2025 Phonics Screening Check
Download the 2025 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 2025 check was given to all children in Year 1 in England in June 2025. Schools chose a day within the week commencing 9th June 2025, with larger schools spreading the check across several days. It included a mix of real words and pseudo-words.
2025 Phonics Screening Check Past Papers
Below are all the downloads for the 2025 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2025 Phonics Practice Materialsⓘ 2025 Phonics Screening Test Practice MaterialsThis practice sheet provides example real words and pseudo-words to familiarise a child with the format of the Phonics Screening Check. The real words include in, at, beg and sum. The pseudo-words include ot, vap, osk and ect. It allows children to practise decoding before taking the statutory assessment. Questions: 8 | 2025 Phonics Assessment Materialsⓘ 2025 Phonics Screening Test Assessment MaterialsThis is the official pupils' materials booklet for the 2025 Phonics Screening Check. It contains the 40 words that children read aloud during the assessment, split equally between Section 1 and Section 2. Each section includes 10 real words (such as sell, quiz, shark, pie, shake) and 10 pseudo-words (such as gox, loip, quog, virp, saunt) to assess decoding skills. Questions: 40 | 2025 Phonics Answer Sheetⓘ 2025 Phonics Screening Test Answer SheetThis is the teacher's answer sheet for the 2025 Phonics Screening Check. It provides a record grid to mark each of the 40 words as correct or incorrect, divided into Section 1 and Section 2. Each section lists 20 words (a mix of real words and pseudo-words) with tick boxes and an optional comment field, plus a total score box. Questions: 40 | 2025 Phonics Scoring Guidanceⓘ 2025 Phonics Screening Test Scoring GuidanceThis scoring guidance document provides teachers with the acceptable pronunciations for all twenty pseudo-words in the 2025 Phonics Screening Check. Each entry includes phonemic representations and example rhymes to ensure consistent marking. The guidance clarifies that when decoding pseudo-words, all plausible alternative and regional pronunciations are acceptable, unlike real words where only the correct phoneme applies. | ||||
| Source: Standards and Testing Agency (STA) | Open Government Licence |
About these 2025 Year 1 Phonics papers
- KS1 Phonics 2025 Phonics Check Practice Materials
- This practice sheet provides example real words and pseudo-words to familiarise a child with the format of the Phonics Screening Check. The real words include in, at, beg and sum. The pseudo-words include ot, vap, osk and ect. It allows children to practise decoding before taking the statutory assessment.
- KS1 Phonics 2025 Phonics Check Assessment Materials
- This is the official pupils' materials booklet for the 2025 Phonics Screening Check. It contains the 40 words that children read aloud during the assessment, split equally between Section 1 and Section 2. Each section includes 10 real words (such as sell, quiz, shark, pie, shake) and 10 pseudo-words (such as gox, loip, quog, virp, saunt) to assess decoding skills.
- KS1 Phonics 2025 Phonics Check Answer Sheet
- This is the teacher's answer sheet for the 2025 Phonics Screening Check. It provides a record grid to mark each of the 40 words as correct or incorrect, divided into Section 1 and Section 2. Each section lists 20 words (a mix of real words and pseudo-words) with tick boxes and an optional comment field, plus a total score box.
- KS1 Phonics 2025 Phonics Check Scoring Guidance
- This scoring guidance document provides teachers with the acceptable pronunciations for all twenty pseudo-words in the 2025 Phonics Screening Check. Each entry includes phonemic representations and example rhymes to ensure consistent marking. The guidance clarifies that when decoding pseudo-words, all plausible alternative and regional pronunciations are acceptable, unlike real words where only the correct phoneme applies.
2025 Phonics Screening Check Word List
Below are all 40 words used in the 2025 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 | dup | Pseudo |
| 2 | hib | Pseudo |
| 3 | gox | Pseudo |
| 4 | ags | Pseudo |
| 5 | yech | Pseudo |
| 6 | quog | Pseudo |
| 7 | loip | Pseudo |
| 8 | chuss | Pseudo |
| 9 | clen | Pseudo |
| 10 | stizz | Pseudo |
| 11 | pult | Pseudo |
| 12 | heeft | Pseudo |
| 13 | quiz | Real |
| 14 | sell | Real |
| 15 | form | Real |
| 16 | shark | Real |
| 17 | snip | Real |
| 18 | clang | Real |
| 19 | bunk | Real |
| 20 | boils | Real |
| 21 | jigh | Pseudo |
| 22 | saunt | Pseudo |
| 23 | virp | Pseudo |
| 24 | phope | Pseudo |
| 25 | sleft | Pseudo |
| 26 | thresk | Pseudo |
| 27 | spleg | Pseudo |
| 28 | strume | Pseudo |
| 29 | pie | Real |
| 30 | found | Real |
| 31 | boom | Real |
| 32 | shake | Real |
| 33 | spelt | Real |
| 34 | floats | Real |
| 35 | scrub | Real |
| 36 | scribe | Real |
| 37 | delay | Real |
| 38 | statue | Real |
| 39 | counter | Real |
| 40 | grateful | Real |
20 real words, 20 pseudo-words.
2025 Phonics Screening Check Pass Mark & Threshold
The pass mark (threshold) for the 2025 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 2024 Phonics Screening Check sat this 2025 check in Year 2.
More Phonics Screening Past Papers
| Decade | Years |
|---|---|
| 2020s | 20222023202420252026 |
| 2010s | 20122013201420152016201720182019 |
FAQ
Is the 2025 Phonics Screening Check free to download?
Yes. The full 2025 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 2025 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 2025 Phonics Screening Check?
The pass mark (threshold) for the 2025 Phonics Screening Check was 32 out of 40. Any child who scored below 32 retook the check the following year.
Who sat the 2025 Phonics Screening Check?
Two groups sat the 2025 check: Year 1 children, aged 5 to 6 (born between 1 September 2019 and 31 August 2020); and Year 2 children who did not meet the expected standard in the 2024 check and were retaking it. For how the check works, see the Phonics Screening page.
What happened if my child did not pass the 2025 Phonics Screening Check?
A child who did not meet the expected standard (32 out of 40) in the 2025 check retook it in Year 2, the following year, in 2026.
