Phonics practice: notes for parents and teachers

What the free phonics pages cover, how to say the sounds so children can blend them, and how to use the sets, games and books without clashing with your school's programme.

What is here

Start at the phonics hub. Each of the 19 set pages lets a child hear the sounds, look at picture words, tap to blend words and read one sentence. The four games (Blend It, Sound Pop, Build the Word and Real or Alien) practise the same sounds, and the 24 mini-books let children read what they have learned. There are no timers for young children, and a wrong answer simply fades so they can try again.

Pure sounds

Children blend sounds into words, so each sound needs to be as clean as possible. The DfE reading framework advises pronouncing sounds purely and clearly: say mmm, not muh, and keep the stop sounds (t, p, k, d, b, g) very short. Each set page has mouth tips for the sounds it teaches. The recorded sounds on these pages are chosen for purity (UNVERIFIED until the owner signs them off); if a sound ever sounds like a letter name or has an extra vowel, please tell us.

The order of sets

The 19 sets follow the general phase order of Letters and Sounds (2007, now a historical GOV.UK document): Phase 2 (sets 1 to 5), Phase 3 (sets 6 to 12), Phase 4 (sets 13 and 14) and Phase 5 (sets 15 to 19). Schools in England choose their own programme (the DfE publishes a list of validated programmes, but using one is not a legal requirement), and each orders the sounds a little differently, so follow your school's order if it has one. Our phases guide explains the names.

How to use it

1. Pick the set your child's school is on, or one set earlier for extra confidence.
2. Listen and say each sound, then look at the pictures.
3. Tap letters to hear sounds, then blend the word.
4. Play one game for a few minutes.
5. Read the matching book together, then let your child read it alone.

The decodable books

A decodable book only uses sounds a child has been taught, plus a short list of tricky words. We check every word in every book with a script against the sounds of its set, so children are not guessing from pictures. The books are original texts written for this site. If a word ever looks wrong for its set, tell us.

Tricky words

Tricky words have a part that does not follow the taught sounds, like said. We show the tricky part in colour and ask children to sound out the rest. See also the common exception words guide. Which words are tricky depends on the programme and on accents.

English as an additional language

Children who are new to English need spoken words alongside phonics: decoding a word you do not know has limited value. Talk about the pictures and the stories. Our guide to phonics for EFL learners goes into detail, and the Year 1 phonics check guide explains what the check looks like. The Real or Alien game uses made-up words in the same way as that check.

Frequently asked questions