To not feel happy about 6 year old ds being 'tested' on fake words? Phonics.

[OHforDUCKScake]

And is this something all year one pupils have to do?

So the children learn the phonics, 'oa' 'air' 'ng' and so on.

Now, the government, since last year, want to test them on it. If they get a certain amount wrong, they fail and have to do it again.

The thing is, the way they test them is to give them fake words to check they really do know their phonics.

They will be given 20 real words and 20 fake workds and they have to get 34 out of 40 or their fail.

So, as long as they can read toast, fair, treat

As well as taim, roaf, rait

Then they will be ok.

I dont know where to start, honestly. First of all, testing them just so the government can see what the deal is, using them as guinea pigs it feels like. They are only 6!

Secondly, the weeks leading up to the test they have been teaching them fake non-words.

A test? At 6? That they can fail?

I asked if we were obliged to do this? Teachers are, and parents are. I have no choice but to let my son have the bullshit test.

If AIBU then thats fine, but he is our first so we dont know the drill and he is already struggling in some areas so possibly a little more sensitive than usual to him being taught bullshit words and being tested on them.

The administrator will also tell them. It's very, very clear.

As a parent I think this test is a good thing. Don't all of us automatically use phonics to pronounce words we haven't seen before. Even if you weren't taught by a different method isn't that the approach everyone uses with unfamiliar words or names.

My own DC didn't take this test as I believe it's fairly recent but I would have had no problem with it at all. Seeing it as being tested on fake words is missing the point.

Blackholesandrevolutions - keen to help my child, and read endlessly to him as an activity we both love? Yes.

Keen to attend numerous workshops that will doubtless be held during school hours with the unfortunate effect of making working parents feel crappy about themselves? Afraid not.

I am not saying I am right to feel this way, but I do suspect I am very far from alone.

Numerous? Not really. We do one right at the beginning of Reception and parents say they are very happy.

dd1 is a great reader in reception at the moment but I think she'll look at fake words, sound them out and try to make them real words. Basically I'm going to not be bothered about the test and how she does in it. Apparently the fake words have a picture of an alien beside them so they do know they aren't real but then that means they are spending learning time, learning how to pass a test rather than useful stuff. Anyway, I'll pay no attention as I know she can read, just like I'll ignore the nurse weighing thing as I know dd is healthy.

Apparently the fake words have a picture of an alien beside them so they do know they aren't real but then that means they are spending learning time, learning how to pass a test rather than useful stuff.

They are spending learning time learning how to read!

What a waste

Once again, it's a check good schools do anyway. You know, to see what they know so we know what to teach them next? It's just part and parcel of normal, run of the mill assessment and every day teaching.

Haha, numerous must just be my school then!! Granted a lot of them are in school time but we do plenty of evening ones too: reading, phonics, maths, writing, asd, etc. I just don't think "resistant" is the best way to feel... Can totally understand the feeling of being excluded and not understanding, but it wouldnt hurt to keep an open mind and be receptive to new ways of doing things trying not to patronise, and apologise if you feel I am!

dd1 is a great reader in reception at the moment but I think she'll look at fake words, sound them out and try to make them real words.

Is that what she does with all words she doesn't know then?

How will she ever learn new ones, if she tries to make all unknown words she comes across into real ones, do you think? She needs skills to tackle new words.

DS does his test on Monday. Nothing has been mentioned to him or to us about it, it's just been put into the monthly diary sheet sent home from the school. They're not making a big deal about it at the school. But, out of interest when this came up on another thread a little while ago I 'tested' DS. Now, he's a boy who, when we were doing some cooking a couple of months ago, asked what bicarbonate of soda was - he'd read the packet. So he's, I think, a pretty good reader. I gave him a list of four words, two made up and asked him to read them. He read them, then said, those two are made up mum - pointing to the two I'd made up. These aren't words like bicarbonate, they are words like 'nos'- checking that the child understands that 'nos' is pronounced differently to 'nose' because of the 'e' at the end. Nos should be a word they don't recognise if they say it correctly.

If they say 'nos' as 'nose' it just shows work is needed. You can't go through life thinking 'nos' is pronounced 'nose' - but many children struggle with the end 'e' - I didn't understand the significance of the end 'e' in words like 'have', 'rose' etc until I had DS. No one at school had explained how it makes the vowel say its name rather than its sound. At school they just called it a magic 'e' and let us sort of figure it out - well that's going to work isn't it?! I managed because I had a good memory for the sound of words, so I picked up how I should say certain words but I didn't understand why words were pronounced the way they were. But now, after 40 years, I actually understand what that little letter does, for example, and I'm not stumbling over technical words or scientific words, which I used to.

So it's important to check that kids get this - now - it's grounding for every piece of language work they will do in their lives. As for should they be tested? I'm probably on the fence about that. DS has a spelling test each week and that's recorded in his books. I assume it's kept on his school files. I may feel differently after Monday depending on the outcome of his phonics test but I want to know that he understands how to work out what words say - not guess them, work them out.

Matsikula, our school run these meetings, phonics, phonics test in Y1, moving from reception to y1, stats in the evenings. When I haven't been able to make them the teachers gave me a quick run through on a 1 - 1 basis. See what your school does and ask if it doesn't fit in with you, you won't be alone.

OhDucks If this Secondly, the weeks leading up to the test they have been teaching them fake non-words were the case I could see why you would be upset or annoyed - but it doesn't seem to be the case from what everyone else has said - what made you think it was?

Reading non-words should be a teaching strategy from day 1, not just for the few weeks leading up to the test. That would ring alarm bells for me.

Ds1 was unfortunately ill on the day of the assessment last year.

I'd like someone to tell me one word that isn't technically 'made up'. Aren't all words made up?

neolara - was the same last year too. The pseudo words had pictures of aliens next to them. They were described as alien words.

Ds1 was unfortunately ill on the day of the assessment last year.

There was a period of a week for the assessment, with an extension of another 3 days for children who were ill, iirc.

Karoleann - school should have assessed him when he got back, or was he ill all week? If that was year 1, he will be assessed this year, as he will not yet have demonstrated that he is at the expected level in the phonics screening test.

I didn't understand the significance of the end 'e' in words like 'have', 'rose' etc until I had DS. No one at school had explained how it makes the vowel say its name rather than its sound.

But 'have' is unfortunately an exception to that rule, isn't it?!

OP YABVVVVU.

As some other posters have pointed out, the assessment isn't testing the children, it's testing the schools to make sure they're teaching phonics correctly. And it has the added advantage of picking up where the children are struggling.

Of course, any school which is teaching phonics properly will already have worked out where each of their children are struggling and the official 'test' will just be one assessment amongst many.

We are lucky in that our DC's school teach phonics very, very efficiently although I think only around two thirds of last year's Y1s reached the pass level. However, it's a school in a disadvantaged area so they're dealing with some kids coming in at a very low level at nursery. It would actually be interesting to know what proportion only missed the pass level by a few marks though.

Have and rose?

Those again pseudo words and those against phonics....
Can you read these words?
How do you work them out?

a notmucher
cronky
crinky
corky
blivver
stoching
protching
mickering
fizzlecump
gumplewink
swigfiddle
squiffsquiddle
flushbuckling
whopsy-waddling
pongswizzler
scumscrewer
bagblurter
fizzwiggler
spitzwargler
spitzwoggler
buzzbunger
bizzfizz
buzzfuzz
baghangar
bophanger
spongewiggler
codswallop
muckfrumping
splatchwinkling
crodscollop
shardlelly
spatchwinkle
swishfiggler
swogglewop
gunzleswipe
pifflemutter
troggy
paggle
pibbling
dibbling
ristling
blunketing
pranky
filking
pilching
scoddling
slidger
squiggling
squibbling
squinkling
squeakling
scumping
scuddling
swiddling
squiffling
slunging
grobbled
rag-rasper
rotrasper
scrumplet
squiffler
sludge
jumpsy
dropsy
swipsy
kicksey
fruggler
grobswitch
crodswitch
kickswitch
grobby
lickswitch
dissible
sliggy
bunkledoodle
grobfatch
grobswitch
wimplesquiffer
snipply
grilky
gronky
grouty

These are just a few of the words Roald Dahl made up for his books. Many good readers will come across these words in RD books. They need to be able to work out a phonetically plausable correct word when they do.

In my experience good readers all passed the test

That is my experience too.

I really can't understand why parents are getting their knickers in a twist because of this. It's a non event. It helps the teachers know where children need more input, and ultimately helps children to read!

my dd was taught to read in a language she was only just learning, so i suppose all of her phonics were nonsense words in a way... she then taught herself to read in english because having been taught the skill of 'reading' she needed only to work out the new phonics.
i've been amazed at how brilliant phonics is.

Okay fine, been had a go at and that's your view. dd is 5 and has just finished reading me Roald Dahl's The Witches so I guess we're not doing too badly. The wasting time teaching bit was about learning the words with alien pictures aren't real rather than learning reading being a waste of time, but I think you are just deliberately reading it like that.