To be worried about Year 1 phonics test?

[Sairk]

We've just had parents evening for DS and he's gotten 25/40 for the mock phonics test. The average was 36. He scored the lowest in his year. Am I being unreasonable to be rather worried about it?

Meh. He's, what, 4? 5? Do you read with him at home and how's his reading skills?

I really wouldn't panic.

To give you some context OP every year we have had several children who score less than 10 in the Phonics screen.

I think being told he’s scored the lowest in the year (which definitely should not have been phrased in this way to you?!) has understandably shaken you.
But compared to other cohorts such as those I have worked with, 25 is not low. It is not a pass mark but very easy to catch up at 25. Not that it matters anyway to your son! Please don’t let the data upset you at this stage, he’s still so young and clearly does know many sounds.

Did your teacher tell you what sounds he is struggling with - is it the digraphs? You can then practise these more at home if you wish but as a PP said, just continue to read with him widely and as frequently as possible at home.

My current year 1 scored 10 in his recent mock.

His now year 3 sister scored 0 in her initial official test, 10 in the retake. School moved to sight reading for her. She picked up sight reading with ease. We are almost certain she is dyslexic but she went from starting year 2 unable to read cat/dog to achieving greater depth for her reading mid way through year 3.

Nurture a love of stories above all else.

It depends what you mean by “rather worried”

Do you mean “rather worried” so you might check in a little more often with their teacher, discuss strategies to support spelling at home, and focus a little more time on spelling?

Or do you mean “rather worried” in that you are demanding diagnostics/hiring a tutor/putting extra pressure on your kid?

My daughter also struggles with spelling. She’s too young to be diagnosed as dyslexic, and I’m not sure she even is dyslexic to be honest. We do some extra fun spelling tasks and games at home to reinforce her learning, and her spelling seems to be improving. We get a note of her scores in spelling test at the end of each “block” (approx 6 weeks)

As a consequence, I’ve opted out of maths homework. I don’t want to overdo it. She’s young and I want her to have fun, too.

For the record she’s actually coping well with all other areas of language, so I’m not unduly concerned. Spelling is important; but not more important than, say, understanding sentence structure.

The phonics test is a good measure for the teacher to show who needs a bit of extra support but in the grand scheme of things it doesn't mean anything! 25 is still a great score even if it is the 'lowest'. If you are still worried have a chat with the teacher about what sounds he struggled with and go from there!

It's a check rather than a test though isn't it? So they assess, direct extra support to those who need, then at the end of the year / year 2 they check again.

So now you and teachers know he is below average for y1, they and you can work with him to improve.