Phonics check

[BucksKid]

Why do teachers, on Internet forums, say 'yah, (eg) 83% of my class passed the phonics check' Rather than 'oh no, 17% of my class didn't pass the phonics check' ?

Do they realise how disrespectful that is to the 17%?

Do they care that 17% of their pupils have left their class without the basic skills needed to learn to read?

Is it because they met their performance management target?

my daughter's school slipped a one liner 'didn't meet expectations' in her end of Y1 report in the midst of a lot of text. THey didn't mention she had an issue at either parents night. They did complain to my hubby about me because I didn't book a parents night meeting.

I didn't go because they never give you the information you need for a value-added interchange. I could have made my own decision whether or not to intervene regarding phonics much earlier on.

I see now after moving and changing schools - new school thought phonics was an issue near the end of YR 2. We do the cards with her and her reading is improving and she passed the year 2 screen with a 37/40 - if that is a pass with the new threshold.

New threshold is 32, so that's a pass.

Well done to your DD.

Interesting, this idea, heavily promoted by objectors to the PSC, of 'good readers' trying to make pseudo-words into 'real' words.

This statement from a friend who has looked in depth at the technical detail of the PSC seems to cast doubt on just how common an error this was claimed to be:

"A child who reads “proom” as “groom” is not a “competent reader,” irrespective of the child’s age. “proom” was indeed an item on the 2012 Check. The item was pronounced consistent with the Alphabetic Code by 86.1% of Yr1 children, compared for example, with 74.1% for the real word “lords.”

So, only 14% of children read 'proom' wrongly - as opposed to 26% who read the 'real' (and no more difficult) word wrongly. It might suggest to me that children were taking particular care to get the pseudo-word correct...
And, that objectors to the test might be making up their objections as they go along rather than basing them on evidence...

Teacher has said that they will not be giving any extra phonics help as they don't think there is a problem. How concerned should I be? Will there be future tests? How is this likely to impact on SATs?

I thought they had to give extra help? I thought that was the whole point- to make schools take action. What actual score did your dd get? I still haven't got my DD's result but if she doesn't meet the threshold I won't be accepting 'she's ok, there's no problem'.

creamtea,
Your DC will take the phonics check again in Y2.

When you read with him/her what do you think of his/her reading skills. If s/he does anything other than sound out and blend unfamiliar words then I would be worried. Have you any idea of what the actual score was? If it was very close to the standard maybe the school thinks it was good enough and no extra support needed because s/he'll probably 'pass' in Y2.

OTH, if you think his/her reading is poor, pester them!

I'm not sure that schools are actually obliged to do anything for children who don't reach the standard.

Score was 30. Paperwork doesn't infer that there is any requirement for school to take action. Just suggestions on how parents can help with phonics.

Dc has very good memory so quickly memorizes text. Spells words phonetically but doesn't necessarily get them right.

maizie dc tries to decode new words but not always successfully. If I read word it doesn't then get forgotten.

What to do if a child does not meet the expected standard
If a child does not meet the expected standard, the school should remind and reassure the child’s parents that the phonics screening check is used to provide an indication of whether or not their child is meeting the expected standard of phonics decoding. The school should outline the support that will be put in place to help the child progress.

remind and reassure
Phonics have nothing to do with reading ability and 40% fail the test

outline the support
None as DC is in top phonics group

That was the teacher's response to the results

40% do not fail the check in schools where reading is taught well

sorry but you are being too trusting!

The phonics check is utterly pointless for really good Yr1 readers, because they have moved past the basic sounding out and blending stage which it tests.

My tables are of no help to all who merely want to know how they should help their child to learn to read, who are merely after guidelines that they can follow blindly.

They are to those who are interested in understanding why there continue to be so many disagreements about how best to teach children to read and write, because these are due entirely to the inconsistencies of English spelling. - It is difficult to agree on the best and universally effective teaching method for something which makes no logical sense.

Learning to read English, and teaching children to do so, is exceptionally difficult and time-consuming because of the variable sounds of the following letters and letter strings:
a: and – any, father, apron
a-e: gave – have
ai: wait – said, plait
al: always – algebra
-all: tall - shall
are: care - are
au: autumn - mauve
augh: daughter - laugh
ay: pays - says

cc: success - soccer
ce: centre - celtic
ch: chop –chorus, choir, chute
cqu: acquire - lacquer

e: end – English
-e: the - he
ea: mean - meant, break
ear: ear – early, heart, bear
-ee: tree - matinee
e-e: even – seven, fete
ei: veil - ceiling, eider, their, leisure
eigh: weight - height
eo: people - leopard, leotard
ere: here – there, were
-et: tablet - chalet
eau: beauty – beau

• ew: few - sew
• ey: they - monkey

ge: get - gem
-ger: anger - danger
gi: girl - ginger
gy: gym – gymkhana
ho: house - hour
i: wind – wind down, ski, hi-fi

• ine: define –engine, machine

ie: field - friend, sieve imb: limb – climb ign: signature - sign mn: amnesia - mnemonic

ost: lost - post
-o: go - do
oa: road - broad
o-e: bone – done, gone
-oes: toes – does, shoes
-oll: roll - doll
omb: tombola - bomb, comb, tomb
oo: boot - foot, brooch
-ot: despot - depot
ou: sound - soup, couple
ough: bough - rough, through, trough, though
ought: bought - drought
oul: should - shoulder, mould
our: sour - four, journey
ow: how - low

qu: queen – bouquet
s: sun – sure
sc: scent - luscious, mollusc
-se: rose - dose
ss: possible - possession
th: this - thing
-ture: picture - mature
u: cup – push
ui: build – fruit, ruin
wa: was – wag
wh: what - who
wo: won - woman, women, womb
wor: word – worn
x: box - xylophone, anxious

• y-: type - typical
• -y: daddy – apply

z: zip – azure

In my old school, 1 child failed the phonics test in Y1, by 1 mark. Givern the child's very high level of SEN, that was a remarkable performance. The rest of the 35% of children on the SEN list AND the fluent readers way up in the stratosphere of the reading scheme all passed.

It is not 'normal' for a well-taught non-SEN child, let alone 40% of them, to fail the screening test.

Checking the government stats for 2013, 31% failed nationally which makes the result worse. This is a teacher in an Ofsted outstanding school saying these things.

DC just read a magazine story to me. Only one word was wrong - stared read as starred. No problem with accidentally, revealed, affection or experimented.

The inspection was this year.

Will check out your suggestion - thanks.

mustbetimeforacreamtea suggest you research the Y3 dip ... it's where those apparently good readers start to encounter more complex vocabulary and don't have the capacity to remember every word by sight. As their decoding ability isn't good they hit a wall and struggle.

What would be your course of action with the school mrz? I'm on the back foot a bit as the teacher told me informally after they sat the test that I would be really pleased with the results. So having received the result and a dismissive reaction to it I was too thrown to closely question it.

I would expect the school to look at the words your child got wrong to identify any possible gaps in their phonic knowledge. I had children who scored 38 in the check but got both /oi/ words wrong so planned more work on this sound. If schools use it as a diagnostic tool it can be useful even for children who passed the check but failed to score 40/40.

I would ask the teacher if there are sounds you need to work on with your child.

83% of mine passed...

Of course, it's a shame those 17% didn't pass. But they are children with either documented SEN needs, or simply just low ability (not there yet). My most profound SEN child scored zero, which I knew would happen.

Schools have to take it seriously, because it's the only data that goes to OFSTED/the government about Year 1 in a particular school.

Teachers think it's utter bullcarp. It's a pointless test. Blame Gove.

Zingally, teachers who teach phonics well, IME, and have great success in teaching even LA / SEN children to decode, see it as unnecessarily bureaucratic and heavy handed, but certainly not as entirely useless.

Thanks for that veiled insult teacherwith2kids.

For reference, I was new to my school this year... Last year they scored 67%. I teacher phonics very well, thanks very much.

There shouldn't be a need for a national check but the evidence shows there is. So sorry zig as a Y1 teacher I you are the one talking *!