Learning Map

Diphthongs and complex vowels

Read and spell words containing diphthongs and complex vowel patterns (ow, ou, ew, ue, ie, aw, au) and words ending in -y as a vowel sound

How to tell they’ve got it

Tick these off as you see them — no test required.

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Try this together

Can your child read words like 'town', 'cloud', 'flew', 'claw', or 'pie' — spotting the special vowel combinations and saying the right sound for each one?

Where this sits on the map

Stuck here? Check the skills it builds on first. Confident? Here’s what it unlocks.

Builds on
Vowel Digraphsages 4–7Related vowel knowledge supports diphthongs
Diphthongs and complex vowelsthis skill · ages 5–6
Unlocks
Nothing on the map depends on this yet.

solid = must come firstdashed = helps

Curriculum alignment

Candidate matches to official curriculum codes — machine-suggested, unreviewed (v0.1).

Show candidate curriculum codes · 3 ACARA · 2 NSW · 3 VIC

Australian Curriculum v9 candidate

AC9E1LY11medium confidenceYear 1 · Literacy

use short vowels, common long vowels, consonant blends and digraphs to write words, and blend these to read one- and two-syllable words

AC9E1LY12medium confidenceYear 1 · Literacy

understand that a letter can represent more than one sound and that a syllable must contain a vowel sound

AC9E1LY13low confidenceYear 1 · Literacy

spell one- and two-syllable words with common letter patterns

NSW syllabus codes & stages only

EN1-PHOKW-01medium confidenceEnglish K-10 · Stage 1
EN1-SPELL-01low confidenceEnglish K-10 · Stage 1

Victorian Curriculum 2.0 codes & levels only

VC2E1LY04medium confidenceEnglish · Level 1 · Literacy strand
VC2E2LY04medium confidenceEnglish · Level 2 · Literacy strand
VC2E2LY05medium confidenceEnglish · Level 2 · Literacy strand

These are candidate alignments generated by semantic matching — machine-suggested and unreviewed (v0.1), not official or verified mappings. For official curriculum content see australiancurriculum.edu.au, curriculum.nsw.edu.au and f10.vcaa.vic.edu.au. Don’t rely on them for registration or compliance purposes.

Nearby on the map

All Phonics & Word Reading skills →