Year 1 phonics check concerns raised only three weeks before

[Sunshinewithspirals]

Looking for advice please.

DS is in Y1 and we’d been told back in March that he was comfortably on track to pass the phonics screening and had been passing their mock screenings. I always do the phonics homework and I hadn’t noticed any issues so assumed everything was going ok and he was still on track.

On Friday (3 weeks before the screening) his teacher told me he’s now ‘borderline’ and may or may not pass. That completely blindsided me, as it was the first indication we’ve had there might be an issue. I didn’t have time to ask questions as it was during a busy drop off and I was quite shocked to hear it.

I know kids can have off weeks and can fluctuate, but I’m struggling with the timing of it being raised so close to the check. If there had been concerns earlier we would absolutely have done more at home. I’ve already started doing extra this weekend to try and get him back up to scratch. It seems like he’s trying to do much on sight now rather than blending so is just guessing and making silly mistakes because with a prompt he then immediately gets it right.

Has anyone else experienced similar? And if your child was borderline, what actually helped in those last few weeks?

Also trying to work out whether I’m overreacting or whether it’s reasonable to feel frustrated this wasn’t communicated sooner?!

Honestly I wouldn’t worry, the test is repeated in year 2 for any that don’t ‘pass’. It may account for the late notification that he’s borderline, as it’s probably not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things for the teacher.

It’s not a levels, it’s the phonics screening check and it’s doing its job. Chances are saying this will get a bit more focus and they will pass. If not school will put extra focus on your child and they will pass it next year. If they are there out there abouts they are in a reasonable place. Kids don’t develop in a straight line, the timing of the test may be the wrong time for your child, but if they were comfortable before all will be ok.

Agree if they are borderline I really wouldn’t worry. All these tests are an arbitrary mark, if he’s not far off and he’s been doing ok up to now it wouldn’t automatically raise alarm bells.

They teach new sounds in a very structured way so perhaps in march he was managing all the sounds well but has struggled with some new ones or the blending bit

Please dont stress though They repeat it in year 2 and give targeted support to anyone that doesnt pass in year 1.

I do think you shoukd get a chance to ask some more questions outside of busy drop off though as its helpful to know what the thing he needs to work on is.

They’ll have very recently done a past paper and he’ll have scored 31-33. They’ll want you to practise reading at home to try help him hit the pass mark. (I have lots of year 1 teaching experience)

Just remember, to schools, the pass rate is something they are held to account on, it’s a big deal, the percentage is shared and analysed. For children however, the difference between 31 and 32 is negligible, it makes very little difference to them other than 31 means they’ll retake the test in year 2 and 32 they won’t.

Sounds like he’s trying to just get it over with? Some children do this because they are bored of it all! Just remind him to use phonics and that they cannot be read without doing that. Do a few each day at home. Don’t over do it or he will start to over think it even more.
Dont worry if he doesn’t pass it as he will get a chance to re do it in Y2 and won’t make any difference to anything. Just the schools data!

This means nothing. These tests are stupid. As someone whose child failed her SATs and is now predicted AAA* for Alevels just forget about these stupid tests.

Do some reading and remind him not to guess and that he'll get a chocolate button for each sentence he gets right or is phonically plausible. You need to help slow him down and stop guessing.

But if he doesn't reach the target mark he'll get catch up support in y2, it isn't the end of the world.

Year 1 so they’re age 5/6 the range of ability in their class will be huge. You’ll look back on this and think why was I stressing about phonics at age 5.

March really wasn't long ago in terms of teaching weeks so if he's dropped since then I think it's a bit unfair to say you've not had much notice - he's probably only stopped making expected progress in the past fortnight and if they're borderline it's hard to judge. Do the work for the sake of him learning phonics, the test itself doesn't matter.

There are youtube videos to help with phonics screening it flashes up words and you can pause and get them to have a go at saying the words.

We got called in for a meeting with the teacher a few weeks ago. We were stressed the importance of making sure they sound out the words as they have to be clearly able to hear each of the sounds which can be missed if they are sight reading. We were told they were already used to sounding out individual words and sight reading books because of how they do the lessons. They have been doing one on one phonics practice since September in the same manner as they will in the phonics test. They have asked us to treat phonics practice as separate from reading and have given us several phonics based games

There is a mix of real and made up words to help test their ability to decode words and not just be able to recognise the word and recall how it is pronounced. It might be that he is ok with regular words that he knows how to read but struggles with the made up words and this is how he's gone from ok to borderline?