This year's phonics screening

[Lindy2]

I'm assuming all the children taking this have finished it now. How was the screening this year? Is the threshold level likely to be 32 again?

We don't teach alien words but we do practise them so that children have a heads up. The alien words have an alien picture next to them so we remind children that they must sound the word out. Children who are very able readers can struggle with the pseudo words as they think they can sight read them as a similar word, for example reading queeb as queen.

The whole thing is totally pointless anyway but we stand or fall by these scores. Phonics Play, Twinkl etc all provide plenty of opportunity to practice pseudo words.

If they raise the pass mark to 34 we will be screwed as we currently have 85% of children who scored 32 or higher. I thought this year's test was more difficult too with quite a few of the less common digraphs thrown in alongside real words that your average 6 year old (round here, might be different in leafy suburbs) has never heard anyway.

I print the checks out without the pictures because they are a distraction for many children

"Children who are very able readers can struggle with the pseudo words as they think they can sight read them as a similar word, for example reading queeb as queen. " these are the children for whom this type of screening is most beneficial ...the guessers who don't read what's there. Guessers substitute real words for real words too. Silver /sliver split/spilt salt/slat or even house/horse and may appear good readers in the early stages but often struggle as new vocabulary is encountered in later years

Exactly, so we practice the strategies needed which are the same as when a child reads, they need a plan for when they encounter new words.

Surely you are practising the only strategy needed when you teach a child to accurately decode real words.

40-60% of the real words are supposed to be words that are likely to be unfamiliar to a 6 year old IIRC. It's part of the design of the test.

Twinkl and phonics play provide resources because teachers will download them rather than there being a need for them. Other then maybe 1 run through practising pseudo words is a bit of an unnecessary waste of teaching time.

Children will just sound out the word that's written on the page in front of them. Especially if given the instruction that the words aren't real words at the start of the page.

DD1 said she got them all right and there was one tricky word that only her and 2 or 3 others in her class got. The highlight of the test was getting a biscuit after finishing it apparently 😀

We were informed of the week when the screening would take place in the newsletter, I think, and that was it. Received each child's score with their end of year report.

I though the point was that it doesn't matter if children have encountered a particular word before? They're decoding what's on the paper, not doing a comprehension exercise.

Unfortunately many of the resources created to practise for the phonics check feature words containing sound combinations never found in English because the authors don't understand phonics and the relationship between spoken and written language so their usefulness is highly suspect.

Surely the best way to 'practise' for the phonics test is to just teach phonics?

40-60% of the real words are supposed to be words that are likely to be unfamiliar to a 6 year old IIRC. It's part of the design of the test.

Interesting, how does that work with the pronounciation requirements - for the alien words it's any reasonable, but for the real words, I thought it had to be the normal pronounciation of the word (with appropriate accent considered,so bath can have a couple)

DD did say there were two she didn't recognise.

christinarossetti Spot on!

Instead of using alien words that don't exist, wouldn't it be better to use real words
At least the children would be learning something useful

I'm hugely impressed by my son's school who have set no homework, told parents nothing about practice test scores, and who administered the test last week with very little fuss (not mentioned to me by my son or to most of my friends by their children).

Can I ask, what happens to the children who don't 'pass'? I think I remember they have to do the test again in Year 2 and will they get extra support in general reading or phonics, mrz? My son may well be one of these. He's making progress and as a late reader myself who is now a teacher and voracious reader I'm not concerned, just interested.

The children who are assessed at not reaching the expected level (what ever they decided the threshold is this year) will receive additional phonics support in Year 2 and be reassessed in Year2.

I've always been under the impression that the phonics screening is to check how well the school is teaching phonics as well as identify children who require extra help. I don't agree with schools trying to boost their scores by sending words home for practice.

Instead of using alien words that don't exist, wouldn't it be better to use real words
At least the children would be learning something useful

The skill that is being checked allows children to read any word. That's the whole point. You can't get much more useful than that.

Scipio, yes - the school should inform you of the extra support a child not meeting the standard in Y1 will receive in Y2 and they would redo the check in June Y2.

Practising all kinds of words and revising each phoneme on its own is teaching phonics. Sending words home to practise is probably helpful for children who need to practise blending. Most children who struggle with phonics have difficulty blending, or remembering the sounds, or both.

Schools are judged on their Y1 phonics scores as they are on SATs results. We are under a huge amount of pressure and of course we want to teach the children to read it's not just to see who needs extra help in year 2, teachers know that already.

"Sending words home to practise is probably helpful for children who need to practise blending." Really? They can practise blending by reading a book matched to their current phonic knowledge and ability without the need for sending home lists of words (especially pseudo words of dubious standard.

I've always been under the impression that the phonics screening is to check how well the school is teaching phonics as well as identify children who require extra help.

I think the judging schools was an unintended consequence. It was supposed to identify the small (5% ish) of children who still had significant issues after two years of teaching. I don't think they were expecting the national pass rate to be quite as poor as it was in the first year. It was about 54% I think which raised the question about how well reading was being taught.

Good question fred. I have no idea. It would be easier if they just got rid of the real words tbh and tested using 40 non-words.

The Year 1 phonics screening check is a massive waste of time. Yes children should be learning to read from books, which they are. I can see why teachers send home lists of words even though it's not something I would do. Schools are under pressure to get good results whatever the original intentions of the screen were. Teachers already know who will not be able to read up to phase 5 by the end of year 1.

Totally disagree about the screening being a waste of time what is a waste of time is spending valuable teaching time practising and sending home list of words to learn.

mrsz does the PSC ever throw up any surprises in your class? Do you really need it to tell you who can and can't decode?

I use the check as a diagnostic tool to look at the structure of the words the children get wrong and see if there are common errors so I can adapt my teaching and tailor teaching to individual needs in much the same way I would use any summative assessment. So yes there can be surprises. The child who scores 39/40 but makes an error on a sound you thought they were secure with weeks ago.

Are they always this last week?

My DD says they haven't done any phonics tests this week but I do recall her mentioning something a few months back which sounded like the phonics test.