Year 1 Phonics Check
The Year 1 Phonics Check assesses students’ decoding skills across words of increasing complexity.
Key features
- Free, 7-minute assessment
- Individually administered
- Assesses Year 1 & 2 students, as well as older struggling readers
- Online or paper-based
- Suitable for Term 1 and/or Term 3
Phonics Check data supports teachers to:
- identify cohort and student-level decoding strengths and instructional needs
- identify student candidates for phonics-based intervention
- track effectiveness of phonics instruction across time
- monitor decoding ability trends across years.
View our Year 1 Phonics Check webinars on analysing individual reports and analysing group reports.

Before the Year 1 Phonics Check
Find information about conducting the Check including step-by-step guidance for teachers.

The Year 1 Phonics Check
This quick check can be done in class time and provides a snapshot of each student's phonics knowledge.

After the Year 1 Phonics Check: for school leaders
Find school planning and resourcing information, including professional and family involvement ideas.

After the Year 1 Phonics Check: for teachers
What next? Tips for analysing and responding to students' results.

After the Year 1 Phonics Check: working with individual students
Find case studies, advice and interventions for working with fluent, developing and struggling decoders.
Featured resources
Search all resourcesThe structure of the Phonics Check
This document outlines the structure of the Year 1 Phonics Check and details the...
Show morePhonics and the Australian Curriculum
Role of phonic knowledge and word recognition in reading and viewing.
Show more13 important aspects of a systemic synthetic phonics program
This document outlines key aspects to consider when reviewing a systematic synth...
Show moreRationale for using pseudo words
Explains what pseudo words are and the rationale for using them.
Show morePhonics Check: the most common student errors
This document outlines common student errors on the Year 1 Phonics Check. It giv...
Show moreExamples of structured synthetic phonics programs
A poster which shows the scope and sequence of some structured synthetic phonics...
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