Year 1 Phonics Screening Check
What is What is Phonics? Phonics? Phonic nics is a method of teaching reading ding by enabling learners to hear and blend the sounds in words (phonemes), and is a method of teaching writing by enabling learners to represent the sounds in writing (graphemes). Children are taught to read by breaking down words into separate sounds or ‘phonemes.’ They are then taught how to blend these sounds together to hear and read the whole word. There are 44 different sounds which they are taught to read from the beginning of Reception.
Why Year 1? • The test is a statutory test which every Year 1 child in the country will be taking in June. • This is a government scheme in which children need to read 40 pseudo and real words. • The focus of the check is to ensure that all children can read by the end of Year 2. The year 1 screening will provide evidence to help support teachers plans for Year 1.
What will the children be doing? • The Phonics Screening Tests consists of 40 real and alien words. 20 of the words are real and 20 are pseuo words. • The children will be told if the word is a real or ‘alien’ word, with a corresponding alien image. • They will be asked to segment the word and then blend it together. E.g. c-a-t = cat • They will be told that with a ‘real’ word they can change it to sound real e.g. the word ‘put’. • The check will take 5 to 10 minutes to complete. • The pass mark is usually 32/40 but every year we are warned this could change.
Examples of the Phonics Screening Test
How will the test be administered? Your child’s teacher will be conducting the test. The children will be very familiar to the format of reading alien and real words. The children will take the test in a room which is familiar to them and it will be quiet so that they can concentrate. Your child should not be aware that they are taking the test as they will have been practising for so long. We are not permitted to indicate to your child whether they have segmented or blended the word correctly at the time. We are also not able to inform you of their results until the official pass mark has been released by the government.
The Results… The Department of Education determine the • results against a national standard which the children will be scored against. We will inform you of the results with their • school reports during the Summer Term. If your child’s score falls below the national • standard they will re-take it in Year 2 and will have extra support to enable they pass it.
How can you help? Digraphs – 2 letters which make one sound e.g. toe. The children should say this as t-oe and not as t-o-e. Trigraphs – 3 letters which make one sound e.g. sight. The children should say this as s-igh-t and not as s-i-g- h- t which wouldn’t sound like the word. Adjacent consontants – are 2 or more consonants that appear next to one another within a word and the represent a different sound. E.g. stop = the ‘st’ are adjacent cent consona nants nts because they appear next to each other but also they spell two different sounds. /s/ and /t/ Split digraphs – 2 vowels with a consonant in between. E.g. u_e cube
How can you help? We follow Letters and Sounds and children can practise their phonics by playing their free games online. They can choose between Phase 3, 4, or 5. It is good for your child to access all the phases as they will all be in the test https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/
REMEMBER: There are many different ways your child can learn to become a good reader. Please continue to read with your child every night. • Ask them questions about what they have read to make sure it makes sense to them and that they are understanding what they read. • Blend and sound out words together. • Use expression when reading and just have fun
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