Welcome to the woods

Step into Sooty Woods.

A friendly little library of phonics, built around the UK Letters & Sounds phases. Made for teachers planning lessons — and for parents reading at the kitchen table.

Choose a year group For teachers

Wander the woods by year group

Find your clearing

Each year has its own corner of the woods. Browse the phonics phases, sound sets and word lists matched to the UK national curriculum.

EYFS · Ages 4–5

The Saplings' Clearing

Reception. Phases 1–4: hearing sounds, first letters, blending and segmenting CVC words.

Step inside → KS1 · Ages 5–6

The Fledglings' Hollow

Year 1. Phase 5: alternative spellings, split digraphs and the Phonics Screening Check.

Step inside → KS1 · Ages 6–7

The Foragers' Glade

Year 2. Phase 6: suffixes, prefixes, contractions and trickier spelling patterns.

Step inside → KS2 · Ages 7–8

The Trailblazers' Path

Year 3. Spelling rules, prefixes, homophones and the start of word roots.

Step inside →

Two paths through the woods

Made for teachers — and gentle enough for home

For teachers

The Keeper's Lodge

Lesson plans, sound mats, phase-by-phase progression, assessment ideas and printable resources.

For parents

The Hearth

Five-minute games, what to say (and what not to), reading-with-your-child guides and bedtime word lists.

Why Sooty Woods

A calm, curious approach to phonics

Curriculum-matched

Built around Letters & Sounds phases and the National Curriculum spelling appendices.

Plain English

No jargon walls. Every term explained, every example a real word a child might meet.

Five-minute friendly

Activities sized for a busy classroom transition or a sleepy bedtime moment.

No sign-ups

No accounts, no pop-ups, no homework. Just a quiet woodland and the sounds of children sounding-out.