Year 1 Phonics Screening

What is the Year 1 Phonics Screening?

The Year 1 Phonics Screening Check is a key checkpoint in a child’s early reading journey. It’s designed to assess how well pupils can decode words using phonics - the foundational skill of breaking down and blending sounds to read. Taken by children across England towards the end of Year 1, the check offers a snapshot of each child’s progress and highlights who might need extra support as they move forward in their literacy learning.

The assessment itself is straightforward: children read a list of 40 words, some real and some pseudo (sometimes called “alien words”). The idea behind the nonsense words is to check decoding skills without relying on memory or sight-reading. It’s not about comprehension - it’s about whether children can apply phonics rules to unfamiliar combinations of letters.

There’s a pass mark each year, but the focus shouldn’t just be on meeting that number. For teachers, what really matters is understanding how far each child has come in their ability to hear, break down, and rebuild words. It’s also about spotting patterns - where they’re getting stuck, and where they’re flying.

This article takes a practical look at how the screening works, what the results mean, and how teachers and support staff can prepare pupils in a way that’s engaging, confidence-building, and not purely test-driven. Whether you're an ECT in your first phonics term, a seasoned Year 1 teacher, or a parent wanting to understand what your child is working towards, we’ll cover the useful, the frustrating, and everything in between.

Three things to know:

• The screening checks decoding skills, not reading comprehension.
• It includes real and pseudo words to test phonics, not memory.
• It’s a tool - not a verdict - and should be used to inform support, not define a child.

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What is the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check?

Let’s start at the very beginning, the Phonics Screening Check is an annual statutory data assessment for Year 1 children. The purpose is to check how well children can decode words to ensure Year 1 children are on track to become fluent readers.

Decoding is the process of breaking a word into its graphemes, the written/printed, smallest unit of sound in a word, and then blending them together for example shout is broken into sh/ou/t. Within the PSC children are asked to decode 40 words, 20 real words and 20 alien/nonsense or pseudo words.

The purpose of the Phonics Screening is to check children’s grapheme phoneme correspondence, can they spot the graphemes and recognise the sound or phoneme that they make then blend them together?

The threshold has been 32 since the PSC started in 2012, those children that do not reach 32 in June will be provided with extra support through an intervention programme and repeat the screening in June the following year.

It is useful to note that the Phonics screening is checking for letter and sound correspondence not the speed of reading or how easily they can decode unfamiliar words, which are all skills required to be a confident reader.

Why are children being asked to read alien/nonsense/pseudo words? The purpose of this is to ensure that children are not using their memory of word to read it and are purely applying their phonic knowledge. According to the DfE the percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard in the phonics screening check in year 1 is now 75% this is down from 82% in 2019.

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What is your Year 1 Phonics Screening Check success story?

When a child is successful with the phonics screening check it is a pleasure to complete for example a child that has started Year 1, with limited grapheme-phoneme knowledge, now being able to read Phase 5 words including split digraphs and alternative graphemes is awesome for them and all those that supported them.

Teachers across the country reading this will have a success story, or five, of their own. When that happens, teachers feel that the PSC is a way of celebrating the progress made with decoding. Ultimately, teachers want children to decode so that they can move onto reading with fluency.

When children are fluent and can read familiar and unfamiliar words with ease then comprehension becomes easier as they free their mind to understand what they are reading.

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How to prepare children for the Phonics Screening Check

In Summer Term 1, within the 15,825 state-funded mainstream primary schools some Year 1 teachers, not all, will be moving into ‘Operation Phonics Screening Check’. This may involve various manoeuvres including flash cards with alien words, early morning work revolving around phonics screening carousels, phonics bootcamps, flash cards with alien words, lunchtime and after school clubs, flashcards with alien words, alien words being sent home in bookbags, QR codes sent home with links to videos, flashcards with alien words, parent workshops to explain the process and how to prepare your child, flashcards with alien words, publishers promoting workbooks with alien words in to help prepare children for the test. Not to mention a LOT of alien/nonsense words.

My experience of the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check is varied, I don’t like the idea of 6 year olds having to take a ‘test’, or staff having to send extra time preparing children to take a ‘test’.

However, when I have administered the screening, I have tried to make it as calm and unintimidating as possible, ‘we have seen this type of quiz before’……no stress.

The best way I and other practitioners have done this is by making sure that the children are familiar with the layout of the real and alien words and images, so it is just a quiz that we do and its water off a duck’s back! Does that mean I’m teaching to the test?

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Is the Phonics screening useful?

Teachers invest a lot of energy into checking children’s phonic knowledge throughout the year as part of their systematic synthetic phonics programme.

This process is often one to one towards the end of a term. However, some teachers do feel the pressure of the screening and can lose their heads in Summer Term 1, testing children’s grapheme-phoneme correspondence with real and alien/nonsense words, talking to 6 year olds about the alien images, ‘these are alien words and that means they are not real words’ said every Year 1 teacher ever!

Who knew you could talk about an alien in such detail? Discussions I have had about their hair, their shape, their colour, their eyes, teeth, mouth, how they look like another character they know. Children often ask is that the aliens name, how do you explain that one? It doesn’t start with a capital letter. But hang on, isn’t this distracting from the job at hand which is to check that children can decode accurately.

As a Literacy Specialist, my experience of the PSC recently has been varied as some SSP’s encourage children to recognise alien/nonsense words from Year R, some do not approach this area until summer 1, some schools have decided not to check children’s awareness of the alien/nonsense words until the end of spring 2, some schools have been checking children since they started year 1.

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Who Is the Phonics Screening Check For?

The Year 1 Phonics Screening Check is for all pupils in England at the end of Year 1, typically aged 5 or 6. Its primary goal is to determine whether a child has learned to decode words using phonics to an expected standard. But who exactly benefits from this test—and how does it serve learners with different profiles?

On paper, the screening is universal. However, in reality, its impact varies. Some pupils, particularly those confidently working through Phase 5 or tackling alternative graphemes, face a unique challenge. Their deep phonics knowledge can backfire during the test. For instance, they may read a pseudo-word like bem as beam, applying more advanced grapheme-phoneme knowledge than the check is designed to assess.

This raises a real tension for teachers: do we slow down instruction to keep pupils aligned with the check? Or do we press ahead with a robust synthetic phonics programme and risk confusing pupils who “over-read” nonsense words? Most validated Systematic Synthetic Phonics (SSP) programmes aim to complete the full teaching cycle by the end of Year 1—well beyond the narrow scope of the PSC.

The check, while useful, isn’t always aligned with a school’s actual curriculum pace. And in 2025, many schools are asking whether its value lies more in political accountability than classroom insight.

Things to keep in mind:

• The check assesses phonics knowledge from the first half of Year 1.
• Advanced readers may “misread” nonsense words due to deeper knowledge.
• Teachers face a balancing act between curriculum pace and test content.

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What If a Child Doesn’t Show Their True Potential on the Day?

Six-year-olds are unpredictable. That’s just a fact. Some days, they’re focused and enthusiastic; other days, they’re distracted by windy playtimes, a missed breakfast, or a lost jumper. This variability makes high-stakes assessments like the Phonics Screening Check tricky. While the test is designed to be short and stress-free, it still depends on a pupil being able to perform on the day - and that’s no small ask.

Every teacher has experienced the moment when a child who confidently decodes in class freezes during the screening. Maybe they misread a real word, or second-guess a nonsense word. Maybe they apply an alternative grapheme they've been taught and are marked incorrect for what is, in context, a perfectly logical response.

It’s important to remember that the PSC doesn’t give credit for decoding using non-standard but valid alternatives. For example, if a child reads blow using the /ow/ sound from cow, they don’t get the mark - even though they applied phonics knowledge.

This reinforces the need to view the screening check as a diagnostic tool, not a definitive judgement. It offers a snapshot, not the full picture. And while results should inform planning and support, they shouldn’t override professional judgement or diminish a child’s daily literacy efforts.

What matters here:

• Some children may apply correct phonics strategies but be marked wrong.
• Performance on the day doesn’t always reflect typical ability.
• Context and professional judgement remain essential when interpreting results.

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Year 1 Phonics Screening: A Love-Hate Relationship

Among Year 1 teachers, the Phonics Screening Check inspires mixed feelings. On one hand, it gives clear data. On the other, it can feel like a narrow measure that skews curriculum priorities. The check does exactly what it says: it identifies whether a child can apply grapheme-phoneme correspondence to decode unfamiliar words. This is a critical early reading skill. But is it the most important one?

Many teachers report that in the run-up to the check, phonics teaching can shift from rich, layered instruction to drill-based revision. Instead of exploring new graphemes or deepening comprehension, time is spent rehearsing pseudo-words and aiming for 40/40. While preparation is important, there’s a risk that everything else - from vocabulary development to the joy of reading - gets put on hold.

That said, when used thoughtfully, the PSC can be a helpful checkpoint. It gives schools a consistent baseline, flags pupils who need extra phonics support, and encourages fidelity to SSP programmes. But it’s just one tool in a much bigger toolkit.

In 2025, as schools embed DfE-validated phonics programmes and conduct more regular in-year tracking, the PSC might feel less urgent - but it’s still a statutory requirement.

Useful reflections:

• The check can narrow classroom focus if preparation dominates.
• It can still offer valuable insights when used as one part of assessment.
• Phonics screening should sit alongside broader, balanced literacy teaching.

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