This year’s traditional year 1 phonics screening check (PSC) reflections take a different slant; we give you a top ten of concrete, scaffolded, activities to use with your very most struggling decoders and spellers.
Our phonics screening check analyses continue to show, year upon year, that the largest weighting of target items in these assessments covers curriculum content prior to that year group’s ARE… leaning very much into the values around ‘no child left behind’ (see table at foot of blog: ‘Trends in types of Y1 PSC challenge’). This year, as before, it has been possible for a pupil to meet the expected standard in the Y1 phonics screening check with very little Y1 knowledge (gauged against most schools’ SSP expectations); 32 marks were entirely possible if you had secured merely Year 1 Autumn 1 learning, and all 40 marks if Year 1 Autumn 2 learning was secured (see boxes shaded cream below, taken from our free downloadable analysis tool):
So early skills, revisited often, are key here. There has never been a better time to continue looking to level up the playing field for as many of our pupils with SEND as we can. By using the sort of concrete practice suggested in the ten top tips below, the research is now showing that closing this gap is entirely possible (for research to follow up, see last year’s 2024 Phonics Screening Check blog).
The activities shared in the downloadable resource above can be used very much as part of your Ordinarily Available Provision (high quality teaching), especially in YR/Y1, but also as additional concrete catch-up, or as part of your gap-closing interventions focused on foundational skill fluency. (For rationale behind these methods, see DfE (2023) The Reading Framework, research cited on phonics and SEND.)
So, what impact can you expect from these top tips?
Concrete:
There’s something quietly powerful about a row of empty boxes on a laminated sheet — especially when they become a playground for literacy. Sound boxes (or El’konin boxes, after its creator the 1960s Russian psychologist, D.B. El’konin), a classic tool in phonics instruction, offer children a visual and kinaesthetic way to explore the sounds within words. But beyond simply pushing counters across a page, how we use them — and how we model them — makes all the difference.
Connected:
This top ten isn’t just about techniques. It’s about connection: between teacher and child, between speech and print, between sound and symbol. It encourages us to slow down speech, spotlight structure, and build up self-regulation. Whether you’re guiding a reluctant reader or supporting a child with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), these approaches offer multisensory, brain-friendly and inclusion-ready ways to nudge phonemic awareness forward — and make it stick.
Scaffolded-in:
Each strategy begins with a shared experience. ‘I, we, you’ modelling is more than an instructional phrase — it’s a scaffold for confidence. In ‘Touching Trucks’, we begin by noticing — left to right, sound by sound — as coloured vehicles roll across an invisible soundscape. Blocks, buttons, and tiddlywinks turn abstract phonemes into concrete objects to grip, move, and arrange. These small, tactile shifts invite children to feel the rhythm of language in their fingertips.
Strategic:
From there, the strategies deepen: Continuous Phonation models deliberate elongation of sounds, ideal for children who need extra auditory cues. Springboarding prompts cumulative re-reading, helping children latch onto and join up what's already known before leaping to what’s new. And for those moments when transcriptional fluency lags behind decoding, ‘Say it, write it, check it, stroke it, check it’ adds a brisk, purposeful momentum.
Relational:
Perhaps most beautifully, this top ten leaves space for reciprocity — not just in phonics terms, but in emotional terms. When an adult pauses to ask, “Does that look right?” they’re inviting self-regulation, reflection, perseverance and growth. And by introducing Letter Boxes and Sleeping Lions, this list opens the door to morphology, syllable awareness, and even expressive speech support — gently bridging decoding with comprehension.
These activities don’t require expensive materials or specialist tools. But they do ask something of us as educators: to tune into how language feels, not just how it sounds. To offer routine and novelty in equal measure. To create a rhythm that children can fall into, even when learning feels bumpy.
So, whether you’re just getting started with sound - or El’konin – boxes, or looking for ways to refresh your practice, let this top ten reawaken your curiosity. Pull out the phoneme frames. Invite some buttons. Make the sounds sticky, meaningful, and joyfully repeatable.
Because in the right hands — and with the right modelling — those simple boxes can build something truly lasting.
Trends in types of Y1 PSC challenge:
If you are looking to enhance practice and pupil outcomes, the following resources may be of interest:
ESSENTIALSPELLING: a fully inclusive resource that uses retrieval and over-learning to help close gaps in spelling, and therefore also in decoding.
Phonics Screening Check – next steps: On-demand e-learning designed to support forensic needs analysis of your lowest attainers in phonics, and map out gap-closing provision for the next academic year. Comes with entire back-catalogue of HFL Excel analysis tools.
References
A tale of two biggies: the two A’s of phonics (Assessment & Application)
‘Fight'n Words? The Dyslexia Debate Revisited’ in conversation with Julian Elliott
Related training
HFL and ISL Universal / Universal Plus SEND training on HFL Hub, session 3 on literacy difficulties (funded / FREE to Herts schools with code)
Phonics screening check- what next? (attendees receive full back catalogue of HFL’s Y1 PSC Excel Analysis Tools for FREE)
Kirsten Snook
