By the time they reach Phase 3, children will already be able to blend and segment words containing the 19 letters taught in Phase 2.

The purpose of this phase is to:

  • teach more graphemes, most of which are made of two letters, for example, ‘oa’ as in boat
  • practise blending and segmenting a wider set of CVC words, for example, fizz, chip, sheep, light
  • learn all letter names and begin to form them correctly
  • read more tricky words and begin to spell some of them
  • read and write words in phrases and sentences.

CVC words containing graphemes made of two or more letters

Here are some examples of words your children will be reading: tail, week, right, soap, food, park, burn, cord, town, soil.

Set 6: j, v, w, x

Set 7: y, z, zz, qu

Consonant digraphs: ch, sh, th, ng

Vowel digraphs: ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, er

Tricky words

During Phase 3, the following tricky words are introduced:

  • he
  • she
  • we
  • me
  • be
  • was
  • you
  • they
  • all
  • are
  • my
  • her