Y1 phonics check

[piellabakewell]

You can see it in action here so you know what we are putting them through!

Hmm, Achaean - I wouldn't have a problem with the ch sound, but I wouldn't be confident whether it was Ach-ay-an, or Ach-ee-an (this would be my option of choice, because I know the word Paean is Pee-an), or Ach-eye-an.

More of a problem are words that look the same but are pronounced totally differently. - eg tough, bough, cough, dough or heard and beard etc.

Sorry i havn't read the whole thread, my dd2 has ASD and is in year 1 of main stream school, she taught herself to read at the age of 2 not using phonics but remembering words, the school have tried to re-teach using phonics but dd2 was having none of it, she's not very verbal but can read well. How will they be testing her?

Marne - the point of the phonics check is to ensure teachers know which phonics kids do and don't know, and to make sure kids who are struggling with phonics are on an appropriate intervention.

Hopefully her school already know where she is wrt phonics and already have her on appropriate interventions.

Due to her ASD they may decide that a phonics intervention is not right for her. As always with kids on the SEN register common sense must be used.

"I'm not inflexible, I am totally pro-phonics, especially for littlies"

Its "littlies" taking the test. The school can drum phonics into them during year 1. Once that is done then the school can spend years 2 to 3 teaching them the more challenging skills of comprehension.

However I don't understand why littlies taking a test should will prevent them learning other stuff. I think that some posters are getting a five minute test out of proportion. This is really no different to a lot of other tests children have a school during the early years.

lockets - i'm sure between now and june you can find some way of making the 'non-word' aspect of the check less daunting for your daughter.

A spaceman coming down to earth and writing nonsense words:' but, look, we can try to decode them' (l or 2 a day, 1-2 minutes) would that stress her? 'Is he writing gobbledegook or do you think his spaceman pals can understand -'
oh I don't know, lockets - i'm sure you'll find some way of handling this.

And for the 20% or so who can't easily access the secondary curriculum at the moment, how wonderful that their difficulties might now be recognised in Reception (should be possible after about 6 weeks) or at the very, very latest at the beginning of Year 1. Then all the people like me who pick up the pieces for 6 year olds and over would be out of work. That would genuinely be wonderful. (There are around 1% of children who do need very extended one-to-one teaching).

I'm sorry that your daughter has had a bad experience - it's not the teacher's fault - most of them barely get any instruction on how to teach children who don't easily learn to read. One of the great hidden horrors of education.

I would hope the school is teaching them comprehension from reception year as part of the phonics process as they should be ReallyTired. There seems to a myth that teaching phonics means you don't teach children to understand what they read ... goodness knows where that silly idea came from.
Using Learnandsays example and looking decode up

de·code
   [dee-kohd] Show IPA verb, de·cod·ed, de·cod·ing.
verb (used with object)
to extract meaning from (spoken or written symbols).

ReallyTired the test will take approx 4 -9 mins out of a child's year hardly preventing them from learning other stuff

Allchildren - the problem is not only that teachers may not know how to teach beginning reading - but also that teachers either don't want to admit there is a problem, or don't realise there is a problem. Ie they don't know what kids should be able to do at any stage.

This is a huge problem across all of school.....

At least now there will be a line in the sand after 2 years at school telling teachers what is and isn't OK.

Its "littlies" taking the test. The school can drum phonics into them during year 1. Once that is done then the school can spend years 2 to 3 teaching them the more challenging skills of comprehension.

Yes, I'm aware of that! My ds2 is in Y1! That was more in response to the comment about standing up and reading out aloud, and not having to look things up, because if it's an unfamiliar word, and is one where there are multiple options, then you will still need to look it up or ask, and if you are reading out to a class, it's pretty important that you DO know how to pronounce it and don't just guess!

Personally I don't think there should be a need for a formal check because all schools should be checking children's phonics knowledge for reading and writing as a matter of course at least once a term. But schools aren't and some teachers aren't teaching phonics at all or teaching it so slowly that children are actually reaching Y6 and still haven't been taught one way of representing the 44 English phonemes never mind the alternatives
I want children who are having difficulties identified early and helped early and I want all children to be readers.

If such test had already been administered for DC we would know where he was. I think he's very much a sight reader at the moment and I've had to work at home to help him with phonics so that his writing doesn't lag way way behind his reading level.

yy I agree with what mrz said.

I think what worries me is the inflexibility of the test - because it is a nationally administered test, organised by Gove. I know that dd would have struggled with it, because of her psychological make up, and although she could have proved her phonics knowledge by the way she could build up words she didn't know how to spell, that wouldn't have satisfied 'the test'. (What I mean by that is that if you'd asked her to spell any of these alien words, she would have been able to do it, she just wouldn't have been able to bring herself to 'say' the alien words out loud). And I'm sure she's not the only case, for whatever reason.

Don't know what the solution to that is though.

It hasn't been administered stopthinkingsomuch

The only problem with this is that teachers have to do the tests and that inevitably costs lots of money for supply cover. TAs would be fine for this.

and that he can decode unfamiliar words.

Sorry I've been jumping onto thread in between things....

I would have thought there should be no surprises and what Mrz said early it should be good practise each term in any case.

Surely this test could be administered 1 week per term when the kids normally have their spelling tests or miss a library session for a week (which happens at the end of term etc). TA perfectly capable of doing this.

I think the literacy coordinator and head are doing our checks so no cost

I'm doing ours as Lit coordinator and the Deputy Head since she shares the class. So no cost here either.

and next year I'm teaching Y1

We don't know yet - Head dithers a bit at this stage of the year. He knows I want to go back into KS1 though! I would love to teach Y1.

Feennie/mrz, what is happening to your lit co-ordinators' classes when they do the assessments? Surely they will need supply?