2015 Phonics Screening Check
Download the 2015 Year 1 Phonics Screening Check materials for free, including the practice materials, assessment materials, answer sheet, scoring guidance, word list, PowerPoint presentation and a complete ZIP file.
The 2015 check was given to all children in Year 1 in England in June 2015. Schools chose a day within the week commencing 15th June 2015, with larger schools spreading the check across several days. It included a mix of real words and pseudo-words.
2015 Phonics Screening Check Past Papers
Below are all the downloads for the 2015 Phonics Screening Check. You can download each resource individually or grab the complete ZIP, which bundles every PDF together with the word list and whole-class PowerPoint presentation published by Exam Ninja.
| Year | Practice Materials | Assessment Materials | Answer Sheet | Scoring Guidance | Spelling Materials | PowerPoint | Complete ZIP File ⓘZip file with all standard resources bundled together | Premium Downloads |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 2015 Phonics Practice Materialsⓘ 2015 Phonics Screening Test Practice MaterialsThis practice material provides example sheets to familiarise Year 1 children with the format of the Phonics Screening Check. It includes a real words sheet featuring words such as 'in', 'at', 'beg', and 'sum', and a pseudo-words sheet with nonsense words including 'ect', 'osk', 'ot', and 'vap'. These practice sheets help children become comfortable with decoding both word types before the statutory assessment. | 2015 Phonics Assessment Materialsⓘ 2015 Phonics Screening Test Assessment MaterialsThis document contains the pupils' materials for the June 2015 Phonics screening check. It presents the 40 words a Year 1 child reads aloud to demonstrate decoding skills. Section 1 includes words such as fip, hab, soil, long, and chart. Section 2 includes words such as yair, keam, rice, zoom, and midnight. The materials contain both real words and pseudo-words. Questions: 40 | 2015 Phonics Answer Sheetⓘ 2015 Phonics Screening Test Answer SheetThis is the teacher's answer sheet for the 2015 Phonics Screening Check. It provides a record sheet for marking each of the 40 words as correct or incorrect across Section 1 and Section 2. The teacher ticks the appropriate box for each word and can add optional comments, then totals the score to determine whether the child has met the expected standard. Questions: 40 | 2015 Phonics Scoring Guidanceⓘ 2015 Phonics Screening Test Scoring GuidanceThis document provides scoring guidance for teachers marking the 2015 phonics screening check. It lists all pseudo-words from both Section 1 and Section 2, giving acceptable pronunciations and phonemic representations for each. Guidance covers regional dialect variations and alternative pronunciations where graphemes represent multiple phonemes, ensuring consistent marking across different accents. | ||||
| Source: Standards and Testing Agency (STA) | Open Government Licence |
About these 2015 Year 1 Phonics papers
- KS1 Phonics 2015 Phonics Check Practice Materials
- This practice material provides example sheets to familiarise Year 1 children with the format of the Phonics Screening Check. It includes a real words sheet featuring words such as 'in', 'at', 'beg', and 'sum', and a pseudo-words sheet with nonsense words including 'ect', 'osk', 'ot', and 'vap'. These practice sheets help children become comfortable with decoding both word types before the statutory assessment.
- KS1 Phonics 2015 Phonics Check Assessment Materials
- This document contains the pupils' materials for the June 2015 Phonics screening check. It presents the 40 words a Year 1 child reads aloud to demonstrate decoding skills. Section 1 includes words such as fip, hab, soil, long, and chart. Section 2 includes words such as yair, keam, rice, zoom, and midnight. The materials contain both real words and pseudo-words.
- KS1 Phonics 2015 Phonics Check Answer Sheet
- This is the teacher's answer sheet for the 2015 Phonics Screening Check. It provides a record sheet for marking each of the 40 words as correct or incorrect across Section 1 and Section 2. The teacher ticks the appropriate box for each word and can add optional comments, then totals the score to determine whether the child has met the expected standard.
- KS1 Phonics 2015 Phonics Check Scoring Guidance
- This document provides scoring guidance for teachers marking the 2015 phonics screening check. It lists all pseudo-words from both Section 1 and Section 2, giving acceptable pronunciations and phonemic representations for each. Guidance covers regional dialect variations and alternative pronunciations where graphemes represent multiple phonemes, ensuring consistent marking across different accents.
2015 Phonics Screening Check Word List
Below are all 40 words used in the 2015 Phonics Screening Check. Each is either a real word or a pseudo-word (a made-up, nonsense word that checks a child's decoding skills rather than their vocabulary).
| Question | Word | Type |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | fip | Pseudo |
| 2 | pon | Pseudo |
| 3 | hab | Pseudo |
| 4 | ulb | Pseudo |
| 5 | dack | Pseudo |
| 6 | chob | Pseudo |
| 7 | nurt | Pseudo |
| 8 | queet | Pseudo |
| 9 | plap | Pseudo |
| 10 | froin | Pseudo |
| 11 | melp | Pseudo |
| 12 | heent | Pseudo |
| 13 | shed | Real |
| 14 | long | Real |
| 15 | soil | Real |
| 16 | chart | Real |
| 17 | crab | Real |
| 18 | fresh | Real |
| 19 | wink | Real |
| 20 | shuts | Real |
| 21 | yair | Pseudo |
| 22 | blies | Pseudo |
| 23 | keam | Pseudo |
| 24 | whape | Pseudo |
| 25 | braft | Pseudo |
| 26 | thrant | Pseudo |
| 27 | sprop | Pseudo |
| 28 | straw | Pseudo |
| 29 | law | Real |
| 30 | glued | Real |
| 31 | zoom | Real |
| 32 | rice | Real |
| 33 | grand | Real |
| 34 | cloaks | Real |
| 35 | scrap | Real |
| 36 | strike | Real |
| 37 | river | Real |
| 38 | diving | Real |
| 39 | beehive | Real |
| 40 | midnight | Real |
20 real words, 20 pseudo-words.
2015 Phonics Screening Check Pass Mark & Threshold
The pass mark (threshold) for the 2015 Phonics Screening Check was 32 out of 40. A child needed to read at least 32 of the 40 words correctly to meet the expected standard.
Any child who did not meet the standard retook the check the following year, in Year 2. So children who missed the mark in the 2014 Phonics Screening Check sat this 2015 check in Year 2.
More Phonics Screening Past Papers
| Decade | Years |
|---|---|
| 2020s | 20222023202420252026 |
| 2010s | 20122013201420152016201720182019 |
FAQ
Is the 2015 Phonics Screening Check free to download?
Yes. The full 2015 Phonics Screening Check is free to download. It includes the Pupils' Materials booklet (with words for the child to read aloud) and the Answer Sheet for the teacher.
Where does the 2015 Phonics Screening Check come from?
The Phonics Screening Check is produced annually by the Standards and Testing Agency (STA), part of the Department for Education, and published under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
What was the pass mark for the 2015 Phonics Screening Check?
The pass mark (threshold) for the 2015 Phonics Screening Check was 32 out of 40. Any child who scored below 32 retook the check the following year.
Who sat the 2015 Phonics Screening Check?
Two groups sat the 2015 check: Year 1 children, aged 5 to 6 (born between 1 September 2009 and 31 August 2010); and Year 2 children who did not meet the expected standard in the 2014 check and were retaking it. For how the check works, see the Phonics Screening page.
What happened if my child did not pass the 2015 Phonics Screening Check?
A child who did not meet the expected standard (32 out of 40) in the 2015 check retook it in Year 2, the following year, in 2016.
