Failed phonics y1 phonics test & advanced reader

[Robindrama]

( I have another thread here but will post specific question as a separate one) any ideas will be much appreciated.

Ds in y1. Just had a parents evening. End of year prediction: reading above expectation, but will fail phonics test.
Question: how can that be possible?

School reading levels are 1-26, 26 free reader. End of y1 expected level is 17/18. DS is currently on level 20. Excellent reading and advanced comprehension.
Phonics tests results 23/40. Expected to fail the test. I will have a meeting with teachers shortly.

How fucking dare you?! My reading levels are great, thank you! Value added is good too, and my school has no issue with my teaching. So you really need to back the fuck off!

You said yourself that they struggle to decode!

brutus As a matter of interest, can you confirm you teach infants, as it isn't clear from your posts?

"What is the consequence of failing the phonics test? Will they be held back from progressing to year 2? Does it reflect badly on the school?"

Last question first the results aren't published so no one outside the education system knows how well, or otherwise a school performs in the phonics check. Parents are told their child's results.

The consequences of failing the phonics check are that the child is recognised as having difficulties, insecure phonic knowledge and skills and is given additional support in Y2 when they will resist the check.

My DD is a free reader - she's six and in year 1. In the autumn term the teacher said could fail.Particularly on alien words where she corrected the words to words she had in her vocabulary. Neither me or the teacher were bothered. She reads entire books like Dahl on her own so phonics test is irrelevant

If she reads Roald Dahl on her own, how do you know she is reading all the made up words correctly?
What if she comes across a word that isn't in her vocabulary? Like eclectic for example, would she just read it as electric?

If she can't read nonsense words, how could she read words from the BFG such as exundly, frobscottle, portends, etc?

"Does the teacher explain it to them in advance? "

Yes Bertrand the teacher administering the check is provided with the following instructions

The check materials include a double-sided ‘practice sheet’ with 4 pseudo-words and 4 real words on each side. You can use this to familiarise pupils with the task. If a pupil is struggling to decode the words on the ‘practice sheet’ you should stop the check and discuss with your headteacher whether the pupil should participate in the check.
During the practice, you can give further guidance to ensure pupils understand the task. For example, you may remind the pupil that the word must be blended, which wouldn’t be allowed during the check itself.
The following text provides an example of how you could introduce the check.

In this activity, I am going to ask you to read some words aloud.
You may have seen some of the words before and others will be new to you.
You should try to read each word but don’t worry if you can’t. If it helps you, you may sound out the letters before trying to say the word.
This ‘practice sheet’ shows you what the words will look like.
Have a go at reading out loud these 4 words which you should have come across before [at, in, beg and sum].
The words on this side [turn over ‘practice sheet’] are not real words. They are names for types of imaginary creatures. You can see a picture of the creature next to each word.
Can you read out the words on this page for me [ot, vap, osk and ect]?**
Ok, now we are going to start reading out the words in this booklet and I’m going to write down what you say on my sheet.
In this booklet there are 4 words on each page. I will tell you at the start of each page whether they are real words that you may have seen before or names for types of imaginary creatures.
The first page has names for types of imaginary creatures and you can see their pictures.
Can you start reading the words to me?
It is important to tell the pupil whether they are real words or types of imaginary creatures on each page.
You can point to whole words to indicate which word comes next but you must be careful not to point to the words in a way that indicates how to decode them. Avoid, for example, pointing from left to right or hovering over letters.

Good point. On school books, I flick through the tough words and ask her to tell me what they are. No stealth boast but honestly she has an extraordinarily vocab so rarely gets them wrong.She's a very serious child and she 'doesn't get' alien words. She should have taken her phonics tests in YR and would have passed

So how does she get on with the nonsense words in Dahl?

"On school books, I flick through the tough words" I would suspect she's probably doing the same when reading Dahl (a learned strategy for words she can't read). It really doesn't matter that much is she skips over frobscottle at this stage but it will matter if she skips over the increasingly unfamiliar often technical vocabulary she will encounter as she progresses through school.

"She's a very serious child and she 'doesn't get' alien words." They aren't alien words (despite some teachers calling them that there is nothing in the official material that refers to them as alien) they are words she's not met yet ...and at age 6 I image she's actually met very few of the million plus words in the Oxford English Dictionary. All words are pseudo words until they enter your receptive vocabulary.

http://www.spelfabet.com.au/2015/01/lets-call-nonsense-word-decoding-new-word-attack/

http://www.spelfabet.com.au/2012/12/nonsense-words/

If those are the instructions given to every child then the"confused by nonesense words" line is clearly bullshit.

Interesting that earlier generations were brought up on nonsense words-Alice and Lear and Spike Milligan to name but 3............

Quite:
.. beware the jubjub bird and shun the frumious Bandersnatch ...
(or something like that)

It really doesn't matter if they read well anyway. Ds1 abandoned phonics for sight reading a few months into reception and never looked back. You can't make a child embrace phonics if they find a quicker and (to them) easier way.

They have an alien picture by them in our school. I wish I was kidding. I'm a great believer in phonics I really am.

Barbarian How does your child sight read words he's not met/read before if not with phonics?

"Ds1 abandoned phonics for sight reading a few months into reception"

Or became genuinely fluent. Because once the phonic code are properly learned you are unaware that you are using it.

Until of course you come across a word you have not encountered before, when you probably will be conscious that you are sounding it out.

No southeast Londonmum "The words on this side [turn over ‘practice sheet’] are not real words. They are names for types of imaginary creatures"
Personally I remove the pictures as they are an unnecessary distraction

The same way I do, I guess- bare minimum of phonetic knowledge to see if he can work it out (he knows his letter sounds obviously and stuff like 'th' and 'sh'), or the dictionary or he asks and remembers it for next time. He certainly knows the meaning of words he can't pronounce correctly or spell. He has a huge vocabulary, which helps. I learnt the same way and (forgive the boast) was also shit hot at English at school. I do think phonics teaching is a good idea but it's not the only means to the end.

I've never had a good reader fail the phonics test yet. They generally read through the words at high speed without fault.

My own preschool attending 4 year old, with no pre test support at all or any input, completed the test in less than two minutes and got one wrong. I only did the test on an computer screen and just to see if she could really. She is an exceptional reader. The one she got wrong showed a clear gap in her phonic knowledge. It was an alien word and she didn't understand the digraph well enough to read it. Simple as that.

My DD was ( and still.is) a very good reader. She happily read Roald Dahl in reception, odd words included. She had no.problems at all with the phonics test because she was her secure in all her phonics..She scored 40. She did not seem to have any problems with alien words...

Interesting that earlier generations were brought up on nonsense words-Alice and Lear and Spike Milligan to name but 3............

Ewok. Wookiee. Smurf. Hobbit. Not to mention imaginary creatures such as fauns, centaurs, unicorns, etc etc which children will encounter in their reading.

Some real words for you BarbarianMum

Xertz?
Ulotrichous?
canorous?
erubescent?

How would you tackle these?