What are you doing to prepare for the phonics test?

[Busymumto3dc]

As it says really!

I know my DD had a mock test at school as she said she'd had to go to the deputy head's office and when I asked why she said to read "alien names"! I did mention that they would probably want to do a similar one in a few weeks to check she knows her phonic sounds and she seemed happy with that. I'm not doing anything myself to prepare her though apart from the usual homework / reading that the teacher sets.

Nothing. Are we meant to be doing something? The school haven't mentioned it. You've got me worried now that I should be doing something!

Nothing. We did a few Biff and Chip workbooks a while ago which had 'alien words' in and she told me then that they do a lot of these in school - so I assume that school is prepping them for the test...

That said, we do encourage reading a wide range of books generally.

Hi Busy

Genuinely - KS1 SATs/ Phonics test are a screening to let the school/ teachers/ parents understand how their child is performing against national standards at that point.

There really is no point trying to prepare your child.

My DD1 didn't have the phonics test (came in after DD1/ DD2) - but scored NC L1 (below expected standard) on all KS1 SATs.

Yes, not very good - but frankly very liberating result. We had been increasingly expressing our concerns to the school about DD1s slow progress in reading/ maths - the fact that she seemed to be way behind her peers from nursery school - the fact that she couldn't even take 1 from 10. We'd been fobbed off with:

Children develop at their own speeds.
Wait until Y1/ Y2 - things will really take off from then.

And the ultimate:

from the HT no less: What you need to understand, Mrs. PSBD, is that your DD1 just isn't that bright.

We gave up on the school that day and started to do more at home, completely reorganising my working life around the school day and making time for me to support DD1's learning.

I suspect your DC will do just fine. But if she doesn't - treat it as a warning sign that you need to do more at home and that the school should be doing more. I certainly didn't appreciate that intervention was necessary for DD1 after those poor KS1 SATs results (which by the way the school didn't put into place until Year 4).

HTH

(big sigh) It's not a test, it's a check.

Don't do anything to 'prepare' but be worried if you've been given to understand that your child is reading well but doesn't get anywhere near the standard needed in the check. You may have been conned by the school because, regrettably, some schools still don't realise that phonic knowledge and skiils are an essential key to skilled reading. They will allow, or, worse, actively teach, guessing words from pictures, initial letters & 'context' and then be indignant because their 'good' readers don't have the phonic knowledge for decoding and blending simple words

Nothing.

nothing.

which week is it anyway?

Nothing. It's not an exam, no revision needed.

Nothing.

The school tried to get parents to attend a phonics workshop so we could coach the children for the test

It is meant to happen in the week commencing 16 June.

No extra preparation here. If he can't do it, he needs to show he can't so he can get the support he needs. And if he can do it he'll show that too.

They have to retake in yr2 if they "fail".
I would prefer that dS didn't spend more time drilling in preparation, so I will work on some phonics with him at home, hope he passes this time.

It's not a reading test. The sooner the phonics test is out of the way the sooner he can concentrate on learning to actually read.

We were given a couple of websites with phonics games and told to get the children to play them but tbh we've had so much going on here that it's been the last thing on my mind so I've not given them a second thought. DD1 seems to be doing ok with reading etc so I can't say I'm that fussed.

Nothing, other than regular reading books that come home. And school absolutely say that that is the way to go. Even for sats tests in Y2 they don't ask the parents to do anything other than the normal homework set, and try to ensure that the dc don't have any doctor's appointments/holidays/late nights around the test time that might complicate things.

Surely the whole point is to find out what they know or don't know - I always work on the basis that it's the school that is being tested rather than the child iyswim!

Sweet FA tbh.

Just listening to DD read every night as usual.

The school haven't even mentioned the phonics check (DD should be fine though as she has taken it twice already).

This check hadn't been introduced when my older DC were in year 1 and to be perfectly honest if I didn't use Mumsnet I would have been totally unaware of its existence. Not surprisingly I'm doing absolutely nothing about it, the only effect on my child would be if extra help was needed otherwise I really don't care.

What are you doing OP?

Nothing, my 6 year old is blissfully unaware that this will be happening.

You all sound incredibly sensible, apart from lljkk who seems to think (mistakenly) that phonics has nothing to do with reading.

The narrow targets of the phonics testing have a lot less to do with reading English than you'd expect.

What are the correct pronunciations for these words on phonics test vs. what does the word usually sound like in our real language? Are they the same?

live
are
you
bread
great
been
love

DS is fine at phonics, excellent maybe. But very slow to learn to read.

ps: the yr1 teachers agreed that the best readers often get tripped up because they mistake nonsense words for near equivalents in English that are pronounced differently from the strict phonics rules, or they have learnt valid alternative rules for the same letter combination that aren't allowed as valid alternative on the phonics test. Absurd outcome from a test that is supposed to measure underlying reading development.

Err nothing, we got given a list of words that we can practise if we want. I have stuck them up on the wall and not looked at it since.

Doing absolutely nothing. DD is a great little reader, so I'm assuming she'll pass with no preparation whatsoever. If she fails, then QED the test is categorically a load of rubbish!

Travelin I'm not sure what you're saying. It's actually quite likely someone named Rundell would pronounce it Rundle, no? And I can assure you that I can read really very well indeed .