What to make of Phonics results!

Many year 1 children will have received the results of the phonics test. The mark is out of 40 and 32 is the mark considered a pass. A mark below this will mean that the child will be re screened next year.

Remember it is a screening check rather than a test. What we know is that children who score above 32 have a good grasp of phonics and are likely to go on to be effective readers and spellers. The purpose of the screening check is to identify those children who are may not progressing well and schools will be expected to offer them some additional support to help them to improve.

If your child has not achieve 32 out of 40 there may be a number of reasons for this, some to do with the individual child and some to do with the school and the method they use for teaching phonics.

IN terms of the child this could be an indication of a problem, perhaps they don’t hear well so can’t discriminate between the different sounds, perhaps they have missed quite a lot of school days due to illness, or maybe this in one of several other problems. As a parent make sure you discuss the result with your child’s teacher and if you want to know more about how you can help them with phonics just click here

But the reason could be to do with the school and the way phonics is being taught. Many schools use a systematic synthetic phonics programme like Sounds-Write which has been shown to be highly effective with several schools results of 95% plus – you can see for yourself here

As a parent you are quite within you rights to ask the school what the results were for the whole of year 1 in the school – that is how many of the children achieved 32 or more. You can also ask what method they use to teach phonics and then do some research- what do people say about it – is there evidence it is effective? If they say they use a mixed or eclectic approach I would ask further questions.

If children struggle with reading it is not long before they struggle to access any of the curriculum – if you are at all worried about your child and their reading, spelling or the results of the phonics screening check – please get in touch, help is available and the sooner your child can access this the better.

For any schools reading this either contact us to discuss training needs for your school or visit the Sounds-Write website by clicking here.

General