How do I help my daughter prepare for the yr 1 phonics check?

[Churmy123]

Hi
My dd is 5 (6 at the end of July) and is in year 1. She enjoys school, is well behaved and as far as I know doing well and progressing as she should be. The feedback from her teacher has always been positive. At the last parents evening I was told that she has a flair for creative writing and her writing skills and handwriting are at a year 3/4 level. She also said my dd was one of the 'better' readers and in on turqoise books. At home she is currently confidently reading Enid Blytons Famous Five books. Yesterday after school the teacher called me in to discuss my dds phonics skills. They had done a 'mock' test (last years test I believe) and my dd had only scored 29 out of 40 (32 being the 'pass' mark). She asked if I could do some extra work with my dd at home to try and get her up to the 32 mark before the 'test' in June. She gave me some sheets with words on to work through with my dd and also recommended the 'phonics play' website. We did some of this at home last night and my dd appeared to find it easy and didn't struggle with any of the words. Do I just continue doing this at home? Or could it be that she was having an 'off' day on the day of the 'mock' check? Or is it the 'alien' words that are confusing her? I'm a little confused!!!
Thanks. x

[Elibean]

Churmy, she may have just been having an off moment

That's the problem with tests and kids.

[mrz]

I think heads/schools claiming good readers do worse in the phonics check are making excuses before the event knowing their phonics teaching isn't all it should be

[learnandsay]

But the purpose of phonics is to teach children to read. The purpose of reading isn't to practice phonics. So if the children can already read that's great. The heads ought to be congratulated.

[mrz]

They obviously can read words they have learnt by sight but don't have the skills to read unfamiliar words learnandsay ... I wonder how many are using Biff Chip et all books personally I think the heads should be flogged with the ORT catalogue

[carbalanche]

I think it's a bit silly worrying about this phonics test when she can evidently read and write fantastically! Be proud of her and even if she flunks the test - so what! Get her to read the books she's reading out loud to the teacher and that will prove her abilities. Honestly, I would be really annoyed if I was you. Judging what some teachers are saying on this thread there's not a lot of respect for this test anyway.

Congratulations on your talented little girl!

[mrz]

In last years check there were 12 very easy non words (no chance of a child confusing them with a real word) and 8 very easy real words in the first section followed 8 more non words (2 were anagrams of real words) and 12 more difficult real words. So if "good readers" got the two anagram words wrong they could still score 38 out of a possible 40.

[maizieD]

But the purpose of phonics is to teach children to read. The purpose of reading isn't to practice phonics. So if the children can already read that's great. The heads ought to be congratulated.

The purpose of reading is communication of the author's purpose. Changing 'unknown' words into 'known' words alters or distorts the meaning and subverts the original purpose of the text. Why anyone would think that this is part of 'good reading' is completely beyond my understanding.

Added to that, why would anyone think that a 6 year old has encountered every single word that they are ever likely to read? I cannot get my head round the stupidity of headteachers and teachers who make such idiotic statements about beginning readers.

[maizieD]

P.S Not your statement L & S...the one about 'good readers' turning alien words into ones that they 'know'.

[mrz]

It's quite simple really good readers don't guess

[learnandsay]

I knew what you meant. The headteacher's aren't making those statements about the "good children's" reading. They're making them about their performance on this test. If normal reading mainly consisted of reading lists of isolated words, the meaningless half of which were decorated with aliens then I'd be lining up with the ORT catalogue to administer some of the floggings myself. But it isn't.

[mrz]

and contrary to popular belief on this thread I would be very concerned if a teacher told me a child was a good reader and they failed this check (mainly about the teacher)

[mrz]

The headteachers are making excuses to parents learnandsay pure and simple. Con parents into believing their child has struggled because of the test rather than admit they have failed to teach them good readers don't fail

[Wishwehadgoneabroad]

I personally hate this test.

It's so stupid having made up words in it.

There's probably more than a few adults on this thread who are perfectly competent readers, and would get those 'made up' words wrong. Trust me.

Stupid test.

Bears no relevance whatsoever in how well your child will do at school.

Mind you. I'm not a big fan of phonics, so shoot me now! (totally blame current phonics teaching for kids inability to spell words correctly!)

[learnandsay]

I think the time to have the debate about whether or not any heads were wrong is after the results come out.

[learnandsay]

If the mythical "test-failing-goodreader" does loom large then maybe we''ll all get a close up look at her to see what her reading is actually like.

[ClayDavis]

I'd be very surprised if anybody on this thread got any of the words on last years test wrong.

learn andsay, heads will already have the scores from last years test results. There are many schools where all of the most able readers scored full or nearly full marks. The interesting question is why able readers passed the test with 38/39/40 marks in some schools but in others failed to reach the pass mark of 32.

[learnandsay]

But this time round they've had a whole year to prepare for it. Anecdotal issues will come out in fora like these, no doubt, about staffing issues and the like which could have been influential.

[daftdame]

mrz - I agree, in that I think there are problems with the test when teaching has been inadequate. For example if the child is not used to reading 1 to 1 with the teacher and the teacher administers the test. In year one it was a good week if my DC read with the TA or helper once a week. Or bad going from the comments, I'm not sure the reading was enjoyable!

No problems with decoding though - read to me at home, out - everywhere, non -familiar words, accurately from an early age. It would have been the test situation, if my DC had taken it, that would have caused a problem.

This is anecdotal - but definitely possible.

[didireallysaythat]

Am I a bad/disinterested mum ? I didn't know there was a year 1 test. We're in year 2 now. What other tests have I missed ? I'm going to take my lack of knowledge as a sign there's nothing I should be worried about.

[mrz]

There's probably more than a few adults on this thread who are perfectly competent readers, and would get those 'made up' words wrong.

I seriously doubt it!

Are you suggesting you would struggle to read Cif or Dettox or Millicano or Cushelle etc Wishwehadgoneabroad?

[learnandsay]

Is Dettox pronounced as it's spelled or pronounced deetox? According to the rules of the test, since it's a real brandname (and hence a real word) it has to be pronounced correctly.

[scaevola]

You'd apply the 'double letters' rule, wouldn't you? Like hoping/hopping? Short vowel before double consonant.

[mrz]

Sorry it slipped a stray t in there should be Detox

[mrz]

It may be a brand name learnandsay but it's a made up word and at some point someone had to read it without knowing what it was.

[daftdame]

Reminds me of the old Nestle (pronouned English way) and Nescafe (pronounced English way) and the new French way of pronouncing these brand names. Also remember Nike being pronounced Nikey in the 80's?

I pronounce Dettol as it is spelt , although I don't think they'd be allowed brand names in the test or expect children to decode words according to the rule of foreign phonics. I also remember the French teacher trying to perfect our vowel sounds (not easy with our strong northern accents!).