The Year 1 phonics screening check, explained for parents

01

What is the Year 1 phonics check?

The phonics screening check is a short, statutory check for Year 1 children in England. Your child reads a list of 40 words aloud, one to one, with a teacher or teaching assistant they know. It is not timed, and most children take about 4 to 9 minutes.

• 4040words to read aloud
• 2020real words
• 2020made-up pseudo-words
• 44–9 minusual time, and it is not timed

Half of the words are real, the kind your child might meet in a storybook. The other half are pseudo-words: made-up words that follow phonics rules but mean nothing. Schools and families often call them alien words, because each one is printed beside a picture of an imaginary creature.

The check asks one simple question: can your child use phonics to read a word? That skill is called decoding. Your child looks at the letters, says the sounds and blends them together into a word. It is exactly what they practise in class. The check does not look at spelling, handwriting or whether your child understands the word.

The adult giving the check knows your child and is trained in phonics. It is never a parent or relative, so you won't be asked to take part.

02

When is the phonics screening check in 2027?

The check happens in June of Year 1. In 2027, check week starts on Monday 14 June 2027, and schools give the check during that week.

If your child is away, there is a short catch-up window after check week. In 2026 it ran until Friday 19 June. If your child starts Year 1 in September 2027, their check week begins on Monday 12 June 2028.

Schools usually keep the check low-key. Your child sits with a familiar adult and reads some words, much like a normal reading session. There is no need to talk it up at home. If your child asks, “You'll read some words with your teacher, and some of them are silly made-up ones” is plenty.

After the check, the government publishes the pass mark, and before the summer holidays the school tells you how your child did.

03

Real words and alien words in the phonics check

An alien word is a pseudo-word: a set of letters your child can read with phonics, but which means nothing. Words like zel, dreel or kroam.

Why include them? A real word can be read from memory. A child who has seen stormmany times may simply recognise it. A made-up word can't be remembered, because your child has never seen it before. The only way to read it is to sound it out and blend. So pseudo-words show whether phonics is really doing its job.

Your child won't be tricked. In the real check, every pseudo-word sits beside a picture of an imaginary creature, so your child can see it is a made-up word. They never have to decide whether a word is real.

One thing that does catch children out is turning a made-up word into a real one, such as reading kroam as “cream”. That is why it helps to practise reading made-up words exactly as they are written.

04

Section 1 and Section 2: what gets harder?

The 40 words come in a booklet, four words to a page, split into two sections of 20. Each section starts with the made-up words.

Section 1 has three pages of pseudo-words, then two pages of real words. The words are short, like ship or frog. They use single letters and simple digraphs (two letters making one sound) such as ch, sh, th, ck, ff, ll and ng, plus the vowel sounds ar, ee, oi, oo and or.

Section 2 has two pages of pseudo-words, then three pages of real words. The words are longer, with more consonants bunched together and some two-syllable words. They use more ways of writing vowel sounds, such as ai, ay, ea, oa, ow and ur; split digraphs like the a-e in cake; and trigraphs (three letters, one sound) such as igh and air.

Most children find Section 2 harder. That is expected. Your child does not need to read every word to meet the standard.

05

What is the phonics screening check pass mark?

The pass mark is officially called the threshold: the number of words, out of 40, that a child needs to read correctly to meet the expected standard.

From 2012 to 2025 the threshold was 32 every year. In 2026 it was 31. No reason was given for the change.

Since 2014 the threshold has only been published after the check, so schools don't know it in advance either. That means nobody can tell you the 2027 pass mark yet: not your child's teacher, and not this page. In 2026 it was published on 22 June, two weeks after check week began.

In 2026, 82% of Year 1 children in England met the standard, though with the lower pass mark of 31, so it isn't quite a like-for-like comparison with earlier years. Results rose steadily after the check began in 2012, dipped after the Covid years, and have risen again since. The government has said the check will stay, with an ambition for 90% of children to meet the standard by the end of Year 1.

06

What if my child doesn't meet the phonics check standard?

First, take a breath. Nearly one in five Year 1 children did not meet the standard in 2026. That is a big group, and it says nothing about how clever your child is or how well they will read in the end. Some children simply click with blending a little later than others.

The phonics screening check is a check, not a judgement. It is there to spot children who would benefit from more phonics practice, early, while it is easy to help.

• 8282%met the standard in Year 1 (2026)
• 8989%had met it by the end of Year 2

What happens next.By the end of the summer term, your child's school must tell you their mark and whether they met the expected standard. Children who did not meet it take the check again in June of Year 2. For children who were in Year 1 in 2026, that is June 2027, in the same check week as the new Year 1s.

In the year between, your child keeps learning phonics at school. Ask the teacher which sounds or kinds of words to practise, so what you do at home matches what happens in class. Many children who miss the standard in Year 1 meet it in Year 2: by the end of Year 2, 89% of children had met it in 2026.

Whatever the result, your child's reading keeps growing from here. Our Year 2 phonics page shows what comes next.

07

How to help your child with the phonics check at home

The best preparation is ordinary, happy reading practice. You don't need special workbooks, and your child doesn't need to know the check is coming. Our Year 1 phonics page sets out the sounds your child is learning this year.

For more ideas, read our guide for grown-ups or browse all the games.

Sources (GOV.UK, checked 8 October 2026): structure and content of the check; administration guidance; future dates; 2026 materials and threshold; national results.