Phonics Meeting for Year 1 Parents

Phonics Screening Check Last year the DfE introduced a new level of statutory assessment for schools Now, each year Year 1 children complete a statutory screening check which looks at their ability to use phonics for decoding and blending The results are reported to the DfE via the Local Authority and to parents with the annual report

When and Where The screening has to be done in the week beginning Monday 17 June It will take place in school (probably in the Sunshine room) and will be done by the class teacher Each child will work individually with the teacher. It should take between four and nine minutes

The Screening Material The material to use with the children will arrive in school around the beginning of June. It has to be locked away securely until needed. We may not open it until 17 June. We may be subject to a Local Authority visit to see that we are administering the screening check correctly

The Screening Itself The screening check is in two parts with 20 items in each part. The check consists of both real words and nonsense words that can be decoded using the phonics skills the children have been taught.

The Results We will be given a threshold mark which will indicate the required standard for successfully completing the phonics screening. We don’t know what that will be yet but last year it was 32/40 We will not report individual marks to the Local Authority, only whether or not each child has reached the required standard

The Results Those not reaching the required standard will have the chance to do the screening check again at the end of Year 2 We will report the results to you with the annual report at the end of the summer term

What’s in the Screening Check Non – words, accompanied by a picture ot ect osk vap

What’s in the Screening Check Real Words – for instance shin day chill train phone

What can you do to help Keep the whole event low key – we shall! Don’t worry about it! Support your children at home as you do now with reading and spelling Play word games with your children Make sure you use pure sound when practising phonics Don’t go on holiday in the weeks leading up to 17 June, apart from half term!

Vocabulary Digraph Two letters making one sound e.g. ch oa ee Phoneme The sound that a letter or group of letters make. Split Digraph A digraph split by a consonant. e.g. Bike i-e Pete e-e Grapheme The written representation of a phoneme. Trigraph Three letters making one sound e.g. Igh / ure

Remember Sounds to be learnt and said correctly to enable children to read and spell accurately. Keep the sound PURE – no extra ‘uh’ on the end! See the film clip on the Learning Platform – (Then T for Tardebigge and click on our school name)