Phonics Tutor.
Early reading support through systematic phonics tutoring. Helps Reception and KS1 children with blending, segmenting, and decoding using proven phonics programmes.
- Age range
- 4-7 years
- Timeline
- Early years support
- Category
- Local Tutoring Demand
Phonics is how English-speaking children learn to decode written words. Done well, it's the fastest and most reliable way to teach a young child to read.
Done badly — or confused with other approaches — it leaves children guessing at words, relying on picture cues, and falling behind. A good phonics tutor uses a systematic, synthetic phonics programme (the approach proven most effective and the one all English primary schools are required to use), works at the right pace for the child, and — crucially — overlearns. Reading aloud to the tutor every session, practising the same sounds and words repeatedly until they're automatic, and building up from single letters to blending simple words to decoding longer texts. Phonics tutoring is particularly valuable for children who didn't click with their school's programme, children with dyslexia or suspected dyslexia, and children learning English as an additional language.
What synthetic phonics actually is
Synthetic phonics teaches children the sounds each letter (and combination of letters) makes, then how to blend those sounds together to read words. It's 'synthetic' in the sense of synthesising sounds into words. The programme starts with the simplest letter-sound correspondences (s, a, t, p, i, n — chosen because they combine into lots of short words like 'sat', 'tin', 'pan') and builds systematically through more complex combinations (sh, ch, th, ai, ea, igh, etc.). This is the approach used in programmes like Read Write Inc., Letters and Sounds, Jolly Phonics, and Sound Discovery.
The Year 1 phonics screening check
In June of Year 1, children sit a phonics screening check — 40 words, some real, some nonsense, designed to test whether they can decode unfamiliar words using phonics rules rather than memorisation. Children who don't pass retake it in Year 2. This is a good external checkpoint but not the final goal; a child who passes the screening but can't read fluently for meaning still needs support. A phonics tutor can help children prepare for the screening and, more importantly, build the underlying reading fluency it measures.
Phonics and dyslexia
Children with dyslexia often need more phonics, not less — but delivered more slowly, with more repetition, and with a multi-sensory approach that combines hearing, seeing, saying, and writing each sound. Programmes like Orton-Gillingham and Toe by Toe are designed specifically for this. A tutor trained in SEN phonics will structure sessions very differently from a tutor working with a typically-developing learner, even though the underlying system of sounds is the same.
When to start and when to stop
Phonics teaching usually starts in Reception and continues intensively through Year 1 and Year 2. By the end of Year 2 or early Year 3, most children have internalised the phonics system enough that reading becomes fluent and they no longer need to sound out words consciously. If a child is still struggling with decoding in Year 3 or 4, intensive phonics support is usually the right intervention — and the sooner it starts, the faster the catch-up.
What a phonics tutoring session looks like
A good phonics tutoring session for a 5-7 year old is short — 30 minutes is usually long enough, and some children need even less. The session follows a predictable structure: reviewing previously-learned sounds quickly, introducing or consolidating one new sound or skill, reading aloud from a book matched to the child's current phonics level (not a book pitched above their decoding ability, which teaches guessing), and a short writing or spelling activity where the child uses what they've learned. The tutor provides immediate correction — not harsh, but clear: 'that word says cat, not cap, look again at the last letter' — because guessing is the enemy of phonics. The books used matter: they should be 'decodable' in the sense that the child can actually sound out most of the words using the phonics they've been taught so far, with only a small number of 'tricky' sight words. Reading a book pitched too far above the child's phonics level teaches them to rely on pictures, context, and guessing, which is the opposite of what phonics is trying to build. Across a term of weekly sessions, the cumulative effect is usually substantial: children who came in unable to decode simple words often make rapid, visible progress, and the confidence that comes from being able to read their own books independently for the first time is one of the most rewarding things in primary tutoring.
Key focus areas
Find a phonics tutor
Whether your child is struggling with their school's phonics programme, preparing for the Year 1 screening check, or needs specialist phonics support because of suspected dyslexia, we can match you with an experienced phonics tutor — usually a primary teacher or qualified specialist.