Phase 3 Phonics: Digraphs Made Simple for Parents

Somewhere around the middle of Reception, your child comes home talking about "sh" and "ch" and something called a digraph — and the school newsletter starts assuming you know what Phase 3 means. This guide covers what's actually being taught, the full list of Phase 3 sounds, and how to help at home without turning bedtime into a lesson.

What a digraph actually is

A digraph is simply two letters that make one sound. When your child reads "ship", they don't sound out s-h-i-p — they learn that "sh" is a single sound, so the word has three sounds, not four. A trigraph is the same idea with three letters, like the "igh" in "night".

This is the big leap of Phase 3. In Phase 2, most words worked letter by letter. Now your child learns that English sometimes bundles letters together — and once that clicks, hundreds of new words open up.

The Phase 3 sounds, in the usual teaching order

Most schools introduce the remaining single letters first: j, v, w, x, y, z, zz, qu.

Then the consonant digraphs: ch (chip), sh (shop), th (thin and then), ng (ring).

Then the vowel digraphs and trigraphs: ai (rain), ee (feet), igh (night), oa (boat), oo (moon and book), ar (farm), or (fork), ur (hurt), ow (cow), oi (coin), ear (dear), air (fair), ure (sure), er (corner).

Alongside these come new tricky words — words that can't be fully sounded out yet, like "he", "she", "we", "me", "be", "was", "my", "you", "her", "they", "all" and "are". These are learned by sight.

How to practise without it feeling like homework

Little and often beats long and formal. Spot digraphs in the wild — on cereal boxes, road signs, shop fronts. "Can you find a 'sh' anywhere on this page?" is a game, not a drill.

When your child gets stuck on a word like "chain", cover parts of it: show them the "ch", then the "ai", then the "n", and blend the three sounds together. Resist the urge to just tell them the word — the small win of working it out is what builds the reading habit.

And keep bedtime reading pitched right. A story stuffed with Phase 5 spellings will frustrate a Phase 3 reader; a story that uses the sounds they know feels like flying.

Stories matched to Phase 3

Every StoryWisp story is tagged by age band and phonics phase, so you can pick one that uses the sounds your child is learning this term. Browse the free library and try a Phase 3 story tonight — and if you want the extra spark, make your child the hero of it.