To be worrying about the year 1 phonics screening test?

[mumoftwo99x]

Just came out from my son’s first parents evening of year 1 feeling a tiny bit deflated.

My son has not long turned 5 and is the youngest in his year. He’s otherwise doing well in school and is advanced in mathematics - working at late year 2 level so he is intelligent in that sense.

However he is extremely behind in reading. He knows all the phonics/sounds and can read very basic words like and/the/cat/dog/mum/dad etc but just physically cannot blend longer words.

His teacher has said there’s a phonics screening test at the end of year 1 and she already knows there’s no chance he’ll pass .. 😩 she also showed me the books that a lot of the class are on and he’s nowhere near that level.

I asked her what this means and she just said he’ll have to redo it in year 2 but she said majority of the class will pass and that he’ll be essentially starting year 2 still behind everyone else.

AIBU to be worrying about this so early on? Did any of your children fail this screening but then went on to catch up in other years?

We already do daily reading at home and he’s genuinely came on so far since reception and after the half term he’ll be going into a reading interventions group which will hopefully help. Any other tips on how I can help at home will be very helpful! 🤞🏼

What are the school doing to help him? The test means nothing - it is for the benefit of the school, no child.

I'm an experienced (ex) primary teacher - now an EOTAS Tutor. Three kids of my own (18, 15 and 5). I think the best thing you can do for your child is to read to him/her from a very young age before bed every night - way before they start school and then until they are a min of Y6/start of secondary. It doesn't need to be for long - 5/10 mins a night. Gives them a huge head start.

This is a school test - read with him and get him to love stories and books, you need to do no more.

There is no way your teacher can predict what he will be able to do months in advance, sometimes it just clicks.

If you are worried about his reading try finding something like The Bear can read or equivalent, work with him on it most nights, buy extra phonics books at home (my sons school used to give him story books, he LOVES fact books - the change in his reading when we introduced these at home was significant.

My son is a similar age to yours OP and also in Year 1. His reading ability is the same as you describe. He has only recently written his name for the first time. I'm not concerned because he's doing well at school overall and his teacher is delighted by his progress in reading. I think there's a good chance he'll not do well in the Yr1 phonics check as he's obviously way behind others - but that's fine, it will highlight what areas he's finding tough.

Edited to add we have read to him every day since he was a baby and practice phonics most evenings after school. He loves books.

My 6 year old is the youngest in her class. At the beginning of year 1 her teacher said she would benefit from extra support with phonics. She didn’t have the extra support (no reason they just didn’t put the groups on)
She got the highest score in the phonics test in her whole class at the end of the year!

My son failed the test, its a good way of showing who needs a bit of extra support not a failure in himself. He's actually doing much better this year of his own accord - I think some kids just need a bit longer to get the hang of it. They are still little!

I'm really surprised at a teacher being so negative this early in the year, hopefully they are offering extra support sessions?

Thank you all, you’ve made me feel a lot better! I’ve never felt particularly worried about school before as he’s made progress in reading (even if he is technically behind his peers) and is amazing with maths - can do his 2, 3, 5, 10 and 11 times tables, can do division too, can do any addition / subtraction up to 100 etc. But I guess schools will always bring up their weaknesses first so they can help rectify them. But rest assured he knows how proud I am of him and I’d never put pressure on him as it would just cause unnecessary stress!

Will definitely print off some phonics flash cards and make it into a fun game for him.

So they noticed he was a bit behind in reception and said they’d put him into an intervention group where he has a 1:1 phonics session for 10-15 minutes each day. However this didn’t end up happening due to staffing issues. Then they said it’ll definitely start it at the start of year 1, now they’re saying likely after the October half term .. 🫣 so hopefully they will begin the intervention groups soon, especially if they’re so concerned about phonic screening scores so early on in the year!

They spend most of year two and three un learning phonics because it gives them atrocious spelling. I would not sweat this at all. There are loads of ways to learn to read and phonics doesn't suit every kid. Read to him, books, menus, road signs and anything else you see. Keep his confidence up, he will learn.
Source: primary teacher for 10 years and two kids.

My daughter was behind in Reception, was in a phonics intervention group during Y1, and then at some point it all just clicked. It was almost overnight she became a fluent reader. He is still so young and they don't learn in a linear way. Just keep reading to him and I am sure he'll be fine.

Well that’s not really acceptable - they have said they would do a provision and then haven’t - he will likely not be the only one that would benefit from small group work so maybe over promising 1:1 and not delivering anything is a little extreme. If he is good at maths, could there be some dyslexia there? Sometimes blending takes a while, or maybe he hasn’t mapped the phonics properly - I wouldn’t worry but I would also be advocating to make sure that he doesn’t not get extra input as the core is very important and if there is a reason (dyslexia, learning difference ect) then finding out early is much better than later - on confidence and mental health.

Don't worry, things will click at some point.

My friend (a teacher) was really worried about her own daughter’s phonics and reading in y1 and put a lot of effort in at home in the spring term, plus the girl had extra help in school as they’d identified she struggled. Her daughter ended up scraping a pass in the phonics screening and as a result is not getting any support in school now in y2 as she’s ‘fine’. But she’s only fine due to a massive push from her mum at home. My friend is now regretting helping so much as it means she’s off the teacher’s radar, despite still finding phonics and reading really tricky.

all that happens if they fail is that they get extra support in y2, and have to retake at the end of the year.

This makes me SO cross.

This test is a screening test, not a testing test. My kids are too old to do it - if they had their dyslexia might have been realised sooner and we could have helped them sooner.

Some kids just don't get phonics. My oldest now has a first from Imperial and still struggles to sound out new words like names - she can read fine, because she has a phenomenal visual memory and so remembers whole words rather than automatically decoding them phonetically.

If he doesn't "pass" it's fine - just keep making reading with you fun, don't tell him off for reading words he's misremembered incorrectly (still one of my worst parenting fails) and be aware he may have elements of dyslexia - which if caught early and managed properly can be a superpower not a learning disability.

She has no business telling you that at this stage in the year. Children often struggle but it clicks eventually and it’s up to her to put the right interventions in place so that it has more chance of clicking sooner rather than later. There is plenty of time for progress over the next few months.

I do wish people would not say it’s a test for the school though. It isn’t.

This was what we did as well - I searched for reading books on history, etc. because that was what he loved and we shared the reading - I got him to read the bits he could sound out until eventually he could read enough for it to be interesting and then his reading really took off. He’s also more mathematically/scientifically inclined and still only reads non-fiction voluntarily! My son still struggles with phonics, to be honest, it’s never really clicked and he’s 14, but he’s on track for 8s and 9s at GCSE (maybe a 7 in English!)

Bloody hell, I know she needs to be honest and she could’ve worded things a bit more tactfully/ressuringly. Sounds like she’s been very blunt and negative. You sound like a great mum OP.

There's no pressure!

As long as everyone is doing their best that's all anyone can ever ask. A test is just to see where he's at to see how best to help him next.

At 5 my son literally couldn't tell you all the phonics sounds, it was worrying and difficult as he's had other challenges and he just couldn't seem to get it at all. The same child was multiplying numbers of double digits having seemingly taught himself. He turned 7 and overnight went from being passively read his book at bedtime to reading whole sentence. Out of nowhere. He's probably dyslexic and it's being looked into but even with that he's now in the second from top literacy group in his class.

Things we did- alpha bites, alphabet biscuits from IKEA, decorating biscuits and cakes with icing letter, making words from kids scrabble letters, reading to him daily, yoto player for audio books so he still got to have age appropriate content even though his reading level was too low his comprehension level was amazing. We just quietly immersed him in letters and words.

Yep that's how it was for, like a developmental phase, how one day they can't walk and the next they can. The first night my son read a sentence I swear I'd have been less surprised if the dog had suddenly started talking.

As a former year 1 teacher, I'm utterly disgusted that she has predicted he 'WILL NOT PASS' in early October. Of course he won't... because he's not expected to until the END OF THE YEAR (July time).

So basically, she's not going to invest any time in him to get him up to scratch before then. Barring any additional needs (you don't think you mentioned any), he will most likely be able to pass (additionally, he has the benefit of having a supportive home environment). I would have felt compelled to ask, doesn't this school practise 'Growth Mindset' then..

It is literally just practice... and I'm against standardised testing as much as the next person, but if he doesn't pass, he'll likely end up doing phonics when the rest of them do reading comp practice for Y2 SATS (and then he'll miss out on that, which will impact his result/Y3 work). But, if he didn't pass by then, he'd obviously need this extra phonics practise if he's struggling with it, which is more beneficial to him in the long run.

To be honest, I would use this as fire to absolutey bloody MAKE SURE he passed, just to show her not to do it again! Some teachers really should just give up!! OK rant over.

We would use September to asses where the kids are and put them in groups, depending on the sounds they're comfortable (maybe you know this - there's a particular order). Kids with fewer sounds, are usually in smaller groups. Then as they become more comfortable, they move to a different group/set of sounds - usually every half term or so.

Just to note for the actual test:
They can spell it out for as long as they want.

For example:
B-a-d, B-ad, Ba-d, Bad
And they have to take their final answer: Bad.

BUT, if they sound it out like this:
B-a-d, B-ad, Ba-d, Bad, Bab (with a 'b' last). It's wrong. Zero points.

*I last did the phonics check 6 years ago - so maybe some more up to date y1 teachers can confirm this is still the case?

**

I have some resources I can link to help you..

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7aa7b6e5274a34770e630c/Letters_and_Sounds_-_DFES-00281-2007.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwj_qpWKqJWQAxUZ2QIHHdBPDq4QFnoECCgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3DRGncrQ3eYHxZPY-UIn2R
(Government overview)

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/resources
(Good practice gamified - I think there's a few for free on there still)

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/phonics-screening-check-sample-materials-and-training-video
(So you're clear how it's administered by the teachers)

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum-assessments-past-test-materials
(Wouldn't bother with these till after Feb half term, but just to know what the final test would be like on advance- online somewhere I used to be able find 'words' including particular sounds in the same format, to familiarise themselves with it-can't find it now though sorry!)

https://letters-and-sounds.com/
(Good for resources)

But MOST OF ALL... MAKE phonics SO FUN, that he's begging to practise it as soon as he gets in from school. Little and often, 10/20m a day. Practise in the car, on a walk, jumping, hopping from sound to sound, 'robotting' (arms up and down from elbows) the sounds quicker and until he says the whole word.. this is why I just LOVE PHONICS (can you tell?!?), because it's so so easy to get the kids excited about it. ACTIVE, FUN phonics is what we want!!

Ok. Such a long post (sorry everybody!), but hope it helps.

Dont forget to read to him as well make sure he knows books are wonderful.

I’d be more judgy of the teacher than your son.

When they’re testing/screening 5 and 6 year olds, they’re testing how well they’ve been taught not innate learning ability.

If I went to work and said there’s no way I’d be able to fulfil a core part of my job that I have 8 months to do, then I’d be having some challenging conversations with my boss!

But don’t worry about it, the “worst” that can happen is that he fails, but then his teachers will be able to see he needs support to get him back on track and he’ll get that. As PP said, all kids learns at different rates and the majority level out eventually.

I will add Oxford Owl - free reading books and games

Play games

We had passwords - set of 5 words 3 easy 2 hard and they had to touch the password when leaving the house

You can double up - flash a card and they can run and find it from a selection on the floor.

Speeding the same - flash the card for 10 seconds - by all means make it “longer’ and they have to spell it on a white board -

Treasure hunt - hide the words bit same as above

Let him test your spellings - show him how to ask for help - ‘i’m not sure of the 2nd letter - this is important as they do need to be modeled in this

Audio books - put them on on the car or bed time - above their level so they hear a good selection of worlds - Also ask questions ‘oh i don’t know what that means - lets look it up.

Why did x happen? What do we think happens next - talk about I think X he thinks Y - so he’s engaged in the reading

You read a page - he reads a page -

Well this is unhelpful. “His teacher has said there’s a phonics screening test at the end of year 1 and she already knows there’s no chance he’ll pass”.

She does NOT know this. And even if he didn’t pass it doesn’t matter. My own son wouldn’t pass it and he’s virtually a free reader lol. Just doesn’t do phonics.

Honestly OP I’d be looking at a different way of learning to read at home. Phonics is great for some kids. For others it’s useless and the only thing it does is put children off reading. Have you thought about trying sight reading instead? I can recommend some reading schemes you can get off eBay if you’re interested.

Edited for typo