DS didn't pass the phonics test re-sit in Year 2 - what do I do now?

[homeappliance]

I found out by letter on the last day of term that DS hadn't passed the phonics test re-sit in Year 2. He wasn't even close to passing, scoring 22 correct responses. He reportedly sat the test in June, but we only found out about it when school had finished! It wasn't mentioned in his end of school report or the Summer parent consultation. Over 90% of Year 1's at the school passed the phonics test, but not my Year 2 DS. No information given about what will happen now to support him in Year 3.

I've had nobody to speak to at school all Summer about his phonics test result and obviously upset by how and when we were told. I'm planning to speak with his class teacher and maybe SENCo at the start of Year 3 to find out what they plan to do.

How can I support his reading at home?

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/417435/Special_educational_needs_and_disabilites_guide_for_parents_and_carers.pdf

Read the above document before you go into the school so that you are aware of their responsibilities . The definition of Cognition and Learning SEND would apply to your son.

If you can afford it, I would consider paying for a Dyslexia assessment.

He will sit it again in year 3 and the school will almost certainly put interventions in place to support this. Yes, you need to arrange to go into school and meet with class teacher and senco to discuss the way forward. Does your child read reasonably well? Or is this a weakness generally. It may be worth asking them to test for a root cause (dyslexia?) if it's a general weakness, however if he's generally a good reader then it could be that those alien words are confusing him as he thinks they always have to be real words. This has happened with several children that I taught and is easy to get around. Also, a score on it's own isn't very helpful, you need to ask which words he got right and which he got wrong (ask them to re test using an old test if they can't produce this information) because that will tell you which blends he struggles with or if he doesn't understand the concept of the alien words.
Sorry you had that experience regarding the results. Schools can be a bit thoughtless and sometimes assume that parents won't understand or aren't interested in test results
Not good enough really and I'd suggest telling them how you felt so that they can change their practice.
Good luck.

He will sit it again in year 3 and the school will almost certainly put interventions in place to support this. Yes, you need to arrange to go into school and meet with class teacher and senco to discuss the way forward. Does your child read reasonably well? Or is this a weakness generally. It may be worth asking them to test for a root cause (dyslexia?) if it's a general weakness, however if he's generally a good reader then it could be that those alien words are confusing him as he thinks they always have to be real words. This has happened with several children that I taught and is easy to get around. Also, a score on it's own isn't very helpful, you need to ask which words he got right and which he got wrong (ask them to re test using an old test if they can't produce this information) because that will tell you which blends he struggles with or if he doesn't understand the concept of the alien words.
Sorry you had that experience regarding the results. Schools can be a bit thoughtless and sometimes assume that parents won't understand or aren't interested in test results
Not good enough really and I'd suggest telling them how you felt so that they can change their practice.
Good luck.

No, resits are not required for year 3 children. The school may wish to administer the check for their own internal assessment but the results reported to the local authority do not include any year three marks.

Maybe different in different areas because in our school we definitely had to carry out a local authority check and send them the figures, probably not country wide by the sound of it op so worth checking out.

Quite a Lot in rainbow's post is inaccurate- there is no requirement to resit the test in year 3. Not been able to read "alien" words is not a problem for good readers who have received high quality teaching (as a high percentage of children passed this is presumably the case) - not been able to read "alien" words is an indicator of difficulty with phonological processing. Has he had any extra support with phonics and reading during year 2?

My son wasn't entered in yr1 due to sen, in year 2 he scored 6 in the test. In year 3 as in year 2 he was given extra phonics lessons. As far as I'm aware he wasn't retested on yr3.
Re dyslexia testing, its very difficult to get schools to test in some counties.

There was a pilot study for further testing in year 3 this year. Rainbow is probably in one of the pilot areas. Not sure if it's being rolled out nationally this year but assume not.

Regardless, he should be given more phonics intervention in yr 3. Do you know what his year 1 score was? Is 22 an improvement on that?

There was a pilot study for further testing in year 3 this year. Rainbow is probably in one of the pilot areas

Apologies to rainbow on that point then.

Thank you for all your replies. I think his Y2 score was an improvement from the first time he sat the test. From your advice I will ask which words he didn't get. He has mild DCD and is a slow processor and his working memory is an area of difficulty, so I'm thinking that perhaps it might be a problem with phonological processing as Thermolisdead suggested. Nothing was mentioned about a Y3 re-sit, so perhaps his school isn't a pilot. His reading in Y2 has really come on, which is why I was surprised with his result.

Knowing which words he couldn't read won't be helpful it would be more useful to know the type of word structure