Phase 1 (Phonemic Awareness) is the understanding that the spoken word can be broken up into small units of sounds that can in term be manipulated. Key operations taught are blending and segmenting sounds. Early skills are developed through rhyming and alliteration.

At the Phase 2 (Letter Sound), students will learn the first 19 letter sounds.  Students will also learn to read and spell CVC words. They will read decodable phrases and sentences.

At the Phase 3 (Phonics), students will learn the next 25 letter sounds. Students will read and spell with simple digraphs (for example oa in boat). They will continue reading decodable phrases and sentences.

At the Phase 4 (Blends), students consolidate their knowledge of letter sounds in words that contain adjacent consonants. Students will practise blending for reading and segmenting for spelling. 

At the Phase 5 (Vowel Sounds), students will broaden their knowledge of letter sounds for use in reading and spelling.  They will learn new alternative ways to spell particular vowel sounds.

At Phase 5.5 (Sound Families), we have developed our own unique and extensive Sound Family decodable readers to introduce alternative vowel sounds so that children can become familiar with phonemes being represented by different graphemes.

At the Phase 6 (Spelling), students will learn about past tenses, adding suffixes, and spelling long words. They will read longer and less familiar texts independently and with increased fluency.