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Daily Lesson Plans & Guidance

Ensure consistency with complete planning and guidance supplied for every phonics lesson for the first 4 years of schooling. Lessons are numbered from 1 to 268 and include revision, teaching a new sound or spelling, blending for reading and a sentence for dictation.


  • Letters and Sounds Phases
  • Decodable Books
  • Daily Worksheets
  • e-learning platform
  • Assessment
  • Research
  • Pricing

Decodable Books

Reading decodable books helps children develop the skills they need to read fluently and independently. It is essential not to use other strategies to work out words (including guessing words, deducing meaning from pictures, grammar, context clues or whole word recognition). Children need to read books in a progressive sequence until they can decode unfamiliar words confidently. 



Sample books - click to read

Daily worksheets

Help pupils both at home and school with these daily activities for reading, spelling and writing. Master letter formation at phases 2 and 3 and quickly learn to spell using the read, cover, write method

primer font worksheets

Progress through to writing alternative spellings for spoken sounds at phases 5 and 6. Undertake tasks that promote reading for meaning as well as phonics


sassoon font worksheets

 Simple notes of guidance for parents about Letters and Sounds and how they can help their child with the activities at home through e.g. the correct pronunciations of phonemes


at home guidance

A worksheet for every lesson...

Below are examples of the phase 2 worksheets. Please feel free to download and use these. For access to over 300 daily worksheets covering phases two to six and available in both primer and sassoon font please subscribe.

Phase 2 Lesson 1: s /s/ (pdf)Download
Phase 2 Lesson 2: a /a/ (pdf)Download
Phase 2 Lesson 3: t /t/ (pdf)Download
Phase 2 Lesson 4: p /p/ (pdf)Download
Phase 2 Lesson 5: i /i/ (pdf)Download
Phase 2 Lesson 6: n /n/ (pdf)Download
Phase 2 Lesson 7: m /m/ (pdf)Download
Phase 2 Lesson 8: d /d/ (pdf)Download
Phase 2 Lesson 9: g /g/ (pdf)Download
Phase 2 Lesson 10: o /o/ (pdf)Download
Phase 2 Lesson 11: c /k/ (pdf)Download
Phase 2 Lesson 12: k /k/ (pdf)Download

Grow the Code e-learning platform

Changing Lives By Improving Literacy

Our accompanying e-learning platform Grow the Code is perfect for whole class or individual teaching. Grow the Code can also be used as a powerful catch-up programme for those with ‘phonics gaps’.

Spend Less Time Marking and More Time Teaching!

All children can quickly be assessed using the online assessment tool. Results are recorded and sorted and the bottom 20% of children can be targeted for extra keep-up lessons.


Grow the Code fosters children’s phonemic awareness skills in preparation for high-quality phonic teaching. They learn how the alphabet works and are equiped with the knowledge and skills they need to become fluent readers and confident spellers by the age of seven. 


 If you are a Grow the Code subscriber you can use the discount code 'GROW' to receive a 50% discount on your lettersandsoundsphonics.com subscription.

Find out more

Letters and Sounds Phases

The order in which the letter-sounds are taught should be followed exactly but the amount of time spent on each phase is determined by your country's curriculum. 


Schools can also teach Letters and Sounds using Phonics Groups. To use this method, children are divided according to their phonic knowledge rather than their year group. e.g. If you have 4 classrooms across the first two years of school, then teacher 1 will only teach phase 2; teacher 2 teaches phase 3, teacher 3 teaches phase 4 and teacher 4 teaches phase 5. After each phase a phonics assessment is carried out and students who score 90% or higher move up to the next phase.

Pre-K 

Phase One paves the way for the systematic teaching of phonic work, by developing speaking, listening and language skills through adult-led activities and high-quality play. Phase One activities are designed to underpin and run alongside activities in other phases. 

Lessons 1 - 23

The purpose of this phase is to teach at least 19 letters, and move children on from oral blending and segmentation to blending and segmenting with letters. By the end of the phase many children should be able to read and spell some VC and CVC words. They will also learn to read some high-frequency ‘tricky’ words: is, the, no, go, I, into, his, has, as, put, of

Lessons 24 - 35

Another 12 graphemes are taught. Children also continue to practise CVC blending and segmentation and will apply their knowledge of blending and segmenting to reading and spelling simple two-syllable words and captions. They will also learn to read some high-frequency ‘tricky’ words: said, her, he, my, for, be, you 

Lessons 36 - 50

The purpose of this phase is to teach another 15 graphemes, most of them comprising two letters (e.g. oa), so the children can represent each of about 42 phonemes by a grapheme.  Tricky words: she, all, me, we they

Lessons 51 - 68

The purpose of this phase is to consolidate children’s knowledge of graphemes in reading and spelling words containing adjacent consonants and polysyllabic words.  Tricky words: are, there,so, were, like, have, do, come, some

Lessons 69 - 79

The purpose of this phase is to teach common word endings including suffixes. of graphemes in reading and spelling words containing adjacent consonants and polysyllabic words. Tricky words: one, out, about, love, today, say

Lessons 80 - 102

The purpose of this phase is for children to broaden their knowledge of graphemes and phonemes for use in reading and spelling.  Tricky words: here, your, ask, people, oh, Mr, Mrs, Ms, their, water

Lessons 103 - 123

The purpose of this phase is for children to broaden their knowledge of graphemes and phonemes for use in reading and spelling. Tricky words: eye, again, any, many, friend, hour, work, through, pretty, shoe, two

Lesons 124 - 143

The purpose of this phase is for children to broaden their knowledge of graphemes and phonemes for use in reading and spelling. Tricky words: once, beautiful, different, thought, busy

Lessons 159 - 163

The purpose of this phase is for children to broaden their knowledge of graphemes and phonemes for use in reading and spelling. Tricky words: laugh, improve, move, call

Lessons 164 - 181

Children should know most of the common grapheme– phoneme correspondences (GPCs). They should be able to read hundreds of words by; reading the words atomatically; decoding them quickly and silently; decoding them aloud. 

Lessons 182 - 198

Children will acquire more word-specific knowledge. They still need to segment words into phonemes to spell them, but they also learn that good spelling involves not only doing this and representing all the phonemes plausibly but also, where necessary, choosing the right grapheme from several possibilities.

Lessons 199 - 220

Children should be taught to think in terms of base words and suffixes whenever appropriate. Suffixes are easily learned and many base words will already be familiar from Phases Two to Five.

Lessons 221 - 243

Children should be taught to think in terms of base words and suffixes whenever appropriate. Suffixes are easily learned and many base words will already be familiar from Phases Two to Five.

Lessons 244 - 268

Teach/revise more word specific positional spellings and spelling rules. Add prefix: un (unhappy(. Add prefix: dis (disown).

Add suffixes and general spelling rules where changes maybe required to the base word.

Assessment options:

Grow the Code

Children can quickly be assessed using the online assessment tool. Results are recorded and sorted and the bottom 20% of children can be targeted for extra keep-up lessons. 

Visit Website

For Schools

A fun and simple way to carry out summative assessments at the end of each phase. Assesses GPCs, blending for reading and tricky words. Record answers quickly on the excel spreadsheet or pdf sheets provided. 

View / Download

Free Online Assessment

Free Online Assessment

A quick and easy assessment you can do right now to test the phonic knowledge of your child and be directed to books and online lessons that are matched to their ability.

Start assessment

Research

Why does Grow the code work?

The answer is simple but very important. Letters and Sounds reflects the latest evidence-based understanding of how children learn. Through extensive global research and observations on teaching practices and learning outcomes, it has been established that the most effective method for teaching children to read is synthetic phonics. This method guarantees success for all children, regardless of age, gender, background, language profile, or additional learning needs.


  1. Teaching the Brain to Read (Smart Kids, 2005)
  2. Independent Review of the Teaching of Early Reading (Jim Rose, 2006)
  3. Reading in the Brain (Penguin Books, 2010)
  4. How We Learn (Penguin Books, 2021)


These are particularly useful because they give a detailed background and a clear summary of the latest thinking on how children learn, based on evidence from neuroscience, cognitive psychology and educational research.


The International Foundation for Effective Reading Instruction


The IFERI website is an excellent resource that provides informed and evidence-based guidance on early reading instruction. It has been invaluable in creating Grow the Code. For those new to teaching, or those looking to better understand the data and research underpinning phonics, the IFERI website should be the first port of call: www.iferi.org.


Learning to read


Neurological research has identified an area of the brain dedicated to the process of reading which Stanislas Dehaene (author of Reading in the Brain) calls ‘the letterbox’. This area is not operational from birth; rather, the neurological pathways are established as we learn the connections between letters and sounds. These pathways and activation of ‘the letterbox’ provide the basis for automatic word recognition and fluent reading.


Learning should be regularly practised and consolidated through application in reading sessions with decodable books, in writing sessions, and with further opportunities encouraged throughout the school day. Letters and Sounds provides all the planning, resources and support needed. Our pedagogy ensures optimum learning for the maximum number of children. Taught with fidelity, in parallel to the committed development of vocabulary and comprehension, and in a context that embraces Reading for Pleasure, it can provide reading success for all children, regardless of their background.



How we learn

Effective learning is dependent not only on what is learned, but on how it is learned. Dehaene identifies four ‘pillars of learning’. These are simple ideas in themselves, but they form the basis of understanding that unites education with neuroscience and leads to the most effective learning. These four pillars are:


1. Focused attention

Preferably for short periods, regularly and frequently repeated. Short, daily lessons achieve precisely this, focusing on what needs to be learned, without extraneous distracting activity.


2. Active engagement

Continual expectation of children in chorus and individual oral response. During  lessons, active engagement is achieved through chorus and individual oral responses.


3. Error feedback

Errors are best countered by a teacher modelling the correct response. Learners need errors corrected so that they can continually adjust and improve the mental model they are constructing in a positively encouraging way.


4. Practise and consolidation

Small items of learning are practised and repeated many times. This repeated practise in our lessons is an essential element of committing learning to memory. Learning is also revisited frequently, both discretely and through direct and immediate application with continuous revision and consolidation in every lesson. 

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