k
Words to know by sight: no · go · into
Phase 3
Short vowels complete
Sounds: ck · e · u · r
Words to know by sight: he · she · we · me · be
Phase 4
Double letters
Sounds: h · b · f · ff · l · ll · ss
Words to know by sight: was · you · they · all · are · my
Phase 5
Remaining consonants
Sounds: j · v · w · x
Words to know by sight: her · said
Phase 6
Y, z and qu
Sounds: y · z · zz · qu
Words to know by sight: have · like · so · do · some · come
Phase 7
Consonant digraphs
Sounds: ch · sh · th · ng · nk
Words to know by sight: were · there · little · one · when · out
Phase 8
Vowel digraphs
Sounds: ai · ee · igh · oa · oo · ar · or · ur · ow · oi · ear · air · ure · er
Words to know by sight: what · oh · their · people · looked · called
Phase 9
Alternative spellings
Sounds: ay · ou · ie · ea · oy · ir · ue · aw · wh · ph · ew · oe · au · a_e · e_e · i_e · o_e · u_e · tch · dge · kn · wr · mb
Words to know by sight: asked · could · would · should · water · where · who · again
Phase 10
Long vowel spellings
Sounds: augh · ough · eigh · ui · oar · oor
Words to know by sight: island · answer · beautiful
Phase 11
Endings of longer words
Sounds: tion · sion · cian · ture · sure
Words to know by sight: special · business · colour · science
What a book does with it
A grown-up sets the phase, and every book leans on the sounds up to it. Not exclusively: a story made only of decodable words is one nobody wants to read, and children meet harder words at every bedtime. What changes is the balance.
Where a page is read aloud, the words that came out as written are counted against their sounds. One that keeps going wrong turns up more often next time; one that has landed turns up less. None of it is shown as a score, and nothing moves a phase on its own: the product suggests, a grown-up decides.
There are 11 phases in all. A child who has finished them has the sounds English is written with, which is not the same as being a fluent reader and is most of the way there.
What this is not
It is not a scheme and will not line up exactly with a school’s. Schemes differ in the middle phases and agree almost entirely on the first two and the last two. If a school has given you a phase, the same number here is close enough to be useful.
It is also not an assessment. Nothing here produces a percentile, a reading age or anything comparable with another child, because a number like that is one a child eventually sees.
A book at the sounds they are actually on
Set the phase, and the next story leans on it.
No adverts, and nothing a child can buy.
Make their first book