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.

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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.

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The Year 1 Phonics Check

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

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After the Year 1 Phonics Check: for school leaders

Find school planning and resourcing information, including professional and family involvement ideas.

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After the Year 1 Phonics Check: for teachers

What next? Tips for analysing and responding to students' results.

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After the Year 1 Phonics Check: working with individual students

Find case studies, advice and interventions for working with fluent, developing and struggling decoders.

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Featured resources

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The structure of the Phonics Check

Information

This document outlines the structure of the Year 1 Phonics Check and details the...

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Phonics and the Australian Curriculum

Information

Role of phonic knowledge and word recognition in reading and viewing.

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Phonics Check analysis

Information

Guiding questions to analyse Phonics Check data.

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13 important aspects of a systemic synthetic phonics program

Information

This document outlines key aspects to consider when reviewing a systematic synth...

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Rationale for using pseudo words

Information

Explains what pseudo words are and the rationale for using them.

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Phonics Check: the most common student errors

Information

This document outlines common student errors on the Year 1 Phonics Check. It giv...

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Examples of structured synthetic phonics programs

Program

A poster which shows the scope and sequence of some structured synthetic phonics...

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