The new Y1 phonics screening check

[SoundsWrite]

The government's new phonics screening check is to be launched in England in June.
The results of the test will be given to the parents of each individual child but each individual school's results will not be made public.
What is the view on Mumsnet? Do you think the results should be made public or not? Either way, why or why not?
You can find out more about this test by going to the DfE site: www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/pedagogy/a00198207/faqs-year-1-phonics-screening-check

Febreeze - really good point, X posted but I heartily agree with you.

^
Even in the school where phonics is taught well, it will pick up a significant proportion of those children who have difficulty decoding and where prompt intervention could prevent ongoing problems.^

As a Y2 teacher in September I inherited 17 children who had difficulties decoding i now have 2

And do you, Lily, read what I've written? I've told you time and time again it shows something to keep an eye on when your ds next meets a new word, is all, in case it's something he does repeatedly on encountering a new word. That's it.

In a nutshell, I don't think it is a good use of time, and I suspect it won't actually help the children it is supposed to help.

You don't know that it will, or that it won't.

I don't think your suspicion is enough to make anyone agree that the whole process should be derailed. And yes, I do know that:

1)It is a good use of time in that a decent phonics teacher would use that same time to carry out phonics assessments anyway.

2)Those that wouldn't assess will be forced to, and to provide one type of intervention for struggling readers.

3)It will highlight to Ofsted, who have shown a commitment to look closely at the data, which schools are teaching phonics well and which aren't.

4)LEAs will have to moderate schools using this test on a cycle.

5)The whole process of phonics teaching will be under a microscope in every primary school at long last.

All these things I know, yes, Lily.

Excellent post, teacherwithtwokids, especially:

Just because the screening check is not perfect for all children (which actually in Lily's DS's case doesn't really happen - he will pass, as he achieves the pass mark, and his check throws up some interesting extra information about his reading approach - where is the problem?) does not mean it is not good enough for its main purpose for the vast majority of children.

That would be like me saying 'DS worked out the phonics code independently before starting school, so phonics does not need to be taught in school as able children can work it out independently' - I can see beyond the needs of my own child to the needs of the vast majority.

Febreeze, I don't think they need magical intervention programmes - just good, systematic, regular phonics teaching, on a one to one if possible.

But I take your point that if they didn't know how to do this in the first place....

I think that all children should be routinely tested by their class teacher each term to pick up those struggling with blending and segmenting and to pick up those children who appear to be good readers but who may have difficulties in the future - and I think this should happen from reception

Febreeze, I share your concern about the schools who aren't teaching phonics well and would go even further and say that there may be difficulties with marking the test and interpreting the results for such schools. I think the whole process will need to be monitored very closely indeed.

because if staff can't teach phonics effectively how can they administer the test

"I think that all children should be routinely tested by their class teacher each term to pick up those struggling with blending and segmenting and to pick up those children who appear to be good readers but who may have difficulties in the future - and I think this should happen from reception"

See, I would agree with that much more than a test at the end of Y1 with a perceived pass/fail.

I think it's very important there's a fail. That's the whole point.

School can't keep reassuring me and telling me everything's fine if my DC fails the phonics test.

So instead of lying to me till the end of Y2, they only get to lie to me till the end of Y1. Very valuable.

Lily the reason we have got a national test is because teachers aren't doing that exception in a those schools were phonics is actually taught well

So what you want is this very test, but done three times as often? (And with results, as currently proposed, not published, but used to inform interventions).

Indigo, I didn't mean that there shouldn't be a pass/fail, more that it shouldn't be a fixed point in Y1, as a fixed target for the children.

Because actually, they can have wasted 2 years of teaching by then.

That confused me too, Edith

But Lily, that's still the whole point.

All schools will want all kids to pass.

So they will put interventions in place before the end of Y1, so that the kids pass.

Interventions will happen earlier because of this test.

Lily,

You set great store by this 'letter from the 'experts', but in fact, when you look closely at the 'experts' they are not so impressive.

Courtesy of Google:

David Reedy, United Kingdom Literacy Association and

The UKLA has fought tooth and nail against the introduction of phonics as the prime method for the initial teaching of reading. They are great supporters of the now defunct 'Searchlights' method.

John Coe, Chairman, National Association for Primary Education (NAPE)

No information found, but I assume a connection with Primary teaching

Professor Robin Alexander, Director, Cambridge Primary Review

Taught in 'schools and colleges' (age group unspecified) 1964 - 1977 (The era of the expansion of Look & Say teaching of reading). University lecturer since then. Now Emeritus (retired)

Alison Peacock, National Network Leader for the Cambridge Primary Review (CPR)

Primary Head Teacher
Research Interests:
Learning without limits
Pupil voice and democratic schools
Person centred leadership

Professor Trisha Maynard, Chair, TACTYC and Director of Research Centre for Children, Families and Communities, Canterbury Christ Church University

Like the UKLA, TACTYC has consistently opposed the introduction of systematic phonics instruction.

Wendy Scott, President, TACTYC
As above

Graham Trousdale, Chair, Committee for Linguistics in Education (CLIE)

Linguistics? Senior lecturer at Edinburgh, has never taught in schools

John Hickman, Chair, National Association of Advisers for English (NAAE)

NAAE was set up for LA Advisors & Inspectors. Until the Rose Report (2006) LA advisors function was to ensure schools' adherence to the Searchlights model of reading instruction.

Mary Bousted, General Secretary, Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL)

A former Secondary & FE teacher

Russell Hobby, General Secretary, National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT)

Has always worked in Education consultancy. Has never taught in schools

Christine Blower, General Secretary, National Union of Teachers (NUT)
Former secondary teacher. Is on record as saying that she has never seen Synthetic Phonics being taught (you'd think that people would make themselves familiar with a topic before shooting off their mouths about it)

Chris Keates, General Secretary, NASUWT
Former Secondary school teacher

Philip Parkin, General Secretary, Voice

Taught in Junior & Infants pre 1990, when Look & Say and Whole Word teaching was dominant

Matthew Martin, CEO, College of Teachers

Former Secondary science teacher

Miles Berry, Senior vice Chair, NAACE

Primary teacher, ICT and Virtual Learning Environments is his speciality.

Simon Gibbons, Chair, National Association for the Teaching of English (NATE)

Former English teacher, must have been secondary as Primaries do not really have subject specialists

Penny Tyack, Programme Director and founder of Reading Quest.
Reading Quest is based on Reading Recovery, a Whole Language intervention which uses 'Searchlights' type strategies
Primary teacher

Rona Tutt, Chair, National Literacy Association
A former primary HT

Lorraine Petersen, Chief Executive, National Association of Special Educational Needs (NASEN)

Special needs focus.

So, out of 18 signatories to this letter only 5 or 6 have actually taught in primary schools.

I have worked in a secondary school for 12 years now and I have yet to find a secondary teacher who knows the first thing about how to teach reading to beginners. That includes English teachers. The subject 'English' has nothing to do with the initial teaching of reading.

At least 4 of the signatories have been opposed to the teaching of phonics as introduced in schools after the findings of the Rose Review into the initial teaching of reading (you can find all the information on the websites of their organisations, UKLA & TACTYC) Teh Reading Recovery clone won't like it either.

When you look at their backgrounds, where does their 'expertise' on the initial teaching of reading come from?

Is it not worrying that only one third of the schools in the pilot study always encourage children to use phonics as the strategy to decode unfamiliar phonically regular words? If two thirds of the schools that volunteered for the pilot study don't always do this, I can imagine why the PSC may not be that popular a concept. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some sort of 'backlash' from schools in the form of a boycott come June.

I've been in hospital so I think that qualifies me as a medical expert

I read a book about appendicitis once, so I think you'll find I am a qualified surgeon.

My 'proper' title is Dr, and I have a wonderful string of letters to put after my name (I have also had a series of deeply impressive sounding job titles in my 'previous life')... surely I am qualified to stop ANY national initiative on ANYTHING in its tracks??

(Oh, and I also have 2 able children, one with mild ASD ... so I am ideally placed to comment on what is best for ALL children on the basis of my own - unusual - children ....)

Here are more examples of how expert the experts are: anthonywilsonpoetry.com/the-politics-of-reading.
I hope you like the contribution from Anita Wood
Debbie Hepplewhite and Geraldine Carter are doing a great job in flying the flag for phonics (well it is a poetry blog, so I thought a little alliteration would go amiss - and now I'm thinking assonance, too.] :)
Isn't Rosen rude?

Is it not worrying that only one third of the schools in the pilot study always encourage children to use phonics as the strategy to decode unfamiliar phonically regular words?

mrz and I have spent many a happy hour 'debating' with a teacher on another forum about 'other strategies'. She (the other teacher, not mrz) is firmly convinced that guessing a word by looking at a picture is not 'guessing', it is making an informed choice...

It is deeply worrying that 73% of the pilot schools taught 'other strategies' along with sounding out and blending.

So Lily Bolero throws up a few concerns about the test (not about phonics teaching) and is ridiculed by advocates of phonics teaching who should know better. I'm sure you're all genuinely passionate about supporting children's learning. That doesn't mean that anyone who has an opinion about a government strategy (and a tick box strategy that probably has A LOT to do with trying to out under-performing schools and force them into becoming franchised off as academies) should be undermined. Great that you're all fantastic teachers, I wish there were more like you out there, but all this self-congratulation and putting down of anyone who dares to articulate a possible alternative strikes me as a resort to playground tactics. These are just opinions at the end of the day and mrz, didn't you start this thread somewhere raising your own concerns about the test?

(and a tick box strategy that probably has A LOT to do with trying to out under-performing schools and force them into becoming franchised off as academies)

You know this for a fact or is it just a suspicion?

As far as I can make out, the prime mover in the initiative to get phonics properly taught in all schools is Nick Gibb. I heard him speak on this subject, at a conference, before Academies were even a twinkle in Nu-Labour's eye. So I acquit the government, in this instance, of using the phonics check as weapon to enforce Academy status. The push for good phonics teaching is about the only useful thing that has come out of the DfES since May 2010.