Time for Phonics will help you prepare for the Year 1 phonics screening check with our extensive range of resources!

What is the phonics screening check?

The phonics screening check typically takes place in June in Year 1. It is administered by the class teacher or a member of the teaching staff who is known to the children and trained in phonics. The check typically takes between 4 and 9 minutes to complete, though children can be given rest breaks if needed.

The check is designed to test the child's ability to decode and blend sounds and their recall of taught phonemes. The idea is that this helps teachers identify which children need additional support and intervention if there are any gaps in their phonics skills.

As part of the check, children will be shown a list of 40 words - some are real, some are pseudo (nonsense). The child has to decode the word, and the teacher has to mark it as correct or incorrect. Children are shown the pseudo words to ensure that they are able to decode using their phonics skills and make sure they are not sight reading known words.

Some of the graphemes used in the screening check represent a number of different phonemes. When decoding the real words, the pupil has to choose the correct phoneme for the word, for example the ‘ea’ in ‘team’ should not be pronounced as the ‘ea’ in ‘bread’. However, when decoding the pseudo-words, all plausible alternative pronunciations are acceptable. The actual phonics screening check paper gives you an idea of how to score the check and the acceptable pronunciations of the pseudo words.

In 2024 the phonics check threshold mark was 32 out of 40 - any score above this means the child has achieved the expected standard (but you'd need to check what the threshold is for the current year).

How does Time for Phonics help with the phonics screening check?

You can access a series of phonics screening check resources including: 

- Mock screening check presentation

- Mock screening check scoring guide

- Mock screening check answer sheet

- Mock screening check record sheet

These can all be found by heading to Resources, scrolling down to Intervention and Assessment, selecting Phase 5 and then scrolling down the Assessment section.

It is also worth noting that lessons also regularly incorporate real and pseudo words to help children prepare. Together with the screening check resources, this should provide ample opportunity for children to prepare for the check. In addition, you can use our phonics screening check games which have a selection of real and pseudo words that children must read and then decide whether they are real or silly words.