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

[mrz]

No one is suggesting they use brand names in the test just showing that the idea of adults being unable to read made up words is clearly nonsense.
No one would struggle to read Muggle or blog or Sudoku but they were all made up words once!

[Elibean]

I wonder why they chose Y1 for a phonics test, and not Y2? Was that because it gives time to correct teaching issues?

[mrz]

If a child "fails" to meet the level (won't know what it is until the test) then the school is expected to put support in place (another reason schools/heads are conning parents into believing the test is flawed) so children don't enter KS2 disadvantaged.

[daftdame]

mrz - Just have to say it Shitake mushrooms (snigger). Sorry I'll stop now.

[daftdame]

On a more sensible note mrz, chasing 'support' can be difficult. What is a child's SN and what is due to the teaching could be very difficult for a parent to untangle.

[lougle]

I'm still baffled as to why parents would be upset if their child failed this test.

It doesn't mean they are terrible readers; simply that they need support to get a secure knowledge of phonics.

DD2 came home today and, over dinner, suddenly said 'meat is a homophone, Mum. Beacause you eat meat, but you can meet someone.'

The test isn't a test of cleverness, or intelligence. It's simply a test of whether the child is able to apply their phonic knowledge generally.

[mrz]

See there is an example of a real word borrowed from Japanese daftdame so you would be expected to read it correctly

[Wheresmycaffeinedrip]

I fully expect my dd to inform the tester that " that's not a word" :o

[christinarossetti]

The only reason I would be concerned if my children fail this test is because it would indicate that the school hadn't been teaching phonics properly, which I would rather they did.

[mrz]

The "tester" (otherwise known as your daughter's teacher) will have already informed your daughter that it isn't a real word before asking her to decode it.

[Wheresmycaffeinedrip]

That's a relief mrz :) she's been known to point them out before

[MammaMedusa]

Sudoku is borrowed from Japanese too. (It uses the same Su as in Sugaku - maths. Gaku means study of something. So sugaku is literally study of numbers).

Not helpful really!

[mrz]

Sudoku is a made up Japanese word MammaMedusa a bit like "chillax" and "Podcast" and "staycation"

[maizieD]

I fully expect my dd to inform the tester that " that's not a word"

So your 6y old is intimately acquainted with the full English lexicon (at least 250,000 words)?

[mrz]

Perhaps some parents like some headteachers want a ready made excuse just in case their child "fails" the check

I wish the check had been around when my son was six

[Wheresmycaffeinedrip]

No but she picks out words in her books - ones that are blatantly made up and spends more time asking questions about that than she does reading on. I have two books she won't read because she thinks the words are silly. ( these are books with made up words though not o es that she just hasn't come across yet)

She quite often gets fixated on things she thinks dont make sense. Bedtime stories aren't always that relaxing as a result :)

[MammaMedusa]

Yes, I suppose Sudoku is made up. It was originally short for a much longer phrase. Japanese makes up new words all the time though, I wonder when we say a word becomes a word? I think sudoku is more word-ish than, chillax. Similar to podcast, though, probably. It can be written in Kanji (Chinese characters) which is always my test of a "real word" as opposed to a "made up one" as they can usually only be written in katakana (phonetic).

Anyway, this is not a helpful divergence.... a phonic test in Japanese would be easy! A character reading test on the other hand...

[christinarossetti]

I think a bit more is being made of the 'real' and 'made up' words in the phonic check than needs to be.

My Y1 dd is a very able reader and hates to make mistakes - she never 'guesses' based on what might come next or a pictorial clue as my ds does.

She did a mock check or whatever last week and scored 40/40. She mentioned in passing (when I quizzed her closely....) that some words had been 'alien' words, but was completely unperturbed by this.

If they've been taught phonics properly, they will be able to confidently decode (although there may be some children with SEN that will find this more complex, I guess).

[daftdame]

Christinarossetti - it's not just children with SEN which might find this more complex it's also children that have received inadequate teaching.

This can be difficult for the parents to entangle, the results are not published, they will only know their individual child's result unless other parents have spoken to them.

[mrz]

New words are constantly entering the English language too MammaMedusa and I suppose they become a real word when they enter general usage and are widely understood.

[mrz]

I would be suspicious if the school were saying my child is a good reader but they failed to meet the phonics check standard daftdame

[learnandsay]

Maybe too many people have remembered that last year a lot of supposed good readers failed and are factoring that into their prediction of what will happen this year without letting the test happen first, getting the results and then worrying about the explanations.

[daftdame]

Mrz - but you would not be able to ascertain whether the SEN was due to you child's individual development or inadequate teaching because the results are not published. Unless parents spoke to each other you could be just fobbed off with a 'programme', thinking your child has SEN.

[mrz]

If they are telling me my child is a good reader yet he/she can't decode simple words I think I have a good idea where the problem is daftdame

[maizieD]

although there may be some children with SEN that will find this more complex, I guess).

I suspect that fewer children with SEN will struggle with the Phonics Check than is popularly believed. There is an almost symbiotic relationship between 'SEN' and 'failure to learn to read' in a significant number of cases. Children are slow at learning to read so they are deemed to be SEN.

While a few dohave significant difficulties which make learning to read a slower process many of the 'SEN' children I have worked with at Sec. really have only suffered from incomplete or muddled phonics teaching. They respond really well to some nice simple and straightforward phonic work and I really can't find anything which would have prevented them from learning at a much earlier age.