Yr 1 report - informed me she failed phonics test.....

[sugarhoops]

But she was given expected and exceeding for all report areas and her main report gave no mention of failing the test (the phonics test result was on a separate piece of paper, included in her report pack).

I have to confess, I was a little alarmed at the fail in the phonics test (29/40). I've been told by the teacher at last parents eve a month ago that DD is in the top group for phonics, one of the top readers in the class and is excellent at literacy. I was surprised to see she failed the phonics test, but then was given expected and exceeding for all her report areas, with no mention of needing further phonics support.

Can you just have an off day? My Ds passed the test a few years back and was definitely further behind with reading and phonics compared to dd at this same stage of yr 1. I'm confused, and not sure what to do to support her so that she passes in yr2 retake.

I think she's talking about turning she into shep though.

I'd imagine that if you are trying to teach phonics like that then it's no wonder children will get confused.

OP you daughter didn't pass the Phonics Check and she needs further support next year.

You need to go back to the teacher and demand that she gets the extra support next year.

I had only two children in my class of 30 who scored lower than 32 and they both have SEN.

29 out of 40 is not a good score. In fact some of my pupils scored 32, 33 and 34 and made errors that were worrying, so will still receive extra support next year.

The most concerning thing is that the teacher doesn't seem to be bothered.

The Phonics Check was brought in because of schools like yours that were letting their children down and only teaching phonics properly in Reception.

A depressing thread! 25% of children just don't get phonics. They may be the brightest, the least bright or somewhere in between. As with most things in life one approach doesn't suit everyone. As schools take the phonics approach children in this category should be given the opportunity to work in small groups to learn in the best way that suits them. Simple common sense!

Interesting but totally false "fact"

25% of children don't get phonics?

Where did you get that figure from?

So we just sat down and went on the phonics play website...selected the game where it comes up with a word, you decode it, then if it's nonsense you feed it to obb, if it's real you feed it to Bob. They gobble it up and make reassuring noises, or otherwise if wrong.

Selected phase 5 phonics, which I understood DD is working on at moment....out of 20, she got only 1 wrong. I sat beside her but didn't help, prompt or nudge her.

So now I have no idea what to think . I guess we'll keep practising over summer to keep it fresh in her mind.

From the school SENCO. Is it a fact you can disprove? Would be very interested to challenge get on this if so. Thanks!

I think that the fact that the OP school was surprised by the little girl failing the phonics test is concerning. It would really make me wonder if the school knows their arse from their elbow.

"25% of children don't get phonics?"

I think that the pp has quoted that figure because in 2014 roughly 3/4 of children passed the phonics check in year 1. What the previous poster forgets is that there is a plethora of reasons why a year one child might fail the phonics check which are beyond's anyone's control. It is a close call to decide who to disapply from the phonics check. Often these children will get phonics eventually with a little bit of support in year 2.

The SENCO needs better research

Though of course Really if it is 25% don't get then you would expect all schools to have a 25% failure rate of there abouts.

The fact that many schools only have 1 or 2 in a class failing, suggests to me that the 25% failure is due to poor teaching in some schools, not children's inability to get phonics.

I do wonder whether the student teacher administered the test correctly though ...

Ok I'll give the SENCO the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she did mean 25% don't pass. BUT if you replace the 25% in my post with "some" I stand by it. I'm sure it could highlight a serious issue but it could just be that s child doesn't get phonics. As a child of the 70s. I didn't learn with phonics and it didn't stop me going to university. DS2 didn't getphonics and now that we've acknowledged that we've hit on a better approach to learning to spell with one to one TA support. So yes a problem was highlighted but just that he learns slightly differently to the majority. Reads well too and school puts great store in comprehension and inference skills.

Survival, Diane McGuiness's Early Reading Instruction might be an interesting read if you are interested. It was published in 2004 so isn't the most up to date research but would certainly provide you with evidence to challenge the school if you wanted to. It's available on kindle if you have a kindle app.

Did she read the words out loud to you, OP? If she read 19 out of 20 words correctly, I'd wonder if she had a really bad day on the test. She clearly has the skills she needs, she just needs to focus on using them.

25% of children just don't get phonics

Which must make our children very unusual as, for the past three years our "pass rates" for the phonics check have been 94%,94% and again this year 94%! Given our class sizes this means one child didn't pass in each year ( for differeing reasons-one was EAL and had only been in the country 6 month, the other two were SEN.) In each case we knew beforehand that the child wouldn't pass. In the two previous years they passed the year 2 screening-they had simply needed some more time. It is, in my experience, very rare for children not to "get" phonics!

I've seem between 3% and 5% quoted often, but not sure where those figures come from.

I find there are some huge inconsistencies in the phonics check - e.g. for the alien words, any 'plausible' decoding is accepted, but in the 'real' words, they have to read them correctly - which is not consistent with the government saying it is a 'phonics check' not a 'reading test'.

My ds3 will take it next year, no idea how he will do, as he's not particularly strong at reading etc. Ds1 didn't do phonics particularly, but I think dd would have struggled - not because she couldn't 'do' phonics, but because her personality is such that she would have found it very hard to say out loud words that weren't words (you might be sceptical about this, but it was a REAL issue in YR/Y1 - to the extent that she wouldn't choose a picture for the cover of her exercise book, in case she chose the 'wrong' one). So she would have known exactly what the alien word was, but saying it would have been less easy!! Ds2 would have been absolutely fine.

They're all excellent readers now incidentally!

I have a theory that the real words were added to the test to stop people pearl clutching about a non-word test. It didn't really work.

I agree it potentially adds an unnecessary layer of confusion for some children. It should really have been 40 non-words.

Yes rafa, she read all of them to me, then posted them to the correct monster.

I'm beginning to wonder if the test was administered incorrectly by the student teacher and now they're trying to brush it under the carpet as they know they can't re-do....just found out my friends (also bright) daughter also failed with 29/40.

I still can't understand how a bright girl can work in top group phonics all year (and its a top group out of 90 kids, a 3 class intake school) and then fail the phonics test because she doesn't understand phonics.

lily yes that's my daughter too- terrible quiet & at pains to say the right thing.

I agree Rafa ... Add to that the outcry if children were allowed to read real words incorrectly

I'm no longer sure you need to do anything other than keep reading with her and ensuring she's sounding out new words.

I'm genuinely at a loss as to why a child who is familiar with the concept of pseudo words and can complete obb and Bob at phase 5 would end up as a score as low as she has. Especially since she should have been prepared for the idea that some of the words on the test would be ones she didn't know

i was assured that if my son is a sight reader like his older sister he will fail the test however if its proven he can read at his level he would not have to keep taking the test ad nauseum there is nothing wrong with being a sight reader

Oh dear

How many words can your son memorise?

So now I have no idea what to think confused.
Ignore the stupid phonics test and remind yourself that your dd got a very good report overall and be happy.

I guess we'll keep practising over summer to keep it fresh in her mind.
Please don't do that. Let her enjoy the summer instead.
If her reading and writing are coming on nicely, she needs no extra phonics at all.

Phonics is meant to help children with learning to read and write, not become an end in itself.