year 1 phonics check

[SmileAndNod]

Does anyone know if this is done in the summer term, or is there no set time for it? Also what exactly is it they check? That they can decode a word rather than read? It was mentioned at the start of the year but nothing since!
Thank you

I was a Year One teacher last year and the test is really hard for children as lots of them try to make the nonsense word make sense (so fop might be read as for) as they want to 'get it right'. The pass mark is very high so I wouldn't worry too much, phonics isn't everything and often more able children don't use phonics to read, they use different strategies so even if your child 'fails' its not much to worry about. If you read with them most days (every day if possible) that's the most helpful thing to their education and as a teacher you can definitely tell which children are read with at home!

My ADD1 - age 14, is probably considered a 'good reader'. She is a keen and prolific reader, can read Jane Austen etc, and has an excellent vocabulary.

She would probably fail the phonics test. If she comes across a word she's not seen written down before that she can't guess from the context, she often cannot sound it out, and so does not recognise it as a word she knows.

I wish there had been a phonics test when she was in year 1. Her problem with phonics could have been picked up and sorted out. We really only realised when she was around 10 when DD2 was rattling through RWInc cards but DD1 couldn't do them.

teenand, what is your elder daughter's spelling like?

Gizmo I'm sorry to say your comment is the single most depressing thing I've read recently.

How can children read words they don't know if they don't use phonics? (Reference to my post above regarding my DD1?)

I can see how they can recognise words they've come across before.
I can see how they can guess a simple word from context.

But how can they read more complex texts with words they may not have come across spoken / written down before without phonics?

Attitudes like yours are surely exactly why the phonics test is required.

column - much better than it was. .

It is a bit patchy. She has trouble with some simple words such as people, many, parent but often longish words are quite good.

But words she's not seen written down she has trouble with as again her phonics lets her down.

Because not all children are stupid. If I know and can spell vat, bat, car, rat and mat I might never have seen the word zat before but I can work out what it says. I may well not be able to work out phyat and I might even have to look it up in a dictionary! After all, being able to take a guess at pronouncing an unfamiliar word still doesn't mean that I know what it means.

There is life without phonics, you know!

But any word the child hasn't come across before is effectively 'nonsense' ie they need to use their phonic knowledge to decode it accurately.

There are an awful lot of words you don't know when you're 5 or 6.

And they're normally embedded in a sentence. So, there's normally quite a good indication of what they mean.

I'm shocked you think my response was depressing. I think you may have misunderstood what I meant. Phonics is a relatively new way of teaching reading (and the skills needed for writing) and if you look back 10-15 years ago phonics were not the way this was chosen. What I am trying to say is that phonics is just one way that children can be taught these skills and children use many different methods as well as phonics. I was trying to relieve worried Mums who might be worried about their child not passing. I was trying to say that as a teacher I see how rigorous tests and expectations can destroy a 5 year olds confidence and love of learning when in reality they are unnecessary. Some children when they take the test will be 5 years and so many months and some will be 6 years and so many months and thus makes a HUGE difference!

Also lots of words are simple not decidable using phonics and children come to rely on this as their only method as that is the way schools teach.

Me again! For example you said your daughter would struggle to write 'people' but that's a tricky word and phonics wouldn't help her with this.

travelin, I wasn't taught with phonics and I've never had any trouble reading books or working out new words. Figuring out what zat says on the basis of being able to spell cat, mat, hat and bat might be phonics to some people. To a lot of other people, who to this day don't know what phonics is, and were not taught it, it's just common sense!

Gizmo, phonics is not new, it's as old as the Phonetician alphabet (as far as we know.)

Phoenician alphabet, sorry.

I meant synthetic phonics has only been taught since 2005, not that it was a new phenomenon.

I meant synthetic phonics has only been taught since 2005, not that it was a new phenomenon.

MY ds was born in 1995 and was taught synthetic phonics in nursery in 98 and when he started school in 2000

Synthetic phonics was introduced after Jim Roses review in 2005. Previously school used phonics combined with other methods, but synthetic phonics is a stand alone method and the Government advocates that it should not be mixed with other methods.

Gizmo you are wrong, my ds was taught synthetic phonics at state school and private nursery long before the rose report

Synthetic Phonics was invented in 1655. There's no reason why some people shouldn't have used it before 2005. It's been around long enough.

But what does any of that matter?

The Rose report advocated that synthetic phonics should be the principal approach for teaching reading. It didn't invent it - it based that recommendation on evidence from schools using that approach.

Jolly phonics which is synthetic phonics was first published in 1992. Just because synthetics was advocated in 2005, doesn't mean that it wasn't used by schools before that.

I'm not saying that Jolly phonics is the only synthetic phonics programme, just that what was used by both dcs' school and nursery.

Anyways the long and the short of it is: don't worry about the phonics test the teachers and school will do that for you. Just help your child develop a love of books and reading and they will be fine.

Just help your child develop a love of books and reading and they will be fine.

I'm arfraid that there are an awful lot of parents around who have tried to do just that and are mystified as to why their children can't read very well (if at all). That's nice advice if you can rely on your child's school teaching good phonics, but I'd be very worried if my child were at your school...

Teaching children letter/sound correspondences and how to use this knowledge to read and write words has been around for an awfully long time; the first reference I know of to 'synthetic phonics' is in a manual of reading instruction published in the late 19th century. As others have pointed out, synthetic phonics didn't start in 2005.

the Phonics Check is only a 'rigorous test' if teachers turn it into one. Children don't have to be stressed about it at all. all they have to do is read a few real words & nonsense words. Should be pretty standard fare, really.

test is really hard for children as lots of them try to make the nonsense word make sense (so fop might be read as for) as they want to 'get it right'.

I suspect that your school concentrates on 'making meaning' and marginalises the importance of accurate decoding.

and often more able children don't use phonics to read, they use different strategies

Would that be because they have been taught 'other strategies?

Funnnily enough, reading researchers have found that phonics is the prime word identification strategy used by skilled readers; it's the poor readers who are wildly searching for 'other clues' in unfamiliar text.

Also lots of words are simple not decidable using phonics and children come to rely on this as their only method as that is the way schools teach.

Oh dear...

Just help your child develop a love of books and reading and they will be fine.

I'm arfraid that there are an awful lot of parents around who have tried to do just that

Well, yes. If you rock up with a truckload of books, tip them at your child's feet and shout happy reading! you will end up with a child who can't read very well and maybe doesn't want to. But luckily not all parents are that stupid.