The Alphabetic Code

THE ENGLISH ALPHABETIC CODE

Can your teachers calculate it?
 

Education departments expect teachers to understand and use the English alphabetic code.

But do education departments and school leaders actually know whether teachers have the knowledge required to do this?

Can they independently determine:

Which phonemes? How many?
Which graphemes? How many?
Which phoneme value does each grapheme represent?

There is currently no assessment of teacher knowledge to establish whether they can.

And while government guidance tells teachers what they need to identify, no universally agreed formula has been provided for calculating the answer.

What does the Department for Education in England expect?

The Department for Education (DfE) expects phonics knowledge to be applied when children decode and spell words throughout the curriculum.

Primary teachers therefore need to be able to identify which letters form graphemes and their corresponding phoneme values in words.

National guidance defines early word reading and spelling in terms of the relationship between spoken sounds and written letters.

The Reading Framework states:

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“Understanding that the letters on the page represent the sounds in spoken words underpins successful word reading. Pupils’ knowledge of the English alphabetic code, how letters or groups of letters represent the sounds of the language, supports their reading and spelling.”

(Department for Education, England, 2023)

The same document further states:

​

“This guidance explains why teachers themselves also need to understand the alphabetic code: evidence supports the key role of phonic knowledge and skills in early reading and spelling.”

(Department for Education, England, 2023)

So what does that require teachers to be able to do?

Print → Speech

In reading, pupils are taught to decode by identifying graphemes in written words from left to right, saying the corresponding phonemes, and blending those phonemes to say the whole word (Department for Education, England, 2023, p. 47).

That requires teachers to know:

Which letters form the graphemes?

How many graphemes?

Which phoneme value does each represent?

Speech → Print

In spelling, pupils are taught to say a word clearly, segment it into phonemes, and select graphemes to represent each phoneme in writing (Department for Education, England, Writing Framework, 2025, p. 41).

That requires teachers to know:

Which phonemes?

How many phonemes?

Which graphemes represent them?

SPEECH ⇄ PRINT

The process is bidirectional.

And teachers need to be able to apply this knowledge beyond the correspondences children have already been explicitly taught.

Statutory spelling guidance states:

​

“Pupils’ attention should be drawn to the grapheme-phoneme correspondences that do and do not fit in with what has been taught so far.”

So teachers need to recognise and explain correspondences that have not yet been taught.

There is therefore a clear difference between knowing the GPCs taught within a programme and having the code knowledge required to analyse the words children encounter throughout KS1, KS2 and beyond.

Children need to continue extending their knowledge of the alphabetic code as they encounter new words.

But that creates an important question for education departments and school leaders:

DO YOUR TEACHERS HAVE THE KNOWLEDGE TO DO THIS?

And:

HOW DO YOU KNOW?

There is currently no standard assessment establishing whether teachers can independently identify and calculate the phonological and orthographic structure of words.

Australia expects teachers to understand and use the code

The NSW Department of Education states:

​

“Phonic knowledge refers to the relationship between speech sounds (phonemes) and their letter symbols (graphemes).”

It describes the Standard Australian English alphabetic code and states:

​

“Understanding and using the alphabetic code is essential for fluent and meaningful reading and writing in English.”

(NSW Department of Education)

The Australian Government Literacy Hub makes the required operation particularly clear.

It states:

​

“Mapping words in the early stages of reading and spelling development involves:

identifying the phonemes that you hear

indicating how many there are

representing those phonemes using single letters.”

(Australian Government Literacy Hub)

The same government resource states:
 

“Knowledge of the alphabetic code is the glue that connects the way a word is said, the way it is spelled and its meaning.”

Again, teachers are being told what they need to do.

Identify the phonemes they hear.

Determine how many there are.

Determine how those phonemes are represented in print.
 

But this leaves the critical question:

HOW DO THEY KNOW THE ANSWER?
 

Given a word:

Which phonemes?

How many?

Which letters constitute the graphemes?

How many?

Which phoneme value does each grapheme represent?

Knowing the definitions of phoneme and grapheme doesn't provide the analysis.

Someone has to calculate it.

THE MISSING PIECE

The DfE itself states:

​

“The chart is not definitive because the alphabetic code can be analysed in various ways.”

(Department for Education, England, Reading Framework, 2023, Appendix 5)

Education departments tell teachers what they need to identify.

They expect teachers to understand and use the alphabetic code.

But across the national guidance examined in England and Australia, no general formula has been provided for calculating the answer consistently.

And there is currently no standard assessment establishing whether teachers can do it.

These are the two missing pieces:

How do teachers calculate the code?

How do education systems know whether they can?

INTRODUCING THE POM FORMULA

Phonological–Orthographic Mapping Formula

The POM Formula provides a systematic way to calculate the relationship between the phonological and orthographic structures of English words.

It answers the practical questions teachers are already expected to answer:

Which phonemes? How many?

Which graphemes? How many?

Which phoneme values?

And it works in both directions:

SPEECH ⇄ PRINT

The reference phonological analysis uses British IPA, providing an established shared reference for representing the speech sounds being analysed.

This doesn't prescribe how children should speak.

Teachers and learners can compare the reference analysis with their own pronunciation and explore legitimate variation in accent and pronunciation.

The POM Formula makes the analysis:

explicit • consistent • teachable • checkable • assessable

ASSESS. TRAIN. CHECK.

Assess teacher knowledge

Teacher knowledge assessment tools establish what teachers can actually do.

Can they identify the constituent phonemes?

Can they determine how many there are?

Can they identify the graphemes?

Can they determine grapheme boundaries?

Can they identify phoneme values?

Can they analyse unfamiliar correspondences?

Can they work in both directions?

Rather than assuming teachers understand the alphabetic code, find out.

Train teachers to calculate the code

POM Formula training teaches educators how to independently calculate the phonological and orthographic structure of words.

Not another list of mappings to memorise.

A formula for working out the answer.

Give teachers tools to check

Reference and assessment tools support teachers in checking analyses, investigating unfamiliar correspondences and exploring legitimate accent and pronunciation variation.

IF TEACHERS ARE EXPECTED TO UNDERSTAND THE CODE, DON'T ASSUME THEY DO.

Assess it. Train it. Give them the tools to use it.

For education departments, school systems, multi-academy trusts, schools, universities and teacher education providers.

BOOK POM FORMULA TRAINING

Learn how to calculate the English alphabetic code.

BOOK TRAINING

ENQUIRE ABOUT TEACHER KNOWLEDGE ASSESSMENT

Research forthcoming.