How to practise
- Choose section 1, section 2 or both, and how many words.
- Read the check cards one to one, four words at a time, like the check.
- Tick the record sheet as the child reads, and note the words to practise again.
- Use Real or alien for independent practice: children read each word and decide which it is.
What the check looks for
The check asks one thing: can a child decode a word they haven’t seen before? Real words could be read from memory, so alien words show whether children are truly sounding out and blending. That is why practice should include plenty of both, and why an alien word read as a similar real word (“starm” as “storm”) doesn’t count.
Keep going
Practise the sounds themselves with phonics worksheets, and the tricky words that can’t be sounded out with spelling worksheets.
In Australian schools
- SAThe first state to bring in the check, for Year 1 students in government schools from 2018.
- NSWCompulsory for Year 1 students in NSW public schools since 2021, held in Weeks 4 to 6 of Term 3.
- VictoriaPiloted in government schools in 2025, and run in Weeks 4 to 6 of Term 3.
- Other schoolsThe Australian Government offers a free, voluntary version that teachers can use through the Literacy Hub.
In each version a child reads 40 words aloud, 20 real and 20 made-up, one to one with their teacher, in about 5 to 7 minutes. South Australia and Victoria treat 28 or more correct as the expected level.
In the Australian Curriculum the check sits against Year 1 English, where children blend short vowels, common long vowels, consonants and digraphs to read one-syllable words. Children who are below the expected level usually get more targeted phonics teaching in Term 4 and Year 2.
Summarised in our own words from information on the Year 1 Phonics Check from the NSW Department of Education, the South Australian Department for Education, the Victorian Government and the Australian Government, and from the Australian Curriculum: English, Version 9.0 (ACARA).
