To not practice for the phonics screening?

[PlinthOfSoap]

Over half term it was suggested we look at past papers and practice with DC. I ignored this as we were relaxing and having fun.

Now a letter came home in the bag last night, asking us to practice over the weekend with past papers.

Am I being unreasonable to not bother, and just let DC have a go at it next week? Assume they have been doing all the necessary prep in school so DC isn't going to be completely blind sided.

I don't see why I would want to try and coach DC to get a better score, or am I doing him a disservice? I thought the results were important for the school but not really for DC, and I don't really want to make it a big thing by practicing past papers.

@Sartre Reading by sight isn't damaging per se. It just isn't as effective across a cohort as phonics. Many people who start with sight reading pick up / work out phonics as they go along. The trouble is you don't know at the start who will and who won't so they try to give good phonics teaching to all (which is better than mixing methods too).

I’m a year 1 teacher, doing the PSC next week. It might take you 5 minutes. It’s can be so demoralising for teachers when parents just don’t care how their child does. Part of the reason to practice is that whilst your child can read well, it’s practicing the strategy of alien words. You’ll get their result in the school report.

It could be the whole class is behind with phonics and therefore trying to cover all bases.

I have a love/hate relationship with phonics. If your child can read ignore it. If you feel they need the help, practice.

Nothing about the OP suggests she doesn't care about her child and how they do. She just quite rightly doesn't feel the need to spend her half term and weekend doing mock tests.

All schools will have introduced children to alien/nonsense words and the children will have been reading and practicing them since Reception.

I’d be actually quite concerned about a primary school that encourages ‘past papers’ for a screening test.

The whole point of phonics screening SHOULD be to identify which children, despite high quality teaching, are experiencing difficulty grasping phonics, and to plan suitable intervention to help them catch up. Over-performing will do these children a long-term disservice.

What, then, is the point of preparing for the test? Has the teacher not really been teaching them as much phonics as she should have, and is now panicking that low screening scores across her class are going to expose her shoddy teaching?

Or is the school one of those that are overly invested in their data? In my experience the children’s learning and wellbeing come a distant second to the headteacher’s massive ego about how their school is ‘better’ than the next door school (even if it means the parents doing half the teaching at home).

I’d ask the school with genuine curiosity a) what the purpose of the test is and b) what benefit to the children is it for them to revise? Be probing and watch if they squirm.

They absolutely do have to re-sit the test in Year 2 if they don’t pass in Year 1. This is a government initiative.

It’ll take 10 minutes maximum for you to read the 40 words with your child this weekend should you choose to. Otherwise, just do 10 minutes each day of hearing them read their reading book as normal.

If your child is reading at turquoise level or above, they should pass easily. If they’re green or blue, they’re borderline and will need as much decoding practice as possible to secure a pass.

But surely they're practising alien words every day at school, and reading every day at home?

My kids a free reader and due to take this test next week... we're doing nothing to practice apart from normal everyday reading.

I’m surprised that the school is expecting parents to do this, ultimately the results of the test is for the schools benefit, not the children’s, as by the end of Year One it should be more than obvious which children need extra support, reading should be an enjoyable activity not reading lists of words.

We weren't even told when they were doing it, let alone asked to do extra practice. I would have been the same, if they are reading regularly and happily that's fine.

The whole point surely, is that is a screening check,and shouldn't be studied for?

I’ve put you are not being unreasonable, and only practice if you have time. Unfortunately though it is different to actual reading as it’s more about decoding phonics than reading and comprehension!

theres lots of quick 5 mins game you could do with your child. Rather than past papers that sounds yuck!!! Make up words using phase 5 phonics sounds for you both to read! Have fun with it

The phonics test is pointless, in how good a reader or a writer they will be. But it is used as a pass and fail (thanks government) and if they fail they have to reset it in year 2 and continue until they pass it.

Only to a certain extent once they've learnt some phonics. DS was reading books, age 3, without a single phonics lesson.

Which is fine. If he can read, he'll be reinforcing any phonics he knows (even without directly knowing it is phonics etc)

To be completely honest it doesn't matter to the child at all, the number of children achieving the expected level matters to the school. The whole thing is an exercise in getting schools to meet largely meaningless targets.
Phonics is only one skill involved in reading and isn't one that skilled readers use much at all. Phonics doesn't aid reading speed or comprehension. The problem with the Phonics test is that it gives children nonsense words to read and expects them to decode words without context.
If by Y2 a child is still struggling to read, dyslexia should be considered. If he is reading age appropriate books, he will be fine.
I am appalled that any school wants to drill pupils in past Phonics tests

I agree with you. Such young children shouldn't be prepped for exams. My son's school did a good job of the phonics screening - we weren't told when they were doing the phonics screening, just got the results afterwards, and the children didn't realise they were being tested for anything. I personally wouldn't prep a 4-5 year old for it and definitely wouldn't make a big deal of it

If you’re child is reading daily, then I wouldn’t bother as all the phonics practice would be in the books you're already reading.

This!

What a lot of people are missing is that some children learn to read perfectly well without phonics. Phonics is just one way of learning to read. Yes, it works for many children, but for others it simply doesn’t!

My child was one of those who never understood phonics and learned to read by sight. The teacher said they weren’t expected to pass the phonics test, but it really wasn’t an issue. My child did ‘fail’ the phonics test in Y1 and it made zero difference to her reading ability. She could read from a very young age as we read together at home every day.

If I were you OP, I wouldn’t be doing past papers for phonics either but I would want to know how well my child could read.

In general I don’t agree with homework at that age but the phonics screening particularly is worth a little practice. The test is a mixture of real words and made up words. We were warned by DD’s teacher last year that sometimes the smarter kids get lower scores because they are trying to make the made up words into real ones they recognise. We just did a bit of practice with DD to make sure she was confident in just sounding out the phonetics of the word in front of her rather than over thinking it. She and her friends who did similar little practices all got full marks.

It doesn’t have to be much but a few mins each day this weekend might just give your DS a bit of confidence going into next week,

Why does this need to be done at home though? This is exactly what the school should be focusing on in their phonics lessons. Reinforcing the need to read the word, not make educated guesses and remember some of the words will be unfamiliar or nonsense so make sure you sound them out.

If daily phonics lessons at school for almost 2 years have not embedded this knowledge a rushed practice at home the week before isn't going to make it suddenly stick.

Chances are you daughter and her friend would have 'passed' without any extra help.

Every year around SATs time I see so many parents stressing about their children having to study for exams, making a huge deal out of it, but if those children had learnt how to study earlier, with much smaller less stressful tests, then there would be a lot less fuss. What is the harm in teaching this skill? Kids don't get stressed about it when they're so young, I remember being really excited about the year 2 SATs and my experience of them made the year 6 SATs not stressful at all (I've been reading my old school reports recently, in my year 6 self-report I wrote that my favourite thing in the year was the SATs because I enjoyed the challenge)

We’ve been on an overseas holiday for the past week and have still found time to do 10 minutes a day practice. It takes literally no time at all.

If I was confident DD was definitely going to hit the pass mark, I might not have bothered but she can be hit or miss.

Your kid though, your choice.

Because they're 5 years old.

Five

They can learn to study for things in general years.

My son has his phonics screening this week.
we’ve just carried on with practice as normal

if they pass great. If not it means they will get the extra support in year 2

If she's not super confident wouldn't you rather she had extra support next year than passed because she was coached for the test?

I didn't practice with mine and won't when he does his Year 6 SATs next year either. He's already dreading Year 6 because of SATS.