Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Phonics is about the relationship between sounds in speech and letters in writing. Phonics is a method for teaching beginner readers to learn the alphabet and the sound that each letter makes.

Phonics lays the foundations for children’s literacy development. It is a key step not only for reading but for the development of spelling and writing. Early success in reading is a strong predictor of future learning outcomes.

Phonics develops children’s ability to hear, identify and manipulate sounds called phonemes. This is called phonemic awareness. Children are taught the relationships between these sounds and the letters and letter patterns in written words (called graphemes). The skill of ‘decoding’ is the broad term that describes children’s mastery of the grapho-phonic system.

Numerous studies over decades show that reading programs with a well-developed systematic and explicit phonics component routinely and consistently have greater effectiveness for children learning to read than programs without a good phonics component.

Phonics is essential, but not enough, to teach young children to read. Children decode words by recognising the sounds individual letters and combinations of letters make. They then blend these sounds together to pronounce a word. This is the first important step in learning to read. Children can then go on to confidently tackle new words and develop their fluency and comprehension. A rich and broad language program is the best way to help children build their reading literacy skills.

Parents play an important role in helping their children to read. Regular chats with teachers about the school's phonics program will enable parents to reinforce specific skills at home. Teachers can provide detailed information about children’s progress in phonics. Teachers and parents can also discuss the results of the Phonics Check and any interventions they plan for struggling decoders.

The Year 1 Phonics Check for Teachers is a quick and easy way for teachers to check the phonics progress of Year 1 students. The Phonics Check indicates how well the student can identify the sounds different letter combinations make. It checks the student's ability to blend these sounds together from left to right to make a word. The Phonics Check is one way to find out if the student has made the expected progress in building their reading literacy skills.

No. The Phonics Check isn’t compulsory but there are many benefits for children. Teachers can check children’s reading progress and quickly implement interventions for those children who may be struggling. The Phonics Check also helps parents to know how their children are progressing with their reading and how they can further support their children in building the reading literacy skills.

The teacher sits with a student in a comfortable place and shows a list of 40 words to be read. Some of these words are ‘real’ words and some are made-up or ‘pseudo’ words. Using made-up words enables the teacher to find out if children are using their decoding skills and not just memorising familiar words. The Phonics Check takes about 5–7 minutes but there is no set time limit. Children can be given rest breaks if needed. Teachers are able to adapt and modify the Phonics Check for students with specific needs.

The Phonics Check will provide teachers with an indication of how each student is progressing in relation to what is expected of students at Year 1. It is important to understand that the score out of 40 does not mean a pass or fail. The Phonics Check is used to gauge the progress of phonics learning and to help teachers make decisions to support developing and struggling decoders.

For the best Phonics Check user experience, we advise using a laptop, desktop computer or tablet with the latest version of one of the following internet browsers installed on it:

Google Chrome
Microsoft Edge
Safari
Mozilla Firefox.

Internet Explorer is not one of the recommended internet browsers for the Phonics Check. For the best Phonics Check user experience, we advise using a laptop, desktop computer or tablet with the latest version of one of the following internet browsers installed on it:

Microsoft Edge
Safari
Mozilla Firefox.

You can select Finish if you want to terminate an ongoing Phonics Check session. You will have three options:

• Save and exit. This saves the current Phonics Check result and allows you to come back and resume at any time, from the point where you left it.
• Submit and exit. This takes you to the summary page from where ‘Save and exit’ or ‘Submit’ can be chosen. ‘Save and exit’ will allow you to come back and resume at any time. ‘Submit’ will stop and finalise the check, marking all items that have not yet been attempted as ‘Skipped’.
• Discard session. This discards the current Phonics Check results. You can then restart with a completely new Phonics Check.

If you accidentally close your browser window, the current Phonics Check result is saved; open a new window, log in again and resume the Phonics Check from where you left it.

To register, go to the Phonics Check for teachers registration page. Select the school you work for and set up your profile and credentials (password and username). If you are asked to select your education network, you will be redirected to that education network.

Once registration is complete, you can start setting up the classes and Phonics Checks according to your school's schedule.

The Phonics Check is now available for homeschool users with a departmental email address (ending with edu.au). Please contact us if you would like to request access.

For homeschool users with a personal email address, we advise you to wait for access to become available in the future. We will update this web page when the Phonics Check is open to all homeschoolers. Meanwhile, we encourage you to explore the information already on the website, as it explains how the Phonics Check benefits teachers and children.

If you have received a registration invitation via email, select the link in the email. Then complete your profile and register for access to the system.

Yes. Both you and your school administrator can create student records for your class.

To do this you will need to have the class created first. Within the class, you can add students one by one or import a student from a csv file.

Only you, and the school administrators, can see the classes and the Phonics Checks that you have created. However, you can choose to share class information with other teachers at the school. To share a class, go to the class page and select the relevant checkbox. Other teachers at the school will then be able to see the class and associated Phonics Checks.

When the academic year changes, all the classes and their corresponding Phonics Checks from the previous academic year are Archived. This is done to help users start a new academic year with a clean working space within the Phonics Check application.

You can access all the classes and their corresponding Phonics Check(s) from previous academic years by selecting Archived in the search bar on the Class dashboard. There is also a user notification about this displayed on the Class dashboard and Phonics Check dashboard.

Users with higher privileges than you may be able to see a student in a report if the student's Phonics Check is submitted and data synchronised to the server. Please note that your data will be saved locally in your browser if there is intermittent internet connection. You will need a good internet connection to synchronise data to the server.

Yes. The Phonics Check system has been commissioned by the Australian Government, and follows the provided privacy policy. All records stored in the Phonics Check system stay in the system.

Your students will be able to see a screen with a word that is the same as the word shown on your screen. Some of the words may have a decorative monster image next to them.

Yes. When you set up the Phonics Check for your class, you can choose the Delivery mode settings. From there, you will have the option of delivering the phonics check offline by downloading the Phonics Check materials and entering the data back to the Phonics Check system when you are online.

If you are using the QR code mode, Phonics Check will prompt you to switch to the Presentation mode when you or your student lose the internet connection. This will allow you to open up the student view in a new window on your device and continue the check, even if there’s no internet connection.

If the word doesn’t synchronise on the student’s screen, check the internet connection for the devices that you and your student are using.

Yes. If your school administrator has approved you as a valid user in your school, you can select Share class data in your class record. The other valid users in your school will be able to see the students and their Phonics Check results.

First, please register yourself as a Teacher for the Phonics Check for teachers.

If your school already has a school administrator, that person can approve your Teacher registration request and then change your role to School Administrator.

If your school does not have a school administrator, please contact us to assist you.

Yes. You can manage school users, including school administrators and school teachers. To manage a user, go to 'Settings>Manage Users'. From there, you will be able to perform actions such as adding users and changing user permissions.

Teachers must submit a Phonics Check before you can see a report.

Yes. Both you and your school teachers can upload student records via a csv file to the class. To do this, you should:

• create a class or find an existing class
• select the Import button in the Manage student section
• download the template and enter or copy your student records to the file
• upload the prepared file with student records.

Yes. To do this, go to 'Class'. Then search for the class, and select 'Edit class'. Choose the teacher who you would like to assign the class to.

ESA takes reasonable steps to:

• protect personal data that it holds against misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure by utilising up-to-date electronic and physical security controls that comply with relevant industry standards and guidelines; and
• destroy or permanently de-identify personal data if it is no longer required.

All data for the Year 1 Phonics Check is stored on Australian-based servers. 

School administrators can do the following:

• manage school users of your school
• create classes for other teachers
• set up phonics checks for the classes
• view all of the class and Phonics Check records as well as reports that are available in your school