✕

Important update from TheSchoolRun

For the past 13 years, TheSchoolRun has been run by a small team of mums working from home, dedicated to providing quality educational resources to primary school parents. Unfortunately, rising supplier costs and falling revenue have made it impossible for us to continue operating, and we’ve had to make the difficult decision to close. The good news: We’ve arranged for another educational provider to take over many of our resources. These will be hosted on a new portal, where the content will be updated and expanded to support your child’s learning.

What this means for subscribers:

  • Your subscription is still active, and for now, you can keep using the website as normal — just log in with your usual details to access all our articles and resources*.
  • In a few months, all resources will move to the new portal. You’ll continue to have access there until your subscription ends. We’ll send you full details nearer the time.
  • As a thank you for your support, we’ll also be sending you 16 primary school eBooks (worth £108.84) to download and keep.

A few changes to be aware of:

  • The Learning Journey weekly email has ended, but your child’s plan will still be updated on your dashboard each Monday. Just log in to see the recommended worksheets.
  • The 11+ weekly emails have now ended. We sent you all the remaining emails in the series at the end of March — please check your inbox (and spam folder) if you haven’t seen them. You can also follow the full programme here: 11+ Learning Journey.

If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected]. Thank you for being part of our journey it’s been a privilege to support your family’s learning.

*If you need to reset your password, it will still work as usual. Please check your spam folder if the reset email doesn’t appear in your inbox.

Parents' guide to Phase 2 phonics

child reading book
Phonics is likely to play a significant role in your child's primary school journey. It helps many children develop the ability to read and spell accurately, often achieved by the end of their second year. Here, we explain what is covered in Phase 2 phonics.

What is phonics?

Chances are, you've heard the term 'phonics' mentioned in the school environment, but what does it entail? Well, it's a method widely used in many primary schools to enhance a child's reading and writing skills. The method involves associating 'phonemes' (sounds) with 'graphemes' (symbols representing the sounds).

You may encounter various phonics schemes depending on the primary school your child attends. While each scheme may have slight differences, generally, your child will be taught using a series of phonics phases gradually introduced throughout the Foundation stage and Key Stage 1.

What is covered in Phase 2 phonics?

During Phase 2 phonics, children learn the sounds that letters make, known as 'phonemes.' Although there are a total of 44 sounds, some composed of two letters, Phase 2 focuses on teaching 19 of the most common, single-letter sounds. These are often grouped into sets (of six sounds) to facilitate learning.

Many schools may begin with sounds such as /s/, /a/, /t/, /i/, /p/, /n/, although this may vary depending on the specific phonics scheme adopted by your child's primary school.

What sounds are taught in Phase 2 phonics?

Here are some of the sounds taught in Phase 2 phonics:

s (strawberry)
a (ant)
t (teddy)
i (igloo)
n (nose)
m (mouse)
d (dog)
g (gate)
o (orange)
c (cat)
k (kite)
ck (duck)
e (egg)
u (umbrella)
r (robot)
h (heart)
b (blast)
f (fish)
ff (off)
l (lolly)
ll (ball)
ss (cross)

Children will also be taught some phase 2 high frequency 'tricky words', such as:

a, an, as, at, and, back, big, but, can, dad, had, get, got, him, his, if, in, is, it, mum, not, on, of, off, up, the, no, to, into, go, I

What reading milestones are expected by the end of Phase 2 phonics?

Generally, by the end of Phase 2 phonics (bearing in mind that every child develops at their own pace), your child should be able to read some vowel-consonant words (at, it, in) and consonant-vowel-consonant words (cat, hot, man) and spell them out. They will also learn some high-frequency 'tricky words.'

How long does Phase 2 teaching last?

Typically, Phase 2 lasts about six weeks. There are usually six phases in total, depending on the scheme chosen by your child's school. There is a Phonics Screening Check that takes place at the end of Year 1, usually in June. This helps the school to establish if any children need extra support with their phonics learning.