English Phonics & Word Readingusually ages 5–8

Reading High-Frequency Words by Sight

Read common high-frequency and exception words automatically by sight, including words with irregular spelling patterns

How to tell they’ve got it

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

Read common exception words instantly without sounding out (e.g. 'the', 'said', 'was', 'you')
Note unusual correspondences between spelling and sound in exception words
Recognise at least 20-30 high-frequency words in connected text

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Try this together

Can your child instantly recognise everyday words like 'said', 'was', 'they', 'come', and 'because' without needing to sound them out every time?

Where this sits on the map

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

Builds on

Knowing all lettersages 4–6Need to recognise letters to read sight words

Blending Sounds to Read Wordsages 4–7Blending helps attempt unfamiliar words but sight words bypass phonics

Reading High-Frequency Words by Sightthis skill · ages 5–8

Unlocks

Reading fluentlyages 5–7Need sight word bank for fluency

Decoding unfamiliar wordsages 7–9Y3-4 exception words build on recognition of Y1-2 common exception words

Number Words to Twentyages 5–6Many number words are irregular and must be recognised as sight words

Homophonesages 7–9Exception word knowledge supports homophone discrimination

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

AC9E1LY14high confidenceYear 1 · Literacy

read and write an increasing number of high-frequency words

AC9E3LY12high confidenceYear 3 · Literacy

recognise and know how to write most high-frequency words including some homophones

AC9E1LY13medium confidenceYear 1 · Literacy

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

NSW syllabus codes & stages only

ENE-SPELL-01high confidenceEnglish K-10 · Early Stage 1

ENE-REFLU-01high confidenceEnglish K-10 · Early Stage 1

Victorian Curriculum 2.0 codes & levels only

VC2EFLY07high confidenceEnglish · Foundation · Literacy strand

VC2E2LY05high confidenceEnglish · Level 2 · Literacy strand

VC2E4LY05high confidenceEnglish · Level 4 · 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

Compound Wordsages 5–8 Diphthongs and complex vowelsages 5–6 R-Controlled Vowel Soundsages 5–6 Reading Contractionsages 5–6

All Phonics & Word Reading skills →