Phonics approaches develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding of the relationship between written symbols and sounds. This involves the skills of hearing, identifying and using the patterns of sounds or phonemes to read written language. The aim is to systematically teach pupils the relationship between these sounds and the written spelling patterns, or graphemes, which represent them.
Examples of some activities that might take place in phonics teaching include:
- Isolating sounds;
- Learning letter-sound correspondence;
- Blending sounds to read words; and
- Segmenting words for spelling.
Teaching phonics is a statutory requirement in primary schools in England, with most schools using a systematic synthetic phonics teaching programme (SSP). This strand highlights the strong evidence base for phonics as a highly effective approach to supporting early literacy development, and the importance of ensuring that all children receive high-quality phonics instruction.
Most of the studies in this strand examine the impact of phonics when delivered in small groups or one-to-one sessions. However, many studies also evaluate whole-class delivery of phonics. Both approaches show positive effects on the literacy development of young children, underlining the effectiveness of phonics teaching in different instructional contexts.
The evidence can be used by teachers and school leaders in two complementary ways:
- To plan and deliver whole-class, systematic phonics programmes, ensuring that all children build strong foundations in reading.
- To design and implement targeted, intensive phonics interventions for pupils who need additional support, delivered through small groups or one-to-one sessions alongside the main classroom programme.
1. Phonics has a positive impact on average (+5 months) with extensive evidence and is an important component in the development of early reading skills particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
2. The teaching of phonics should be explicit and systematic to support children in making connections between the sound patterns they hear in words and the way that these words are written.
3. Phonics can be especially beneficial for children who are lower attaining.
4. The teaching of phonics should be matched to children’s current level of phonemic awareness and their knowledge of letter sounds and patterns (graphemes).
5. Phonics improves the accuracy of the child’s reading but not necessarily their comprehension. It is important that children make progress in all aspects of reading including comprehension and the development of vocabulary and spelling, both of which should also be taught explicitly.
Phonics approaches are consistently effective in supporting younger pupils to master the basics of reading, with an average impact of an additional five months’ progress. Teaching phonics is more effective on average than other approaches to early reading (such as whole languageA method that emphasizes understanding and meaning through exposure to complete texts, e.g., pupils learn to read by engaging with stories and predicting unknown words from context and pictures in a book. or alphabetic approaches). However, it should be emphasised that effective phonics techniques are usually embedded in a rich literacy environment for early readers and are only one part of a successful literacy strategy.
While there have been fewer studies examining phonics with older readers, there is evidence that it can be an equally positive approach for secondary school pupils. With any reading intervention, it is important to pinpoint the precise difficulties that the reader is experiencing, regardless of age. If an older reader is struggling with decoding, phonics approaches will still be appropriate. Where readers are struggling with vocabulary or comprehension, other interventions may be more appropriate.
There is some variation in impact between different phonics approaches. SyntheticTraining pupils to sound out and blend individual letter sounds (phonemes) to form words, e.g., blending /c/, /a/, and /t/to read “cat.” and analytic phonicsHelping pupils recognize whole words and identify letter – sound patterns within them, e.g., discussing how the following words are alike: pat, park, push, and pen.Helping pupils recognize whole words and identify letter – sound patterns within them, e.g., discussing how the following words are alike: pat, park, push, and pen. approaches have higher impacts, while the smaller number of studies related to analogyUsing known word patterns or “word families” to help pupils decode unfamiliar words, e.g., using knowledge of “cake” to read “bake” and “rake.” and embedded phonicsPhonics instruction is integrated naturally into reading and writing activities, e.g., pointing out that the “th” in “the” makes a specific sound while reading a story together. show a smaller, though still positive, impact on average. The largest evidence base relates to synthetic phonics approaches.
The majority of studies have been conducted in primary schools though there are a small number of studies with secondary age pupils with a similar average impact (+5 months).
Most studies of phonics are of intensive support in small groups and one to one with the aim to supporting pupils to catch up with their peers. The effects of one to one tends to be higher (+8 months) compared to interventions with small groups of up to 5 children (+4 months), but this needs to be offset by the number of pupils who can receive support. This finding suggests that providing targeted additional phonics support to specific children can have an especially positive impact.
While the above refers to providing targeted additional phonics support for specific children, phonics is equally impactful when delivered as part of regular phonics instruction to larger groups or whole class.
Studies of intensive support involving teaching assistants show similar overall impact compared to those involving teachers. Approaches using digital technology tend to be less successful than those led by a teacher or teaching assistant.
All approaches to teaching phonics (including synthetic phonics, analytic phonics, analogy phonics and embedded phonics) show a positive impact in the studies analysed. However, analytic and synthetic phonics approaches have the highest impact with the most extensive evidence base relating to synthetic phonics approaches.
Studies in England have shown that pupils eligible for free school meals typically receive similar or slightly greater benefit from phonics interventions and approaches compared to other pupils.
Lower phonological awareness can be contributed to by being exposed to fewer words spoken or books read in the home learning environment; or having fewer opportunities to engage in formal or informal learning opportunities outside of school. Schools should consider how to support reading in the home learning environment for all pupils.
It is important that practitioners assess such pupils’ phonics skills and adjust their teaching of phonics appropriately. These pupils may also benefit from other approaches to support literacy development, such as reading comprehension strategies.
Schools should consider the following features when selecting and implementing a phonics programme:
- a systematic approach – use an explicit, organised and systematic approach that teaches pupils a comprehensive set of letter-sound relationships through an organised sequence;
- training – ensure all staff have the necessary pedagogical skills and content knowledge;
- responsiveness – incorporate regular assessment to check if learning can be accelerated or extra support is needed;
- engagement – lessons that engage children and are enjoyable to teach;
- adaptations – carefully consider any adaptations to the programmes as they might reduce its impact; and
- focus – if children have been grouped according to prior attainment, a responsive approach to grouping is likely to help focus effort and improve teaching efficiency by building on what children know and can do. Regular assessment will ensure that children move between groups as appropriate to their level of attainment.
Good implementation of phonics programmes will also consider pupils’ wider reading skills and will identify where pupils are struggling with aspects of reading other than decoding that might be targeted through other approaches such as the explicit teaching of reading comprehension strategies.
Where phonics is delivered as an intervention targeted at specific pupils, regular sessions (four to five times a week), over a period of up to 14 weeks appear to be the most successful structure.
It is important that practitioners receive professional development in effective assessment and diagnosis, as well as training in the use of particular phonics programmes.
These EEF blogs may support implementation:
When introducing new approaches, schools should consider implementation. For more information see A School’s Guide to Implementation.
Overall, the median costs of implementing a phonics programme are estimated as very low, though this will depend on the programme chosen, the level of training and support, and resources that are required. While some of these are initial start-up costs associated with the first year of delivery, there are ongoing recurrent costs related to CPD, resources and subscriptions.
The range of prices between available programmes and the option to purchase additional ongoing training and support for staff means that costs can range from very low to low. Evidence suggests that the effectiveness of phonics is related to the pupil’s stage of reading development, so it is important that teachers have professional development in effective assessment as well as in the use of particular phonics techniques and materials.
These cost estimates assume that schools are already paying for staff salaries to deliver interventions, facilities to host lessons, and basic stationery materials for staff and pupils. These are all pre-requisite costs of implementing a phonics intervention, without which the cost is likely to be higher.
The security of the evidence around phonics is rated as high. 228 studies were identified that meet the inclusion criteria of the Toolkit. Overall, the topic lost one padlock because a large percentage of the studies were not independently evaluated. Evaluations conducted by organisations connected with the approach – for example, commercial providers, typically have larger impacts, which may influence the overall impact of the strand.
As with any evidence review, the Toolkit summarises the average impact of approaches when researched in academic studies. It is important to consider your context and apply your professional judgement when implementing an approach in your setting.
Have any questions?
The Teaching and Learning Toolkit is a living resource that is updated as new evidence is published. As we continue to update the Toolkit we are interested in your questions about this topic area for future content.
The evidence synthesis team will review submitted questions and, where possible, provide answers in future updates.
Guidance Reports
Preparing for Literacy
Guidance Reports
Improving Literacy in Key Stage 1
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Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools
Guidance Reports