Victorian teachers are saving time they say they can redirect to educating with a new, streamlined and more efficient phonics check designed to gauge the literacy skills of the state’s six-year-olds.
The new 10-minute assessment, part of the state’s move toward an “explicit instruction” model of literacy learning, will replace the contentious English Online Interview (EOI), which the state government scrapped in December.
Year 1 students at Docklands Primary School and the new classroom phonics way of learning.Credit: Simon Schluter
The EOI, the subject of much criticism over the years from both the profession and academia, is still available for schools to use this year, but from 2026, the grade 1 phonics check will be mandatory in all government schools.
Both the EOI and the phonics checks are one-on-one between a teacher and a student, but the old assessment took up to 40 minutes to administer.
Government schools can now choose to hold off applying the old test for the 2025 school year or begin the transition to the phonics check before it becomes mandatory next year.
As soon as the EOI – which was so lengthy that schools were often forced to draft in casual relief teachers to administer it – was no longer compulsory, Docklands Primary School dropped it.
A Docklands student does the phonics check with teacher Bethany Tonkin (centre) and Education Minister Ben Carroll.Credit: Simon Schluter
“There was a lot in the English Online Interview that was nice to know but didn’t really have any impact on students learning to read,” Bethany Tonkin, the school’s literacy expert, said, adding that it also included things like retelling a story or rhymes.
Tonkin said the new grade 1 phonics check was shorter and more focused than the previous assessment.
“Alien” words in the phonics check for grade 1 students.Credit: Department of Education
“It’s a fabulous use of teacher’s time so they can get on with the important business of teaching, and it really just tests the essential skills for reading,” Tonkin said.
The check uses 20 real words, and 20 made-up or “alien” words for grade 1 students to sound out to measure their reading and phonics knowledge.
Using made-up words such as “scrug” helps a teacher determine if a child can recognise sounds a letter makes, rather than just recognising a word. The alien words are illustrated with a cartoon extraterrestrial, used to reinforce the notion that the child is not looking at a real word, and to provide visual engagement.
As a student moves through the check, they sound out both the words and non-words, with teachers recording results.
Tonkin said the test provided educators with precise data on how each student was doing.
“We’re able to get really clear data on where students are, and what they need to learn,” Tonkin said.
She said the test also helped teachers identify struggling students who needed immediate intervention.
Grattan Institute education expert Jordana Hunter said the phonics check allowed educators to determine what children had mastered or if they needed additional help.
“It will also save time in the long run because if we pick up those students that are struggling early, we can intervene quickly to get them back on track,” she said.
Hunter said there was a strong argument for children who didn’t meet the grade 1 benchmark after sitting the test to resit the phonics check again in grade 2.
“Having a year 2 resit process, just for those children who didn’t meet that benchmark in year 1, is critical, and I really want the government to adopt that recommendation,” she said.
The Grattan Institute’s Jordana Hunter says the phonics check allows teachers to determine what children have mastered.Credit: Rhett Wyman
Hunter said it was important for children to develop a love of learning at an early stage, and if they struggled, it could lead to a cycle of falling behind.
It was also important for parents to be aware of expectations and be informed with any changes, a leading advocacy group said.
Gail McHardy, the head of Parents Victoria, said it was vital the Department of Education communicated with schools and parents before it implemented changes.
“[The department] need to seize the opportunities for interaction and have those conversations and give parents that kind of key information about what to expect during a transition year and next year,” McHardy said.
The government has pledged $5 million to help schools implement the new check and pay for new classroom equipment, and Education Minister Ben Carroll reiterated his commitment to explicit instruction teaching.
“The evidence is clear that explicit teaching and the use of systematic synthetic phonics instructions gets results,” Carroll said.
“Our synthetic phonics program was developed by Victorian academic and education experts in evidence-based reading instruction, including teachers, principals and speech pathologists, to best reflect how students learn to read.”
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