RWI termly phonics assessment

[WorryingMum1986]

Hi all,

my daughter has had her end of term phonics assessment today and rather than staying in her group (orange) or progressing forward (yellow), she has dropped back a whole group to pink.

Wondering if any teachers in this group could explain if this is normal? I’m a bit confused as she’s been reading the orange books really well and her reading definitely seems to be improving. Obviously if she needs to be in pink, it is what it is! And I’m not worried about the level itself, more the fact she’s dropped back rather than moved forward which seems a bit odd. And that sounds she knew last term are now in a fairly long list of ones they say she doesn’t know.

Is this common? Am I worrying for nothing?

Will email her teacher on Monday but worrying about her so thought someone on here might have some knowledge that would help 😊. Thanks in advance!

Probably because she hasn’t retained all the sounds learnt and needs to revisit some to make them absolutely secure.

What year is she in?
It sounds like her set 2 sounds are not secure so the highest group she can be is pink. It is also quite common for progress to slow as you get to orange/yellow as the assessment puts more emphasis on speedy reading and fluency. I wouldn’t worry unduly at the moment, make sure you’re reading with her at home and put focus on the speedy words which are in a grid in all of the rwi books.

They might not move her back down, my school certainly don't, but we wouldn't move her on to the next group if she's not ready yet either. They may well put extra support in place through interventions or rwi tutoring sessions, depending what her assessment identified she needs to keep up. Could you ask your school to share the pink/orange links to 'speeding up word reading' - short clips to practise, can be watched at home if your school share the links from the school portal.

She’s in year 1. I’m not particularly worried about what group she’s in, as they all get there in the end don’t they. It’s more the knock to her confidence as already at 5 years old she seems conscious of the fact others will have moved on but she’s moved down. Didn’t expect peer pressure to kick in quite so young! 😭

Yep we have all of those. The school is fab at sharing materials and we do lots of practice at home. I think that’s why o was a bit surprised she had moved down after this half term. I would understand staying in the same group for longer but moving back down one feels a bit weird when she has been reading so well at home.

I’m sure it will all come together. And thankfully once she had got the islet out of her system she seemed ok later on so hopefully it won’t knock her too much. Fingers crossed!