1. Welcome to the Year 1 Phonics meeting for Parents
The aim for this meeting is to:
Discuss the purpose of the Year 1 Phonics screening.
Inform you about the process and arrangements at school for this.
Share the format of the assessment and allow you time to look at typical words.
Look at some frequently asked questions.
Provide you with some guidance with how your can help prepare your child

2. What is the Phonics Screening Check?
Children in Year 1 throughout the country will all be taking part in a phonics screening check during the same week in June. Children in Year 2 will also take the check if they did not achieve the required result when in Year 1 or they have not taken the test before.
Headteachers should decide whether it is appropriate for each of their pupils to take the phonics screening check. The phonics screening check is designed to confirm whether individual children have learnt phonic decoding and blending skills to an appropriate standard.

3. The purpose
The screening was introduced in 2012, as a method of monitoring the teaching and learning of early phonics in Year 1. This was in a drive to raise standards of teaching in all schools.
The focus upon phonics has increased in recent years and schools now have to report on the progress and attainment that children make by the age of 6 in early reading.
All schools do this, as it is a statutory requirement.
The Phonics screening assessments will begin on the week commencing 13th June. Children who are absent or on holiday will take the test if they return to school within a set 2 week period. If they do not return within this time it their score is recoded in the school’s data as 0.

4. The current arrangements
Mrs Hynes will undertake the screening with individual children.
There are 40 real and nonsense words which the children will need to decode and read.
The pass mark over the past years has been 32. This may or may not change this year, and until all schools have completed the screening, the pass mark will not be disclosed to schools.
If the children do not reach the ‘expected standard’, they will retake the assessment in Year 2. If they do not pass in Year 2 they do not take the check again in Year 3.
Last year the school’s overall pass rate was 74%.However this will vary each year, depending upon the needs of each different cohort of children. Nationally, the pass rate was 77%.
Parents will be informed whether the children have passed on their end of year school report. Results are confidential and an individual child’s results will not be shared with others.
The screening process will very informal and the children will not be made aware that they are undergoing a ‘test’.

5. The words clump strom turnip drenk
The words are a mixture of real and nonsense words which can be decoded using a taught phonics strategy. Non-words are accompanied by an alien picture to help the children know when the word is not ‘real’. There are practice words to warm the children up, and there is a break after 20 words. The children can segment (sound out) and blend the words to read them- they do not need to read them on sight. Correct blending of the words is important.
clump strom
turnip drenk

6. veen chise sproon vox scarld quigh
Your turn
veen chise sproon vox scarld quigh

7. FAQ
Do children with SEN have to take the screening check?
For children who are working well below the level of the screening check (for example, if they have shown no understanding of letter-sound correspondences), there is a disapplication process. Your child’s class teacher will discuss this with you if appropriate.
Does the screening check tell teachers anything new?
….No
Further questions?

8. The Key Stage 1 results appear to show that more children have stronger reading skills than the phonics check shows. Does that mean children do not need to master phonics to succeed at reading?
The Key Stage 1 reading assessment takes into account a much broader range of skills than the phonics screening check. The check looks at word identification skills in isolation. It is possible for a child to be a relatively fluent reader, with good comprehension skills – which leads to good Key Stage 1 outcomes – without having strong, accurate word identification skills. Sometimes, this does not hold children back at Key Stage 1 because words are largely familiar and predictable, but towards the end of primary school, words become less familiar and less predictable. Children who are less accurate at identifying new words often fall behind their peers and progress at a relatively slower rate.

9. How to help
Continue to support your child with reading at home- books and key words.
When approaching new or unknown words ask them to sound out the phonemes and blend them back together – perhaps they could try to write the word with it’s sound buttons.
Play bingo using real or non real words.
Do not ‘test’ them or discuss the assessment arrangements with them in advance.