Welcome to the Phonics Screening Parents Information Evening Mrs Thorp & Mrs Hardwick

Outline of meeting Reading and spelling overview Phonics screening What we do in school Activities to support your child at home

Reading Strategies Before you open the book – discuss the front cover, blurb. Discuss the story, characters and make predictions.  What to do when your child gets stuck on a word:- Picture prompts Phonic knowledge Read on and go back – context Chunk longer words Look for words inside words 

Spelling In Year 1, we will be doing lots of phonics work to help with spelling. Look at different spelling patterns / rules Red words – these are words that cannot be sounded out phonetically e.g.

What is Phonics? Phonics is one of the ways in which we teach reading. They are individual letters and groups of letters which make a singles sound. These are called phonemes. Children use these to ‘sound’ out and ‘blend’ for reading.

What is the Phonics Screening? It is a statutory assessment to help inform parents and teachers about children’s progress in phonics. The check will take place in June next year. The check is for all Year 1 children and any Year 2 children who did not meet the standard last year.

How does the screening work? The screening contains 40 words (20 real words and 20 alien words) that the child will decode and blend to read. Most children will do the screening in one sitting (around 5-10mins) however they are allowed a break if required. The threshold score is released after the screening has taken place. It is normally around 33-34 words correct to pass the check.

What does the screening assess? It will check your child’s phonic reading of one and two syllable words. This will be through reading real and nonsense words referred to as pseudo words. The children know them as ‘alien words’. Aliens words are included in the check specifically to assess whether your child can decode a word using phonics and not their memory.

How would you do?

What happens after the screening? It is not about passing or failing but checking progress is being made at age related expectations. If children do not reach the required standard, then additional phonics support will be put into place the following academic year. Children progress at different speeds so not reaching the threshold score does not necessarily mean there is a problem. Your child will re-sit the check the following summer term in Year 2 if they have not reached the expected standard.

What happens to the results? These will be given to you in your child’s school report at the end of the Summer term. All results are also given to the Local Authority.

Helping your child with their reading and spelling. Read with your child at home – discuss the story, make predictions. Online games such as Teach a Monster to Read and Phonics Play. Complete phonic book activities. Talk about the meaning of words if your child does not understand them. Be positive and give lots of praise and encouragement. Little and often can be most effective and make it fun! Play Phonics Game.

Friday – Homework set and to be returned by Wednesday

Flash cards that parents can buy www.phonicsplay.co.uk Has a variety of free phonics resources for your child to play. These games include both pseudo and real words. www.ictgames.com The Literacy section has games for all different levels of ability. www.letters-and-sounds.com More online resources. www.teachyourmonstertoread.com Personalised phonics game – can also be downloaded as an app for your phone.

Now it is time for you to play!