Phonics test result - really worried

[TTCNumber3uk]

My DD is 6 next month and has struggled with phonics and reading massively since reception. Unlike my DS who flew through reading she just can’t get the hang of it. We just got her end of year one phonics test back and she got 14 (the expected age mark is 32). We read at home, practice writing etc I don’t know what else I can do, does anyone have any suggestions?

im feeling awful as the first time today I snapped and got frustrated while doing reading together and her completely messing up the words and I know I’m a horrible parent I’m just so worried

However when I was at school children did learn to read through whole word recognition, and you cannot dispute that the majority of children did learn to read.
Whole word recognition has a 50-75% success rate for teaching children to read, which is why the government poured so many resources into reading instruction.
Synthetic phonics, when taught correctly, has a 90%+ success rate, which is why it is the method used in schools.
Children who are struggling to learn using synthetic phonics usually have poor phonological awareness, and until that is resolved, either by intervention or maturity, phonics won’t click. Unfortunately many people jump to the incorrect conclusion that the child ‘can’t learn’ using phonics, rather than doing a little investigation to see specifically what they are struggling with.

Assessments are adjusted for age.

Uk State school assessments like end of reception, phonics screen , times tables, sats and gcse and alevels are obviously not adjusted by age. Targes for achieving by end of year on reports are also not age adjusted.
It is possible schools have internal targets set by age? But thats irrelevant really as the important ones are by age group. With y6 sats which maybe sat at 11y9m or 10y9m. Which are then used as target for the secondary to achieve.
Csa children sit the SAT with their adopted yeargroup.

The sats results show on the gov website by results by month of birth with aug obviously scoring and average of say 9 less than sept borns.

I do think schools should see how children have done relative to age as the dc1 school might have realised that getting over 110 was actualoy pretty good going generally for summer born kids.

Gramnar schools make an adjustment on 11+ -- however they still take proportionatelly much fewer summer borns. Probably because you cannot just put a figure on the disadvantage. As say if you take the 11+ in sept of y6 a sept born is 11 but aug born only just turned 10. And to be ready for the test they have to be practising all the maths etc whilst still 9 over year 5.

It might be worth trying to see if she gets on better reading through coloured filters (google search DECARETA Correction Gel Light Filter). A lot of dyslexic people can read through coloured filters but not without. I'm not sure if those are the right colours but it might be a start.

You could also book in with an optician who is listed with the college of optometrists in vision development. I had huge problems with reading and they sorted me out with eye exercises. The earlier problems are caught the easier they are to fix.

My DS struggled with phonics, it didn’t really click with him. For connecting words like “ the, and, but , what, where” I made up cards and we played snap and he learned them very quickly. I also got a jotter and we wrote a 2 or 3 lined story and he drew a picture about the story. Most of the stories were the adventures of his teddy bear in South America. I would always read the story first and he would reread it. He much preferred reading these stories and we would go back and reread them. His reading improved very quickly.
18 years later and we still have the story book.

What do school say?
They should be able to do a dyslexia screening at school.
It would also be worth going to the opticians.
Don't worry op it'll be ok whatever the reason is!

The phonics screening isn’t, every child in England does the exact same one

Yes it was dancing bears, just the same company. It seemed fool proof.

I had two other children who picked up reading by being around books, any teaching/ class size would have done for them but if your child has any impediment at all to this, early help is vital I think.

This is great advice from @Catonthetable

It's entirely possible she just had a bad day at the office, was overly hungry, tired etc etc. I wouldn't worry too much over it. A number of kids get this every year.

She'll get another chance to take the test in June of Year 2 and may well do much better then.