How is that right? At parents' evening last week we mentioned that DD (year 1) was having trouble with a couple of sounds (eg tion) and her teacher confirmed that they haven't learned them yet. She also said that she had got 34 on a practice for the phonics screening test. Roll on a week and she has apparently had her reading benchmarked and is on black/free reader. That doesn't make any sense to me. If she isn't secure on her phonics how can she be a free reader? For comparison DD1 was also very able, got full marks in the phonics screening in year 1, but didn't get to free reader until late in year 2, which makes much more sense.