To be annoyed about Year 2 and the phonics screen

[Useruseruserusee]

I am a teacher and I have a year 1 DS. This thread isn’t about school opening in September.

It’s about the decision by the STA that the children going into Year 2 will have to take a phonics screen in the second half of the autumn term.

I know they have missed it in Year 1 but just in primary schools the SATs, end of EYFS assessments and Year 4 multiplication check were also missed. No one is having to catch up on any of these! So why the obsession by the government with the phonics screen?

I feel sad that my DS will experience a Year 2 where all autumn phonics will be pushed and then it will be SATs prep time. And for the unlucky DC who do not pass in autumn, there will be a phonics resit. The world can turn with one cohort missing a phonics screen!

AIBU to feel annoyed about this?

*bright sparks HAVE NOT maintained that it should say x

I thought SATS were not happening anymore from 2021 for Yr 2

Actually I don't think that is so. The screening test was introduced precisely because a minority of schools were not teaching phonics well and this was being missed and only discovered in juniors when children who had learned by whole word or 'guess by context' couldn't read new words.

Tests don't improve teaching!

also with regards to teachers knowing who is struggling and already have support in place - do you realise that since March things have been so different

No I would never have guessed if you hadn't told me that.

Tests don't improve teaching!

No, but having the screening check can inform teaching. i.e. Who still needs more support in learning their phonics.

@VenusTiger

I thought SATS were not happening anymore from 2021 for Yr 2

Nope. They're due to become non-statutory from 2023.

Although the Reception baseline, which was due to begin this year, has been postponed for obvious reasons. So KS1 SATS with be with us for a while I suspect. Sadly.

www.gov.uk/government/news/key-stage-1-sats-replacement-to-be-rolled-out-from-september

But if you assess the kids yourself often then you already know!

Tests can't inform teaching if they are done at the end of the year though as would normally happen in Y1. What impact could it have by that point on the intervention you provide? Surely assessing throughout the year and intervening when it is noticed is better than waiting all year. The test results should not come as a surprise if you know your children well.

walker Of course if you assess you often already know!

But the screening checks were introduced because some teachers / schools were doing a rubbish job of teaching phonics. If all teachers / schools had been doing a decent job it wouldn't have been needed.

I'd hope that any year 2 teacher will be doing some screening to check where the children have got to, given that they've been out of school so long. Some will have come on leaps and bounds, others may have made little or no progress.

It seems to me that doing the screening is eminently sensible, the problem is if there is lots of preparation and angst.

You can do a great job of teaching phonics and still not do well on the screen as a school. I teach in inner London where we have very high mobility and many children joining with no English. Last year we had 10 join in Year 1 between Jan - June with no English at all. They didn’t pass the screen although were making fantastic progress and would have passed the resit in Year 2 this year.

So introduce CPD nationally for phonics on a rolling basis of say 3 years to refresh would be better to ensure that teachers keep their skills and knowledge fresh and see it modelled often.

Not all children fail because of shit teaching. There will be a minority who do but some have other issues.

I have an autistic child who was non-verbal when he came to me in R, he is now on the cusp of blending in Y1 and speaking in full sentences with lots of detail. He's made huge progress but unable to take the test.

So he would've passed if he hadn't had a shit teacher for the past 2 years (me) and will surely fail with having me again next year as his teacher!

I am most definitely not a huge fan of SATs and constantly testing children. However, I do not think that you need to worry about the phonics screening.

Both of my summer born DSs scored full marks. DS 1 has SN and has always had a lot of interventions at school. Despite the fact that he is an awesome human being, I can not remember him ever reaching expected standards in anything else in his whole school career . In our experience the phonics screen is not a big deal for the children.

Oh for heavens sake.
This isn't about churn of kids or kids with SEN.

It's about the teachers who get mentioned on primary threads who still regularly encourage guessing, or make statements like 'oh some of the better readers don't pass as they have gone beyond phonics'.

The phonics check should be a complete non event. 5 minutes of time with the teacher doing some special work. It shouldn't need hours of special drilling or sending home nonsense words to practice on etc.