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.

It's an assessment just a different format

Quite.

Besides they will be very familiar with the concept, as it's taught throughout their phonics journey! Right from the outset they have to do word alike HUD or POB or SOT alongside SAT, CUT, POT etc

Why? It's not as though the children who haven't done it yet can cheat. It's a screening, not an exam.
Best practice is to give young children immediate feedback when they have completed a task. It's far better to keep these things as low key as possible.
The whole thing is ridiculous, the teacher already knows who can read phonically regular words and who can't, anyway.

If he’s a good reader he prolly knows if he got them all right or not. My daughter came out saying she got 39. I asked how she knew and she said she just did, the teacher hadn’t told her she just knew which one she messed up. Results were given with her report weeks later and she was bang on.

No, it's not an assessment, it's a screening test to see which children need more phonics support in Y2.

It isn't like SATS & shouldn't be compared to SATS.

Its a small step along the road towards bigger tests, all practice at studying builds study skills.

You clearly understand the point being made but prefer to find different words. As the last poster said, it's a step along the way.

I don't understand why anyone wouldn't support their DC educationally. I find it baffling!

It's nothing to do with supporting education. I am, if anything, a pushy tiger mum. But I find that our dc's school have unreasonably focused on this test for weeks and weeks and weeks. It's not a little bit of homework, it's weeks of grilling them on words. Time that could have been spent reading an actual text, learning about something while they learnt new words, generally doing actual education.

At this age, for nonsense words?
The tests sound so contrived and unrelated to ongoing success, I wouldn’t bother.

Focus efforts where they count and otherwise let them enjoy being children.

They have their whole lives to work on weekends for tests. Not scoring well on this test isn’t going to stop your child going to Oxbridge, being a brain surgeon, rocket scientist or anything else.

Actually I think it's an important distinction to make - a screening test is different to an assessment and is used differently.

SATS assess what children have learned across their time in Primary school and comes at the end of that journey.

The phonics screener is a check to see where children are with their phonics and comes early on in that journey. It screens the cohort to see who might need extra support, the purpose of it is different.

I'm not being pedantic, a screener should be seen as what it is.
The problem comes when schools are judged harshly on things like this and so end up feeling pressure which then translates to parents.

Children develop at different rates & just because a child doesn't do brilliantly on the Y1 phonics test doesn't always mean there's an issue with their literacy skills but it might so it is a handy piece of information at an early stage.

The screening test is absolutely related to ongoing success. If you can't decode new words, you can't read. And if you can't read, you can't succeed at school.

Yes it is in general but not necessarily at this stage.
Some children will find it hard in Y1 but this could be due to maturity and the fact that children develop at different rates.

It is an indicator that more support might be needed but it doesn't necessarily mean a child is always. going to struggle.

A dyslexic child, for example, might not do well at this test but with the right support will go on to do well in school and life.

If the test were just given with no additional help - then yes, it would be indicative of future struggles.
Luckily that's not the case.

The test is not the only way to identify this information. If a teacher is relying on this check to know which children in their class are struggling to read then they are a doing a poor job. The check should not uncover any major surprises and if a child is struggling to blend they should already be having support.

It really doesn't need such a great amount of fuss made over it as the OP and others children have shown. Keeping it low key and not making it into a huge deal is actually more likely to raise scores.

It really doesn't need such a great amount of fuss made over it as the OP and others children have shown. Keeping it low key and not making it into a huge deal is actually more likely to raise scores.
I totally agree - my beef was with other posters framing it as "practice for SATs".

Appologies. The thread seems to have attracted quite a lot of odd posters who seem convinced they need to study for this check to have any hope of being able to study for GCSEs and without parents doing lots of work at home with their 5/6 year olds they cannot possibly value their child's education. It's all quite ridiculous.

Perhaps the people who have supported their DC the most educationally through consistent reading don't need to worry about the phonics test. One could say that they find it baffling how a child wouldn't just pass the test without extra coaching.

Of course it does. If kids don’t nail phonics, their access to the rest of the curriculum as they move up the school is severely hampered - you can’t do maths if you can’t read the question.
The phonics test is the only way of knowing where a child is in that process of learning to read fluently. It’s important!

Absolutely. DS passed it 'unofficially ' in Reception. I'd taught him to read before he went to school. I just left school to fill in the phonics.

No learning phonics can help children learn to read not the test itself!

This poster has clearly stated that her child "failed" in Y1 but went on to pass it the following year and to do brilliantly in his formal exams.

Too much fuss is being made about this test and too many people are scaring parents by saying that if a child doesn't do well in it at the age of 5/6 they are going to fail for ever more. That's not true and not helpful.

If he doesn't need extra practise as you've done lots of reading aloud for ages then, obvs, no need for more!

If on the other hand he's struggling and you are disengaged as a parent then these might be the first omissions leading to a life of
under-achievement... Simples.

(I get the impression OP that you are in the first category. I hope so!)

Of course it's not the only way of knowing...

I genuinely cannot believe the poster typed that out and thought it was something helpful to post. I reread it twice thinking I'd missed out the word 'not' on first reading.

It's silly nonsense like this that makes the whole thing seem so much more important than it is. The fact some posters think getting children to read 40 words is the only way to check how able a child is with their reading is quite worrying.

I’ve never heard anyone say that; that would be ridiculous. But diminishing its worth is unhelpful too. It’s very important to the children and their teachers.