Phase Five
Most children entering phase 5 should be able to read and spell words containing adjacent consonants (two or more consonants that are next to each other in a word) and some polysyllabic words (words that have two or more syllables).
The purpose of phase 5 is for children to broaden their knowledge of graphemes and phonemes for use in reading and spelling. They will learn new graphemes and alternative pronunciations for graphemes they already know, where relevant. Some of the alternatives will already have been encountered in the high-frequency words that have been taught. Children will become quicker at recognising graphemes of more than one letter in words and at blending the phonemes they represent. When spelling words, children will learn to choose the appropriate graphemes to represent phonemes and begin to build word-specific knowledge of the spellings of words.
Each week of our phase 5 phonics scheme comprises of 5 lessons that follow the four part lesson sequence suggested in the Letters and Sounds framework.
Each lesson introduces new reading and spelling knowledge, tricky words, high frequency words and common exception words, in the same sequence suggested by Letters and Sounds.
There are 21 weeks in total for phase 5, with planning for week 10+ that can be adapted according to the alternative spellings you wish to introduce or practise and can be carried out indefinitely.
Weeks
21 Weeks
Sounds
a-e, al c, alt a, alt ch, alt e, alt g, alt i, alt o, alt u, alt y, ay, e-e, ea, ew, I-e, ie, ir, o-e, ou, oy, ph, ue, wh
For full access to our phonics programme, games and resources
What is learnt in phase 5 phonics?
- Teaching further graphemes for reading
- Alternative pronunciations for graphemes.
- Recognition of graphemes in reading words.
- Reading high-frequency (common) words.
- Reading two-syllable and three-syllable words.
- Reading sentences.
Alternative spellings for phonemes.
Spelling and practising high-frequency words.
Practising spelling two-syllable and three-syllable words.
Practising writing sentences.
What's included?
Time for Phonics provides teachers with a specialist created Letters and Sounds phonics scheme for phase 5, including:
- Daily and weekly phase 5 phonics planning, following the Letters and Sounds progression.
- Phase 5 interactive lesson presentations.
- Phase 5 decodable texts and mini-books.
- On-demand phonics training videos.
- Phase 5 interactive online phonics games that work on any computer or device.
- Handwriting resources.
- Accompanying low-prep phase 5 phonics resources.
- Phase 5 phonics assessments to track your pupils' progress.
Suitable for both phonics and non-specialists, with fresh ideas and inspiration,
Time for Phonics is a systematic, synthetic phonics scheme for everyone!
In this first week of Phase 5, children will learn to say and recognise the sounds: ay, ea, ie and ou. They will also learn tricky words: oh, their and people. Children will also spend some time revising sounds from phases 2 and 3 using a series of phonics games and activities.
Allow: 1:30 - 2:30 Hours
Sounds: ay, ea, ie, ou
In this second week of Phase 5, children will learn to say and recognise: or, ir and ue, as well as revise previously learned phase 5 graphemes. They will also learn to read the tricky words: Mr, Mrs, looked, called, asked and could.
Allow: 1:30 - 2:30 Hours
Sounds: ay, ea, ir, ou, oy, ue
In this third week of phase 5, children will learn to say and recognise the sounds: ew, ph and wh and will revise the tricky words: oh, their, people, Mr, Mrs, looked, called, and asked and revise tricky words: said, so, have, and like.
This phase 5 phonics planning is aligned with the order of teaching in the Letters and Sounds framework, and is packed full of easy to prepare teaching input and phase 5 phonics resources to help children make progress.
Allow: 1:30 - 2:30 Hours
Sounds: ew, ph, wh
In this fourth week of phase 5, children will learn to say and recognise the sounds: aw, au, ey, oe and a-e. As ever, children will revise the phase 2 and phase 3 sounds and take part in fun phonics games and activities.
Allow: 1:30 - 2:30 Hours
Sounds: a-e, au, aw, ey, oe
In this fifth week of phase 5, children will learn to say and recognise the split digraphs: e-e, i-e, o-e and u-e. They will also practise writing the tricky words: little, one, do and when. As ever, children will also revise previously learnt sounds, and take part in an optional outdoor phonics lesson!
Allow: 1:30 - 2:30 Hours
Sounds: e-e, I-e, o-e, u-e
In this sixth week of Phase 5, children will learn to say and recognise the alternative sounds for : a, e, i, o and u. Children will also learn to read the tricky words: water, where, who, again, thought, through, work, and mouse.
Allow: 1:30 - 2:30 Hours
Sounds: alt a, alt e, alt i, alt o, alt u
In this seventh week of Phase 5, children will learn to say and recognise the alternative pronunciations for graphemes: c, ch, g and y. They will also learn to read the tricky words: many, laughed, because, different, any, eyes, friends, once and please.
Allow: 1:30 - 2:30 Hours
Sounds: al c, alt ch, alt g, alt y
In this eighth week of Phase 5, children will learn to say and recognise the alternative pronunciations for graphemes ow, er, ie, ea, and ou.
Allow: 1:30 - 2:30 Hours
Sounds: alt ea, alt er, alt ie, alt ou, Alt ow
In this ninth week of Phase 5, children will learn to say and recognise the alternative pronunciation for ey, as well as learn new phoneme /zh/.
In addition, children will consolidate previous phonics learning.
Allow: 1:30 - 2:30 Hours
Sounds: alt ey, zh
In Week 10 and beyond, children will practise reading and writing words that contain alternative graphemes (letters) for the same phoneme (sounds). We have provided a list of phase 5 alternative spellings to show you what needs to be covered along with example words to use (this will take approximately 12 more weeks to cover all of the spellings). Take four of the alternative spellings for each week, and substitute the grapheme and words into each plan, with Friday as a consolidation day. In addition, you will need to use your teacher assessment within each lesson to select alternative spellings to spend additional time and focus on
Allow: 1:30 - 2:30 Hours
Sounds: Phase 5 Alternative Spellings
Easy to use phase 5 assessment materials to track children's progress as they work through phase 5. Includes:
- tick sheet assessment/record of all phase 5 sounds, tricky and high frequency words.
- blending with alternative phonemes.
- tracker to help identify the lowest 20% of pupils and assign the most appropriate decodable text.
Phase 5
For full access to our phonics programme, games and resources