Phoneincs test

[Honeybeebuzz]

Just found out theres a Year 1 national phonetics test coming up next week, does anyone have any advice/insight into what the test involves? Want to try and prep my child

There's no point trying to prepare your child - that's what their teacher has been doing since September.

There's no stress involved, it's simply a reading activity.

Don’t worry. They’ll have already been prepped for the phonics test. There’s not much you can do from home right now.

It's not a test, it's a screening check. The idea is to assess how your DD is getting on with her grasp of phonics, and how her entire class is getting on, so she, (and her teacher if necessary) can get an intervention.

Prepping her beforehand is neither necessary or helpful. If you think she might be flustered then maybe talk to her to reassure her beforehand.

Ideally she won't even know she's done it. A few years ago now but in DDs class they had no idea it was a 'test'. Better not to prep as a) might stress her out and b) it will give a false sense of how she's doing

That wouldn't be helpful. The best thing to do is read to your child, pointing out sounds as they come up. Sounds (NOT LETTER NAMES) of alphabet games, matching activities, if confident move onto single sounds, s, a, t, p, i, n, g, o, l, u, f and initial sounds 'e for egg, c for cat' then blends. Reading Eggs is a good app but lots of good freebies too.

I'm surprised you've not had any reading sheets sent home. We had a list of words- human words (simple phonetically spoken words ie tool) and alien words - phonetically spoken but not words IE flood, twump)and the kids are basically tested onof they know all the phonetic sounds

Don't prep your child, they do it in a way that the kids don't realise it's a test, they just spend a few minutes 1:1 with the teacher, showing off. Basically they just read some word and sound out what some made up 'alien words' would say.

If they pass great, if they don't they continue phonics next year, which is also fine.