What each stage teaches, what to listen for, where learners usually trip up, and the words to expect. 2,151 different words in all, sequenced so a child only ever meets sounds already taught.
Each stage introduces exactly one pattern and nothing appears before it has been taught. That is what makes the words decodable: a learner at Stage 7 has met every grapheme in every Stage 7 word.
The three levels match the three trugs card boxes, so a class working through the printed packs can use the matching word searches without anything new to explain. The word search also raises the difficulty of the search itself as the levels go on: Level 1 words run left to right only, Level 2 adds downwards, and Level 3 adds diagonals.
Consonant · Vowel · Consonant
For the teacherCVC words give the most consistent letter–sound correspondences, ideal for establishing the blending habit. Medial short vowels are the priority here.
For a parentThree-letter words with a short vowel in the middle — cat, bed, sit, hop, bun. The building blocks of phonics.
Example words
Initial consonant blends
For the teacherInitial blends require holding two phonemes in working memory before vocalising. Common errors include vowel intrusion (e.g. "s-uh-top"). Focus on smooth co-articulation.
For a parentWords beginning with two-consonant blends — stop, frog, plan, crab. The blend is two sounds very close together.
Example words
Final consonant clusters
For the teacherCoda-position phonemes are often reduced in natural speech. This stage targets explicit awareness of final consonant clusters and their spelling.
For a parentWords ending in two consonants — lamp, belt, golf, mist. Children learn to hear and say both final consonants clearly.
Example words
Two-beat words
For the teacherTwo-syllable words demand syllable segmentation and sequential decoding. Explicit syllable-boundary marking helps pupils who attempt whole-word decoding prematurely.
For a parentTwo-syllable words like rabbit, sunset, plastic. Each syllable uses simple patterns already learned — the challenge is managing the length.
Example words
ar · or · er
For the teacherR-controlled vowels depart from short-vowel CVC patterns — the vowel grapheme no longer independently predicts the phoneme. Pupils need to recognise the vowel+r unit as a digraph.
For a parentWords where r changes the vowel before it — car, corn, her, farm, port. These ar/or/er patterns are very common in English.
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a_e · i_e · o_e · u_e
For the teacherSplit digraph requires scanning beyond the immediate vowel grapheme and recognising a discontiguous unit (V_e). A significant shift from left-to-right sequential blending.
For a parentThe "magic e" rule — cape, pine, bone, cube. The silent final e makes the preceding vowel say its long sound. Very common in English.
Example words
ai · oa · ee
For the teacherVowel digraphs require pupils to suppress individual phoneme values of two letters and recognise them as a single grapheme. Sorting by pattern before reading builds the visual schema.
For a parentVowel digraphs — two vowel letters making one sound. ai (rain, tail), oa (boat, coat), ee (feet, tree).
Example words
oo · ow · oi
For the teacherStage 8 introduces graphemic ambiguity — oo maps to two distinct phonemes. A gateway concept for the broader reality that English graphemes can have multiple pronunciations.
For a parentMore vowel digraphs — oo (moon/book — two sounds!), ow (cow), oi (coin). The two sounds of oo often surprises children.
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Longer words with vowel teams
For the teacherStage 9 demands simultaneous syllable segmentation and digraph recognition. Errors reveal which skill is less automatised — useful diagnostic information.
For a parentTwo-syllable words now containing vowel digraphs — raindrop, moonlight, railway. Combining syllable management with digraph recognition.
Example words
Three-beat words
For the teacherThree-syllable words significantly increase working memory load. Struggle here often reflects processing span rather than phonics gaps — retaining earlier syllables while decoding later ones is the core challenge.
For a parentThree-syllable words like fantastic, important, computer. The phonics patterns are familiar — managing a longer sequence is the challenge.
Example words
c says /s/ before e, i, y
For the teacherSoft c is context-sensitive — the phoneme depends on the following grapheme, requiring forward scanning rather than purely left-to-right decoding.
For a parentWhen c comes before e, i or y it makes an s-sound — city, race, cycle, circle. One of the most common spelling patterns in English.
Example words
g says /dʒ/ before e, i, y
For the teacherSoft g is less consistent than soft c — high-frequency exceptions (get, give, girl, begin) violate the pattern. An excellent opportunity to discuss that English phonics describes tendencies, not laws.
For a parentSoft g says j before e, i or y — giant, cage, gym, germ. Important: there are exceptions (get, give, girl) worth pointing out.
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Consonant + le syllable
For the teacherConsonant+le is a closed final syllable pattern frequently conflicting with the magic-e pattern learned earlier. Explicit contrast is needed. Spelling-to-sound mapping is highly consistent.
For a parentWords ending in consonant + le — table, purple, jungle, simple. The -le ending makes an "ul" sound and forms its own syllable with the consonant before it.
Example words
Four-beat words
For the teacherFour-syllable words approach the upper limit of phonological memory for many pupils. Success here indicates automatised phonics — those still actively effort-processing per phoneme experience working memory overload.
For a parentFour-syllable words like information, communication, imagination. Children are now applying all their phonics knowledge to genuinely complex vocabulary.
Example words
·tion · ·sion · ·ous · ·ture
For the teacherStage 15 marks the transition to morphophonemic decoding — pupils begin using morphological units as decoding chunks rather than processing phoneme by phoneme. Gateway to efficient reading of academic vocabulary.
For a parentCommon endings — -tion (nation), -sion (television), -ous (famous), -ture (adventure). Recognising these as chunks makes long words much more manageable.
Example words
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