What is phonics? What is the phonics screening check? What will the check comprise of? Example words How will the check be administered? What happens to the results? How can I help at home?

 Phonics is a way of teaching children to read skilfully. phonemes graphemes  Children are taught to read phonemes (sounds) that each letter makes and then identify the sounds that different combinations of letters (graphemes) make eg. ‘ck’ ‘oo’, ‘sh’, ‘air’ etc.  Digraph - 2 letters that make 1 sound cow Trigraph - 3 letters that make 1 sound night Split digraph - 2 vowels with a consonant in between. spine (i-e) (This used to be known as the magic e!)  There are around 44 different phonemes and many different graphemes!

Children have 20 minutes of daily phonics teaching following the Government’s Letters and Sounds programme. blend  Children are taught to read words by breaking them down into their separate sounds or ‘phonemes’. They are then taught how to blend these sounds together to read the whole word.  Tricky words also taught – these are not part of the Phonics Screening Check.  Through regular reading at home and school, children refine and apply their phonic knowledge skills to ‘de-code’ unfamiliar words.

 During June, every Year 1 child in the country will be taking a statutory phonics screening check.  It must take place in school during the week beginning 15 th June.  The check is very similar to tasks the children already complete during phonics lessons and has been designed so that children of all abilities will be able to take part.  The focus of the check is to provide evidence of children’s decoding and blending skills, not to test their quick recall of words.

 The check will consist of 40 words, that include 20 real words and 20 non-words (alien/pseudo words)  Children will be told if the word is a real or ‘alien’ word. The pseudo word will be put into context by having a corresponding alien image. The children will be asked to read the alien’s name.  Children will be asked to read a word by breaking the graphemes into sounds (phonemes) that they then blend to read the word e.g. s-t-ar-t = start

snemp blurst spron stroft slide day slide newt phone

 Mrs Hayes will conduct all of the screening checks  The children will complete the check one to one in a quiet area of the school.  We are not permitted to indicate to the children whether they have correctly sounded out and or blended the word.  There is no time limit and the check is designed not to be stressful for the children.

 Children will be scored against a national standard (32/40 pass rate last year, but this may change)  National achievement rate of 69% in 2013  The results of each check will be sent to the Local Authority. Each L.A. then submits these results to the Department for Education.  In July, we will inform you of whether your child has achieved the national standard.  Children’s reading develops at different rates and if your child does not achieve the national standard, further support will be implemented this year and going into Year 2.  Re-takes of the screening check for these children will take place in Year 2.

 Revise the Phase 2, 3 & 5 graphemes at home with your child using the phonics mats.  Help your child to use their phonic knowledge to ‘make up’ pseudo words using single letters, digraphs and trigraphs.  Use online games on to read real and pseudo words encouraging your child to say the sounds aloud and then blend them together to read the word.

REMEMBER REMEMBER: Phonics is not the only way you become a good reader. Continue to read with your child each night and encourage them to:  Sound out, re-read to check it makes sense, and use pictures for clues.  Ask questions about the book  And most importantly … ENJOY READING ENJOY READING!